The girl and the witch's garden by Erin Bowman

Twelve-year-old Piper is going to spend her summer at Mallory Estate, whether she likes it or not. Her father is dying of cancer, her aunt will be gone for the summer, and there's nowhere else to send her. She's not too upset at the thought of seeing her grandmother, who has at least taken her out to eat every year after her birthday and sent her presents, but she has no interest in seeing her mother. She hasn't seen or heard from Sophia for seven years, after she left, and her mother has made no attempt to contact her. Piper doesn't care about the rumors that a witch lives on the estate or that there's some mysterious curse either. She just wants to be with her father, for him to get well, to forget about how she's lost all her friends and nobody even seems to notice she's around anymore.

Nothing could have prepared Piper for what she finds when she arrives though; her mother is not just distant, but blatantly cruel. Not only that, her grandmother has been missing for weeks and her mother is fostering three other children. And then there's the magic. At first Piper doesn't believe, but when Kenji, Julius, and Camilla prove that they all have magic, or affinities, she begins to believe. Not only that, but she may have an affinity herself. If all that's true, is the mythical elixir in the hidden garden real also? And could it save her father?

Themes of trust, friendship, and growing up as well as the pain of letting go are woven throughout this story. Bowman's writing is smooth and touching, and readers will tear up at the painful, but inevitable conclusion as well as see hope for Piper in the coming days. While many aspects of the story feel familiar to any aficionado of British fantasy (so much so that the introduction of contemporary US references like baseball are jarring) it's a pleasant remix with an opening for a sequel.

Verdict: Readers who like slower-paced fantasy and can work their way through the sometimes dense prose will enjoy this story with a flavor of classic British fantasy, although it's an additional purchase.

ISBN: 9781534461581; Published 2020 by Simon and Schuster; Egalley provided by publisher via Netgalley; Hard copy borrowed from another library in my consortium