Book reviews

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

ellier — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:50:14 GMT

Finished this last night - I enjoyed it more than The House at Riverton, I particularly liked the fairy tales and the way they interconnected to the narrative. I agree with earlier posts that the identity of the mother is well signposted - but there is still intrigue in the how and why. Felt very early on that 'delivering' Nell from the awful grandparents was probably the best thing the Authoress could have done for her!

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

sazzymch — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:16:31 GMT

Just finished this today - it's my book groups current read. Like others, I preferred this to Riverton too. I loved the interchange between the 3 time frames and how the story peeled back it's layers gradually.

I had the identity of the mother pretty early on, then talked myself out of it - doh I didn't find it particularly obvious though like some of you!

Lovely lovely book - sad, touching and very satisfying.

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

princess21 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:13:46 GMT

I read this last month and really enjoyed it. As others have said I loved the way the story overlapped and changed between the dates. I sometimes find stories like this hard to follow and keep up with particularly all the different characters but I never felt that with this book.

I haven't read 'The House at Riverton' yet but will do in the future.

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

pixieholopainen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:31:05 GMT

I'm about halfway through this right now and loving it! I really liked her first novel, but like many people here have said, this is even better.

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

scarlet21 — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:09:45 GMT

I started this on Saturday night at 8 pm, and finished it 24 hours later, could not put it down, neglected my children for most of Sunday. I guessed early on the mystery but the way it was told was brilliant, I loved it. I kept leaving this book even though I've had it 6 months as I knew it would be good and I wasn't disappointed. I can't wait to read her next one.

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

shirleymarye — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:26:48 GMT

I enjoyed both books but liked The Forgotten Garden the most, I didn't want to put it down ! It was fairly obvious where this story was going but I still liked it

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

sparhawk — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:21:39 GMT

Just read The House At Riverton and thought it was excellent. My daughter read this and thought it was great and she doesn't normally read this sort of book - so I have got her copy of it to read.

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

tolly18 — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:15:31 GMT

Sorry to say this was not my cup of tea. I found the time-hopping way it was written, while not hard to follow, was simply irritating. I couldn't feel much sympathy with any of the characters though the settings were good. The 'secret' was obvious from quite an early stage but Cassandra was just too thick to see it! I do feel she the author could have made a better novel of it by sticking to a more conventional narrative but that's only my opinion. I haven't read Riverton, and don't expect to.

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

mrskipling — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:52:13 GMT

I've just added this to my wishlist - sounds great!

Sue

Re: Best read for ages.

pixieholopainen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:35:45 GMT

This sounds really interesting, but I still haven't got around to reading The House at Riverton yet, although it is next on my TBR!

Re: Best read for ages.

chrissie2689 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:01:43 GMT

I've just finished this, and thought it was really well written, a very intricate plot, although sometimes it's difficult to keep track of all the characters. I also had to keep checking which time period I was in.
But like several others who have posted, I thought it was even better than The House at Riverton and would thoroughly recommend it - even though it's quite long, I raced through it.

Re: Best read for ages.

Beadyjan — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:27:49 GMT

I'm trying to get hold of this one as a swap but keep getting rejected :(

If anyone would like to do a swap with me for it do let me know, as I loved the House at Riverton and this one sounds even better.

Best read for ages.

magzy — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:50:41 GMT

Am about to finish Kate Morton's Forgotten Garde, which I thought was superb!

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

pennyt — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:16:25 GMT

Just realised that I forgot to add my thoughts here after finishing this at the weekend - so here goes!

I too enjoyed this much more than The House at Riverton (enjoyed that too, but this is far better!) I felt Ms Morton's style had developed enormously between the two books so this is less cliched, the characters far better developed, and she handles the different time layers of this book very skilfully to hold the reader's interest throughout. I agree that you can easily guess from halfway through who Nell's mother really was - there are plenty of clues given, after all - but for me, there was far more to the book than this little piece of "knowledge". Now, like Denise, I'm hoping for even greater things from Ms Morton's third book, whenever that is, as I love her comfortable style and the multi-layered history she works into her books.

Re: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

annecater — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:32:01 GMT

I was totally entralled by this all the way through. I enjoyed The House At Riverton but thought this one was much better. I loved the way the story was told over different eras and the fact you were kept in suspense at the end of each section.