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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
So many family secrets, great Australia settings, book within a book, flashbacks, gothic tone. The right book for my mood :)
It does have some bad things happening to kids that in a different year/month I would not have wanted to read, so while I've been telling people that I really like it, I haven't been recommending it very much.
It does have some bad things happening to kids that in a different year/month I would not have wanted to read, so while I've been telling people that I really like it, I haven't been recommending it very much.
I don’t think I can give this a rating, because it wasn’t like it was bad, necessarily - it just didn’t grab my interest. I didn’t find myself eager to go back to it every night. So after 20%, I called it quits
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
this was a fun, cozy read, but the twists were too coincedental at times and it still left too many things unsaid – why did nora want the trunk destroyed after her death, when presumably everyone still alive would be okay with knowing the truth? why did thomas turner disappear like that, both prior to the deaths and after, knowing his own sister was all alone?
it was also unnerving how overprotective nora turned out to be. we meet her as a woman who was, by all estimations, the perfect guardian, and the way that was torn apart so easily with no chance of figuring out why made the central theme of the book quite shaky.
it was also unnerving how overprotective nora turned out to be. we meet her as a woman who was, by all estimations, the perfect guardian, and the way that was torn apart so easily with no chance of figuring out why made the central theme of the book quite shaky.
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This story was similar in so many ways to Kate Morton’s The Lake House with the duplicitous grandmother, the cheating mother, the illegitimate child who gets kidnapped, other guilty parties knowledgeable about the crime, the abandoned house, the secret passage/hiding spot, the magical garden, and I’m probably missing even more overlaps. Having read the other first, it made it difficult to appreciate this one, especially not being the stronger of the two. It just felt incredibly repetitive and predictable. The Australia setting was my favorite part.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was genuinely surprised by the plot twists in this book. Very well written with strong character development.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Miscarriage, Murder
3.5 stars
I literally can't remember the last time it took me over a month to finish a book, especially a Kate Morton one! She's one of my favorite authors! I want to blame it on the fact that I'm in grad school and I have a lot less time for leisure reading now, but that would only be partly true. The other part is that this book was just way too slow for my tastes.
Kate Morton isn't known for having super fast-paced books in the first place but I usually find myself savoring the slow pace and losing myself in every beautifully descriptive paragraph. In the case of "Homecoming", it was all just too much. This book could have been about 100 pages shorter and still have gotten the point across. It was definitely an ambitious book for Morton and I also felt that the plot missed the mark in some ways. I saw one of the surprises at the end coming from a mile away and the other one felt kind of tacked on there. All in all the mystery was a bit of a letdown.
I did love reading about the complex mother/daughter relationships. And of course Kate Morton's writing was stellar as ever (minus being a little too long winded at times). Despite the fact that this book took me a long time to read, I did still really enjoy it and I'm glad I read it.
I literally can't remember the last time it took me over a month to finish a book, especially a Kate Morton one! She's one of my favorite authors! I want to blame it on the fact that I'm in grad school and I have a lot less time for leisure reading now, but that would only be partly true. The other part is that this book was just way too slow for my tastes.
Kate Morton isn't known for having super fast-paced books in the first place but I usually find myself savoring the slow pace and losing myself in every beautifully descriptive paragraph. In the case of "Homecoming", it was all just too much. This book could have been about 100 pages shorter and still have gotten the point across. It was definitely an ambitious book for Morton and I also felt that the plot missed the mark in some ways. I saw one of the surprises at the end coming from a mile away and the other one felt kind of tacked on there. All in all the mystery was a bit of a letdown.
I did love reading about the complex mother/daughter relationships. And of course Kate Morton's writing was stellar as ever (minus being a little too long winded at times). Despite the fact that this book took me a long time to read, I did still really enjoy it and I'm glad I read it.
slow-paced