*Kat looks at The Forgotten Garden*

*Kat looks at the beckoning stack of other books to read*

*Kat looks back at the first 33 pages of The Forgotten Garden*

*Kat groans*

So basically there's this woman. Let's call her Stupidhead because I couldn't care enough to remember her name. She finds out on her 21st birthday party that her loving, adoring family is not her biological family. They found her as a very small child and cared enough to take her in and give her a wonderful home full of people who l More...

Aussie author Kate Morton deftly managed to push nearly every one of my reading buttons with her lovely book, The Forgotten Garden:

1. Not so young woman with a haunted past - check
2. Not-so-fairy-Grandmother who bequeaths said woman an old house with a mysterious history - check
3. Said old, mysterious house is actually a cottage on the wild Cornish coast, complete with a hidden garden, a handsome neighbor, and the faintest suggestion of the supernatural - check
4. Said woman embarks on a quest to More...

I became quite enchanted with this tale and really loved the interwoven bewitching dark fairy tales that added more dimensions to this novel. It was a mystery that had me second guessing myself several times. Every time I had it all figured out a new chink was added to the chain of clues. I think the style of writing was superbly done, not often can I say that. I loved the way each chapter transported me to another time and a different POV spanning the generation of women in the family. I did fi More...

I listened to the audio book version and really enjoyed it. I have a different standard for audio books (than I do for books I read myself in a printed format). They have to be read at a pace that allows me to understand what's being said (the actual words being read) and what's happening in the story while I'm driving my car, the voice of the reader has to be pleasant and agreeable and the story has to hold my attention. I'm generally able to suspend disbelief more easily when I'm listening to More...

Sometimes when people keep recommending a book, you should listen and read that book. The Forgotten Garden is such a book. You finally read it and end up wondering why in the world you waited so long. Kate Morton provides the intricate layering of different times and places in a masterful manner, gifting the reader with a story that captures the imagination and heart completely. Nell, as the lost child, is the pivotal character around which all mysteries and actions revolve. A tale that begins i More...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is an easy read, and yet gave me room to pause as I stopped to think. I like books that let me do that without pounding me into a pulp on the way. I suspect the book might appeal more to women then men and it would be a good choice of several of the reading circles I know.

My only regret: that Eliza's book of fairy tales isn't a real book.

Things I like knowing before I buy a book: No profanity that I noticed. Respectful story-specific reference to sex. Emotiona More...

I am breaking silence here to gush about Kate Morton. Her fiction is carefully researched and crafted, and the writing itself is luminous. The Forgotten Garden unwinds like a fairy tale, slowly curling off the spool where ambiguously benefic crones have wound it. We jump back and forth between present-day Australia where a young woman mourns the mysterious grandmother who inspired her as a child, to England at the turn of the last century where an affluent family in a small coastal town conspire More...

I almost didn't buy this book. I got my copy at the used book stall at the local Spring Fair. I was little torn about it. The phrase "New York Times Bestseller" usually means I won't like it (take, for instance, my reaction to The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane). Then I read the back and looked at the inside cover. Anything that uses Arthur Rackham (Illustrator) pictures deserves a shot, and it was only two dollars.

I'm glad I give this book a chance because it is good.

The Forgotten Garden is v More...

I am having a hard time writing this review. My thoughts about this book are so scattered that I feel like my head is a kaleidoscope and my feelings are like patterns that change with each shift of logic. At first there was a sense of mystery and then there are constantly changing view points giving insights into different era's and different characters, each having their own story to tell and each solving a piece of the puzzle in their time. I have often found that it is very difficult to write More...

After hearing many glowing comments about Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden, I decided to forgo the long reserve line at the library and buy myself a copy.

Even with its respectable five-hundred and forty-eight page heft, I didn't want to put this book down. The Forgotten Garden begins with an unnamed girl playing a hiding game on a ship. A few pages later, a girl named Nell is turning twenty-one and her father reveals to her a devastating truth: she is not their daughter. He discovered her sta More...

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6...

I found this as engrossing as her debut which I read earlier this year. This time Kate Morton has written an intriguing mystery that started in the 1900’s and is not fully unravelled until 2005. It is told as three stories covering three generations combining to give us clues along the way.
Maybe the ending was a little predictable but I certainly did not guess all the answers to the mysteries along the way.
The protagonist is Nell around who the whole myste More...

While this is ostensibly a novel of secrets spanning four generations, most of the “secrets” are fairly obvious. I kept waiting for the blow to fall — murder? incest? buried treasure?? Alas, no. The narration shifts among different-but-related storylines, all of which, to be fair, I found intriguing: in 1913 a child who can’t remember her name turns up on an Australian dock carrying a book of fairy tales; in 2005 her granddaughter tries to uncover the mysteries of a hidden garden in Cornwall; in More...

"The Forgotten Garden" was rather disappointing, as I was sure that I would love this book. Secrets, mystery, a hidden garden...these are ingredients that I love. Just not the most fortunate use for them in this plot.

For one thing, this book should have been half its length - so many and not particularly beautiful descriptions, detailed rendering of unimportant gestures and unnecessary talk. And the secrets were not really secrets, I could glimpse at several possibilities, one of which turned o More...

This is a long and complex read, not a tale to be rushed (and read lazily with one eye on the washing-up pile), but a story to shut yourself away with in a quiet room, to savour slowly and immerse yourself in fully. Morton speaks of Dickens as being famous for creating worlds in which a reader can fall into, and wanting to create that same effect: she certainly achieves that sense with this book. Morton has a talent for setting the scene; magically and masterfully, she describes sights and sound More...

I picked up this book at my college bookstore on a whim because the story intrigued me. I was not even intimidated by the size. Something just told me to read it, so I finally did, after college let out for the summer. I loved the multi-generational story, and the beautiful settings. The characters were believable and well-crafted. The story was a little like a modern twist on Burnett's 'The Secret Garden', and Burnett even makes a cameo appearance herself.

I thought the only problem with the bo More...

This is another one of those good, casual reads that you do actually need to devote a bit of focus to. Not really to follow the story itself, but more to keep track of the characters. The basic gist of The Forgotten Garden is that you're following three different characters, in three different times, down one storyline.

As fun, genuine, and engrossing as the book was there was nothing super remarkable about it. The characters, quite frankly, are typical and nothing special. The story, a bit diffe More...

I feel a bit conflicted about what rating to give this book. On the one hand, I loved and devoured the last three hundred pages of this book. I found Cassandra, Nell, and Eliza to all be compelling characters and I grew attached to each of them individually. The writing is really beautiful, even poetic in parts, and I loved the weaving of Eliza's fairy tales throughout. I also really enjoyed the setup of the book, with the three women narrating and the way Morton wove everything together so nice More...

I read 549 pages and that was the reveal? Really?

God, I was bored. I only stuck it out because I figured the book had to be building up to something. And I suppose that technically, it was. Just not anything particularly interesting or worth waiting for. I get it, everyone in the book has mother/child abandonment issues.

I think this book really wanted to be The Thirteenth Tale, but didn't have the balls (if you pardon the inaccurate expression, what with how female-centric both titles are). Now More...

***Added Later:

My summary of this book would have to be this: it is an oddly-plotted book about very stupid people written in lovely language.

But oh, the idiot characters. Honestly. Why would Nell be such a twitty jerk to her fiance and adoptive family? Why on earth would Eliza act as she did? Sorry; don't buy it.

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Figured out what "happened" (the mystery of the little girl on the boat) earlier on and scanned much of the rest. Didn't find the characters' behavior believable. More...

I loved, Loved, LOVED this book!!! It is one of my favorite books read to date.
I thought the language & description in the book was so beautiful. It really captured me straight from the beginning.
I also loved how she interlaced the different narratives to slowly bring the mystery together. Something would be hinted about or questioned in one narrative & then it would be explained in the next one. What a creative writer!

*SPOILER ALERT*





I thought from the beginning that the Authoress was More...

I gave this a four because I LOVED it and read it very fast up until about 3/4 of the way through. I still liked it after that, but it suddenly breached the line of "over done" at that point (in my opinion), and got just a tiny bit too cheesy. I was also a little annoyed with what I think the author thought were subtle references to The Secret Garden which were not at all subtle(the names Archibald and Mary, the sickly cousin who orders people around, the dark and mysterious mansion, the walled More...

I loved every page of this book, including the hokey stuff.
This is definitely comfort reading, but it's not chick lit and it's not oversimplified. It had enough plot complexity to keep my grown-up mind engaged. At the same time, it had enough enchantment and mystery to appeal to the little girl I once was. I was happy to discover that little girl is still in there, and she still believes in magical gardens and strange coincidences.

This is a long and lovely story about a woman who made the wrong More...

This is a really an unputdownable book, and quite a quick read despite being over 600 pages long. I have to say I liked it much more than House at Riverton. The plot is a fascinating one, and the narrative moves back and forth in time. We meet Nell as a young child, a woman in her sixties and as she lies dying aged 95. The action takes us from Brisbane Australia in 2005, and the 1970's, to the London of 1900 and 2005, and also to cornwall of the early 1900's and the 1970's and again 2005. The no More...

This is another hefty tome from the bestselling author of 'The House at Riverton'. The tale meanders back and forth from the early 1900s to 1975 and 2005. I don't usually mind stories that jump around in time, but even for me, this one was a little disjointed. By far the most interesting (to me) part of the book was set in the 1900s and I felt that with a bit of tweaking, one could do away with the most modern characters completely!

It is a tale full of secrets, and it is the unravelling of them More...

Nem sei muito bem por onde “pegar” esta review, é que se passa tanta tanta coisa que, consequentemente, tenho muito muito que dizer. Mas suponho que posso começar com um: adorei e quero mais.

O Jardim dos Segredos foi então a minha estreia na obra da australiana Kate Morton, uma compra absolutamente aleatória (quer dizer… a capa bonita ajudou) num solarengo dia de Inverno quando fui às compras por outro motivo qualquer que não livros, e fiquei fã.

Este The Forgotten Garden, no título original, é a More...

I have not read a saga in such a long time. This book follows three generations one in the 1900s, one in the 1970s and the other in 2005. Everyone is related and the story is beautifully woven. It was never obvious how things were related, but things came together beautifully. It was a lovely book and one I will recommend often.

I've just finished The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, which will be
published in the U.S. in April. I didn't finish her first book, THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON, because it was so annoyingly derivative of Barbara Vine and Daphne du Maurier (it even opened with a rephrasing of REBECCA’s famous opening). However, GARDEN is a good read, though I found it rather padded and protracted.

What is a four year-old girl doing alone on a ship that has
sailed from England to Australia? What is her connection to a f More...

This was a very enjoyable read. I loved dipping into the early twentieth century in London, the West Country (England) and Australia. It was a great combination of interesting characters, history and solving a century-old mystery. I'm looking forward to reading 'The House at Riverton'.

This was a wonderful stories incompassing generations. Lots of questions of heritage and probing for the truth,with a great resolve at the end.