I found it difficult to engage with this book - could have just been me, I suppose. My review http://www.dnsmedia.co.uk/reviews/view/1139 ( )

Reviewed by Annie Lou
Review copy provided by author
Six women, three days, and one river. When I first read the blurb, I was afraid I was about to read Deliverance with women.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The Naked Gardener is the story of six women of varying ages, walks of life, and personalities coming into themselves. It’s a poignant story of discovery, self-acceptance, and understanding.
Katelyn had always wanted to canoe down the Trout River, more specifically the Trout River Falls.

And when the women of the city council need a gimmick to save their dying town, the ladies use brainstorming ideas as the perfect excuse for the “girls only” weekend canoe trip. It is the quintessential “girls night out”--on steroids.

But the trip turns out to be much more than a way to figure out how to save the town. Each woman brings her own individual angst, issues, and problems on what turns out to be a very enlightening and fateful trip.

Beautifully written, artistic, and touching, The Naked Gardner is a novel of coming to terms. Each character has to discover, reveal, and accept who they are, the changes they face, and the lives they are living at that moment in time.

There’s a piece of every one of these women in us all. Hope the virgin, Valerie the aging beauty queen, and Katelyn who’s afraid to get her heart broken again. As for the others? Well, I can’t spoil the story. You’ll just have to read it for yourself.

Quote: From Katelyn "Artists have all of the same struggles everyone else has. Except they rarely make enough money to live on, and they have the extra burden of being pushed internally by ideas and visions that nobody else has. It's not a decision. It's built in." ( )

This is an interesting tale about life and love and women and relationships, an unexpectedly appealing story with great characters. The story revolves around Katelyn, an artist trying hard to maintain her distance from her live-in lover Maze. As she works through the reasons why she feels the way she feels, she finds herself leading a group of inexperienced paddlers on a canoe trip through the wilderness. Each of these women has a problem and of course the trip becomes a bonding experience that helps them work through these problems.

Despite what seems like a hackneyed plot, this book is actually quite enjoyable. The characters are appealing, both as individuals and as a group, and I was quickly pulled into their story. My initial dislike of Maze was eventually tempered as more of his character is revealed, and the sub-plot about their Vermont town was equally engaging. The ending makes it clear a sequel is in the works, but the author does an admirable job of wrapping up the story, providing enough of a conclusion to satisfy readers while introducing a hook to help sell the sequel. 4 strong stars- a great way to ring in the new year! ( )

I received The Naked Gardener at the start of November. It came direct from the author as a giveaway to participate in a book discussion over at The Next Best Book Club. The book came and immediately made me smile with its extra touch of including a package of flower seeds attached to the book with a pretty ribbon. I began to wonder...are these flowers so that I too can garden naked? The thought of it made me giggle. There is no way I am doing THAT. I may have a tall fence but there is also an apartment block towering over my neighbourhood and who knows how far their “peeping Tom” eyes can reach :D I began to read almost immediately, wondering what was in store for me in what seemed on the outside a crazy little book.

Well, the book surprised me in such a great way. Both the writing style combined with the interests and the voice of the book’s main character, Katelyn, spoke to me in a way that seemed incredibly close to life. Within the first few chapters I began to wonder if I was really reading fiction or if I was somehow mistaken and reading non-fiction instead. I even went so far to check the back of the book and online as well. It was indeed fiction and this really impressed me. One of the things I enjoyed most at the beginning of the novel was the description of gardening and Katelyn’s summer home. The gardening scenes reminded me much of both my mother and grandmother in their own gardens (okay, leave out the naked part, and there you go). However, as the book continued and Katelyn’s group of friends went on a weekend-long canoe trip this burst of reality came to life on a whole new level for me. The conversations these women have and their reactions to each other were yet again faithful to the way (I believe) many women actually act in real life.

On yet another level, L.B. Gschwandtner brings up the issues of equality in women’s lives, the importance of being one’s own person, and finding a place in the world (in a woman’s own life, with her own wishes and own circumstances). I’m not sure I quite understood everything she was doing here while I was reading the story or if I necessarily agreed with every detail of it. However, I really enjoyed how this was done. I really started to think about the issues of feminism and the downfalls of being “too preachy” with feministic agendas (the issue of equality really stands out here) in fiction. When I think of feminism I tend to think of a lot of negativity towards men or women trying to act like men to get what they want. I like LB’s gentle approach instead – lifting women up, allowing them to feel great about who they are (rather than trying to change them) and not trying to downplay too much the importance of men in women’s lives. I can’t be sure if this is the reason or if there is another I have not thought of, but I felt a constant air of joy while reading this story. There are some “complaints”, some tough decisions, and a few predicaments the women get themselves into. Somehow throughout all this I managed to have a constant smile on my face while reading – a joyful smile. Periodically – giggles.

But before I get too deep into what I liked most about this book I’d like to point out one small problem I had – and the only thing really holding it back from me considering this a perfect read. I did find it hard to relate to some of the characters. I’m not sure if this is because four of the characters backgrounds and physical descriptions are given to the reader one after the other and my memorizing skills just don’t work that way or for the following reason. L.B. points out in our discussion that she purposefully tries to show women at various stages of their lives. Looking back, it does make sense that the women I connected to most were those closest to my own age. I think this was a very clever way to create difference in her characters as well. I just wish I could have connected to all of them, but perhaps this just goes to show how much I loved the overall story that I actually cared about wanting to connect with the characters at all.

I would highly recommend this book. For anyone reading my review and thinking they would like these things also – I urge you to seek out this book. Then you too may have a smile on your face!

Note: This review was originally published on my blog, 100 Stars or Less. Go there (www.100starsorless.blogspot.com) to see this and other reviews. ( )

We moved into our house a couple of years ago and when we described to neighbors which house we had bought, it was easiest to say that we were the ones who had the gorgeous flower gardens. I also noted that we would be in the process of slowly destroying the pristine landscaping as neither of us are much in terms of green thumbs. Sadly, my prophecy has come to pass and the flowers are mostly choked out by weeds at this point. I wish I had the inclination to tidy the beds at the very least and to make the gardens my own at best. Despite a lackadaisical attitude to gardening myself, I could hardly fail to be tempted by a book with a title like The Naked Gardener. I'd scandalize the neighbors but there's something appealing about the idea of being out in nature wearing nothing (well, until the sunburn bloomed across delicate parts).

But the novel is not really about gardening naked; it is about the freedom to make the choices that drive our lives. Katelyn is an artist who lives with Maze, a professor. They live in Virginia most of the year but have bought a ramshackle farm in Vermont in order to spend summers there. They have transformed the farm into something unique and different, reflecting their attitudes toward life. But Katelyn is in the midst of a crisis of sorts. While she and Maze love each other, she is afraid to commit to marrying him, something he wants very much. Her reluctance stems from a past failed relationship and she fears his eagerness comes from a desire to replace his late first wife. As she wrestles with what her ultimate decision will be with regards to Maze and her future, she also gets more involved in the local town's politics. Discovering that the town council is made up entirely of women who want to save the dying little place after the men have given up, Katelyn proposes that the five women accompany her on a canoe trip starting in the wilderness above Trout River Falls.

Each of the women on the trip is facing a crossroads in her life: an unexpected pregnancy, a stagnant marriage, a cheating spouse looking for physical perfection, a first date, the fear of a medical unknown, and of course Katelyn's decision to marry or not. As the women float down the river, they share their fears and advise each other. They tell deeply personal secrets and bond the way that only an extended time together in nature can bring. But their own situations are not the only thing they contemplate as they paddle, they also concoct a plan to save their town without turning it into a museum or a succession of strip malls. And then the picturesque trip turns into something more dangerous, thrilling, and adreneline churning, reminding these women on the cusp of changes that life never stands still even if we don't face our dilemmas.

The novel is a slow and introspective one with the bulk of the plot movement in the latter half of the book. There is quite a lot of backstory on Katelyn's fear of commitment but quite a bit less so on Maze and his late wife. This makes Katelyn's assertion that he wants to be married because he wants to replace his wife a little lacking in credibility. The secondary characters are also a bit tangential to Katelyn's story and I had some trouble keeping track of who each one was as they talked on their paddle downriver. The writing is quite descriptive and beautiful. Katelyn's garden is completely tantalizing and the wilderness of the river is dreamlike. There is no neat closure here for all the women's concerns but that is how life works, continuing forward like the river in the novel, sometimes slowly and sometimes in full torrent. I had to suspend belief a bit in terms of the women besides Katelyn being complete novices at canoeing and choosing to run a raging falls. Symbolically the idea works but the reality would be foolhardy at best and dangerous at worst.

Over all, I enjoyed the novel. It will easily appeal to those looking for an empowering tale and those interested in the power of the choices, large and small, that we all face throughout our lives. ( )