The Forgotten Garden (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

I loved the House at Riverton, so I couldn't wait to read the Forgotten Garden. It was so worth the wait!! It is a powerful, moving story of lies, love, searching, and finally, knowledge. It tells of a poor little rich girl and her ambitious, devious mother who only wants the very best for her daughter. Whatever Rose wants, Rose gets. Nothing is allowed to get in the way, and when Eliza comes into the picture, she and Rose develope a powerful bond. There is mystery galore in this novel, going back through generations of the Mountrachet family. What happened to the beautiful Georgiana? Why? There are many questions to be answered, and the story eventually unravels the mystery. We travel from Australia to Cornwall, firstly with Nell, who has to search out her origins, and later, with Cassandra, Nell's granddaughter, who hopes to find the answers to so many questions that have haunted Nell throughout her life.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it whole-heartedly.

I really enjoyed KM's debut novel and in my opinion, 'The Forgotten Garden' surpasses all expectations in terms of richness of plot, depth and magical prose.
Gripped from the beginning, I found this novel absolutely unputdownable. Spanning three generations and almost a Century we are thrown backwards and forwards in time as the great mystery of Nells' abandonment on an Australian Port, aged 4, is uncovered. From the wilds of Cornwall to the suburbs of Brisbane and narrated by Eliza, Nell and Cassandra, it is an immense project and you cannot fail to be impressed by the writing skill of KM.
Like all great novels, every now and again there's a blip and in this instance I found that a large part of the mystery being uncovered in a long lost letter slightly disappointing. However I found the inclusion of Eliza's fairytales enchanting and wholly original - a very clever idea to help the story flow to it's conclusion.
Wonderful storytelling, I cannot wait for her next...

I found this as engrossing as her debut which I read earlier this year. This time Kate Morton has written an intriguing mystery that started in the 1900's and is not fully unravelled until 2005. It is told as three stories covering three generations combining to give us clues along the way.
Maybe the ending was a little predictable but I certainly did not guess all the answers to the mysteries along the way.
The protagonist is Nell around who the whole mystery centres. The story starts in London when Nell as a little girl finds herself unexpectedly travelling by ship to Australia alone. The lady she calls the Authoress having mysteriously disappeared instead of looking after her as promised. Arriving in Australia as an orphan she is given a home by Hugh a dock worker who finds her alone on the dockside on her arrival in Maryborough. It is only on her 21st birthday she learns of her mysterious arrival in Australia, a secret that changes her life dramatically.
It is many years later in 1975 that she embarks upon a search for the truth about her birth and early years. Drawn to Cornwall by information she has discovered, she finds herself buying a cottage in the grounds of Blackhurst Manor once owned by the Mountrachet family. She plans to return to England to live in her new cottage after sorting out her affairs back in Australia. However life intervened and Nell never returned to Cornwall, the ownership of the cottage remaining her secret.
On her death in 2005 Nell leaves the cottage as a surprise inheritance to her granddaughter Cassandra. It is while visiting her inheritance that Cassandra finally uncovers the secrets surrounding the Mountrachet family Linus, his wife Adeline, their daughter Rose and cousin Eliza, daughter of Linus's sister Georgiana.
How are the family all involved in the disappearance of that little girl nearly a hundred years ago?
I am obviously not going to reveal this and spoil the mystery!

I think the author may be a fan of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett as not only does The Forgotten Garden remind me in some ways of this classic novel but its author makes an appearance in the story!
I read it far too quickly for a novel that is nearly 650 pages. Only took two days. Ok the weather was very hot and I did not feel like doing much else, but to be honest I could not put it down!!