A BIT OF EARTH BY REBECCA SMITH

A Bit of Earth opens, tragically, with the death in a car crash of Susannah Misselthwaite, the wife of botany professor Guy and mother of little Felix. Guy is left wondering why Susannah was in a car with another man and Felix has to grow up without a mother to take care of him. Guy has troubles coping with the death of his wife, and retreats into the botanical garden at the university for most of the time. Felix, too, seeks comfort in the garden, liking to sit in the trees and watch the students go about their business. But just when Guy and Felix start to get their lives back on track, the garden is threatened by developers.

The book features the two main characters, Guy and Felix, and a host of other lovable people including Erica, a PhD student at the university, Judy Lovage, another professor, a range of students and Felix's teachers. These characters all help Guy and Felix get through the tough time they have after Susannah's death and also the subsequent years.

The book ends without tying up all loose ends in great detail, which is both infuriating and nice. The characters were well-developed and the setting was believable and quaint. Not knowing much of England, however, I had troubles understanding the distances between and the locations of certain places in the book, and the book was VERY English, so a little hard for an Aussie teenager to relate to.

Overall it was a very pleasant read, touching and heartfelt.

Butterflies: 7.5 out of 10
Recommended for: it's an adult book but could be read by teenagers. 14+
Warnings: a tiny bit of swearing and references to sex