Kate Moreton’s novel really pulled me in from the start but sadly it seemed to lose its magic and I lost interest. It was more me then you. Sorry.

I am a big fan of Kate Morton's books. I have read them all and recommend them time and again. It feels like it has been a long wait for this latest book, and I can see why. The research that went into The Clockmaker's Daughter must have been immense.
Set over about 15o years, including 2 World Wars, it is basically the story of a house and it's inhabitants, including a consistent voice who is always there. It is not until near the end that all the different stories and pieces come together, in the marvellous way Kate Morton has of revealing the links.
I must confess it took me a while to get into it. This is partly due to being so busy at the moment and not having large chunks of time to set aside, and being so exhausted. Once I was in however, it had me. I wish I had chosen to read it on holiday to give it the attention it required. It is very much worth persevering however, and I highly recommend it.
It would make a very good book club book too - as I was dying to discuss it with someone when I turned the final page.
Thank you #NetGalley for the opportunity to review #TheClockmaker'sDaughter

Really love Kate Morton so was excited to read this book, and it didn't disappoint! I did find the first few chapters a bit hard going, but I think that's just where the characters are being established. I thought this was an original story and I really enjoyed it

I loved this book. I have read some of Kate Morton's books before and was looking forward to reading this one. I expected a generational story-line with a little mystic mystery and I got that, but I was overwhelmed by how good this was. The writing was beautiful and each character finely drawn. Each tale was absorbing and they linked together very cleverly. The story is about a house and the people who occupied it: an artist's muse, a modern day archivist, the pupils and teachers of a school for young ladies, the beneficiaries of a museum trust, an evacuated family, a historian. Each of them linked to the others through the house. It is a wonderful book. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

This was my first Kate Morton book, I have a few of her books on my to read list, however I was able to to read this book through NetGalley. I rated this book four stars but to be fair it wasn't until I got past the 70% mark. I found the first part of this book hard to follow, the book had a lot of characters and time periods to keep up with. Towards the end though the story did start to make sense and I was back on track and fully enjoyed the ending. I will be picking up some of her other books to read.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter
Usually a great fan of Kate Morton but found this novel heavy reading. I loved some of the story and couldn’t put it down. It really grabbed my interest but then other sections just felt long and tedious. It took me a long time to finish book.

So excited to write this review as I absolutely loved this book! I feel it’s been quite a while since I have read a perfect historical fiction and this was just that.

All the voices that told this story worked so well, I really felt like I was there with them….but it was the voice of Birdie that I enjoyed the most, I was almost galloping along the pages to find her again. The scenes were set so beautifully I was constantly transported to all these different eras, houses etc.

I am pleased I read this on holiday and was able to immerse myself in my kindle, as I found the hopping between characters refreshing and the surprise changes mid page quite enthralling. I had I been reading in the evenings before bed, when tired, I wonder if I may have struggled to keep up with this.

I fully recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed previous Kate Morton books and I will certainly be recommending to all my reading buddies. Would be a perfect Book club read.

This is my fourth Kate Morton book, and just by reading the first chapter I could totally tell that this was a Kate Morton book. I took this to be a good thing at first, as I had loved her style in her previous works, but unfortunately it also meant that this was almost a carbon copy of her other stories: the themes, the structure, the writing itself… as I was reading The Clockmaker's Daughter I felt that I had already read this book before.

I had two major issues with the book: the pace and the multiple POVs. I don't mind reading 600 pages if all of them (or at least most of them) are relevant to the story, but I honestly think that this book could have been 300 pages long and nothing major would have changed. This obviously affected the pace massively, and I was frequently annoyed because every time things picked up the POV would change (usually with a time jump associated) and we were back to endless descriptions of the house where everything happens and its surroundings. This takes me to my second issue: here we have no less than 8 different POVs, and I'm sure I'm forgetting someone. All of them add to the clockmaker's daughter's story, but they all have their own secondary stories too, and rather than enrich the book they dragged it endlessly. Plus, most of them were underdeveloped, especially towards the end, which felt rather insulting because after reading about all these people for what felt like ages I wanted to know what had happened / was going to happen with them, but all their endings were rushed and most of them quite stretched so they would play their part in the main story regardless of how little sense they made.

The writing though was nearly flawless, rich and evocative. The characters were not very relatable, but they were still likeable for the most part. I should probably had been more shocked and saddened by the ending but at that point so many things had happened to the protagonist that I was kind of desensitized to her tragedies, and that definitely rested impact to the last part.

In summary, hardcore Kate Morton fans will probably love this, but if you're looking for a book to discover Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden still remains her best work in my opinion.

When I saw that there was a new ARC that could be requested of Kate Morton's, I jumped at the chance. This is a slightly different book than the previous ones that I have read,I was lucky to get a chance to read it.

First and foremost, usually there is a connection between two main women in the story and around them the story unfolds. In this case there are a lot more people, a lot more happenings all tied in a very simple way to the 'house'. The phrase 'chain of events' can be the most appropriate simplification of the description of this tale. The Clockmaker's Daughter spans two hundred years and many lives, . I shall begin with the quality of writing itself, mostly because the finesse involved in giving us the information in bits and pieces without making us feel insulted or impatient is something of a unique accomplishment. The style of narration makes reading this book a very delightful experience. That being said, too many people are involved in this saga, and it was hard for me to feel for every one of them equally, despite each having an equally heavy burden, a single person has only so much of attention to spare. 

The story is essentially of a house, an inanimate building brought to life by the lives of the many who have lived within its walls. In the present day, we meet Elodie at the precipice of starting a new life, finding something during her job as an archivist, things with a complicated secret history. She lives in the shadow of her mother but this story is actually of neither of those women.Neither is it of the man wandering the grounds of the house. During all this time the house waits and tells us with its voice the story we actually want to hear. The house passes through many hands each linked to the next by something. There is a factor of the paranormal in this story and it is very rich with people and events, the only reason it was not a five-star read for me was it felt too rich. I was torn between feeling sorry for one event, curious about another and angry at yet another. Do read it to figure out if any one emotion can dominate your time with this story.

Kate Morton as ever has given her readers a wonderful story based as many of her books center, in a country house that has secrets to reveal to its various occupants over a period of 250 years. Despite there being many characters involved they are all woven together and you read avidly on to find out how it all ties together. From early on you understand there is a presence in the house that provides a narration setting the scene often and brings the characters across the years together and while I’m not a fan of the ghostly presence aspect it did help link different periods. Overall an epic read that fans of Kate Morton will be delighted with this autumn. Many thanks to Netgalley and Pan MacMillan for the opportunity to review this book.

A historical novels which scans 3 centuries and is a must read for Kate Morton fans interesting story going back in time after Elodie makes a discovery which leads to interesting stories finding out about the past a little bit drawn out for me but a good read

The latest book by Kate Morton is probably her best yet. A fairly slow start builds into a book that is hard to put down. The story jumps between 1862, 1928, 1940 and 2017, with the gradual revelation of links between the many characters. Much is narrated by an unknown voice (the identity of which becomes clear partway through the book). Elodie, an archivist in 2017, finds a box and the contents lead her to unravelling a family history of which she had no prior knowledge. Morton crafts the story, intertwining the many threads, so that you are compelled to read on to resolve the mystery.
A really satisfying read!

Another great book by Kate Morton ... but not quite as good as previous ones. Too many threads in this one made it hard to keep track of who was who and when was when! A real gut wrenching ending for the titular character though which I didn't see coming at all.
Will definitely need to read it again to ensure all the right threads are tied together.

I love Kate Morton’s books so I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this since she mentioned she was working on a new book. It really does not disappoint. It has all the elements of a fantastic book – complex characters, a beautiful setting and a fantastic plot. I loved every page.

I loved the characters and how the stories weaved through one another. I admit I didn’t really anticipate how the story was going to go or figure out what happened – which is surely a good sign that the author is a master story teller.

I’m so sad that I’ve finished the book. I always feel a little bereft when I’ve finished a book by Kate Morton as they swallow me up whilst I’m reading them. Don’t let that stop you from picking up The Clockmaker’s Daughter though. It’s a fantastic read which will stay with me for a long time.

As a fan of Kate Morton I always get excited when she publishes a new book. The Clockmakers Daughter again did not disappoint. The book jumps from past to present so it’s important to read and absorb the plot. I loved the book and would like to thank netgalley, Kate Morton and her publisher for this ARC. Highly recommend this book.

It seems everyone has a daughter book these days, but this was the first one i picked up. A ghostly romantic revelation that spans time and emotions.
The characters after amazingly believable, that you find yourself hoping and crying right along with them. The story is told through the eyes of a presence in the house which allows the story to flit between time periods without feeling disjointed.
The ending is incredibly well woven tying all the stories together and finishing it off in a way that was unmissable. The ending if a real revelation you wont want to miss.
Make time to read this book because you wont be able to put it down.

So I finally finished this. I usually like Kate Morton's books but, unfortunately, I found this one a great struggle. The main reason for this is that the story has so many characters it becomes fragmented and disjointed at times. For me, the most frustrating was that when I started to get into a character's story it got cut off and only resumed much later somewhere in the book if you managed to connect all the dots. It's a good story and it's well-written but has some passages that are too long and a structure I, personally, don't like. You need to have lots of time to read this in one go if you want to enjoy it.

THE CLOCKMAKER’S DAUGHTER by KATE MORTON

I have always loved Kate Morton’s books from the time I read the House at Riverton. She is a real story teller and she really paints a picture with words so that you feel as if you are actually there. Her characters are larger than life and she writes with real empathy for the people she writes about. I have always loved the way her stories weave about from one period in time to another. However, although I enjoyed the Clockmaker’s Daughter I felt she had almost gone too far with this. In many ways this book is very confusing. I was particularly puzzled when Leonard was introduced to the story half way through the book and it took me ages to work out where he fitted in. There is also the name change of Birdy and so working out who was who was tricky. There are so many different periods of time in the book from present day to World War 1, World War 2 and beyond, that it was difficult to keep track of who was who and what period of time it was. It was a very long book which is what she tends to write and it took me a few weeks to read as I have not had much spare time for reading lately. I think it would have been better to have been able to read it quickly as it would have been easier to keep up with the story. Overall it was a pleasing story with lots of intrigue but not my favourite by this author.

I have read 2 other books by Kate Morton, thoroughly enjoyed them, and really looked forward to starting this one. I am so disappointed. I found that it was nowhere as riveting as the other books, in fact I found it hard to follow the story threads. Sorry this one is just not for me.

I'm so sorry. There are lots of fans out there that I'm about to annoy.
Indeed, the story is beautifully written. The descriptions and the details are superb. But I felt I needed a spreadsheet to keep track of all the characters and eventually I gave up.
And I really wanted to love it!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC