I loved this one, the history of south Australia intertwined into the story was beautiful and brought me to a whole new area of the world I long to visit. This was outside of my normal historical fiction choices and very much enjoyed.

4.5 stars

<b> Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an egalley.</b>

Kate Morton is one of my favorite authors and so upon receiving an ARC, there was just no way that I was going to wait for one more second to give it a read.

A dual timeline set in Australia in 1969 and 2018, this is the story of three women and their tie to a shocking true crime of the past. At present, Jessica is a journalist called back from London to take care of her ailing grandmother, Nora. Upon visiting the hospital and speaking to those who see Nora on a daily basis, Jessica knows that there is something that has deeply shaken her grandmother. Curious to learn more, Jessica begins searching her grandmother's home but as the secrets begin to unravel, will Jessica be able to truly understand the stories of the past?


I was sucked into this narrative right from the start and I was grateful for a quiet house so NOBODY would interrupt my reading. I loved the mystery of the past and I was constantly trying to guess where this story was headed. I enjoyed that instead of straightforward flashbacks, we learn all the details of the past through a true crime book. If I had one little quibble, I did feel around the 80% mark that the book was getting a bit long.

That aside, this was one of <b>my eagerly anticipated novels of 2023</b> and it didn't disappoint.


Expected Publication Date 04/04/23
Goodreads Review Published 12/02/23

Homecoming is absolutely my most anticipated read of 2023. Kate Morton has been a longtime favourite author of mine and I’ve read and re-read her previous titles multiple times. So when I say I was ecstatic to receive an advance copy of this book I am not overstating my enthusiasm to read this!

As with Morton’s previous works, this one is structured as a dual timeline historical fiction novel with the present day characters unearthing family secrets. However, unlike Morton’s previous books, this one takes place primarily in Australia rather than in England. Morton being an Australian native, this is truly a delight and lends further depth to the theme of homecoming that gives title to this work.

This book also has a mystery running through both the historical and present day storylines. I often balk at this because I’m excellent at anticipating a twist (being good at close reading really does ruin most mysteries) but this one was the perfect. I was able to anticipate some elements of the mystery but not all.

As much as I adored Morton’s earlier titles, I do believe this one to be her strongest work yet. It’s wonderful watching an author truly grow and excel over the course of their career and to eagerly await every new book they publish.

Definitely give this one a read when it hits shelves in April!

Thank you to Simon & Schuester Canada, Netgalley and Kate Morton for the ARC of Homecoming.

I rate this book 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. This book seemed like everything I love - dual perspectives, historical fiction and family dramas. However, this book just didn't fully suck me in the way I was hoping. For one, it was sooooo long. Almost 600 pages. Not that that is a bad thing, but in this case, I think the book could have been edited down 200 pages. The middle was a bit of slog to get through, but by about 2/3 through, I was sucked in. I did enjoy the setting. Halycon was made up to be almost another character, and I really liked how the author thoroughly described the setting. I also liked reading from Jess' perspective. Nora was another good character, but I don't love reading a book within a book and that was a big chunk of the middle.

Overall, this was a well written family saga but with a little bit of trimming, this could have been better.

Homecoming releases April 2023, so check for it on bookshelves then!

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review an ARC.

I have loved Kate Morton since I read The Forgotten Garden and this novel did not disappoint.

The characters are so real and vibrant that you feel pulled into the story and invested in the outcomes. The story was compelling on its own and made for more than one late night reading "just one more chapter".

Another fantastic novel by one of my favourite authors.

The Homecoming was a mesmerizing book and very hard to put down. The characters and the twists and turns in the plot keep me reading well into the night. Kate Morton has another big hit on her hands.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC. I am a huge fan of Kate Morton and was excited for this new novel. It's been a number of years since we've had anything new from her so I was really looking forward to this book. The premise was interesting and I was excited to see where she would take us in this book. I was disappointed though. I found this book very long and very repetitive. The book was written from the point of view of Jess as she looked in to her families past, but the technique Kate used was to have Jess read a book written by a fictional author in the story. The book was written in a way that was very slow and very repetitive. At different points in the novel, the author wrote about the events from the perspective of multiple characters, but I often found that there was nothing new added by these different accountings. There were a few small revelations throughout this long novel but we really didn't get to the meat of the matter until the last few chapters. I kept waiting for the book to hook me but it really never did.

I was sorry that this book wasn't what I was expecting and it really could have been tightened up.

A woman is trying to uncover secrets from her family's sensationalistic past that have been kept hidden from the media and herself.

I have read The Forgotten Garden and this novel follows the same formula plotwise. A grandmother raises her granddaughter while trying to protect her secrets. Past and present collides, some investigations take place, and there you have the makings of this story.

I would give this novel 3.5 stars, which felt about 100 pages or so too long. It was quite repetitive with some things being predictable but other finer details not so much. I did enjoy the story but wish it had been edited down quite a bit to make it more faster paced.

Thank you to Netgalley.

I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

2018 - When Jess's beloved grandmother, Nora, falls and is hospitalized, she rushes home to Australia, leaving behind a tattered life in London, and stumbles on a tragic past that will impact her life and the life of Jess's estranged mother. What drove Nora to climb to the dusty, unused attic she'd always warned Jess was unsafe?

1959 - Nora, expecting her much-longed-for baby, is thrust into a mess when her sister-in-law kills herself and three of her children on Christmas Eve, while Nora's brother is away in England. Why would a mother do something so horrific and what happened to the missing youngest child?

This dual-timeline novel is a lush portrait of mothers and daughters, of family ties that sometimes bind too tightly, and of love and loss. Brimming with a kaleidoscope of characters, and deep emotion, this novel is exactly what the reader expects from Morton, if in a more "modern" setting than her previous books. Her prose is beautiful and engaging, the book populated by well-drawn and sympathetic characters. While I had guessed the main mystery early on and found it a bit slow 2/3 of the way through (hence the 4 out of 5 stars) the deliciously tangled mass of twists at the end brought a depth of satisfaction I had not expected.

I have always loved Kate Morton’s books and this historical fiction did not disappoint. I prefer mysteries and that they be historical fiction so Morton hit the mark with this book. The characters are represented by three generations of women . Past secrets and lies haunt the women until it all comes together.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read Homecoming. I have loved all of Kate Morton's novels, including this one.
Three generations of women, Grandmother(Nora) and Aunt ( Isabel), mother(Polly) and daughter ( Jess) are the main characters in this book. It all started in 1959, in Australia and went to present day, 2019. There was a secret kept by Nora, about a murder suicide, 60 years ago in Australia.
Nora's grandaughter Jess, is a journalist living in England.
Jess receives a call that her grandmother Nora has had a bad fall and is in the hospital in Australia. Jess flies to Australia to be with her grandmother. Once there, while seeing her grandmother in hospital, Nora says the oddest things to Jess. The journalist in Jess, can't help herself. She needs to know why her grandmother was trying to get to the attic. That's why she fell. What was up there?
This story goes back and forth from 1959 to 2019. The story that unfolds is beyond what Jess expected to find, involving her Aunt, her grandmother, her Mom and herself.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think fans of Kate Morton will too! A must read! I give this book 4.5 out of 5.

A split-time read that was intriguing from the get go. The historical aspect deals with the unexpected ans shocking death of several members of one family. The current time is the granddaughter of a character learning about her family history. I enjoyed how it deals with people's relationships with family members and relatives and what people will do for love and for what they want. As the story unfolds, it meanders and leads one a winding path to the end. I did finds parts to be a little slow only because certain things needed to be told to understand the entire story and its conclusion.
I received an ARC copy from NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Set aside a chunk of time to get fully immersed in this one! It’ll demand your attention and you’ll want to read slowly.

You’ll be swept up in Morton’s vibrant and detailed descriptions and her exploration of the definition of family and home. In between the rich tapestry of family, you’ll notice Morton has woven threads of loneliness, loss, purpose, identity and motherhood. Not only are the threads masterfully twined, but the dovetailing of the 2018 and 1959 timelines are expertly done.

The first thing I noticed was how the author was immediately able to pull me into the arms of family and immerse me in her story. When I was shocked by the terrible ‘finding’, I felt like because I had ‘virtually’ lived in Tumbilla for ages, I was searching for answers alongside the other townsfolk. I became part of the backdrop. Solving the mystery was paramount because I was part of the community; it had affected me, too.

I also appreciated the story being told backwards; the horrific event at the start and then backtracking to explain the events leading up to it. I found I was reading for clues and explanations that would allow me to fit this horrific puzzle piece into the framework of the story and allow me to connect other threads from the narrative to it.

The examination into the dangers of living a life defined by secrets and the danger of making room for shades of gray in a black and white moral outlook were thought-provoking.

I loved the symbol of the wren and thought it was wonderful to have such love of literature conveyed throughout the book.

“As Jess stepped out of the shop and onto the pavement, she was filled with the lightness of spirit and free-floating sense of possibility that always claimed her when she had a brown paper bag containing new books under her arm.”

Haven’t we all felt that wonder?!

This eagerly anticipated book lived up to my expectations and I felt, in many ways, it was one of her best as she is now writing about a place with which she’s so intimately acquainted.

I was gifted this book by Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Another epic novel by Kate Morton.

When Jess’s grandmother Nora takes a fall, Jess returns home to Australia to be by her side. Little does she know, her entire family’s tragic history is about to unfold around her. Set alongside an accompanying book-within-a-book, Homecoming is an epic soap opera that brings together mystery, heart and storytelling in a way only Morton can achieve.

I'm a Kate Morton fan, and the GORGEOUS cover of this book made me very excited to read it. This book has all the past-meeting-the-present, dual-timeline, multiple-POV goodness we have all come to expect from this author. I found some parts of the first two-thirds dragged a little or confused me more than usual. However, the final third or so wraps things up in a very satisfying, unputdownable way.

Kate Morton is the master of transporting you to place where time melds into past and present. This is one of my favourite authors, so I was so excited to get an arc copy of this book. The synopsis is everywhere, so I will just mention the things I loved.
Beautiful descriptions of rural Australia. Makes me want to travel there asap.
Amazing characters and character development.
Best grandma character I have read in a long time.
Loved the dual timelines.

I’ll be buying this book April 2023!

Thanks to Simon and schuster, author, and NetGalley for a arc copy in exchange for my honest review.

I always love Kate Morton books and was so excited to get this ARC. Homecoming was no exception although it took me a little longer to get there in this book. I found it dragged a little at times and thought I had it all figured out early on…….until I didn’t. The twists and turns started coming and in the end I found it really enjoyable. Good character development, interesting topic. One thing I didn’t get was how we were told that Nora was so intent on having a big family and then she so easily let the relationshipwith daughter become estranged. That didn’t make sense to me, I guess in the end she just was still just a neglected little girl that wanted the loyalty and undivided attention that she never got from her parents or brother. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Schuster Canada for the ARC.

Kate Morton’s books are detailed, well developed and atmospheric. This one is no exception. Told in a dual timeline of present and past, the story follows Jess, an unemployed journalist, who travels back to Australia to deal with her sick Grandmother, Nora. Hoping for a quick trip, Jess ends up embroiled in an old tragic scandal involving her family. She ends up learning far more than she ever bargained for.

This is a story of relationships, forgiveness and not taking things at face value. It is a really well written family saga. Morton’s writing style make these complex characters come alive and will leave you reeling.

I would knock half a star off because I felt it could have been a bit shorter. 4.5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kate Morton can write a long story that somehow you still want to read every beautiful, vivid word of. I have loved several of her other books and always feel like when I start one, I know I will be embarking on a true reading adventure. Having read this one, I can say with certainty that Homecoming is a REALLY GOOD story, in my opinion, her best one yet.

I was instantly drawn in to this one. I could see the house so clearly. I was with Percy as he arrived to find what he did. I was seeing London through Jess’ eyes and then her return to Australia. I wanted Nora to be MY grandmother.
Really, all of the characters and the settings were so easy to imagine. I also really enjoyed each of the story lines, both the past and the present, weaving together beautifully parallel, and then the eventual overlapping of all the stories, all the pieces. Somehow even the book story (Daniel Miller’s) within the story was excellent and everything here just worked .

If I have one critique, it’s that I found it a bit jarring when half way through, we suddenly heard from Polly. It initially felt like a strange direction to go in, but it did made sense once her story was being told, and everything we had yet to learn is being revealed bit by bit….Kate Morton is truly a master storyteller.

I absolutely loved Homecoming and will be recommending it to anyone looking for a beautiful book to savour.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read this advance copy of Homecoming.

There were so many things about this book I loved, and the cover is absolutely one of them. It is just so pretty.
Behind this beautiful cover is a story about the places we live and the places we call home.
We join Jess, after some bad news sends her from London back to her home in Australia, she begins to unravel the threads of deception that have surrounded her entire life.
And we are transported 50 years back to watch the events that will shape Jess’s life before she is ever even thought of take place.
Through loss and love the woman of Jess’s family will be broken and built.
If you are a fan of Kate Morton this book is definitely true to form. If you haven’t tried one of her books yet this will be an excellent place to start.
The descriptions of rural Australia are beautiful and make you want to book a plane ticket.
I love the creative multi perspectives used in this book. And of course the gradual way we are introduced to Jess’s grandmother Nora through the different perspectives.
This lovely book hits shelves April 4 2023.

Thank you to Kate Morton, Simon and Schuster and Netgallery for allowing me to have an advanced copy of this book for review.