The Forgotten Garden

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?  Or when the last puzzle piece fits into place?  Or when the loose ends of a story are all tied up in the end?  To me, the latter is the mark of a REALLY GOOD BOOK, and I have definitely just read a really good book.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton begins in 1913.  A passenger ship has docked in Australia and a little girl is found by the harbor master sitting on her small white suitcase. She doesn't seem to know anything about her family, and without having to deal with the inconvenience of today's customs and immigration, he decides he should take her home for safe keeping. Of course he and his wife fall in love with her and raise the girl they name "Nell" as their own, but his conscience forces him to tell Nell the truth about her past at her 21st birthday party.  This was probably not a great idea.  Nell does not take this news well and spends the rest of her life trying to discover who she really is.  Fast forward to 2005 where Nell is dying in a Brisbane hospital.  Her devoted granddaughter Cassandra is by her side, and upon Nell's death she takes up her grandmother's quest. Learning more than she ever thought she could about her grandmother's past, Cassandra also learns how to embrace her future.  Spanning almost a century, this is a mystery that reaches into the darkest hovels in London's East End, travels to the heat of Western Australia and ends in a mysterious cottage on the once magnificent Blackhurst estate in Cornwall.

I LOVED The Forgotten Garden! The characters are fascinating, and the plot is a page turner, the perfect combination for your reading satisfaction. PLUS, Kate Morton has written several other books!!  Huzzah and thank you, Kate!

Now back to reading...TBC