The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton

[DarkLady Juliet]

A lost child...

On the eve of the first world war, a little girl
is found abandoned on a ship to Australia.
A mysterious woman called the Authoress
had promised to look after her -
but the Authoress has disappeared without
a trace.

A terrible secret...

On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell O'Connor learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family.

A mysterious inheritance...

On Nell's death, her grand-daughter, Cassandra, comes into an unexpected inheritance. Cliff Cottage and its forgotten garden are notorious amongst the Cornish locals for the secrets they hold - secrets about the doomed Mountrachet family and their ward Eliza Makepeace, a writer of dark Victorian fairytales. It is here that Cassandra will finally uncover the truth about the family, and solve the century-old mystery of a little girl lost.

From the author's web page:http://www.katemorton.com/the-forgotten-garden/

You can listen to Kate Morton reading the first chapter herself.

[lilypad]

I have recently read The distant hours also written by Kate Morton and although it was a little predictable sometimes I have enjoyed reading it.

I want to read The forgotten garden, I'll tell you when I do!

[Ayrween]

I think I could join to this mc. It's a long time since the last one in English.

I don't have the book yet, but I don't think it would be difficult to get it.

By this author, I've read 'The house at Riverton' and I enjoyed it, but in Spanish.

[DarkLady Juliet]

9 days to MC (18th)

Ayrween, come join us

[Ayrween]

I didn't forget. I began yesterday to read 'The Forgotten Garden'. Is anybody else reading it?

There are many secrets in this book.

I've read until chapter 4.

Nell, an old woman of ninety five, has dead in Australia. Cassandra finds out her grandma was not their's parents child. She was found before the Wordl War I, in 1913. She was a child of four, and she only has a tiny suitcase. She was a very small child, but she has a secret to keep. She arrived in a boat and she was alone, and the man she always thought this father found her. He told her the truth in her 21 birthday party.

[lilypad]

I haven't forgotten either!! i am currently reading chapter 6, and the story sounds interesting! I first I got a little bit lost because of the flashbacks and that sort of things but as I said it sounds interesting. It reminds me of The distant hours (which I think is her last work, if I am not wrong).

Keep reading!!

[DarkLady Juliet]

I'm liking it so far, even if it has time changes, we learn something new everytime we change from the present to the past. I am starting to have a theory, and I'm very interested to see if I'm right or wrong.

I'm on chapter 6 too!

[DarkLady Juliet]

I've finished Part One. .

My theory was wrong, Nell has confirmed it. Just on 7th or 8th chapter I think.

It's becoming more and more interesting. I like Cassandra. I think I know why Nell

took care of her, cause she felt she was a helpless child, abandoned too.

I didn't share Nell's point of view

of the family, how she nearly stops loving her till then family, because she is not biologically bound. And felt sorry for the sisters, who noticed the change on her and couldn't understand why such a caring sister turned so sour.

But I'm starting to think that it is because she

felt left out in the middle of nowhere, alone, as if she didn't deserve to be loved. Kidnapped by her Australian family, as she once was from her natural family

How are you getting along?

[lilypad]

I am so sorry girls but I can't go on reading the book. My mum is also reading it and she loves it so far but I just can't go on with it. Each page of it seems to have no end and I am really tired of it. I tried to give it a chance, believe me (my mother insists) but I'd rather read other books than nothing at all. I am sorry girls

[Ayrween]

At the end I finished reading 'The Forgotten Garden'. It has been a very long reading for me, I began in the middle of November and I finished it at the end of December, but I gave it up for a few times to read another books and I went on later.

My impression is that the story is interesting, but sometimes the reading is a bit slow. It's not that I haven't liked, but I'd enjoyed more if the novel has attracted me more. However, it improved from the middle to the end.

I liked more 'The house at Riverton' but I don't know if it were because in Spanish the reading was more easy or simply that it wasn't the right moment for this book. In summary: it was all right, but I expected more.

[DarkLady Juliet]

Ayrween, I agree with you in several points.

It has taken me a little longer than I thought: Chrismas time, family duties, health affaires... the thing is that I finished it early in January. A two months reading.

It is true that it got a little heavy and slow in the middle, but it grew more interesting towards the end. I liked the final twist (I saw it coming!) and the explanations to the mysteries. It’s so... Victorian. What I didn’t like was the epilog. Why does she do this? To comfort us, to calm our thirst for justice?

In general, I’ve liked it very much. A little much too long for my taste, but I think it’s more a matter of my interrupting it continuosly than due to the volume of the book.

Entertaining, romantic, sweet and sour. A little bit of mystery through the tangled lives of intense and interesting characters, each one with their own vision of life and reasons to take the decisions that make destinies turn once and again.