The Forgotten Garden

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Outstanding - Rated
This book was recommended to me by my mum who kept going on about how it was the best book she had ever read so I decided I'd give it a go after reading through the first chapter of The House At Riverton in a book shop and deciding I liked the authors style of writing.

I absolutely loved the way that the book interweaved the different characters throughout the novel and didn't find it too difficult to get to grips with different chapters being set in different time frames, if anything I found the variety nice and it kept the book moving along building the story beautifully to it's conclusion.

Throughout this book I kept trying to second guess what the authors intended plot was going to be, she continually surprised me and moved the goalposts and I thoroughly enjoyed the way she weaved all the characters together.

Having not read the House At Riverton I can guarantee it will be the next book I buy as I loved this.

A brilliant book right to the end - Rated
this was a really amazing book with everything from a brilliant romance through to mystery and creepiness. I agree with others that it reads better than the House at Riverton which I have just started but am not enjoying nearly as much. I think the ending is superb. So many good books are let down in the final chapter but this is definitely not one of them. Looking forward to reading her next one if and when it comes out.

A Big Yawn - Rated
Thankfully, I found this book in a charity shop, so I didn't feel too peeved when it proved to be a dreadfully irritating read. With a writing style and storyline more akin to the the efforts you'd expect from a student who was part way through a creative writing course - Morton's book is predictable, banal, hodgepodge. Now don't laugh - I also bought The House At Riverton at the same time - well it was going cheap! I started it this week, (in sheer desperation, as I'd read everything in my book stash), but I think it may go unfinished. After enduring another chapter last night, I was losing the will to live. For a simple, well told, story I can recommend a book I've just read - The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - utter magic!

Interesting Mystery Suffers from Length - Rated
This is a good story about a family mystery that is unravelled through the perspective of different characters at different points in time.

It was just a little too long though. Parts of the book aimed at drawing out the suspense killed it for me (a character just about to spill the beans on part of the mystery is interrupted by 2 pages of comments about a seafood dish...annoying!).

Do Not Buy This Book, unless...... - Rated
you are prepared to set your alarm 15 mins early to delve into another two pages, carry it with you to read on the train, half hour at lunchtime and well into the night. In other words: you cannot put it down. Admittedly, you need to perserver with the first couple of chapters; but then you're hooked.

It is a spellbinding story interwoven with fairytales mirroring the main character's (Eliza's) and the other characters lives. You enter the world of Nell, Cassandra, Rose, Adeline and of course Eliza and travel back and forth through the twentieth and early twenty first centuries. It is all there,mystery, intrigue, spoiled beauty, envy, avarice, good an evil, the search for closure and coming home. It is beautifully written. Kate Morton has honed her craft to perfection at a very early age. Her characters are fully rounded, her prose delicious and her descriptions ('He was a scribble of a man')memorable. An utter delight!