Turn the Page Tuesday - The Forgotten Garden

'London 1913
It was dark where she was crouched but the little girl did as she'd been told.  The lady has said to wait, it wasn't safe yet, they had to be as quiet as larder mice.  It was a game, just like hide-and-seek.'
~Kate Morton in The Forgotten Garden

Have you ever anticipated getting home to dig into your book, only to realize that you have already turned the last page?  That's how "The Forgotten Garden" was for me.  Days later I would be sitting at my desk at work when my mind would transport me to Cliff Cottage and the walled garden.  I would be walking along in the English mist on the cliffs overlooking the sea with Eliza, anticipating what was to come next.  Suddenly, as I recalled that the story had ended, my joy would be deflated. 

This is the first book I've read by author Kate Morton and I will certainly be picking up more.  What a wonderful read, full of mystery, romance and a touch of the old classic, The Secret Garden, thrown in.  This story begins with a small child left abandoned on an Australian wharf, then takes us seamlessly forward in time and backward in time to solve the mystery of this little girls past.  We see the world through not only her eyes, but her granddaughters as well.   Why was the little girl alone?  Who is she? Where did she come from? What has happened to her parents? 
From the back cover:
A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913.  She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book - a beautiful volumne of fairy tales.  She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own.  On her twenty-first birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity.  Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family.  But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell's death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled.  A spellbinding tale of mystery and self-discovery, The Forgotten Garden will take hold of your imagination and never let go.

Be sure to head over to Adrienne's Some of a Kind for more Turn the Page Tuesday.  Find out what others are reading and join in yourself.  Anyone can and Adrienne would love to have you.  What have you been reading this past month?