Nadine (23dollars) - reviewed on 5/17/2016 + 432 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

THE LAVENDER GARDEN is a sweeping, layered and sophisticated dual narrative I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend!

(Kate Morton take notes--this is how it's done!)

At the outset, I admit I wasn't impressed. It took a good 50-60 pages before I really got pulled into this story. The 1998 character, Emilie, was too dumb for words. I'll just leave it at that. But I was very pleasantly surprised with how things turned out for everyone by the end. Even had tears in my eyes!

Things weren't all that much better with the 1944 main character, Constance. I wasn't 100% happy with her character much of the time, but again, the author was quite skillful and things came together quite nicely in the end.

I know Kate Morton is a commercial favorite, however, if you enjoy the dual narrative style and are looking for higher quality plotting, I highly recommend THE LAVENDER GARDEN.

While the story started a bit slow for me, the writing feeling almost like a translation in the early chapters, the tone improves pretty dramatically before too long and things certainly pick up. I think the shift was meant to mirror the characters' evolution...and I simply ADORED the ending! A-

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