In the midst of chaos and mayhem, there are always books and reading, and for that, I am eternally grateful. I needed an escape this week, and Kate Morton’s *The Forgotten Garden* was just what the doctor ordered. *A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery.* A book to get lost in, with lots of suspense and intrigue. It was set in several timeframes, including the 1890s, early 1900s, 1975, and 2005, which could have bee...

Oh, this was such a delight to read! I didn't think a story about a family mystery could be so consistently entertaining, while still feeling realistic and never going completely over the top. Kate Morton just has the absolute best writing style for stories of this kind. She has a way of completely trapping you in the story she's telling, so that you lose yourself in it and just can't find a way out. And that's a huge plus! This is only the second book of hers I've read, but I'm already certain...

Well, butter my biscuits!Once again, most of my Goodreads friends absolutely adored this book! I'm starting to think I should stop picking books that everyone else raves about. I’ve had The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton for over a year now. I snagged it from a used bookstore for a dollar. I loved the cover, the summary intrigued me, and I was convinced I'd love the book itself. Now, don't get me wrong, I *liked* it. It just didn't transport me to that special place it took everyone else. Actua...

5 stars to Kate Morton's *The Forgotten Garden*. The plot is absolutely mesmerizing, and the way she tells the stories of both grandmother and granddaughter is just unparalleled. Morton leaps between time periods, countries, and characters so flawlessly.The imagery is simply astounding. The relationships are so well-developed and thought out. Morton keeps you guessing about how everything connects, all with the garden right there at the center of it all.I thoroughly enjoyed the journey that *The...

Sometimes when everyone keeps telling you to read a book, you really should listen. Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden is one of those books. You finally pick it up and then you're left wondering what took you so long! Morton masterfully weaves together different eras and locations, gifting the reader with a story that completely captivates both the imagination and the heart. Nell, the lost child, is the central figure around whom all the mysteries and events unfold. It's a story that starts in ...

*Kat looks at The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton* *Kat looks at the beckoning stack of other books to read* *Kat looks back at the first 33 pages of The Forgotten Garden* *Kat groans* So basically there's this woman. Let's call her Stupidhead because I couldn't care enough to remember her name. She finds out on her 21st birthday party that her loving, adoring family is not her biological family. They found her as a very small child and cared enough to take her in and give her a wonderful ho...

Aussie author Kate Morton expertly hits nearly every single one of my reading sweet spots with her enchanting novel, *The Forgotten Garden*:1. A woman, not so young, grappling with a haunted past? Check.2. A not-so-fairy-godmother figure who leaves said woman an old house steeped in mysterious history? Check.3. Said old, mysterious house turns out to be a cottage on the rugged Cornish coast, complete with a hidden garden, a handsome neighbor, and a subtle hint of the supernatural? Check.4. Said ...

I plowed through 549 pages... and *that* was the big reveal? Seriously?Good lord, was I bored. The only reason I stuck with it was because I kept thinking the book *had* to be leading somewhere. And I guess technically, it was. Just not to anything particularly interesting or worth the wait. Okay, I get it, *everyone* in **The Forgotten Garden** by Kate Morton has major mother/child abandonment issues.I think this book desperately wanted to be *The Thirteenth Tale*, but just didn't have the guts...

***Added Later:My summary of Kate Morton's *The Forgotten Garden* would have to be this: it's an oddly plotted book about incredibly stupid people, but written with such lovely language.But oh, those idiot characters. Honestly. Why is Nell such a twit to her fiancé and adoptive family? And why on earth does Eliza behave like that? Sorry, I just don't buy it.-----------------------I figured out what "happened" (the mystery of the little girl on the boat) pretty early on and ended up skimming much...

While Kate Morton's *The Forgotten Garden* is supposedly a novel of secrets spanning four generations, most of the “secrets” are pretty obvious. I kept waiting for the big reveal—murder? Incest? Buried treasure?? Alas, no such luck. The narration jumps between different but related storylines, all of which, to be fair, I found intriguing: in 1913, a child with amnesia turns up on an Australian dock carrying a book of fairy tales; in 2005, her granddaughter tries to uncover the mysteries of a hid...