The Fortune Teller's Garden

Excellent contemporary romance that starts out slow but holds the reader turning pages to see what the characters go through. Keighley works hard to help take care of her grandfather but also the members of her town. Her grandmother was a Fortune teller but she reads palms and studies people. Connor is a reporter there under false pretenses and gets caught up in an emotional dilemma. I enjoyed this story. I received a complementary copy via Hidden Gems but chose to write a review. This is my first time reading a book by this author but I look forward to reading more.

Keighley is just trying to take care of her grandfather who had a stroke and keep up with supporting the strange and wonderful house her family built. She has no time or inclination to romance, but it seeks her out when Connor shows up to get a reading from her. He's a man who has experienced great loss and as a writer, he decides to show what a lot of hokum psychics are. Of course, Keighley doesn't know that. She's not a psychic, just a palmist who is good at nurturing and reassuring her clients with a cup of tea from her garden bounty. Connor realizes from the moment he meets her that there is something special about her, but his writing assignment is to do a hatchet job on woo woo practitioners. Great story of the dynamic attraction of opposites. I enjoyed the story, the relaxed pace and the developing romance. Of course, there are bound to be some bumps in the road all things considered. Well written and sweetly unfolded, and a little old fashioned (which I like).

This is a really sweet, heartwarming romance with a bit of a mystery built into the story. I loved the interaction with the grandfather and his part in the mystery. The old house and garden had a personality of their own, too. Quite inspiring. I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a free copy.

This book had a good story line but not as strong as it could have been. The main characters were interesting and there were a couple twists, but it didn't pull me in like some other romance books have. I liked that it was clean and the way the characters who had emotional problems were portrayed with sensitivity. I also purchased this book before agreeing to read and review a copy of it.

This is a nice read, and the story flowed nicely. I liked that it was a clean read without a lot of crude language and mostly focusing on sex scenes that is how romance novels tend to run. I recommend this to a friend and will be interested in what else this author might have to offer.

Lovely easy read with great characters you will be rooting for. Shows anything can be overcome with love and kindness.

What an amazing story! All the elements that keep you engaged and wanting more. As my daughter's comp professor told her... Break my heart and fix it again!

The book is beautifully written with creative, vivid descriptions of the settings and characters. These are realistic characters, refreshingly absent of the corny and unbelievable plot lines found in many romance novels. I look forward to more from this author!

Keighley is a young woman who works from home as a non-psychic fortune teller while caring for her ailing grandfather. psychics. He seeks out Keighley for his research. I will let the reader guess the rest.This is a pleasant, lighthearted easy read. Readers looking for something literary should avoid this book. It is however ideal for those who need to rest their minds after reading something mentally taxing or emotionally draining.The writer seeks somewhat to rehabilitate fortune tellers by claiming that it does not matter if they are psychic or not or if the fortune telling works as long as they do some good and give hope to their clients. This is true to a certain extent. Keighley does not pretend to be psychic. She is intuitive and gives kindhearted, sensible advice to her clients. She doesn't charge much for her services and sometimes charges nothing at all. If all fortune tellers were like Keighley, Connor would not have needed to write about fake psychics. He appears to have been somewhat vilified by the author for seeking to do this. To be clear, the fact that Connor was writing an article about fake psychics was not the problem. There are many con artists on the planet posing as psychics and mediums who seek to take advantage of vulnerable people and Connor should not have been vilified for seeking to bring this to the attention of the public. He became aware of this type of person because of his own personal situation. The problem was that he was not upfront about his motivation when approaching Keighley. The author appears to have mixed up Connor's reason for writing the article and his lack of transparency when approaching Keighley.Connor is suffering from writers block after suffering a personal tragedy. His personal situation and motivations are made clear to the reader. Less clear is Keighley's situation. She lost her parents when she was a week old but was raised by loving grandparents in a secure and fairly comfortable environment. She dropped out of art college and has been living as a fortune teller and part time waitress ever since. It is true that she prefers to stay home to care for her grandfather. As an artist however, there are many several different types of work that she could have done from home. No plausible explanation is really given for her lifestyle, state of mind and lack of personal motivation.I am giving the book three stars. It is well-written, pleasant, lighthearted entertainment but certain aspects of the plot lack coherence and need further development. Also, the print was so small that I could barely see it. I managed to read it with the print set at the largest possible setting on my kindle. I got the book free so I didn't lose anything. However, readers wishing to purchase the book may think twice because of this.