Title: The Clockmaker’s Daughter
Author: Kate Morton
Publication Date:  October 2018
Note: I was provided an ARC through netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: This is a story about past and present, told through multiple points of views, across many different timelines.

A tragedy occurs one day among artist friends, and this mystery set in 1862 sets the stage for the storytelling in this book, while the pieces of the mystery are attempted to be solved in today’s timeline.

My Review: This book is difficult to review.  I had high expectations for this book for a few reasons.  Firstly, the synopsis sounds brilliant and like the kind of story that is right up my comfort zone.  I have also heard nothing but praise from Kate Morton’s books, so I was eager to finally acquaint myself with her work.  This book however was probably not the best choice for my first Kate Morton novel and I am sad to say that I expected more than what I got out of this book.

I did not love it as I hoped I would.

The writing is beautiful, there is no denying that.  Kate Morton has a way with words that I found to be almost poetic.   The setting is imaginary and exquisite, and the plot has great potential.   I started off intrigued and interested, however, as the story progressed along, I lost interest in it.   I had issues with the structure.  I connected little to most of the characters, and this was my main issue that caused a ripple effect for me.  I had a hard time grasping who was speaking at the beginning of each chapter.

There are so many main characters, different time lines and told through different perspectives that I found myself having a difficult time staying focused and centered.  Even the mystery did not seem to have a big enough impact.  I also felt that the pace of the book was a bit slow, as there were passages that did not contribute to the overall progression of the plot, or the character arcs in my opinion.  Overall, I am sad that I did connect to this book as I had been waiting to read it for months.