The Clockmaker's Daughter is not the type of book I would normally read, that being said, I enjoyed it immensely. The is not a story of a specific person per say, it is more the story of Birchwood Manor. Everyone's story is woven together through the book to all center at this house. It has murder, mystery, suspense, love, art. Kate Morton has created a book with everything in it you could possible want, and it will keep you guessing at every turn. I would definitely recommend this book.

To read this book you must be a willing witness to the world of the paranormal. The story is about a house centuries old inhabited by an ethereal ghost. We become woven into the tapestry of the many lives all connected through the connection to the home. The writing is superb - no light reading. It infuses your mind with mystical enlightenment. It makes you question immortality and the mysteries of the universe.

First, thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for my ARC of the Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton. I have been a fan of Ms. Morton’s work for a long time and this new novel did not disappoint! Told from many points of view spanning decades, the prose was beautiful. The story intricately weaves throughout time from present day to Victorian England and stops in between. At its heart it is a story of love but oh what an intriguing mystery too! I believe Kate Morton has another best seller here and I’m so glad I was able to read this in advance.

First, I have to say that the book cover is absolutely gorgeous. Never judge a book by its cover, but this time you would not be wrong. I love stories which have more than one timeline and encourage the reader to discover the connections across time. I would assume that it is a challenge for an author to make sure that each timeline has a beginning and an end and that anything in between keeps the reader interested. Kate Moron is an expert in multiple timelines novels. This is the third book I have the pleasure of reading from this delightful author and I was not disappointed. The Clockmaker’s Daughter is a tale of love, murder, ghosts, and a lost blue diamond.

During the Summer of 1862, a group of artist friends pervades the Birchwood Manor to practice their arts. Edward Radcliffe is in love with his model Lily Mullington, but he is engaged to be married to Fanny Brown. He plans to quietly break off the engagement, to paint his lover as the Fairy Queen who is part of the folklore related to the manor and to take Lily to America to start a new life. But plans don’t always work the way you want, and a murder shatters his life forever.

A hundred fifty years later, Elodie Winslow discovers a leather satchel which contains Edward’s sketchbook and a picture of a beautiful Victorian lady. The sketches are of a house which Elodie recognized as being the very one her mother used to tell her about in her fairy-tales. Elodie is compelled to find the house and to discover who the lady in the picture is. Only one person really knows what happened in the Summer of 1862. Will she share the secrets?

I want to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing me with an Advanced Reader’s Copy. This stunning book will be available at your favourite bookstore on October 9, 2018.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for allowing me to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"All past is present." A simple line that succinctly puts this book into place. What starts out with a old sketch book and photo leads to a ghost story about the life of Birdie, the daughter of a clockmaker, and all those lives who tie in with hers over the years.

This book has a sweeping story line spanning hundreds of years and a multitude of characters interconnected through lineage and actions. The author provides great detail, painting a rich, descriptive picture. She does a beautiful job of connecting all the loose ends together, even small ones that I had forgotten. This is a book for those who love historical touches to their fiction and appreciate an epic story. There are numerous characters and timelines within the lives of many of those characters, making for a challenging read.

As with all Kate Morton books, the writing was beautiful. However, I felt that the book was too detailed and long in places, wishing for the story pace to move along quicker. Despite that feeling, the ending felt rushed. After such time and detail went into the story lines of the historical characters in the book I felt that the current-time characters were left unfinished, with too many unanswered questions.

"There is a wound that never heals in the heart of an abandoned child."

"You're too young to understand, I expect, but when one gets old, all memories have a weight, even the happy ones."

"But guilt, Lucy had learned, was the least rational of emotions."

I loved this book, what a great break from my usual fare. The plot was well thought out, it covers a century in the life of a unique house on the banks of the Thames, north west of Oxford in the UK. The characters are numerous and well developed. It's the first I've read by Kate Morton, I'll definitely be looking to read her previous books.

Absolutely wonderful. Shifting time periods, engaging characters, murder, secrets, and so much more! Kate Morton has once again written a brilliant novel.

Morton is one of my “go-to” authors when I am in the mood for a historical fiction/mystery/family secrets kind of read. I tend to love stories with country houses shrouded in a mysterious past. With her latest book, The Clockmaker’s Daughter, Morton does not disappoint. If anything, she has upped her game, weaving a compelling story filled with interconnected characters spanning multiple timelines. Ambitious, yes, but Morton is no stranger to stories that bounce between time periods and narrators. While the story has potentially a few too many characters (and narrators) for my personal liking, it is Birdie Bell, the “Clockmaker’s Daughter” and Birchwood Manor, the country home situated at a bend in the Thames in Oxfordshire, that make this such a hauntingly atmospheric/Gothic read for me. One thing I always enjoy about Morton’s books is that she is really good at pacing the story. The pacing is more leisurely, enabling this reader to settle in, soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the beautiful settings. I also like how Morton strings the mystery along to the very end as the family secrets being revealed are just as important as the mystery. The only downside for me – other than the already mentioned large cast of characters to keep straight – is that some of Morton’s time/narrator shifts left me feeling frustrated and asking, “but what about ____” on a few occasions. A minor quibble as the further information I was seeking was revealed later in the book but “patience is a virtue” doesn’t always translate well for me when I really want to know what happened and don’t want to wait.

Overall, a spellbinding story of mystery, romance, deception and betrayal.

I loved this book! A little slow to start but that’s all part of the magic. Kate really spends the time in the beginning building the characters and the mood. Multiple flashbacks back and forth in time between the characters slowly begins weaving their stories together. As I got further into the book I couldn’t put the book down as the different storylines came together to unravel mysterious buried in history and unique storylines of people that never even knew each other but had become tied together by events throughout history. I adore the way Kate brings her books different storylines together in the end seamlessly but also with surprises and twists you don’t anticipate.

If you're ready for a tantalizing mystery, this is your story. Kate Morton has managed to weave several timelines together with their characters into a whodunnit that will have you guessing until the end of the book.

Every chapter begins with a different voice. How the author manages to tie up all the different storylines is genius. There are so many characters in this book and each plays an unexpectedly important role, so be patient.

One of the best mysteries I've read this year.

Thank you to netgalley for this advanced read! I give it more of a 3.5 rating! No spoilers given!

This is the first novel from Kate Morton that I have read! Her storylines always sound fascinating but for some reason have just kept adding them to my tbr list. So I was estatic to get an advance read of her latest book!
So it starts off amazing. I really like the way it leads up to the main story line. The last 1/4 of the book kept me on my toes. The middle... Well... Let's just say some parts I felt could have been left out.
The book had many many characters and timelines that you have to keep straight. I found as I was reading you are thinking okay this person is on this person's timeline not that person's. So it takes awhile to get used to the back and forth.
But to be honest , this novel made me want to read more from Kate Morton!

This book just had too many characters from too many time periods all trying to connect to an event that happened over a hundred years ago . This Lake House enticed everyone who saw it and it developed its own characteristics . Some of the descriptions of this house and surroundings became repetitive. Events and people became confusing at times . Birdie or Lily was the only character who had substance in this book. The mystery component was overshadowed with too many characters and irrelevant events and descriptions.

Beautifully written book that takes the tales of different people as if they were balls of yarn and weaves them into a moving tapestry of human emotion.

Kate Morton knows what her audience wants, and delivers with this title. Her trademarks are here, with a mystery that flips between current day, 19th century England, but also a few decades in-between. While some readers may be surprised at the number of different perspectives and characters, Morton delivers an impressive novel that will satisfy her readers.

I was very excited to read this book, until I read it. The story was beautiful, yet oh so confusing. I had a hard time keeping up with which era of time I was reading. The chapters with dates were great and less confusing but otherwise I had a hard time reading and that kept from enjoying what I imagined would be a wonderful book.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton is a haunting tale about an artist, a manor, and a priceless gem, and the interwoven lives of the manor’s mysterious occupants. I had high expectations for this book as I am a fan of Kate’s previous book The Lake House and trained as an Archivist like one of the characters. With that being said, I was left feeling disappointed with this book. I found it to be extremely slow-paced and the story itself was boring. It was an average whodunnit that really wasn’t all that interesting. I was confused as to what the story was really about? Was it a ghost story? A crime story? A story about a mysterious manor? Birchwood Manor was the main character, so I think it might have been more appropriate to rename the book as such. I felt the story was saturated with too many characters and it was difficult to keep up with them. As other readers have pointed out, it would have been nice if the two main characters didn’t share a similar names- Lily and Lucy. The Eldritch Children seemed last-minute and I’m not really sure why Elodie’s subplot was included since it was left unresolved. The Clockmaker’s Daughter needed a stronger supernatural element, less characters, and a more intriguing central mystery.

Everything is centred around Birchwood Manor - a beautiful old house set on the Thames. But it is so much more. It’s a love story, a ghost story and a murder mystery. It covers the period from the 1860’s to today. And Kate Morton is a master at weaving such a marvellous tale. Her descriptive writing is just incredible. There are a lot of characters to get your head around but all are neatly tied in. I just loved this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Kate Morton returns with her new novel, “The Clockmaker’s Daughter”. Of course, being Kate Morton, she delights a reader with powerful, descriptive imagery and settings, a creative plot and beautiful language, as she spins a delightful historical tale.
In 1862, a group of young people take up residence in “Birchwood Manor”, in hopes of spending the summer creating art and enjoying the beautiful grounds. When a woman is shot, the groups’ dreams are quickly destroyed, and the owner of the house, Edward Radcliffe, flees the country a broken man. Years later, archivist Elodie Winslow comes across a leather satchel containing two very different items- a sepia photograph of a beautiful woman, and a sketchbook. Both the picture and sketchbook seem to have different owners (and be from different time periods in history), yet they also have eerie similarities. Soon, Elodie is traveling to Birchwood Manor to investigate, where she too, is soon taken under the spell of the beautiful and mysterious house.
This novel, as with all of Kate Morton’s novels, was a beautiful read. Long as it is, it was not difficult to read and I breezed through it, fully captivated as always by Morton’s breathtaking settings.
“The Clockmaker’s Daughter” is not a fitting title, though. Although indeed, the Clockmaker’s Daughter is one of the characters in this novel, it seems to be more a tale about the house itself than an individual person. Told from many time periods, from many different characters, in reverse order, it was a bit confusing in places. Although each chapter was labeled with a date to identify time periods, there was multiple characters that each had diverse and entertaining storylines tied to Birchwood Manor itself.
As mentioned, the character list in this novel is multitudinous, but each character brings their own set of charm to the table. The plot, too, has everything one could want- history, romance (many times over), a murder mystery, and even a treasure hunt. “The Clockmaker’s Daughter” had so many plots, it could have been many stories instead of just one, however this also made the novel easy to read.
Fans of Morton will enjoy “The Clockmaker’s Daughter”, for its traditional Morton style and beauty. The ending is extremely satisfying, if not predictable, and brings the tale to a delightful end. A thoroughly engaging read, to be sure.

Reading this book was similar to working with a bunch of random threads and trying to make something out of it. In the beginning, you are so confused as to what you are supposed to do with each of the threads and how they are supposed to come together to create a finished item. The main feeling during this time is frustration - you don't know where the threads came from and where they are going, and THERE ARE SO MANY THREADS! Then slowly, if you don't give up during the frustrating stage, things start to come together. But there are still a ton of threads, and while you are learning what each one does, you are still often confused as to what you are supposed to be doing. Your reward for making it to the end is a completed item. All threads accounted for.

Overall, this was a good book - I love Kate Morton - but all the timelines and characters with similar life events in different decades were confusing! Also, I wasn't a fan of the fantastical element - I grew to accept that character - but I had to stuff away my dislike for it while reading their sections.

I would say that Kate Morton fans should read this - but keep and open mind, and maybe some scrap paper to keep all the timelines straight.

I really enjoyed this book. I found it well written. I als loved the way she would go between different times.