Forbidden Garden by Tracy Fobes is a magical romance novel set in the year 1860 and on the enchanting Emerald Isle.

Anne Sherwood is a woman with the special power to commune with plants.  Having seen coloured auras about plants all her life she has worked it out to a fine art and can tell from the colour of the aura whether a plant is healthy or what it needs to make it well again.

But a woman in the 19th century has little or no hope for a career in the botanical profession.

Anne keeps her talent secret as she strives to gain the recognition she deserves for her work.  Recognition which was denied her by her deceased husband when he passed her work off as his own and stole the credit she deserved.

When she is asked by Lord Connock to travel with him to his estate in Ireland and work for him she knows that it is the opportunity she has been waiting for.

What she does not want is any complications that could set back her career plans. Complications such as Michael McEvoy.

Michael is a man who has worked for Lord Connock for some years travelling around the world bringing him back unusual and precious plants.  Having grown up in the forests of Ireland he has an affinity with plants and a reputation with the locals as being wild and uncivilised.

When she arrives in Ireland she soon finds that there is more to Lord Connock than she knows.  She recalls the disgraceful scandal he had been the centre of some years before and wonders if his present works could bring about the same.  All the plants on the estate seem to be sick and some have a dreadful black aura around them that she knows can mean only that they are in great pain.  Added to this is the deformities of people on the estate and the threatening vines that creep up on people unawares when they are out in the woods.

Unable to confide her secret skills in anyone she tries to convince Michael that there is something wrong with the plants on the estate.  Michael however is not easy to convince especially when his mind is on other things…things like convincing Anne to let go of her inhibitions and awaken the desire that he can make her feel.

As they work together to solve the mystery of the plants on the estate Anne finds herself being more and more attracted to Michael.  But whether her feelings for him are strong enough to let go of her career ambitions is a battle she must face alone.  She knows that Michael will not live with her in the city and she knows that she could not ask him to.

Somehow they must find a way to cure the plants and maybe in the process they can find some way to be together.

Forbidden Garden is a delightful novel and once again Tracy Fobes has managed to produce a romance novel with an originality that equals that of Touch Not The Cat.
 

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Also by Tracy Fobes:  Touch Not The Cat, Heart of the Dove and Daughter of Destiny.

Visit Tracy Fobes Website.