Look at me, all done reading a book! And not knowing how to explain why it’s been so long since the last time I did that.
I remember reading Kate Morton’s other books…
- The House at Riverton
- The Secret Keeper
- The Forgotten Garden
- The Distant Hours
…so I didn’t think it would be a stretch to like The Lake House. And I did like it. I just didn’t love it. There was way too much messing about getting to the point. And far too many coincidences and characters and back stories and sub plots and descriptions and hopping around in time. Just too many words. I guess that’s why I could never write an entire novel, lacking the patience to expand everything to death without giving the ending away in the first chapter.
A child disappears and it takes seventy years to solve the mystery of what happened to him. People with secrets! You just want to give them a shake. How’s that for a book review?
If the reading of this book hadn’t started well before Christmas and proceeded in fits and starts up until this afternoon I suppose I might have found it shorter. Mostly I read in bed when I was already tired and rarely came across anything riveting enough to keep me awake. Not even half way through I found myself no longer caring what really happened or why, but FINALLY the end arrived and it all came together in the neatest little package ever, tied with a bow. I don’t know why that felt trite and disappointing, but it did. Just too darned neat and tidy and resolved.
Anyway, it’s a story and it’s been told. If you like Kate Morton you will enjoy this. But I don’t think you will be blown away.
Breathing Space 
I read this recently and enjoyed it. But I thought she used the word “niggled” too often. I know, she’s British, I’m not, but niggled is just not part of my everyday vernacular!
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Ha…not part of mine either. Doesn’t it mean paying too much attention to trifling details or something like that? Maybe I didn’t niggle enough while reading it. 😄
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I read Secret Keeper and liked it. I find the plots very formulaic or at least sound that way so haven’t tried others. Always appreciate book suggestions.
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This author is very good when it comes to setting the scene in different time periods and her descriptions are wonderful. I agree the plots are often much too similar – same story, different era.
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This is a book I got for Christmas, but haven’t read yet. I enjoy Kate Morton’s books, though I usually feel I should be keeping some sort of a list to help me keep track of the jumps in place and time.
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Well this one is all neatly labeled by years, skipping from the 1930’s to 2003 and back again to see it all again from another point of view. I hope you enjoy it and my review hasn’t put you off.
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I’m looking forward to reading it, especially the neatly labeled part. I’m reading ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ right now, and that skips so fast and far that I’m getting dizzy…
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I’ve read two of hers, can’t remember which two. I enjoyed the first one but the second one seemed to be the same story with name changes, so I haven’t read any more. And reading your review and the comments, it seems I am not alone in my evaluation.
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We’re so hard on writers, aren’t we? Like what they did and want more of the same but also something better and different that doesn’t feel recycled, like a romance novel. I also find all her characters take themselves way too seriously. No one is ever funny. Seventy years of nobody cracking a joke is too long. lol
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The older I get, the pickier I get — I only have so much time left to read the really good books! I can’t waste time on the ones that don’t fit my picky standards. 🙂
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The Forgotten Garden is on my shelf, but I know exactly what you mean about this one!
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I loved The Forgotten Garden. Maybe I was just expecting too much this time around.
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