Fairly mixed feelings about this book as the writing style is lovely and very easy to read but then the actual length of the book could have been edited more with much less of the long unnecessary descriptive passages. That said I was sure I was going to be reviewing it as predictable but then the actual reveal wasn’t what I had been expecting so worth ploughing through I guess.

Thank you for my copy of this book to read and review.

I have read a couple of this author’s books in the past and enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to reading this recent one.

I love a family saga, dual-timelined story of secrets and the setting in Australia appealed to me as I haven’t read many books based here.

If I’m being honest, I didn’t find this story as gripping as some of the others I have read, but I still enjoyed it and have already recommended it to friends.

Homecoming is a beautifully written family saga which combines history and suspense to create an addictive story I didn’t want to put down. We’re switching between two main timeframes in Australia: the 1950s, when a pregnant woman called Nora comes to stay with her brother’s family and tragedy strikes; and 2018, when her niece Jess learns Nora is in hospital and flies out from London to Australia to try to piece together the mystery surrounding their family.

Kate Morton does a brilliant job of making you feel like you’re right there in Australia with the characters. She paints a vivid picture, and the characters themselves add to the convincing, rich setting. The fact we have Jess investigating what really happHomecoming is a captivating family saga that skillfully blends history and suspense, making it impossible to put down. The narrative alternates between two timeframes set in Australia: the 1950s, when Nora, a pregnant woman, comes to stay with her brother’s family and tragedy strikes, and 2018, when her niece Jess discovers that Nora is in the hospital and rushes from London to Australia to uncover the mystery behind their family’s past.

Kate Morton’s writing transports the reader to Australia, bringing the setting and characters to life with exquisite detail. Each character is distinct and flawed, adding a layer of authenticity to the story. Jess’s quest for answers regarding her family’s past adds a sense of intrigue, making it all the more engaging.

The book within a book element is a brilliant addition to the plot, allowing the reader to follow Jess’s journey as she uncovers secrets from the past. The revelations and surprises that come with it are both convincing and refreshing.

Without giving away too much (as I knew very little before reading this book, and I’m glad that was the case), Homecoming is a well-crafted and immersive read that leaves a lasting impact. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a gripping family drama with a touch of mystery.ened all those years ago adds an element of mystery to the story which I loved!

What a magical and enchanting read! I was engaged from the first page till the very last.
It's a sweeping family saga of love, loss, heartache, and a mother's love with a mystery at the heart of the story.
It all started on Christmas Eve 1959 with the death of a mother and her 3 children and the disappearance of a baby. It is now 2018 and a woman rushes back to Australia to her grandmother's hospital bed. What is her grandmother trying to tell her and will she be able to unravel the mystery of Halcyon and the Turner family and also find out about her biological father?
The descriptions are vivid and you feel like you are there in person.

"Make a choice and then trust yourself to have chosen correctly"

It's definitely a book you want to take your time with and savor not something you want to rush through.

I also loved the idea of a book within a book!
This will be a great read for fans of Lucinda Riley.

Homecoming by Kate Morton ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Jess has been living and working as a journalist in London for the last 20 years, but when she hears her beloved grandmother Nora has become ill she races back to Australia to be by her side.

While staying at her ancestral home in Sydney Jess discovers an unsolved family tragedy which she is determined to unearth.

This got off to a great start and thought this was everything you could want in a historical fiction read; dual time lines, family mysteries and dramatic secrets. However, towards the end of the book as the revelations came through thick and fast I did find myself confused as to who knew what and when!

The writing itself was good and the characters well developed so would encourage you to give it a go if you’re a fan of her other books.

This is a dual time line novel set in the present -2018- and 1959 and as in these sort of books, particularly by this author, it is full of family secrets that gradually come to the surface.
When a terrible tragedy befalls the Turner family in 1959, it becomes the subject of much speculation by the locals in the small Australian town where it happens . It affects many people and has repercussions which reverberate to the present day. It also becomes the subject of a true crime book written by a well known journalist and this in turn, is incorporated into the narrative .
When Jess receives a phone call about her Grandmother, Nora, the woman who brought her up almost single handededly, she leaves London in a rush to fly to Australia and be at her Grandmother’s side as she lies in hospital after a serious accident. Her own mother, Polly is not really on the scene and Jess must shoulder the responsibility alone.
However when she finally arrives in her grandmother’s hospital room , the older woman says some strange things which lead, journalist, Jess on a voyage of discovery about her own and her family’s past and leaves her wondering why some of the information had not been told to her earlier.
This is a long book and although I enjoyed some parts of it, I found the middle section extremely hard going as the reader is treated to vast extracts of Daniel Miller’s true crime book which is very long winded in style and contains many characters. For me this was problematic and I feel you would have to be really dedicated to make it through this section of the novel. The true crime book is a device used to explain what happened in 1959 but I’m not sure it quite works.
Jess’s story in 2018 and Polly’s were much easier to read and I must admit I did skip some chunks of the true crime narrative. I think a bit of judicial editing might have helped.
The pace really picked up in the last part of the book and I was definitely curious to find out how it all panned out. I really liked the character of Jess who is feisty and inquisitive. I also found Nora an interesting character although it was difficult to truly know her as all the information about her is second hand- in Daniel Miller’s book and in Jess and Polly’s memories of specific events. We do not truly hear her voice- she is slightly enigmatic which makes her all the more compelling.
I did find the ending a little abrupt- I think a bit more detail could have been added to this part of the plot.
All in all it was an interesting but overlong read which I quite enjoyed.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my advance copy.

I enjoyed the different woven strands of this book and this was a first for me with this author. Set in two timelines the 50's to now, I found myself very much engaged with the storyline even when at time it was a little slow paced for me. The author has a beautiful way with words and I look forward to reading more from her

Kate Morton has long been one off my favourite authors and I await each of her novels with great anticipation! I love dual timeline stories and Kate Morton’s are arguably the best in the business.

In ‘Homecoming’, Morton deftly weaves a who-or-whatdunnit with family saga and a little social commentary. After travelling back to Australia from the UK to visit her frail grandmother, journalist Jess Turner-Bridges discovers a family tragedy that happened nearly sixty years earlier and has been kept secret from her. But why? And what really happened to her family all those years ago?

The prologue is set in 1958-59 and is truly one of the most captivating and memorable I have read for some time. I can’t imagine anyone reading it and not feeling the need to keep turning the pages.

In fact, I was so intrigued by the 1959 timeline, I found it held my attention far more than the 2018 timeline except where it provided contemporary sources about the events in 1959. I have to say I didn’t feel particularly drawn to Jess as a character; I actually found more interest in the recollections of the relationship between her mother and grandmother when Jess was a child.

I felt the first half of the novel was quite slow going, but the second half seemed to really pick up the pace as we learn more about what happened in 1959 and those involved. I did start to piece parts of the mystery together but not all and as the true turn of events are revealed it makes for simply superb reading.

Overall, another great dual timeline novel from Kate Morton but, in my opinion, the 2018 timeline wasn’t quite able to stand up alongside its gripping 1959 counterpart. Well worth a read, however, and I hope that other long time fans feel the same way.

My thanks to the publishers, Pan Macmillan, and to NetGalley; I was thrilled to receive an advance copy of ‘Homecoming’ in return for this honest review.

Thank you for the chance to read this ARC in return for my honest opinion.

I have read books by Kate Morton before and they can be slow and take a while to get in to, and this was no exception.

The story was convoluted - it could be difficult to separate the two timelines at times. It was very slow in the beginning and perhaps over-wordy and over-descriptive - then was really rushed in the last quarter.
But it kept me interested enough to want to know how the threads came together and how the story would end.
The formatting on my ARC was difficult - as another reviewer mentioned - in that words with ‘f’s’ in often were not correct which made the flow hard to follow and interpret at times.

As it is a mystery - I wont spoilt it by providing more information - the ending was unexpected in how it all came together.

All in all an interesting read

Another monster of a book by Kate Morton!
I have always enjoyed Kate’s books and was not disappointed with this one. She has the ability to weave many strands of a story together and make the characters feel real to the reader.
Family secrets and tragedies from 1959 Australia cannot stay buried forever and repercussions turn Jess’s life upside down in 2018.
What a fantastic read!

In 'Homecoming' by Kate Morton, Jess, a journalist, returns to Australia after hearing that her grandmother Nora has fallen and is critically ill in hospital. The reason for Nora's fall, and her odd behaviour just prior to it is unknown, and Jess makes it her mission to understand. A true crime book about a murder/suicide on the Adelaide Hills in 1959 found under her grandmother's pillow, begins to make sense of Nora's distress and unlocks some of the mysteries in Jess's family history.

Morton uses her usual narrative structure, weaving in different perspectives and time frames to tell the story. I was drawn in by the parts of the story where events were first hand, whether in 1959 or present day. I was much less keen on the long sections in the book supposedly taken from the true crime novel. Where they were written in a different tone, they ended up being a bit florid, flat and boring, and the pace of the novel overall slowed. As a result, whilst Morton writes beautifully and the use of the other book is a clever and interesting device, I wouldn't recommend this novel as highly as some of her others.

2018 & Jess, now living in London, receives a call to return to Australia where her elderly grandmother is in hospital after a fall.
While trying to find out what upset her grandmother, Nora, causing her to fall she discovers a family tragedy that occurred in 1959.
Covering the themes of motherhood, loneliness & loss.
I did find this a little long but the last 25% or so is so gripping that I couldn’t put it down!
There are a number of typos in the book (all the ‘fi’s & ‘fl’s were musing in the book within the book & the ‘ff’s in another section) which I found distracting (being an ARC I did report them so I’m sure they won’t be in the published version! )
Overall , I loved the book. If you like family sagas set in two different time periods then you’ll love this.

This was Kate Morton at her absolute best. I was gripped from the first page. The descriptions were vivid and the story believable. Set in Australia, but with snippets of London, I was able to visualise every detail. The depth of her characters was astonishing and I felt I got to know each of them. Four strong women; Jess, Polly, Nora and Isabel. The transition from past to present day was effortless. Highly recommended.

I struggled with the start of this book which seemed long winded but Ms Morton's quality of writing kept me going even when there were a lot if narratives going on together, with different properties all linked to the tragic, mysterious family death in South Australia in 1959.

Great characters, vivid descriptions of hot days, picnics and, of course, plenty of twists and turns.

Phew! What a long, satisfying read.. I am not sure what went wrong in the middle of the book as the letters 'fl' and 'fi' went missing?

Thanks to Net Galley and Pan Macmillan for the chance to read and review.

Homecoming
By Kate Morton

Murder mystery, Australian setting, dual timeline, book within a book, mother/ daughter dynamics. This should have been my perfect book.

I have never read anything by Kate Morton before and I realise she is a truly beloved author for so many readers, but I could just not engage with this story. It is slow, so slow, meandering, repetitive, with so many elements that don't really bring anything to the narrative. I find it slightly dated and overly sentimental.

At well over 600 pages it could do with another round of editing. The rising action really only occurs in the latter 20% but it just wasn't enough to offset the effort of the first 80%. A bit predictable and boring. Just not for me, but I can see it being a good sink-in story for someone who wants to bring just one book away on their holiday.

Publication date: 18th April 2023
Thanks to #netgalley and #panmacmillan for the egalley.

Jess has lived and worked in London for twenty years but ten gets the telephone call she has been dreading. Her grandmother, Nora, has fallen and is in hospital back home in Australia.
She catches the first flight back but Nora is failing but is agitated about something.
Jess and her mother haven't had the usual mother daughter relationship as Nora bought her up..
With time on her hand Jess decides to look into her families past. She finds a book containing the crime story of the Turner family who were al found dead on Christmas Eve 1959. All of them except the baby and the father who was abroad. He was also Nora's brother.
The mystery has never really been solved but could it be now?
This book twists and turns through the years right to the last few pages.

I used to be an avid Kate Morton fan. I remember balmy summer days sat reading her long novels on a rug in the garden. I would devour them pretty quickly so I knew I enjoyed them.
Unfortunately I didn't feel the same way about Homecoming. Maybe my own tastes have changed in the last few years? I feel I've read some many dual timeline novels, with large houses and mysterious characters in them that I feel as though I've read them all.
I felt the story was quite flat and didn't hold my attention. Unfortunately I didn't finish the novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed previous books by this author, although I did enjoy reading this one, it took me awhile to get immersed in the story and it felt a little long and disjointed in places. Otherwise was an enjoyable read.

As always a great read from Kate Morton. A family thriller in which the ending was quite clear but was very well executed in the details. Read it in one sitting

It is 2018 and Jess who is living in London, gets a phone call to tell her that her grandmother, Nora has had a bad fall so Jess returns to Australia. Her gran is gravely ill in hospital and is muttering. Jess gradually uncovers a story about a terrible event in 1959 where a family are all found dead by a delivery man and a baby is missing.

I nearly gave up on this book as I found the introductory chapters really longwinded, disjointed and clunky but I'm glad I stuck with it as I did become more engrossed in the plot. I guessed some of the twists quite early on but I still wanted to find out if I was right and see how events played out.