I read a review that The China Garden was the best book the reviewer had ever read. I wouldn't agree entirely with their position, but The China Garden was a remarkably likable book. I'm not sure what genre this book falls under. The main characters are 17 and 20, so that would lead one to believe that this book would be shelved in the young adult section. However, there were a couple of scenes that I personally felt shouldn't be in young adult novels and it felt more like it belonged in the romance section.

Clare, moves out to the country to Ravensmere and leaves London and Adrian, her controlling boyfriend behind. There, she meets Mark, and falls in love with him. Guess what? Mark is equally as controlling as Adrian, he just controls Clare differently. I suppose if she is in love with him it's acceptable for him to be controlling, I'm just concerned as to what message the author is sending to the girls who may pick up this book.

I was annoyed at the romance story. It was sweet and enjoyable, but way too unfathomable. I understand it's a novel and the characters are fictional, but the love story seems a bit far fetched.

All that aside, I thought the story was pretty original and definitely entertaining. Some aspects were too predictable, but others were addiction-causing plot twists. At one point, I told myself that I was going to stop on page 136 when I was on page 108. The story was addicting enough that I couldn't put it down until I got to page 226 and the clock reached 3AM.

I can totally envision a sequel to this novel, describing the future generations of the Ravensmere village folk. However, that seems unlikely as The China Garden was published in 1996. ( )

Clare has finished her high school exams when her mother announces that she has taken a job in Ravensmere, in a village she's never heard of. More shocks are on the way for Clare as she discovers the past her mother has hidden - and that everyone in the village seems to have been expecting her, and expecting her to save them somehow.

This is one of my comfort reads - it's an easy going fantasy/mystery with a bit of history thrown in.

Clare has just finished with her exams and is finally preparing to go to college when her mother drops the bombshell that she's planning to leave her London nursing job to be a private nurse for the Earl of Ravensmere, an English country estate veiled in even more layers of mystery than Clare could hope to imagine. Though she could spend the summer in London with friends, Clare feels an irresistable pull to accompany her mother to Ravensmere, where, it turns out, things are more than a little strange. For one thing, everyone in the neighboring village seems to know her and all seem unusually happy to have her "back" at Ravensmere. Then the hallucinations of the would-be future start, and did I mention that irresistably handsome guy in motorcycle leathers that keeps turning up when Clare least expects him?

It doesn't take long for Clare to realize that she is already more wrapped up in Ravensemere's story than she can imagine and so, it happens, is that guy, Mark. As the summer unfolds, Clare learns that her mother has some deep, dark secrets in her past, and that the mystical powers of Ravensmere may well have claim on her own future.

And that's all I'll say in the way of plot summary, lest I give away one of The China Garden's many mysteries.

I found The China Garden to be an enjoyable, if not particularly memorable, read. Berry easily paces her novel with just the right amount of suspense to keep readers hungry for the answer to the next question. She also captures the darkly mysterious nature of what, on the surface, seems to be a beautiful but otherwise unremarkable estate. The back story and the current story are skillfully woven together, but older readers will probably catch on to much of the mystery before it's been revealed, which, I suppose is half the fun anyway. The only complaint I have has to do with the relationship between Clare and Mark, which, to me, always seemed a bit hollow and shallow for all the forces pushing them together and their own mutual attraction. Their relationship is an important premise for the story, and that it never seemed to go much deeper than lust had a bit of a negative effect on the story. But, then, this book's intended audience might not read into it is much as I'm doing which would make this all a moot point. All in all, a good read and one I would recommend to somebody looking for a good pageturner for the summer months. ( )

A wonderful tale filled with romance, mystery and, oddly enough, pagan mythology. I pored through this book in just a few days, only putting it down to sleep or go to class. The characters are believable and lively, and the setting in the English countryside helps to create the mythical vibe. ( )

Early on, events unfold at a leisurely pace at Ravensmere, an old English country estate where 17-year-old Clare intends to unwind for a few weeks before entering university. But questions and curiosities begin to accumulate, drawing the reader inexorably into a whirling mix of disparate, even outlandish elements-this is at once a ghost story, a romance and a coming-of-age drama, with psychic phenomena as well as historical and even ecological themes.