The Forgotten Garden is the selection for my family book club this month, and while I can't say that I loved it, it was a pretty good read. Described as a "rich and satisfying mystery," The Forgotten Garden is the story of one woman's search to discover who she is and where she came from.On Nell Andrews' 21st birthday, her father informs her that he's not really her father, that he found her in 1913, abandoned and alone on a dock in Maryborough, Australia. Nell's world as she's known it falls apart, and it isn't until decades later that she begins to explore her true origins. Her only clue is a small white suitcase containing clothes and a book of fairy tales written by Eliza Makepeace. Nell travels to the Cornish coast, where she discovers an abandoned cottage that once belonged to her family, the Mountrachets. This cottage with its hidden garden, and the secrets it guards, holds the key to Nell's true identity.
Like I said, The Forgotten Garden was a good read, but, for me, it wasn't unputdownable. Maybe it was because I had so many things to do and not enough time to read, but I had a hard time getting into the story at first. There just seemed to be so many characters and so many different time periods to keep track of. But once I had a good chunk of time to spend in this world, I found that I enjoyed it more. Some disturbing secrets were revealed, and I discovered that I didn't like the Mountrachet family, at all. In some ways, I think it was better for Nell to have been raised by Hugh and Lil Andrews than it would have been had she been raised with the Mountrachets. And that's all I'm going to say because to say more would undoubtedly give too much away.
3.5/5
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