The Garden of Shared Stories - Clare Swatman - ★★

AUTHOR: Clare Swatman

GENRE: Contemporary Romance-Drama

PUBLICATION DATE: December 3, 2025

RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: A romance using timeslip as its main point of drama. Plot divided in three sections, each offering a distinct experience. The book started off well, became slightly repetitive and then turned a bit tedious. The characters are interesting but often take stupid decisions. Good for those who can read without overthinking.

Plot Preview:

Widowed Emma has no intention of falling in love again. But when she bumps into widower Nick in a somewhat secluded rose garden of her local park, she can sense the embers of hope and attraction flickering back to life. As they keep meeting in the same place, their feelings for each other grow stronger. But one day comes a shocking revelation: they both stay in two different times. Nick’s ‘present’ time is 1999, while Emma is living twenty years later in 2019. Is there any future possible for the couple when their years don’t align and they cannot see each other anywhere except in the rose garden?

The story comes to us in the alternating first-person perspectives of Emma and Nick.

My journey with this author began with a spectacular book called ‘How to Save a Life’ (title later changed to ‘The Night We First Met’) I was so impressed that I decided to add her to my must-read authors of contemporary romance. However, the three novels of hers I subsequently picked up earned 2-3 stars, and so I assumed that we weren’t a good match for each other after all. As such, when I saw this novel, I was quite torn. But I couldn’t resist the timeslip trope and hence decided to give her books one last attempt. The start of the book did complete justice to the timeslip and I thought I would end up with a winner. Sadly, as the subsequent sections came, the book again dipped into mediocrity.

Bookish Yays:

🌷 The timeslip. It was both complex and clever. Of course, its occurrence isn't explained, but magical realism anyway loses its magic if it comes with a user manual.

🌷 The representation of the multiple decades through the characters’ lifestyle. The years are especially well-chosen, with 1999 being just at the cusp of the smartphone revolution and 2019 being the age of walking with technology. The contrast of the years comes out excellently.

🌷 The complication because of the characters’ ages. Emma is 37 and Nick is 31 when they meet. So each potentially exists in the other timeline but at different ages. I enjoyed how the author explored all possible angles of this concurrence.

🌷 The first section of the book. Mostly good in the build-up, tempo, conversations, and emotions.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🌹 Nick. As a character, he has potential but I think this isn’t met for the most part. Though his narration is in first-person POV, he still feels distanced. I love his bond with his brother and nieces but these scenes are far and few between.

🌹 There are hardly any characters in the book. Almost all the focus is on the main duo. There are three characters who have strong secondary roles to play, but their development is minimal.

🌹 The use of the alternating first-person perspectives from Emma and Nick initially sounded like a good idea to me, but after a point, their voices started blending into each other. There was nothing to make each POV sound distinct in tone; only the events and time indicated the change in character.

🌹 The final section of the book. It had its emotional moments, but on the whole, though many scenes had great dramatic potential, their execution was somewhat flat.

Bookish Nays:

🥀 The plot development. At times, I felt like the story was proceeding in its own direction without anyone controlling it; so ad hoc were the developments! Many subplots are cut off abruptly, as if they were there just to add pages. The handling of the Oliver track is the most disappointing.

🥀 Emma. Aged 37, but always behaving much younger, whether in conversations or emotions or decision-making. Overly impulsive and least pragmatic, she didn’t endear herself to me.

🥀 The instant love between Emma and Nick, which seems more a result of their shared grief than of a genuine chemistry. Moreover, considering the short duration of their initial meetings, their feelings felt unrealistically intense. (I am a Romance Grinch, so take this feedback with a pinch of salt.)

🥀 The second section. Highly repetitive, especially as there is a sudden change in both tone and circumstances. Both lead characters go into ponder mode, making the section feel drab.

🥀 The overall pacing. Too slow to keep my interest.

🥀 The ending, not for its predictability but for its smooth glossing over of what should have been contentious.

Overall, while the start of the book made me feel like I finally found a second winner from this author’s oeuvre, the rest of the book has helped me seal my decision of abstaining from her works. She’s not a bad writer, and she certainly has some unique plot ideas. But they aren’t for me.

Mine is an outlier opinion, and I am anyway not the best person to take advice from when it comes to sappy stories. So please read other reviews before you take a call on this work. I took it for the timeslip, and at least in that regard, it didn’t disappoint me.

Recommended to those who turn off their heads and read with their hearts.

My thanks to Boldwood Books for providing the DRC of “The Garden of Shared Stories” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t go better for me.