Kate Morton’s The Forgotten Garden is really well constructed summer read.  It has the amazing capability to transfer between present day and Victorian England with such ease and simplicity that this does not divert the reader from the story. And as you unravel the mystery of the novel, you can’t help but enjoy the characters and almost never wish it to end.

Centered around the mysterious identity of a lost little girl, the story evolves into one about secrets, societal positions and unrequited love. It is easily comparable to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, not only for the presence of a secret –rather- forgotten garden, but also for the sickly child growing up in seclusion who is befriended by a cousin whose is disapproved of by the sick child’s guardian.

Okay, it is actually really similar.

But Morton’s  garden tale, though different  and a bit darker, is still a wonderfully engaging novel, who does not rely on the Burnett  story, but perhaps used it as inspiration, not unlike  Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea.

The Forgotten Garden is recounted through three different perspectives, and so engrossing for its storyline that I fear this will come across more as a review telling you to read it than actual discussion about the text as a whole.

Plus it’s the summer and who wants to read a long winded review…

So instead, I will recommend you to read one of my good friends own review’s of the novel she posted on her blog Life Deco. She sums it up wonderfuly and permits me to slack off just a little…

*Note to Self
I noticed on the insert of my copy it compared The Forgotten Garden to The Shadow of the Wind for its ‘engrossing’ family saga… don’t let that discourage you, lol.