Jennifer’s mother is dying and her last wish is to watch her daughter get married. Jennifer does care of Aurelio and wants to marry him, but does she really love him or is the man of her dreams the gorgeous landscaper? Jennifer is racing against time and love. Who will win?
Jennifer ‘s friend Sam is constantly telling her that Aurelio, Jennifer’s fiancée is just not the man for her, that Jennifer is in a loveless, passionless relationship, even though it looks picture perfect. But Jennifer is convinced that she and Aurelio are the perfect couple, and anyway, she must complete work on her garden and have a picture perfect garden wedding for her mother who has a short time to live, and is hanging onto life so she can see her daughter married.
When Jennifer meets Jackson Montgomery, the handsome landscaper that created a friend’s picture perfect garden, Jennifer is mortified to realize that Jackson also worked as the bartender at her friend’s get together and judges him instantly as not good-enough to work on her garden. However, at her friend’s insistence, she hires him and is surprised to find that she has connections with him on many levels and is becoming more and more attracted to him. But Jennifer is on a schedule to get married, to give her mother ‘a ceremony to die for,” even if it is with someone she is beginning to doubt she really loves.
Author Dianne Venetta creates diverse characters with vivid, entrancing personalities; from the quiet, sensitive and caring Jennifer and Jackson to the larger than life Sam, overflowing with sensuality and opinion, to Jennifer’s mother who is physically weak, but wise and loving, to the fiancée who looks like a dull buffoon next to Jackson.
Venetta’s shift of perspective from Jennifer’s then Jackson’s point of view gives the reader insight into the emotions of each character, their desires and the reasons why they keep trying to dull the passion they feel for one another. Venetta’s language is beautifully tranquil and stirring:
“Dusk descended upon the, casting shadows across the lawn. No one uttered a sound, each content to listen as the water flowed into the basin below. A sense of inevitability hung heavy in the air. Surreal and weightless, it remind the end was near, yet promised love would endure.”
Venetta tends to the relationship between Jackson and Jennifer the same way that her character Jackson works steadily and lovingly on the garden he is creating for Jennifer’s wedding. As the garden takes shape, so does the attraction between Jennifer and Jackson slowly simmer before Venetta cranks up the passion between the two would be lovebirds.
Jennifer’s Garden is a smouldering romance filled with tension, twists and blooms perfectly.
Reviewed by Maya Fleischmann for IndieReader