bookstax's review
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
dblue236's review against another edition
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
rhonaea's review against another edition
3.0
I was a little disappointed as I felt this was an under edited book which tried a bit too hard to be weighty and clever. The setting was beautiful but the characters under developed. It was at least 150 pages too long for its plot.
nonsocialreader's review against another edition
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this. The characters were beautifully written and I connected instantly to each and every one of them.
Love and heartbreak with each key character keeping secrets that slowly unveils leading to the answers I desperately needed Sadie and Alice to find kept me enthralled and intrigued to the very end.
I did however find the ending too simplified, it just felt like it all came together to easy, all wrapped in a nice little bow, yes, all questions were answered but it was all just too...nice.
Love and heartbreak with each key character keeping secrets that slowly unveils leading to the answers I desperately needed Sadie and Alice to find kept me enthralled and intrigued to the very end.
I did however find the ending too simplified, it just felt like it all came together to easy, all wrapped in a nice little bow, yes, all questions were answered but it was all just too...nice.
bjls's review against another edition
2.0
The writing is beautiful but the story... too complex to begin with multiple unrelated timelines and characters, predictable, boring plot twists and everything tied up impossibly neat in the end. What a disappointment.
nonabgo's review against another edition
3.0
Oh, how I've missed [a:Kate Morton|615274|Kate Morton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1536334121p2/615274.jpg], with her easiness of writing and her engaging mysteries! I'm in love with her books and it's so sad that I've already read all of them!
[b:The Lake House|21104828|The Lake House|Kate Morton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1455089249l/21104828._SY75_.jpg|40462273] continues the series of historical mysteries placed in Great Britain in the early 1900s. The book is not an original one, as Morton tackles the same themes in all her novels, but they are so well-written that it's hard to put them down. It helps that I'm also a fan of the genre and I don't seem to get bored by her choice of subjects.
We have, once more, a tale tightly wrapped in mystery, family secrets, aristocracy, huge mansions in dreamy settings, lost and found heirs and an ambitious woman from our days who engages in the difficult task of solving everything.
The plot is complicated, maybe overly so, compared to Morton's other novels, maybe in an attempt to make the mystery less likely to be discovered before the book ends. This, however, doesn't happen - to an attentive reader, one knowledgeable about how mystery novels work, it's quite easy to get it all by the middle of the story. But that won't take anything away from the enjoyment of reading this book.
[a:Kate Morton|615274|Kate Morton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1536334121p2/615274.jpg] has the most beautiful writing style and the incredible talent of transporting you exactly where she wants you to be, be it the magic garden in Cornwall or a cheap pub in London. She's also great at creating characters that you can easily love or hate, depending on how the story unravels, demonstrating once more that people are never just good or bad, that each of them has a motivation for their actions. However, I do feel that there are too many characters here and this made some of them underdeveloped. I just didn't care about most of them.
I wasn't exactly keen on the coincidences that kept appearing (too many for my taste) or about how some mysteries were apparently resolved, though mostly through speculation that concrete evidence. At some point, I also started to really hate Sadie for insisting on sticking her nose into another family's secrets (reading other people's love letters is far from moral). Her talking about her discoveries and speculations to everyone who would hear her story is also far from being good police work. But take her out of the picture and just focus on the beautiful writing and the engaging mystery, this is definitely a rainy day read.
[b:The Lake House|21104828|The Lake House|Kate Morton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1455089249l/21104828._SY75_.jpg|40462273] continues the series of historical mysteries placed in Great Britain in the early 1900s. The book is not an original one, as Morton tackles the same themes in all her novels, but they are so well-written that it's hard to put them down. It helps that I'm also a fan of the genre and I don't seem to get bored by her choice of subjects.
We have, once more, a tale tightly wrapped in mystery, family secrets, aristocracy, huge mansions in dreamy settings, lost and found heirs and an ambitious woman from our days who engages in the difficult task of solving everything.
The plot is complicated, maybe overly so, compared to Morton's other novels, maybe in an attempt to make the mystery less likely to be discovered before the book ends. This, however, doesn't happen - to an attentive reader, one knowledgeable about how mystery novels work, it's quite easy to get it all by the middle of the story. But that won't take anything away from the enjoyment of reading this book.
[a:Kate Morton|615274|Kate Morton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1536334121p2/615274.jpg] has the most beautiful writing style and the incredible talent of transporting you exactly where she wants you to be, be it the magic garden in Cornwall or a cheap pub in London. She's also great at creating characters that you can easily love or hate, depending on how the story unravels, demonstrating once more that people are never just good or bad, that each of them has a motivation for their actions. However, I do feel that there are too many characters here and this made some of them underdeveloped. I just didn't care about most of them.
I wasn't exactly keen on the coincidences that kept appearing (too many for my taste) or about how some mysteries were apparently resolved, though mostly through speculation that concrete evidence. At some point, I also started to really hate Sadie for insisting on sticking her nose into another family's secrets (reading other people's love letters is far from moral). Her talking about her discoveries and speculations to everyone who would hear her story is also far from being good police work. But take her out of the picture and just focus on the beautiful writing and the engaging mystery, this is definitely a rainy day read.
sally_ann_t's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
wombat_88's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
memita's review against another edition
4.0
Tive dificuldade em entrar dentro da história e em criar empatia com as personagens, pelo menos nas primeiras 150 páginas. A partir daí, comecei a habituar-me ao estilo e à escrita da autora e fiquei rendida à complexidade das personagens. A propriedade onde se passa o arco mais importante do enredo é descrita de uma forma lindíssima e acaba por ganhar vida, é como se ela fosse também uma personagem dentro da história. Para além disso, consegui imaginar todos os pormenores da propriedade. A autora transportou-me para a Cornualha dos anos 30 e conseguiu com que me envolvesse com as personagens e com todos os seus mistérios. Adorei estes aspectos no livro. Também gostei muito da forma como a autora nos revela os mistérios gradualmente e todos os pormenores do enredo. Mas foram as personagens que fizeram o livro para mim, e não tanto o enredo. A outra coisa que me incomodou um pouco, para além das páginas iniciais, foi o final. Neste livro teria preferido que o final fosse um pouco em aberto e não completamente fechado, em que ficamos a saber tudo o que se passou após a grande revelação. Porém, no geral, adorei a história e quero conhecer mais obras da autora.