Some books entertain you. Some make you curious. And then there are the books that take your heart, put it through an unnecessarily elaborate series of hardships, and somehow leave you grateful you read them. And most of these books are historical fiction……The Forgotten Garden belongs firmly in that last category. It hooks it’s tentacles into my heart.
If you enjoy layered family mysteries, dark fairy tales, and stories filled with love and loss, I wholeheartedly recommend this one. Just don’t expect an easy ride.
Blurb
A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. Arriving alone with nothing but a small suitcase, she is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, “Nell” sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family.
Genre
Historical Fiction | Mystery
Characters
- Nell ( an elderly woman dying)
- Cassandra (trying to take care of her Grandmother)
- Eliza (trying to survive in a ruthless, mean world)
Tropes
- Multi-generational family saga
- Family secrets and hidden pasts
- Gothic manor house
- Victorian gothic atmosphere
- Dark fairy tales
- Love, loss & longing
My Review
What do you do when the story of your family is also the story of everything you have lost? In The Forgotten Garden, the search for identity leads into a past filled with secrets and heartbreak.
Kate Morton has a particular talent for making you fall in love with her characters and then proceeding to make their lives absolutely miserable. What makes The Forgotten Garden so compelling is the way three women’s lives become connected through a mystery that reaches far beyond what any of them could have thought. At its heart is Eliza, whose life is marked by heartbreak and the loss of the people she loves. Then there’s Nell, a woman searching for the truth about her identity, and Cassandra, who sets out to uncover her grandmother’s past and, in doing so, hopes to bring her some peace.
Their stories weave together through family secrets, mean and jealous people, a mysterious garden, and a collection of dark fairy tales. It’s a story about love, loss, and belonging. Then some mysteries grabbed my attention until the very last page. There are stories you enjoy while reading, and then there are stories that make you wish you could reach through the pages and give their characters a little happiness. The Forgotten Garden was the latter for me. Eliza, Nell, and Cassandra’s intertwined journeys made this a deeply affecting and heartbreaking read.
When someone discovers that the story they’ve been told about their identity isn’t the whole truth, does knowing the truth always help them understand who they are?
My Rating
- Overall: ★★★★★ | 5 Stars
- Plot: ★★★★★| 5 Stars
- Romance: ★★★★★| 5 Stars
- Characters:★★★★★ | 5 Stars
- Pacing: ★★★★★| 5 Stars
- Ending: ★★★★★| 5 Stars
- Book Cover:★★★| 3 Stars
The Heartbreaking Part
- All of 3 women lose their families.
My Fav Words
“The happiest folk are those that are busy, for their minds are starved of time to seek out woe.”
“So much in life came down to timing.”
“We’re all unique, just never in the ways we imagine.”
“You make a life out of what you have, not what you’re missing.”
