The Virgin's Tale by Sherri Smith & The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

These used paperback books are in decent condition with some wear to the pages, binding, and minor marks within. Come from the smoke free and pet friendly home. Please see photos for better description. A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery. The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, secrets, family and memory from the international best-selling author Kate Morton. Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra’s life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family. Rome, 63 BC.Offered up by her parents at the age of six to become a Vestal Virgin, one of six hand-picked women who symbolically protected the Roman Republic, Aemilia has spent her entire adult life in the all-female Temple of Vesta, under the strictest guard. But temptation has led her to commit a mortal sin, and she is sentenced to death as Virgins must die, buried alive in a pitch-black tomb. As the end draws near, Aemilia looks back over her claustrophobic, restricted life: the intense friendships she formed; the implacable enemies she made; and, finally, the passionate but forbidden romance