What do readers think of The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton? Write your own review.

I chose this book when it was my turn to host our book club party. I decided to read it again since it had been a couple months since the first time I read it and I wanted the details fresh in my mind. It is even better the second time!! That is saying a lot considering how much I loved it the first time. Kate Morton's writing is fantastic and so descriptive I felt like I was right there with the characters. It is long, but I still did not want it to end. I highly, highly recommend it, especially for a book club.

I read and enjoyed Kate Morton's first novel, "The House at Riverton," and was interested to read her next one. "The Forgotten Garden" far surpassed my expectations. The journey in and out of three time periods, each with a different central character--though each connected to the others in a way that continues to be revealed until the very end--is easy to follow, and the switches add to the suspense and my reluctance to put this book down until I finished. The weaving of the fairy tales into the main story is very effective, and there's even a little bit of Dickens (Charles and Frances Hogsdon Burnett's both).

This book has everything, catapulting the reader from the early 1900s to the present in a back and forth way that is very clever, never confusing, although I do have to pause now and then to get the people straight. I loved the characters, the plot, the thrill of reading something hard to put down, and not wanting to end. We have a Booktalk at the Largo FL Library once a month and the facilitator cautiously chose this book last month wondering if it would be too confusing for us to swallow. Not at all. Now I can't wait to read her first novel. Beautifully done, really!!

Loved it...absolutely amazing....the writing is a masterpiece.

All the mysteries and secrets of the Mountrachet family are revealed....the ending is superb.

The story goes back and forth in time telling the story of how little Nell was put on a boat to Australia without an adult and how the portmaster and his wife in Australia took her in as their own. Nell's life makes a complete turn around for her when her father tells her on her 21st birthday that she isn't really his child.

The book tells of the generations before and after Nell. It is masterfully written...you don't want to put it down until you find out who Nell really is and until you find all the secrets about how she arrived on the boat and in Australia and the significance of the forgotten garden....the garden plays a huge part in the unraveling of the secrets and mysteries in the book.

I usually don't re-read books, but I would re-read this just to be sure I "got" all the facts straight...it was just fantastic....the story was very clever and the characters unforgettable....I didn't want the book to end

Even though the story flows through three generations simultaneously, Ms Morton has managed to keep the book totally readable and not at all confusing. This is one of those books that I was sad to see end. I wish I had a great mystery in my family history to explore!

I found my self completely immersed in this book. So much so that it took a couple of days after reading it to come completely back to reality. The characters were not perfect, but real. The story took place over several years, but everything was tied together and was not confusing. I can't wait to read Ms Moton's next book