Finding a new Author is always exciting and this discovery was even more so!!!

This wonderful mesmerising story about Birchwood Manor and all its inhabitants from 1862 to the present time.

It shifts between timelines and at first I was confused then suddenly it all clicked into place and I was spell bound from that moment on.

This story has it all, secrets, romance, murder, there is one special person who sees it all and knows all the secrets off the manor over the years, and slowly we start to discover what they are, through the numerous timelines.

I cannot do this book justice, it was so beautifully written, very descriptive with colourful characters that draw you in, with little clues along the way that keep you guessing as to what really happened at Birchwood Manor.

I definitely will be reading more of Kate Morton’s books. I have officially become a fan!!!

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review

Elodie, is getting married soon, but she doesn't seem all that interested. She's a likeable character with a strong sense of her own independence and a love of researching the past, which is part of her job. Although her part in the story is set in modern day, she has the feel of a Victorian character out of place.

I really enjoyed reading this at first as the writing is very good and I could identify with Elodie in many ways, but as the chapters went on I felt it became very slow. There are interesting time jumps, but they aren't done as smoothly as they might have and the connection between Elodie and Ada had a lot of potential, but again, things just took forever to progress.

I think this story could have been shorter and tightened up. Some brilliant creative ideas were in there that deserved to hold my interest more than they did.

I found this story quite difficult to get into and it was so long that as my attention wasn't gripped I kept putting it down to read other books. The story goes between different periods of time and is presented by several different characters. Maybe it's just me but this added to the confusion I felt even though the author writes in such a beautiful way. Having read some of the other many reviews I can see you are either a lover or a hater of this book and I unfortunately fall into to the latter category but maybe not so strongly as to say I hated it.

This was my first Kate Morton book. Thank you to netgalley for allowing me to read and review it.
Wow! It just blew me away.
What a page turner!
Kate writes in a style similar to contemporary fiction like Jojo Moyes and classic literature like Jane Austin.

This story spanned over a century and jumped back and forth in time. There were numerous main characters in this book and Kate tied them all together perfectly. My favourite was Birdie.

I could not categorise this book under one genre as there was some romance, some historical fiction and a thriller all wrapped into one.

You know you have read a good book when the characters stay with you after you have finished. This is a must read.

I love all of Kate Morton's books and this one did not disappoint! Beautiful setting, interesting characters and a an ending that will stay with you. Highly recommended!

Birdie is dead, this much we know. The fascinating thing is how it came to pass, and what Birdie did next....
In the beginning, the sheer number of characters introduced in this book can get you into a bit of a tangle. But slowly, like fine filigree, you start to notice the sparkling links and connections between them all and ultimately to Birdie.
Part whodunnit, part love story, part war tale, and at its heart, a story of home. I loved how Birchwood Manor was so many things to so many people, and with the spirit of Birdie residing within, it became a character in its own right.

At nearly 600 pages, this book can seem a tad daunting but after four evenings of becoming completely involved with the story and characters, I can definitely say that it was worth it. I'm not always a fan of dual narratives but Kate Morton pulls it off brilliantly in The Clockmaker's Daughter. I found some characters more interesting than others and could've read more first person narratives of certain characters but they all add to the incredible depth of story.
At times, I wondered at how amazingly constructed the book is and the lengths the author must've gone to, to ties it all together. There were eery and haunting elements to the writing and terribly sad outcomes for several key players but was interwoven with hope and love and secrets to tell an immense story of the connections between people and time and the past. I found at several points, I was thinking back to the similarities between Netflix The Haunting of Hill House due to the lure of a house and characters being haunted by their decisions, past and secrets.
Thank you to NetGalley for accepting my application in exchange for an honest review. I'm sure this book will stay with me for quite some time.

Kate Morton is one of those writers. You know, the ones whose new release you wait for with more excitement than a child at Christmas. The ones whose books you buy on publication date but then save because you want to read it when you have time to savour it and allow yourself to get utterly and completely lost within the pages. And so, when I started The Clockmaker’s Daughter it was when I knew I could spend a good week or so reading it and I could get fully immersed in it.

If you haven’t read a book by Kate Morton before the first thing I would say is, why not?! The second thing is, you need to know that her books are huge – both in page length (this one comes in at 592 pages) and in scope. They span generations, are filled with secrets, are wonderfully plotted and have characters you fall in love with. She is an incredible storyteller and she uses the central character (which is often a large house in the English countryside) and nature to build a three-dimensional world that is hard to leave behind once you’ve read the last sentence.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter spans 150 years, from 1862 when something awful happens at Birchwood Manor and its owner, Edward Radcliffe flees never to return, to modern-day London when Elodie, daughter of a celebrated musician discovers an old satchel whilst at work. She is an archivist, and she knows it is the wrong thing to take the sketchbook she found in the satchel home it’s just that there is a drawing in there of the house that was in the fairytale her mother used to tell her as a child and she can’t resist it. The connection to the picture is too strong and this sketchbook will open doors to the past that have been long closed.

There are a lot of threads in this book and they are presided over by a narrator whose identity remains illusive until the final pages. We meet a number of people who have either lived in Birchwood Manor or whose lives have been affected by it. These threads are intricately woven together – I have to admit that there were times when I wasn’t sure how x related to y but these strands were in capable hands and the meticulous plotting became clear.

There are lots of characters though, almost too many and I found it a little frustrating when I was reading it. In hindsight though, this cast of characters were sorely needed to create the depth of the story. This is a rich and textured book which allows us to glimpse the past. What I do love about Kate Morton’s writing is the strength of her female characters and The Clockmaker’s Daughter is filled with them. They orbit Birchwood Manor and hold the book together with their common trait; bravery. I loved them and their stories.

The characters are beautifully written and Kate Morton is very skilled at getting the reader on side very quickly. The book moves back and forth through time and there are multiple viewpoints, new characters are suddenly introduced nearly halfway through the book and it would be so easy to lose patience with this. In less deft hands it would’ve been confusing and put me outside of the book but within a few pages of meeting somebody new I was immersed in their story and wanted to know more. It takes a great writer to make the reader fall in love with every character so quickly.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter contains more of the beautiful and compelling writing that we have grown to know and love and the ending made me cry – it took me completely by surprise. I am always reluctant to say things like that as I worry it’ll make people watch out for some Gone Girl style twist but this it isn’t like that. I was just so in love with the story that I was totally taken aback and felt quite bereft. I always love a book that has the, ‘ah yes, of course, I see’ moment that cause you to look up blinking from the page and this one does in spades. It is a wonderful book and one I will remember for a long time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love that the story goes back 150 yr and with all the characters the story really comes to life. You get to solve the mystery when you learn about each of the characters. Would highly recommend this book, a good one to get your teeth in

I have loved Kate Morton's other books but will only be giving this one 3 stars as I found it difficult to follow so kept putting it down for long periods of time and then finding it even more difficult to get back into. It just didn't engage me in like the others have and hopped about with characters and timelines. I will reread it in a year or so and will probably find it far more enjoyable. Sometimes the time just isn't right to read a book. I am grateful to NetGalley for giving me the free copy to review though.

As is usual in Kate Morton’s novels the story of The Clockmaker’s Daughter takes place in two different periods of time. Her cast of characters are divided by time but their stories are all woven together intricately. This is a gripping read with a supernatural element to it. The prose is well-written and the plot compelling enough to keep you eagerly reading. It can at times be frustrating when you just think you’re getting somewhere with one character’s story to be plunged into an entirely different narrative in a different time, as it is when you reach the end and there are still a number of unanswered questions. However, as always Morton has created an excellent novel that you will not want to walk away from.

A 19th century artist and his beautiful model; a young girl raised in India and sent to an English boarding school; a writer who takes her children to the countryside during World War II; and a 1920s biographer researching his latest work. These are just some of the characters whose stories are told in The Clockmaker’s Daughter and tied together by a present day archivist, Elodie Winslow, who is trying to make sense of it all.

At the beginning of the novel, in 2017, Elodie comes across two intriguing items in the archives of a man called James Stratton. One is an old photograph showing a woman dressed in Victorian clothing; the other is a sketchbook with a drawing of a house near the bend of a river. Elodie feels that the house looks familiar somehow...but where could she have seen it before? And who is the woman in the photograph?

To find the answers to these questions, we have to go back to the summer of 1862 when a group of young artists known as ‘the Magenta Brotherhood’ are gathering at Birchwood Manor, the home of the talented painter Edward Radcliffe. By the end of their stay, a woman has been killed, another has vanished without trace and a valuable jewel has disappeared. We know that these incidents must be linked in some way to the photograph and sketch that Elodie has found, but before we can fully understand their significance we must follow the stories of all the characters I mentioned above – and several more.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter is a complex novel and, I have to admit, I would have preferred it to have been a bit less complex! There were far too many different strands to the story and I struggled to keep track of what was happening and how the various characters were related to each other. New characters, often seemingly unconnected to any of the others, were still being introduced well into the second half of the book and it wasn’t always very clear how they were going to fit into the sequence of events. It all makes sense in the end, but I’m not sure it was really necessary for things to be so confusing.

Although I would have preferred a more straightforward, linear structure, I still found a lot to like about this book: there’s a supernatural element which I thought was used very effectively; I loved Birdie Bell, the eponymous clockmaker’s daughter; and I really enjoyed the last few chapters, in which we finally discover what really happened that summer in 1862. To compare it with the other two Kate Morton novels I’ve read, I thought this one was better than The Distant Hours but not as good as The Forgotten Garden. I’m not sure whether I will be reading any more of her books, although I could probably be tempted.

I've read all of Kate Mortons books and on one level it doesn't disappoint. the flow and feel are just not quiet on point as normal but in every other way thoroughly enjoyed. another big thumbs up from me.

I could not engage with this book very easily and did not finish it. Thank you for sending me a review copy.

The book revolves around the house Birchwood Manor. The clockmaker's daughter stays there with her artist lover, Edward Radcliffe in the nineteenth century. Elodie, an archivist in the present day, is drawn to it while researching some possessions of Radcliffe. Morton works the story back from both direction to finally connect their lives. It is a great read but it does just from various time periods back and forth. Morton draws the characters and details of the time period really well.

This is a tough review for me to write. I feel as though I kind of battled with this book. Despite it being beautifully written (hence three stars and not two) I just couldn’t settle with it. It is a historical novel, changing between 2017 and multiple timelines depicting a beautiful twin gabled house called Birchwood Manor and the lives of many people who stepped through its doors throughout the decades.

Elodie is a young woman who works as an archivist and comes across a sketch of a woman who captivates her and an image of a house she has seen only in her mind in stories told to her by her late mother when she was a child. What follows is a series of steps back in to the past following various characters which just all felt too lengthy and convoluted to me. It was clear throughout that at some point all these stories would link up, which I appreciate, but for me it felt like an awfully long time getting to that point.

It is hard and feels rather unfair not to enjoy a book that is so well written, which it is, but for me the lengthy tangents just became somewhat of an irritant. I pressed on as I was invested enough in the story and intrigued to know the outcome, but I had to keep telling myself to persevere as I cannot stand to abandon a book unless it awful and this book most certainly is not awful! I think perhaps it is simply not a book that works for me personally as I was certainly able to appreciate throughout that some might absolutely love it. I did find it charming in parts, but overall too drawn-out for my taste. I think people who relish detailed historical novels will enjoy this very much though.

My thanks to #NetGalley and #PanMacillan for a copy of #TheClockmakersDaughter in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advanced reader's copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

After reading the book's blurb, I was quite excited to read this title; it sounded like a fascinating historical read. However, I found I struggled with it. The story's timeline switches from various decades, from 1850s to 2017, and I found I had difficulty working out at times not only what decade the chapter was now in, but who was speaking; there were quite a lot of characters to keep track of, with some disappearing for quite a while, then popping up again later on in the novel, and by that time I had to work out who they were again.

However, by around 60% of the way in, I started to get into the story more, and the mystery of the tale.

I liked how everything tied together nicely in the last few chapters, some of it unexpectedly!

I enjoyed this book as both a historical novel and as a mystery. The romance side was interesting, and actually less of a feature than I was expecting, and there is an intriguing hint of a ghost story too. Maybe this is the secret to Morton's huge success - this is her sixth bestseller since winning the Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year in 2007 - a bit of something for everyone. Or maybe, just refusing to be limited to one genre...

I read an ARC of this book and am grateful to Netgally and the publishers for the chance to do so. From the outset you can tell it is a Kate Morton book, the writing is so symbolic of her style. There is so much in this book for readers to like. It is historical fiction, a ghost story and a mystery all at once. At the beginning it labours a little - like someone giving birth. However, what it gives birth to is at times magical, enthralling and something to catch the reader's breath. The characterisation is excellent throughout. For me it drowns in the descriptive phrasing to the detriment of the narrative which just takes so long to get anywhere and just as you are starting to understand it the author takes you round another corner to yet another period in time. In truth I found the ending somewhat disappointing.

I very much enjoyed The House at Riverton Gardens by Kate Morton which I read several years ago so I was keen to read her latest novel.

Overall I did enjoy this book though it took me a little while to get into it. I think this was because I got slightly confused with the plethora of characters all set in different times. As the book progressed I liked the chapters about Lily Millington and her relationship with Edward Radcliffe and enjoyed the latter part of the book which focussed on this.

However, it felt as if some of the earlier character’s stories were somewhat unresolved- what happened to Elodie who was unsure about getting married? Although I get that all of them had a tie to the same house- Birchwood Manor- it did feel like 3 stories that didn’t flow sit all that well together.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for an advance copy in return for my honest opinion. I will share this review on Goodreads.