Book Review: "The Forgotten Garden" By Kate Morton

The Forgotten Garden

By 

Kate Morton

My niece (Zoey Michelle)  recommended this book to me. I am a light hearted reader and this was a pretty deep book - so it was really difficult for me to get into it. I just didn't understand what was going on or wasn't drawn into the book until you meet Eliza.

Zoey Michelle, loved this book so I kept trudging on and on until I finally got into it. It is a mystery type of a book.

There are three characters in the book and it goes back and forth between each of the characters. 

Eliza 1900

Nell 1975

Cassandra 2005

I finally figured out that at the beginning of each chapter there was a location and date. This helped me understand who was speaking. 

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The book reminded me a little of the movie "The Secret Garden" with the strong girl and the weak bedridden girl. 

In this book Eliza is the strong girl and her cousin Rose is sickly with a mean overbearing mother Adeline. (1900)

Nell is the little girl with the white suit case left on a pier in Australia alone at age 4. Who was she and where did she come from? When her father (who she thought was her father) told her a secret of where she came from, the secret changed who she thought she was.  Her story starts in 1975.

Nell's granddaughter Cassandra starts up on Nell's story in 2005 when she finds out from Nell's will about the cottage in England that she purchased. Cassandra starts her journey with Nell's journal and things she had found out about where she came from and goes from there. 

It's a long novel 550 pages. Back and forth between characters as you unweave the mystery. I really got into this book and characters due to the length and time I spent reading it. 

It's a deep novel ... and I am much better with light topics. 

I just finished "Sarah's Key" book from Bakow's Book Babble book club. Another deep topic and hard read.  I won't review the book on my blog - but you can read the comments from the book club questions over on her site here. 

The reason I bring up Sarah's Key is because it goes between 2 characters back and forth as that mystery unfolds. It was surprising to me to fall into another book like that. They were both hard / deep reads for me - but I am glad I read both of them. 

If you like deep books and mystery - you will enjoy this book. Here is a quick youtube video from Kate Morton about the book.