Tuesday, April 2, 2013

What A Dive!

When I wrote my last post, I had just put my book down and was enjoying the delightful dilemma of whether to finish the book or pause to marinate in the story. While the urge to dive off the story cliff was strong, I did manage to wait until Sunday night to finish the book. The need to know the secrets, and find out if my predictions were right, was too overwhelming to wait longer than that. While anticipation is thrilling, satisfaction soothes the soul. Now that I am relaxed and cradled in the waters of resolution, I can say that the trip down the cliff was amazing and quite rewarding!

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton is definitely a book I would recommend to those who like a mystery about finding out things from the past. The book starts out with a little girl left sitting on a dock in Australia in 1913. No one knows where she came from or who she belongs to. There are two main settings (Australia and England), and the book time travels back and forth by chapters (primarily between 1900, 1913, 1975, and 2005), unraveling a bit of of the complicated mystery every step of the way.

What did I like the most about the book? I would have to say it was a combination of so many of my favorite things: mystery, English cottages by the ocean, haunted estates, a "no nonsense" kind of woman, children's fairy tales, and the need to resolve one's past. Morton is a good writer, and she gives lovely descriptions without getting lost in the details. The writing is clear and concise. The author doesn't waste your time losing herself in her own fantasy of words, but her words weave a spell that make you believe time stands still...until you look at the clock and realize three hours have passed!

This is not a book you can read and put down for a long while, you need to keep up with what is going on between the different characters in the different time periods. It also isn't a short book, but you won't notice once you get into it. I read this one on my Kindle and didn't know the number of pages. When I went to the bookstore one day, I saw the size of the large paperback and noted its 560 pages. I will confess that I bought the book, even though I already own it on my Kindle, and I also bought Morton's two other novels The House at Riverton and The Distant Hours. It is very unusual for me to do this unless it's a series, which it isn't, and should tell you how much I enjoyed The Forgotten Garden and Morton's style of writing. 

One last thing, if my review didn't convince you to read this book, perhaps Kate Morton can...






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