From Goodreads: A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery. The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, secrets, family and memory from the international best-selling author Kate Morton.
Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra's life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.
Inheriting a book of dark and intriguing fairytales written by Eliza Makepeace - the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century - Cassandra takes her courage in both hands to follow in the footsteps of Nell on a quest to find out the truth about their history, their family and their past; little knowing that in the process, she will also discover a new life for herself.
Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra's life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.
Inheriting a book of dark and intriguing fairytales written by Eliza Makepeace - the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century - Cassandra takes her courage in both hands to follow in the footsteps of Nell on a quest to find out the truth about their history, their family and their past; little knowing that in the process, she will also discover a new life for herself.
My Thoughts: I didn't quite know what to expect when I picked up this book. I have heard good things about Kate Morton so I hoped for the best. It turned out to be a pretty intriguing story that completely pulled me in. There were a lot of characters and a lot of jumping between time periods and the characters in those periods. Normally, I don't love when a book is written that way but Morton did it so seamlessly that for the most part it didn't bother me. Morton's prose is fantastic and added to my feelings towards the story. I also liked how she included the fairy tales into the story; not only did she talk about them but she actually made up fairy tales and put them in the book. It made this book stand out a lot.
The mystery aspect of the story kept me reading and everytime I thought I had it all figured out, I realized that I didn't. The descriptions to the setting of the story were amazing and I felt like I could really visualize the gardens and homes that the story took place in. My one complaint is that besides Cassandra, none of the characters had a lot of depth. Because the story jumped around so much, I felt like I only got to see snippets of each of the characters and they all really had a lot of potential. I also had some issues with the ending, mainly Eliza's ending. I understand that it helped wrap everything up nicely but it still bothered me because it seemed out of character for the person she was supposed to be. Otherwise, this was really good story and I will be reading more of Morton's works in the future. 4 stars.
I have this one on my bookshelf now waiting to be read. Thanks for the great review, I hope I get to it soon!
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