The painting by Ned Horner of his wife and two children, called ‘The Garden of Lost and Found’, is at the centre of this sweeping epic. Five generations of the Horner family have lived in Nightingale House and all have seen tragedy, love and conflict.
Told from different perspectives over a century timeline, this is an intimate portrayal and comparison of dysfunctional family life from the Edwardian era to modern day.
Loved the themes, setting and characters but at times it felt overlong. However, this did not detract from my enjoyment and I recommend this for anyone who enjoys family sagas and social history.

This is a really good read. I loved how two time periods were connected and how the scenery and the characters were described. I got totally caught up in everything that was happening. There was a lot of sadness in this book but also joy and love.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Just lovely! If like me you love Kate Morton’s books then this is for you. Both create such a beautiful, lovey feeling, the love of old houses and gardens, of history, all interwoven throughout the book. Flipping from the past to the present, from the destruction of the once most popular painting to the sale of the original sketch, this is a fantastic story that I really enjoyed. Thank you

I love Harriet Evans novels and how she manages to cleverly link stories of different generations. She is becoming more ambitious with plot lines. In this she covers LGBTQ issues both in the past and current. Also themes of family break up, child cruelty and domestic abuse.
Whilst very engaging and difficult to put down, I did feel there was just too much tragedy in one novel.

As I've said on here before I a. have loved Harriet Evans books since her very first b. Adore books centred around big houses and c. love family secrets so The Garden of Lost and Found was pretty much reading catnip. Expectations were high and more than met - The Garden of Lost and Found is an emotional, compelling and absorbing read and (to me) a thoughtful examination of marriage, motherhood, and the search for self set in a world of Victorian art and modern day art history, a world of which I know very little but enjoyed discovering.

It's mostly set in two times and from two points of view although there are letters and chapters which span the intervening years and characters. Liddy and her great grand daughter, Juliet are the main narrators, Liddy the wife of a great Victorian painter, Juliet an art historian, specialising in late Victorian and Edwardian painting. After her marriage breaks down, Juliet takes her children to Nightingale House, Liddy's beloved home and that of her mother's before her, to recuperate. But the house is full of ghosts and secrets. Why did her great grandfather burn his greatest painting? What caused the rift between her grandmother and father? And how did her life take such a wrong turn?

Harriet Evans is an accomplished romance writer, but she also writes chilling characters terrifyingly well from the evil childhood nurse, to the weak father and the selfish, manipulative husband. Humour also shines through with the recognisable tribes of primary school mothers and the sheer insanity of coping with small and strong minded children and troubled teens. I loved both timelines, rooting for both Liddy and Juliet as they dared to reach out for happiness despite the many obstacles in their way.

This is a twisty tale, with many unexpected plot twists, some excellent foreshadowing and a lot of guessing games for the reader as well as the protagonists. Add in a dash of romance, a beautiful house, a dream dollshouse, a gorgeous garden and well drawn, believable, interesting characters and you have a wonderful five star read. Highly highly recommended.

This is an absorbing and unexpectedly pleasing book. I'm not the biggest fan of dual timelines and feel they are an over-used plot device. But this time it worked well and the present involved the exploration of a tragic past that gradually unravels. I particularly liked the fact that the historic storyline dealt with the art world and the idiosyncrasies of the artistic temperament permeates the whole.
Overall this is an enjoyable read - history, mystery and romance.

This is a generational story spanning 150 years in the life of Nightingale House, its first owners and their descendants. The title of the book is the title of a painting by the first owner, Edward Horner, but things lost and found is also a recurring theme of the novel. I have found this an intriguing and absorbing read.

Loved this book. Complex stories and characters all woven together beautifully. Couldn’t wait to get to the end!

This was a hugely enjoyable story about a family separated and then coming back together as they seek to undo past hurts and unravel family secrets. I have enjoyed Harriet Evan's books in the past and would absolutely recommend this one. Thank you.

This is one of those books which alternates between two main timelines. In this case there are also a few strays off to additional timelines. In the present we have Juliet Horner an unhappy wife, stressed mother and unappreciated art expert. She is left a home by her Grandmother and needs to decide if she will leave her needy and useless husband and take her children to start a new life. In the past we have the story of Liddy Horner and the people around her including her famous husband and artist, Ned.

This is not an uncommon style of book. In fact many historical novels chose to run the present alongside the historical story. These vary in standard with this definitely being above average.

This is a good story which hung together well and without significant plot holes. The characters are very believable and far from perfect. Juliet is quite a disorganised woman but one who means well. She is not someone whose life seamlessly transfers between home and work. She makes mistakes – sometimes very significant ones. However she does mean well and tries to put her children first. She has a good group of friends around her – Frederic her grandmother’s friend and local antique dealer, her childhood friend’s mother, Honor, and plenty of school mums. I like Juliet although her scattiness and lack of organisation do get to me occasionally! In the past we have Liddy Horner and her husband, Ned, who work against all the odds to be married and have a family. They also have good friends around them although it doesn’t always seem that way to them.

I loved the characters and I enjoyed the story. It was an easy read and generally flowed well. Although the time shifts are clearly marked there are some additional memories of different periods which weren’t and could catch the unwary reader. There are a lot of characters in this book many of whom are inter-related. It may be wise to write a cast list and family tree as you go through this book. I would certainly have found a cast list useful at times. I don’t believe I have read any other books by this author but I would certainly be happy to do so in the future.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

Harriet always brings another dimension to her stories of family life and I really enjoyed this, which comes complete with an in-depth look at the British Victorian Art scene. Well drawn characters, if you pardon the pun and a gripping story. I found the end a little predictable which explains the four stars, but overall I very much enjoyed it.

I absolutely loved this latest book from Harriet Evans. I was concerned that another story about a mysterious house and the family that lived in it might be a bit dull but I was definitely wrong. This book kept me hooked all day yesterday and I couldn't go to sleep until it was done. Fascinating characters kept me reading and all I wanted was to find out the mysteries haunting these families.

Evans has once again delivered a pacy, enthralling and moving story. 100% would recommend.

I've been totally absorbed by Harriet Evans's recent family sagas, especially The Butterfly Summer and The Wildflowers, so I found The Garden of Lost and Found to be a real disappointment, despite its beautiful cover. The novel switches between two intertwined timelines; in the present day, Juliet, working at an art dealer's, loses her job at the same time that her marriage falls apart. Unexpectedly inheriting her family's ancestral home, where the Edwardian painter Ned Horner produced his most famous work, offers her a lifeline - but what family secrets will she uncover? In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, two sisters, Liddy and Mary, suffer in an oppressive household, until Liddy's marriage to the painter, Ned Horner, offers them a way out. But why will Ned ultimately burn his most significant painting, 'The Garden of Lost and Found'?

Neither timeline held my interest. Juliet's story feels a bit chick-litty, and drags on for far too many pages, whereas the historical thread was just silly and melodramatic. The pace was very slow, and I wasn't convinced by most of the characters, especially Liddy, Mary and Ned. One saving grace, as ever, is Evans's gift for writing teenagers and children - I loved the sympathetic description of Juliet's relationship with her teenage daughter, Bea, and her younger daughter, Isla, who is obsessed with the Ancient Egyptians, is absolutely hilarious. But as neither Bea nor Isla are especially central to the plot, this failed to lift a long and confusing novel. I hope Evans's next book is back to her usual standard, as I found both The Butterfly Summer and The Wildflowers much more original. Two and a half stars.