My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Alentejo, Portugal 1934
I am Inês Bretão and I am 18 years old. Now that I am finally an adult and soon to be married, I feel like my real life is about to begin. I have decided to document everything that happens to me, for my children and my grandchildren…
As Sarah Lacey reads the scrawled handwriting in her great-aunt's journal on a trip to Portugal, she discovers a life filled with great passion, missed chances and lost loves – memories that echo Sarah's own life. Because Sarah's marriage is crumbling, her love for her husband ebbing away, and she fears the one man she truly loves was lost to her many years ago…
But hidden within the faded pages of the journal is a secret Inês has kept locked away her entire life, and one final message for her beloved niece – a chance for Sarah to change her life, if she is brave enough to take it.
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Garden of Stars is about two women, not related through blood, but they share a deep bond through love. Sarah Lacey is at a crossroad in life, she has for the last twenty years never gotten over the man she met in Portugal when she was young. Now, she is for the first time going back to Portugal and there he will be. But what about her marriage? She doesn't even know if she loves her husband anymore, but they have built a life together and have two daughters. Sarah's great-aunt Inês gives Sarah her diary and through it, she learns more about Inês, but she also learns that Inês has kept a secret for decades...
Sarah and Inês life stories may be quite different, but they both faced difficult decisions in life and I loved how some things felt parallel, how they both have to make sacrifices and that sometimes you have to stop looking backward and look forward instead. Garden of Stars is a book that stayed with me after I turned the last page. I felt enriched after finishing the book. Like Inês last advice in the book not only was for Sarah, but for me as a reader as well.
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