Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden

It took me a while to get through this book, and I think I’m still digesting it somewhat. It tells the stories of four different women. First, Nell is found on a dock in Brisbane, Australia, in 1913. She is raised by a loving family, but when her father finally tells her that she was adopted, she feels compelled to research the mystery of her past. In 2005, Nell passes away, and her granddaughter Cassandra inherits the mystery, as well as a decaying cottage on the coast of Cornwall. She eventually travels to England to see the cottage and piece together what really happened to Nell. Finally, the book jumps to 1900 and details the lives of Eliza Makepeace, a poor orphan with a gift for storytelling, and Rose Mountratchet, a privileged and beloved young woman who befriends Eliza. As the book shifts back and forth between all these different perspectives, the true story of Nell’s origins finally emerges. I thought the mystery was interesting, I liked the writing style, and the main characters were sympathetic; but for me, the pacing was just too slow. I genuinely do think it’s a good book, but I’m not sure I will pick up anything else by Kate Morton.

Bria Quinlan, It’s in His Kiss and The Last Single Girl

Last year I read Worth the Fall, book 2 in Bria Quinlan’s Brew Ha Ha series, and was unexpectedly charmed by it. So I picked up these two e-books when they were on a free deal; It’s in His Kiss is a prequel novella, and The Last Single Girl is book 1. The novella is about Jenna, a YA writer who needs her character to have a first kiss, but it’s been a long time since Jenna experienced one herself. She meets handsome, arrogant Ben while doing “research,” but her beautiful frenemy seems to be competing with her for his attention. Book 1 has all new characters: Sarah, a girl who needs a New Year’s Eve date and meets a bunch of online suitors in a coffee shop, ends up hitting it off with John, the shop’s owner, instead. These were decent quick reads, but I didn’t find the same spark that I did with Worth the Fall. On the upside, I managed to read them both in a single night!