Grace Lowrie has worked as a sculptor, prop maker and garden designer. She published her debut romance Kindred Hearts in 2015.

A lover of rock music, art nouveau design, blue cheese and grumpy ginger tomcats, Grace is also an avid reader of fiction – preferring coffee and a sinister undercurrent, over tea and chick lit. When not making prop costumes or hanging out with her favourite nephews, she continues to write stories from her Hertfordshire home.

Like most people I first discovered plants and flowers as a child. Some of my earliest memories can be traced back to my parents’ suburban back garden: growing giant sunflowers from seed; eating peas straight from their pods; and lying down in a patch of flowering clover, only to be stung by a disgruntled bumblebee.

The smell of chives still transports me back in time to making pretend soup out of muddy water, rose petals, runty carrots and herbs. When I was old enough my mum gifted me my own patch of earth where I planted nasturtiums, and though they got smothered in blackfly I still recall the variety – Peach Melba – with a sense of pride.

But not every youngster is lucky enough to grow up with their own garden paradise and for some children their first botanical contact is with weeds rather than roses.

In Safe With Me, Kat and Jamie don’t get to celebrate their birthdays – blowing the candles out on cakes – while they are growing up together in care. Kat picks dandelion clocks for Jamie so that he can make wishes, before blowing away the seeds. One person’s pesky weed is another person’s magical wild-flower – a symbol of hopes and dreams.

At the RHS Malvern Spring Show this year I noticed there is now a pink variety of dandelion available – taraxacum pseudoroseum, for the gardeners among you – indicating that there is a market for the tenacious weed. For my two characters, who are separated while young, Mother Nature plays a key role in bringing them back together. And it makes me wonder. As resilient as the human spirit is, perhaps we could all benefit from the healing power of plants and green spaces, no matter what our age.

An emotional and evocative story about the deepest bonds of friendship.

Abandoned as children, Kat and Jamie were inseparable growing up in foster care. But their bond couldn’t protect them forever.

From a troubled upbringing to working in a London greasy spoon, Kat’s life has never been easy. On the surface Jamie’s living the high-life, but appearances can be deceiving.

When they unexpectedly reunite, the bond they share becomes too intense to ignore. But as secrets come back to haunt them, are they destined to be separated once more?

@gracelowrie1
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