Mysterious, unforgettable!
I though it would be just a nice read, and I couldn't put it off!!! It's beautiful, exciting, thrilling. Full of secrets that unfold "like a Russian doll" - just as Kate Morton herself expresses it. And you never know how many dolls are there yet in store for you, how many surprises. It twists many events in different years, and at first you can't figure out how they're all connected... In 1913 a three-year-old girl dressed like a little lady makes a dreadful sea voyage from London to Australia all by herself and doesn't even remember her name... In 1900 a twelve-year-old orphan tries to survive in the cruel "Dickens's" London, take care of her mute twin brother and escape the workhouse at all cost... In the same year, an eleven-year-old sickly pampered lady, heir to a two-centruries old family curse, dreams of a real society debut and a husband but knows that she is going to die soon... In 1931 a young and happy woman discovers she was adopted and her origins are unknown - and throws away all her life and future because she thinks she does not deserve her family... In 1976 an Australian woman abandons her ten-year-old daughter to the care of her mother in favor of a new husband and children. And in 2005 a middle-aged woman with a tragedy behind her suddenly receives a strange inheritance - and goes across the ocean to hunt for her past, her future and her family. Armed with nothing but a beautifully edited book of fairy tales written a century ago by the mysterious Authoress who then vanished without a trace, she uncovers a terrible family secret of a woman who sucrificed everything for the one person she loved.

Wonderful!
The Forgotten Garden is a muti-layered novel with complicated characters and a highly intriguing storyline. The story jumps back and forth in time, but rarely is the reader confused as to what's going on. This book won't be out in the US (where I'm located) until April 2009, but since I loved The House at Riverton so much, I knew I just had to buy Kate Morton's follow-up novel here at Amazon UK. Let me just say that I wasn't disappointed.

The book opens in 1913, when a young girl with no name is found on a quayside in Australia. She doesn't remember anything about herself, and all she carries with her is a white suitcase containing, among other personal items, a book of fairytales penned by a woman the girl calls the Authoress.

In 1975, the girl, now a woman called Nell, goes back to England, where she attempts to find answers to questions about her identity. Her travels lead her to Blackhurst Manor, delving deep into the Mountrachet family's secrets and purchasing a cottage on the Blackhurst property. But before she can solve the mystery of her past, Nell's flaky daughter Lesley shows up, dumping her granddaughter Cassandra on her doorstep--permanently.

In 2005, after Nell's death, Cassandra inherits the cottage and tries to answer the questions her grandmother raised. The stories of these two women are complemented by that of Eliza Makepeace, who grew up in the slums of London around the turn of the nineteenth century, and her cousin, the genteel Rose Mountrachet.

This is clearly a novel written by a woman, for women, about women; the male characters take a backseat to the female ones, sometimes becoming unlikeable. In fact, Linus Mountrachet is downright creepy, and Nathaniel West is a bit of a cad. The novel is punctuated here and there with some of Eliza's short stories, which provide wonderful little interludes, kind of like AS Byatt's Possession, in a way. Possession, mixed with a little bit of The Secret Garden. We're even introduced to Frances Hodgeson Burnett, suggesting that she might have received inspiration for The Secret Garden from Eliza and Rose's garden.

What I loved about this atmospheric, fairytale-like novel was that Morton tells the story of these different, but connected, women, but she doesn't give everything up right away. I tried to guess at the mystery many times, but ultimately my guesses were never correct. The characters are well developed, and although it takes a little while to get into the story, this is an excellent novel, filled with old houses and hidden gardens with secrets and surprises. Aside from some too-fortuitous chances (for example, Eliza is rescued from poverty at the exact moment that she's about to be sent off to the workhouse), I found it really, really difficult to put this novel down, and only finished it reluctantly.

Magical
A truly magical story!! I can't recommend it highly enough for those seeking a wonderful summer mystery!! The story had me so captured I literally could not put it down, everytime I did it played on my mind calling me back to the world of Eliza, Nell and Cassandra. I ended up finishing it at 5am the day after I purchased it!!

Excellent
Excellent-really good read that kept me interested all the way through. Didn't want to put it down. Some of the story lines may have appeared in other books but the way this was written and put together was brilliant.

Readable but not as good as her first!
I absolutely loved The House At Riverton and was my book of the summer last year so was really looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed! It was perfectly readable and it was a good story but I think her style in this one wasn't as captivating as her first book. The book was definitely that little bit too long and i think the jumping around between years and characters was too frequent and made me a bit dizzy. I think if she'd kept the story a little bit simpler it would have been a much better book. However, although I didn't enjoy it as much as The House At Riverton, this is still an ok book to read and one I would recommend giving a go if you have the time.

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