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The Forgotten Garden

Kate Morton

Start date: August 2, 2012

Finish date: August 31, 2012

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What Members Thought

Jan 11, 2011 Susan Roebuck rated it really liked it

A masterpiece of plotting that even had me (the most disorganised person in the world) wishing I could make notes. The plot dots around from the early 1900s to twenty years later, to the 1970s and finally to the 2000s. There're fairy tales interwoven into the main plot, just to add spice and decoration. But the basic premise is: why was a little girl, four years-old, left alone on a ship that left London for Australia? Who was she? And where did she come from? There's an array of characters who ...more

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May 04, 2011 Lani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was beautifully written. It took me a few chapters to get used to the skipping around through time and remembering how each character in each year fit, so I had a hard time getting into the book. However, once I had everyone straight and got used to the skipping back and forth through time I really loved it.

I'm a sucker for fairy tales so that aspect of this story really drew me in. I wasn't expecting to get to read a few of the fairy tales from Eliza's book and I felt like they fit be This book was beautifully written. It took me a few chapters to get used to the skipping around through time and remembering how each character in each year fit, so I had a hard time getting into the book. However, once I had everyone straight and got used to the skipping back and forth through time I really loved it.

I'm a sucker for fairy tales so that aspect of this story really drew me in. I wasn't expecting to get to read a few of the fairy tales from Eliza's book and I felt like they fit beautifully into the story. It really shows how Eliza was feeling about the events surrounding her rather than the narrator having to come out and tell us every single feeling she has.

Cassandra was by far the most boring of the three women that the book follows. She has a slight mystery that she hints at and then reveals not long after, and the rest of her point of view was not very interesting. Of course it was important because her travelling to learn about Nell and Eliza was essential to the story line and we do find out quite a bit about the larger mystery from Cassandra's point of view. But still, her sections were the sections I enjoyed the least. The romance with Cassandra and Christian was boring and though I knew the author was pushing for it from the start it really felt artificial and I wasn't interested in them getting together.

I loved everything about Eliza's character from the start, and suspected right away that Ivory was in fact her child, but the way that she was so devoted to Rose seemed a little off. Yes, it was clear she loved her very much and would have done quite a bit to make her happy, but it seemed out of character for her to go so far as to sleep with Nathaniel so that she could give her child to her cousin.

I liked the way this mystery was treated too. At first I thought it was pretty obvious that Eliza must have been Nell's mother, as I'm sure the author intended, but then I took her bait on every other solution she threw out. When Rose is introduced I thought it made sense for her to be the mother, then Mary, then we find out it is in fact Eliza.

The ending was so both happy and sad for me. I figured Eliza had been killed but it was still sad to have that confirmed. And Nell never really learned the truth and although the epilogue is there to make us feel better about that it really didn't for me. Mostly I was just sad for Eliza though because I loved her so much.

Also what the hell at Linus. He was incredibly creepy and I thought we would get more insight on that but we didn't. I'm kind of glad about that though. ...more

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Apr 17, 2014 Tammy rated it really liked it

Good book. This is the first boom I've read by Kate Morton and I enjoyed it very much. ...more

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May 25, 2012 Rachel Willis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-read-in-2012, historical-fiction

I am in awe of the ease at which Ms. Morton's words flow across the page. I've been reading this during my commute and find myself missing my stops because I'm so sucked into the story. Today one of the bus drivers even stopped the bus for me and caught my attention as he realized I was far too involved in the world Morton created to be worried about a small thing like missing my stop and having to walk back. ...more

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