by Victoria Hislop
Couldn't help but agree with your comments, Faith. She had very interesting subject matter, but her prose, at times, was dire. ]]>
Jackie Luben
read and liked
Faith Mortimer's
review of The Island:
"On reading the synopsis on the back cover, I thought The Island was going to be a fab read. Sadly it did not live up to my expectations.
The intro was a trifle long-winded and a poor reason for getting the storyline started. Once we had the flas...more "
"On reading the synopsis on the back cover, I thought The Island was going to be a fab read. Sadly it did not live up to my expectations.
The intro was a trifle long-winded and a poor reason for getting the storyline started. Once we had the flas...more "
The Forgotten Garden is a large ambitious novel, in terms of keeping all the information in place, and is a most readable book - a definite page-turner.
I was very interested in this book, because, in some ways, it resembles my own novel, Tainted Tree, which is also a 'time-slip' novel. Like mine, The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton also fits very neatly into this category. The author visits three main time periods – 2005, 1975 and 1905-1913, so like Tainted Tree, this is a mainly twentieth century novel. Unlike TT, however, Kate Morton spends much more time in the early part of the century, whereas my main story was in contemporary times, with diary entries and letters showing the past.
In The Forgotten Garden, there are a least three main characters. In the present, there is an Australian woman, Cassandra, who like my own modern day character, comes to England from another land to find out secrets from the past. Cassandra carries out this investigation in order to complete the task set in motion by her grandmother, Nell, also Australian, in 1975, so we have in effect, two characters carrying out the same research and learning slightly different things.
Nell’s enquiries into her own childhood are also shown,these events having been erased from her mind, and we also see the events which led up to her birth. During this period, there is more than one character’s viewpoint, and the story unfolds through the eyes of Eliza and Rose, cousins, who are Nell’s ancestors, as well as Rose’s parents.
The Forgotten Garden is a very long book and therefore has space for all these individual histories. At times, though, it can be confusing, as it is not always possible to remember what the character knows about the research, for the reader is discovering things from the earlier stories, which are probably unknown to the later characters.
I feel it is important for the author to take the reader seamlessly from one period to another, as I tried to do in Tainted Tree, and for the most part, Kate Morton succeeds in this.
There is a denouement, which left me unsurprised, but I don't think that spoiled the book.
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Paul wrote: "So has anyone else here fallen in to the rut that I have of being an Amazon "addict" having to check on my sales once or twice a day? I've got to get over it.
You're very honest. I'm not, so I'm not doing any confessing. Well done on your book.
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Have Wine, Will Travel is the American version of one of my fiction books, A Bottle of Plonk. I'm not giving it five stars, because I don't think it's my best work (and I'm a modest soul), but it's worth a read. It has been updated and is not quite the same as
It is a novella, which takes the reader on a journey, following the trail of a cheap bottle of wine. In each chapter, the bottle passes to a new story. Within the various stories, you can find alcoholism (as you might expect) gambling, crime, romances - both lesbian and heterosexual, divorce, adultery, tragedy, sorrow - and humour too. ]]>
A Bottle of Plonk is one of my fiction books. I'm not giving it five stars, because I don't think it's my best work (and I'm a modest soul), but it's worth a read.
It is a novella, which takes the reader on a journey, following the trail of a cheap bottle of wine. In each chapter, the bottle passes to a new story. Within the various stories, you can find alcoholism (as you might expect) gambling, crime, romances - both lesbian and heterosexual, divorce, adultery, tragedy, sorrow - and humour too.
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As the author of Tainted Tree, I am giving it top rating. I loved writing it and I think it's a good read.
It is a 'time-slip' novel, and having just read The Forgotten Garden, I think anyone who enjoyed that would enjoy Tainted Tree.
There is a difference, apart from the fact that Forgotten Garden is twice as long, and that is that Tainted Tree has more story in contemporary times (1990s) than in the past, but they both have modern heroines who follow a trail to find out about their ancestors in the early part of the century. ]]>
First World War spliced with two love stories. Well written but I didn't find the moves backwards and forwards as seamless as I would have preferred. Some of the characters were not sufficiently rounded.
Having now read other reviews, I see that a few others agree with me, and I'm inclined to agree with those who have said, it would be better if it had just been a book about the first world war. I know that many were shocked at the impact of that. In fact, I was less so, because long before I read this book I had read many of the WW1 war poets. They made a huge impact on me at the time, and I have never forgotten their words.
I found the move from the time of WW1 to the seventies jarring. ]]>
Susan wrote: "Sorry to weigh in on what's become a contentious post, but I'd like to point out another inaccuracy; one that bothers me.
Susan, I agree with what you're saying. I have three books in print, one of which I published myself, using a digital printer. I sold about 900 copies, including to UK book stores - Waterstone's. This is not enough for a conventional publisher, but it was very satisfactory to me. I am the publisher and I have my own imprint and batch of ISBNs.
I have also now teamed up with two others and we are running our own publishing house. We are all enjoying it, and the promotion. We now use POD, but we have the option of moving to offset litho, should any of our books take off. My books are called A Bottle of Plonk (also sold in America by Virtual Tales with the name Have Wine will Travel, in both print and ebook) and Tainted Tree.
We have just given a workshop at an Arts Festival and are doing a second one this week. Next month we are doing a book signing at a bookstore and later we'll be selling at a Christmas fair.
We won't make a fortune, but our books are getting read and sold.
I also have a book (no longer in print) commissioned and conventionally published. That taught me a great deal about the book trade.
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