My age-difference male-male romance, The Apothecary’s Garden, has received some truly lovely attention! Thank you to everyone who’s giving this one a go. ♥
Rainbow Gold Reviews: 10/10 pots of gold from Erryn for the audiobook
Excerpt: I loved this book. Two men falling in love based on more than just physical attraction (although that is there too), is beautiful. This is about a meeting of minds and souls. That there is an unsolved mystery surrounding the garden and a couple who lived several hundred years ago was just lovely. … What can I say about Mark Steadman? One of my favourite British narrators? Absolutely. It’s a wonderful performance. I hope he does many more.
Excerpt: This was quite a beautiful romance, and strange enough, while the pace was slow, for various reason I will explain, the story wasn’t at all boring, and actually it was captivating, like a blanket wrapping you in winter, letting no desire to go out of your nestle. … I liked how respectful the author was of these two men, and how she didn’t deprive them of the sexual nature of their relationship. Tom is 23 years old and it would be unbelievable if he hadn’t desires; sure their love making is different from that of two twenty something fellows, but nevertheless is satisfying for the both of them.
Excerpt: I can only hope that ‘once upon a time’ the story between Hilary and Tom actually took place because this slowly formed friendship that then unfolds into love … It’s just a love, that if it existed, made the world a little better of a place. […] This was my first book by Julie Bozza so I can’t compare this work to any of her others, and I don’t want to compare it to any other author’s work because that’s like comparing apples and oranges (cliché, I know, but it’s true). All I know is that if her other work is anything like ‘The Apothecary’s Garden’, I’ll give it a go.
Excerpt: Trusting Manifold Press to release quality work, I decided to buy this without reading either the blurb or the extract so I had no idea what The Apothecary’s Garden was about and it proved to be a fabulous surprise because I don’t always like Julie Bozza’s releases. I had almost made my mind up that Bozza’s style just wasn’t for me, but I fell in love with last year’s Butterfly Hunter and everything just sort of clicked into place after that. … Bozza’s prose is beautiful and has a dream like quality similar to Butterfly Hunter which may be why I liked it so much. The book literally starts with the words “Once upon a time” which I will admit made my heart sink a little but once the setting is established, the writing becomes more intimate and I was quickly drawn into Hilary’s world. More importantly, Bozza has set her readers a challenge with this book and that is to open their minds to the idea that love can exist for two people who are generations apart and it shouldn’t really matter.
Excerpt: Julie Bozza is a writer whose writing I love and whose work I also respect very much if for nothing else than for the fact that she tries to write about so many different things in her stories. … I really loved both guys in this book. Hilary was such a sweetheart and it was really a sweet and gentle read overall. Almost nothing happens in this book besides them meeting, restoring a garden together and slowly, so very slowly, moving towards each other. The conflict is about Hilary worrying over him being so much older than Tom. You really have to like slow moving books if you want to enjoy this one, where the two characters are figuring out their relationship and whether they would have one. Tom was an old soul, who was also smart, resilient and so very determined to get what he wants, or should I say whom he wants. But he was also a bit naïve and sometimes too persistent. … I thought that the guys had chemistry together and while I was reading the book, I even managed to almost forget about their age difference … I still highly recommend the book though if you are okay with a huge age difference between the protagonists.
Conclusion: Obviously The Apothecary’s Garden is not meant to be any of the things I was looking for, so the joke is on me – but I was so bored, I wanted to cry. I can see why everyone adores it because it’s lovely and gentle and very sweet, but yeah not for me.
Conclusion: The Apothecary’s Garden is a book I’d recommend unreservedly if you’re looking for a story that leads you quietly along the path to its happy ending. Don’t read it if you’re expecting loads of angst and conflict, don’t read it if you’re expecting erotica, but do read it if you’re looking for an understated and touching romance.
- Enny gave it 5 stars and said: For this gem of a book I’ll ignore my resolution not to post reviews here anymore because it deserves all the love it can get. … Things like date of birth becomes completely unimportant when you meet your soul mate. And the author did a wonderful job of showing how they both liked the same things, had the same values and how well they fit together. … both men have a deeply caring nature, putting the other’s need before their own and this is what ultimately convinced me that their relationship might actually work. … Plus the prose in the book is absolutely beautiful. Some sentences absolutely took my breath away which is another reason why this is a 5 star read for me.
- MandyM gave it 5 stars and said: Wow! This is quite brilliant. The May/December pairing doesn’t usually appeal to me and luckily I didn’t realise that was the theme of this novel because I might have missed out on reading it. … I loved Hilary with his knitted tea cosies, his gentle courtesy and his repressed sexuality. And Tom with his youthful exuberance and idealism. The age difference was explored sweetly and thoughtfully. … But away from the book and its beautiful prose, do I believe that Tom would really have fallen for Hilary? I don’t know. But as a romantic fantasy and a love story it was beyond beautiful.
- Vio gave it 4.85 stars and said: Yes, I am one of those readers where this theme doesn’t work, usually. … What convinced me to keep reading? The beautiful narrative, the fears about pursing a *forbidden* relationship. The courage and will to change … It never once entered my mind that this was a substitute father relationship, its love, plain and simple. … The author is a gifted writer and a wonderful storyteller, she is a whiz at weaving magical stories. I’m impressed, I fell for it, hook line and sinker. A deeply moving story, Highly recommended.
- Emma gave it 6 stars (!) and said: Spectacular. Marvellous. Wonderful. The most acutely romantic book I’ve read in years. Cried happy tears all the way through, and bought a Bach album. Best of 2013 for me so far by a mile. I wish I could read it again for the first time all over again.
- Feliz gave it 5 stars and said: In a word, I loved this book. It can’t hold a candle to my all-time favourite Julie Bozza book, Butterfly Hunter, but it comes close. Everything about it was just so up my alley– the garden, the slow pace, the sheer British-ness of both Hilary and Tom. And yes, even the much-belabored age difference…ok, 40+ years is huge, but considering who these two are, it became almost negligible.
- Ulysses Dietz said: If this was the last m/m book I ever read, I would die happy.
- R Parklane said: Looking forward to many more stories from this exceptional writer in the MM romance genre.
Readers’ Responses
Jenre listed this as her favourite male-male romance book read in 2013 in the Contemporary category, and said: This author is a bit of a find for me this year. I love her intelligent writing and the way she manages to make a very large age gap work effectively as a romance in this book. Both characters were charming and the story has stayed with me long after I finished.
Blurb: Hilary Kent, a Londoner all his working life, retires to Wiltshire after an estranged cousin unexpectedly leaves him an inhabitable tower surrounded by an overgrown physic garden – and that’s when graduate student Tom Laurence suddenly erupts into his life, convincing him that together they can restore the ancient garden to its former glory. Tom’s cheerful friendship is the best thing that’s ever happened to Hilary and he’s perfectly content with that until, to his astonishment and confusion, it seems that Tom’s affection for him is beginning to grow into something more … something he feels he probably shouldn’t allow.
