The new head gardener at the enchanting Lilymoor House stumbles upon a secret garden . . . with a mysterious man trapped inside, in the next magical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Sounds Like Love and The Seven Year Slip.
When Sophie Drear plans her escape to coastal Maine for the summer—for a temporary job revitalizing the storied grounds at Lilymoor House—she doesn’t expect to fall in love.
But she does: With the beguiling land, the fragrant flowers, and the towering hedge maze. With the quirky staff and the enigmatic woman who owns the place.
And then, the door appears. Never in the same place twice, it leads her to a secret, and unfinished, garden with a frustrated thundercloud of a man trapped inside.
This mysterious garden is not the only sign that the future of Lilymoor is unstable: the foliage resists Sophie’s careful nurturing, vines threaten to strangle the hedges, and the manor’s owner has wild ideas about who will take over when she retires—including her inconveniently attractive nephew who is also there just for the summer.
Despite herself, Sophie has come to care for the residents of Lilymoor just as much as she cares for its grounds. With the help of one man on the outside of the secret garden, and one man on the inside, she might be the only person who can figure out exactly what Lilymoor needs to bloom once more.
When Sophie Drear plans her escape to coastal Maine for the summer—for a temporary job revitalizing the storied grounds at Lilymoor House—she doesn’t expect to fall in love.
But she does: With the beguiling land, the fragrant flowers, and the towering hedge maze. With the quirky staff and the enigmatic woman who owns the place.
And then, the door appears. Never in the same place twice, it leads her to a secret, and unfinished, garden with a frustrated thundercloud of a man trapped inside.
This mysterious garden is not the only sign that the future of Lilymoor is unstable: the foliage resists Sophie’s careful nurturing, vines threaten to strangle the hedges, and the manor’s owner has wild ideas about who will take over when she retires—including her inconveniently attractive nephew who is also there just for the summer.
Despite herself, Sophie has come to care for the residents of Lilymoor just as much as she cares for its grounds. With the help of one man on the outside of the secret garden, and one man on the inside, she might be the only person who can figure out exactly what Lilymoor needs to bloom once more.
Title: The Someday Garden
Author: Ashley Poston
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Expected Publication Date: June 16, 2026
Review:
Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I'm always up for a little magical realism and Poston knows what buttons to push to infuse that into a story. I really enjoy her writing and I was excited for this title and it's throwback for me: The Secret Garden. That book was a favorite of my childhood. While it's a solid read for me, it wasn't my favorite from her by far. It had a ton of potential but I feel like so many areas that could have been explored were put on the back burner and much of the story line made it a bit hard to connect with the characters.
What I loved:
Magical garden! I love the idea of a place that finds you just when you need it and Poston had that in this book. A moving door and garden that comes to life when the main character enters it. Sophie Drear has a lot of grief to work through. The garden, and the entire world of Lilymoor House, provide that space for her. There she comes to terms with her loss and how she has been processing it. How it has been holding her back. She also learns that grief doesn't have to be stagnant. You can move forward and still carry with you the love and memories you have of the person you lost.
Found Family! While there is actual family in this book, there is also a found family and I love when authors show family does not always mean related by blood. Found family relationships are often if not more so a balm to the main character's soul. Sophie is lifted up and loved by these new friends who cherish who she is and what she can do above all else.
Grief and what it does. I think Poston did a good job with the exploration of this topic. Sophie's great is palpable on the page. I thought the flashbacks with Harriet were done well and showed their bond and the emotional impact of losing her. You also see grief explored with the MMC. Both these explorations showed how grief can hit differently for different people. No two people experience it the same and the timeline for it is not the same for everyone. Grief can also help you grow and learn about the self and the choices one makes in their lives after having experienced it.
Chapter names! I loved that Poston chose to introduce all these new words to us. I will say some of the chapter names are not fully explored in the chapters, or at least not alluded to well enough for me to understand their meaning. But it was a nice touch to have unique and untranslatable words which the FMC explores and tries to explain for the most part.
What I didn't love:
Love triangle? Poston introduces it to us and I cringed. I'm not a fan of a love triangle. I wish I had known it was going to be there from the beginning but the blurb gives no indication of anything like it. And, while I don't love triangles, it can be done well. This one was not done well. And it was kind of a bait and switch. It's introduced and then the author backs off from it. Which is just weird because why introduce it in the first place if it's not going to be a central part to the plot? The book struggled to commit to the full romantic trope that was introduced because of this.
Pacing, pacing, pacing. I had to push through this one. There was nothing that snagged me and kept my attention. Many scenes were introduced that really didn't lend anything to the plot. For example, her night out with Juliette after Juliette gets dumped. What was the point of that?
Confusing magic! I didn't really understand the ending and how the MMC was both in the garden and at Lilymoor. I kept wondering: are there two of him? Where did the other one go? It was not explained well at all. And the magic itself is never truly explained or fully explored
Romance needs to build! I didn't feel chemistry between Sophie and the MMC at all. It felt like it all took place off page and I was just shown the highlights. His timeline in the garden moves more slowly than hers, as well. So his falling for her was in such a short time period. I didn't feel like they really got to know each other. They didn't share anything that connected them, apart from what we are told. Plus the spice aspects of their romance felt more forced because of this. My emotional investment in their relationship was lacking.
So much telling, where is the showing? I didn't see enough showing in the book. We are told on the page about so many things but never truly shown.
Repetition equals boredom. Yes, I was bored many times. So many visits to the garden. So many interactions that were just the same over and over again. It made the story flat.
Unexplored characters and topics. While we get development with the FMC for the most part, it's not enough to help me truly connect with her. I didn't find her relatable. As for the side characters, while I did see some of their quirks, I didn't really see who they were. Do we see some of their personality? Sure. Do we feel the connections Sophie makes with them? Somewhat but not enough. I didn't really know them well enough to see their impact on her. Poston also introduces LBGTQ+ topics superficially: a man who had a relationship with another man but now he is flirting with women, a transgender child (possibly? I still don't know because it was that surface level). Why introduce these things if they are not essential to the plot or going to have a bit of exploration? This felt like afterthoughts that were introduced to make the book seem inclusive.
Overall, this is a nice story that is truly focused on grief. I also feel the blurb does not accurately describe the book as the grief part is totally left out of that. This comes across in every single chapter and it needs to be reflected in what the book is actually about. I rated it based on the writing, which is solid, rather than the actual plot and overall story. I will still continue to pick up Poston's book but this one just didn't hit as well as her others have for me.
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