I though Garden of Lies was truly awesome. (as you can see from my rating ;D) The author does an amazing job of transforming you into each of the characters she writes, which is hard to do in a third person view-point tale. I love the setting, in New York City, before, during and after the Vietnam War. It really captures the heart of America. I myself am a Canadian, but we all soak up a little American History, and to read what felt almost like a true first hand account of the horrors and the tragedies that occurred in such a personal way that extends to affect entire worlds away from it is very humbling and enlightening. The characters are a bit over the top, but the story is spell-binding. The drama, relationships, and other obstacles are perfect. The way the story is lined out is perfect. Its like a spiral. It starts out large and lazy, and then gets more intense and quick moving as it comes to the center where all the lines meet, and becomes chaotic and climactic. At first I kept wondering when certain things were going to happen for the characters, and then a bunch of crazy stuff happened first, right before the author granted all my wishes. It truly is a story-book ending. The story is not perfect, not everyone gets what they wanted, but they leave off better than they were, and everyone gets something they didn't expect. What more could an avid reader like myself ask for. The only thing that bugged me about this book, and kept me from giving the ol' five star treatment, was the use and reuse of the "oh I want to tell him/her or so bad but oh I can't, but oh I should right now, but I don't want to spoil the moment"... Very frustrating! This was seriously not only the major plot point of the book, but also swept in several times in the mini plots within plots. Every time it always ends up they were wasting their time and might as well have just blabbed it and gotten it over with!! Seriously. I digress though, and I am certainly going to go on and read Thorns of Truth.
I was in junior high and on my way to a week long camp when I realized I hadn't packed a book to read. On a whim I picked up this one (then a current bestseller) at a convenience store en route and read it. I remember thinking it was especially titillating and felt like a sneak reading it. I had been thinking for years that it would be interesting to re-read it and see what I thought of it now, 20+ years later. Would it be as thrilling? Or would it be trashy drivel? I could barely remember anything about the plot, though bits and bobs came back to me as I read.As expected it wasn't as steamy as I had remembered, though I can see how it would seem that way to someone of that age. I'm kind of surprised I got through it at such a young age. It deals with some really heavy stuff that I'm pretty certain was way over my head. No doubt I got much more out of this reading of it than I did then. It is a fantastically put together book. Each of the three main women pulled at my heartstrings. There were points when I wanted to knock everyone's heads together and tell them to stop with the lies. It is a aptly named book!I almost can't believe Goudge managed put extra marital affairs, babies switched at birth, the Vietnam war, orphaned children raised by an extra Catholic grandmother, doctors, lawyers, abortion, long-lost lovers, weddings, divorces, infertility and tons of other issues all into one story without it feeling overdone and crazy. It was actually just crazy enough to be believable. It probably also helped that it kind of spanned two generations. All of that didn't happen in just a few short years.Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting this book. I'm very glad I did. I hadn't ever known there was a second book with these characters until I got to the end of this Kindle edition and read the author bio. I will most certainly be reading that soon!
What do You think about Garden Of Lies (1990)?
I really enjoyed this book. It was different from the books I usually read. Ultimately I guess it could be classified as a romance novel but it was more than that. It was just about a family. I liked how you got to read about each girl individually and the different ways that each girl grew up. I knew that they would eventually meet, but the circumstances of that wasn't what I was expecting. A lot of the story was a bit predictable but there were some curveballs threw in to keep you on your toes. I'm very interested in reading the sequel to see how the story pans out.
—Michele Whitecotton
A free loan from Kindle Lending Library, this was a riveting romance and all-around good novel. Halfway through I decided to look up the author, and discovered that she wrote many of the Sweet Valley High books. Being an AVID reader of SVH back in elementary/middle school, I was not surprised that this book had me so enthralled. It IS a lot like SVH, but for adult readers. Is it soap opera-ish? Yes. Is the plot unrealistic? Yes. (But not really any more so, than say, Dickens!) Are the characters interesting, 3-dimensional, and relatable? Yes! Something tells me when a man writes a novel like this, it gets termed "epic," and when a woman does it, it gets thrown into the "romance" pile and promptly forgotten about. This book spans many characters over many generations, is engaging, and addresses some pretty tough emotional issues. Overall, great read.
—Rebekah
I just finished reading this book. It was pretty good except that I feel like it kind of just ended and sort of left you hanging. After reading her bio I found that there is a sequel and I may end up reading it eventually. Hopefully the sequel gives you a feeling that the story is over.The only thing I really noticed was that there were a lot of typos. I read the kindle edition that I believe I got off a free site so that could have been it. Overall this was okay. 9/13/12Now that I have had a few days to think about this book, I think the reason I thought it was just "okay" was because I don't feel like I connected to the characters. Sometimes the author can make you feel like you are the characters but I didn't feel this way at all during this book. She did a great job with descriptions and such but the character development felt kind of.. eh. I would like to read the sequel if I can get my hands on it at a good price.
—Heather
