I have been a huge Kate Morton fan for many years, with The Secret Keeper being my favourite of her books, and so I was thrilled to receive an e-arc of The Clockmaker's Daughter for review.

The book is a saga told from the viewpoint of quite a few characters and over many timeframes where, at the end of the book, the individual stories link together to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. It is over 600 pages long and took me quite a long time to read it, as it is heavy reading and a fairly complex story. It is a beautifully written story, however, unfortunately I did find it hard for the story to keep my interest and I did struggle to finish it .

My thanks to the publisher, Ms Morton and NetGalley for an advance copy of The Clockmaker's Daughter in exchange for my honest review.

Beautifully written book that sweeps around through time using a rich tapestry of characters. The mix of periods could make this novel confusing, but happily, this is not the case. I wasn't sure if I wanted to devour it in one sitting, or allow myself a few chapters a day to make it last. Lovely read.

An intriguing and ultimately satisfying read.

A story told through multiple voices risks confusing the reader, but (apart from one moment of puzzlement) this wasn't to happen in my reading of this very clever novel.

We know from the start that a death has occurred, but we don't know how or why right till the very end - which is exactly how it should be. The life (and death) of a beautiful Victorian girl, muse to artist Edward Radcliffe makes for a fascinating read - from her earliest days to her last hours, she is a multi-faceted heroine one believes capable of almost anything, except that which she has been accused of for 150 years - theft and deception.

Weaving this story into the stories of women in later generations, and leaving the reader to make connections and discoveries of their own, is a clever device I applaud wholeheartedly.

More please Ms Morton!

The Clockmaker's Daughter is a typical Kate Morton book that takes you on a journey through time to discover who the Clockmaker’s daughter was, and how her story links the past to the present. We are taken through time from the viewpoint of several characters, each with their own colourful story and each linking past to present to uncover what happened to the Clockmaker’s Daughter… and the mysterious Radcliffe Blue.

On a slow summer afternoon Elodie, an archivist, finds time to investigate the contents of a box which has lain forgotten at the bottom of a stack in the office for years. And so begins the story of Birchwood Manor and the mysteries surrounding it over the last 150 years.
The Clockmaker’s Daughter is entertaining from the start to the cleverly wrought conclusion of its 600 pages. There are many, many characters and almost as many plots, all linked but spanning the whole period, so application is required, as is a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief on occasion. But the descriptive writing is a pleasure. 5 stars for my inability to put it down, and my smiles as we raced hand and hand towards the ending.
With thanks to NetGalley and PanMacmillan Mantle

I have read a couple of Mate Moreton's books and enjoyed them so was looking forward to this one. I wasn't disappointed although t did take a little while to get into but then I was hooked. I loved trying to work out how everyone was connected and I love books which cover different eras. I am not going to go through the story but needless to day love was at the heart of it. The ending was a surprise but Birdie/Lily lives on and seems very content! Well worth a read.

This book is exactly why Kate Morton is the reigning queen of dual time fiction. An utterly mesmerising mystery. I loved Birdie Bell. I loved Ada and Lucy. I loved them all. Fantastic, brilliant book.

I was very disappointed by this latest offering of Kate Morton. I have read many of her other books and have always we joyed them, which is why I was looking forward to reading this book. I had two attempts at reading it , I gave up on my first attempt and left it whilst I read other books. I returned to it last week and I really had to force myself to both read it and to finish it. I only did this because I had promised NetGalley a reveiw. The story was too convoluted jumping from one set of charcters to another with no obvious links until the end . It took me back over fifty years to sitting at school being bored by long winded authors and being made to analyse the text for GCSE literature rather than the first objective being to enjoy the book that we were reading.

It really seemed as if the book had been written with a hope that it would be selected as a set text for examination analysis. The emphasis was on boring long winded descriptions using words that would only be readily recognised by English scholars and teachers.

Will have to think carefully before reading her next book. It was too much hard work and not enough enjoyment!

Wish I had started this book on a holiday, as I didn’t want to put it down and work kept getting in the way. At the heart of this novel is the love story of Edward and Birdie, which seems to time travel effortlessly across the pages. There are various narratives which weave seamlessly throughout, but it always comes back to Birdie and Edward and that fateful night, and the story revolves around the twist, that I didn’t see coming.
The characters all have their own integral part to play and seem to dance off the page. I wanted to shake Elodie at times, but she eventually realised what we all knew early on in the book. Her relationship seems superfluous to the story and I think her journey alone would be enough.
Thank you #Netgalley, I will be re-reading this book, and am off to find some more of Morton’s books.

Kate Morton books have been on my mental reading list for quite some time, but this was the first I've actually got round to reading (too many books, too little time!) I was drawn by the fact that the narrative covers a long period of time, starting in the Victorian era (a favourite of mine) and coming right up to date. There are several main characters that all fit with the history of a house on a river, plus a kind of spirit voice as well. All of the stories overlap, although it isn't revealed until the end quite how it all fits together.

Some of the stories were quite engaging, especially the one that triggers the whole narrative, the love story between an artist and his model. Some characters were memorable, such as the beautiful Lily Millington, while others seemed to blend into the background and I had to keep reminding myself who they were. This, and the fact that the narrative was so very slow in places, meant that I found this book a struggle in places. I did quite enjoy it, but had to work hard to keep reading.

Overall, I'd recommend this if you enjoy complex narratives with lots of intertwining stories. It's certainly cleverly plotted and well written, but just a bit meandering for me.

Well written as with all of Kate Morton's books with a great sense of place but the modern day sections didn't quite work for me

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.