This is a story of family, and a story of place: the place is the one time family home Sandcove, on the Isle of Wight, and the family are Richard, Margo (who separated many years ago) and their three daughters Rachel, Imogen and Sasha.

Both Richard and Margo are passionate and artistic, and their forceful personalities have impacted on their children. Brought together back to their childhood home, the three girls are forced to examine the past and see the influence it has had on the relationships they have been able to form.

The characters were engaging, and I love a book where the location feels like a character as well.

The perfect dysfunctional family in a summer house beach read. Exactly what I expected, excellently delivered. Thanks NetGalley!

Far too long to get into and didn’t hold my attention. Was a nice set up but just not easy enough to read as a summer beach read too many characters

I loved this book, a heartwarming sisterly love dynamic. I love the location of the story as well and how this was written.

Took me a little while to get into the story as I kept getting confused on who was who. However, as the story developed I found myself enjoying it. Though admittedly Margo did piss me off a bit!

Loved this book. Great read following the lives, pasts and loves of three sisters and their mother. Really evocative setting and great use of different timelines.

✨Book Review✨
The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A story of 3 sisters and their mum, living on the Isle of Wight. This book is a family saga, 3 sisters with their mum, Margo doing her best to look after each of them after their father left them when they were young. The sisters are now grown up and close but each of them have their own life dramas happening and lose their way a little until they are brought back together stronger than ever. I was totally immersed in their world and thoroughly enjoyed their story, a tale of the strength of family love. I would highly recommend this book to pack in your suitcase 🤍
Thank you to @netgalley and @harpercollinsuk for the ARC copy.

As someone who’s familiar with the Isle of Wight ‘The Garnett Girls’ stood out for me as a book to read.
The novel concentrates on Margo and her three daughters and their life at their house on the Isle of Wight.
Margo runs away with Richard, a poet and an alcoholic, only to be deserted by him, leaving her to raise their three daughters.
Margo appears to be a free spirit running away with Richard and later in life, shes described as attractive with a young married lover. However, she also comes across as an old fashioned character who wants nothing more than to see her daughters married off with suitable young men who can look after them; and someone who would be shocked by a same sex relationship.
The Garnett Girls is a well written domestic noir that I couldn’t quite connect with.

I struggled initially to get in to this book but by the second half I was hooked. It is a slow burn but don’t be put off by that as the reward is worth it. A lovely book.

The Garnett Girls

This book follows the lives of the Garnett girls, mother Margo and her three daughters Rachel, Imogen and Sasha.
Margo, having been let down and abandoned by her husband, suffers deeply and withdraws from mother-life into her own space. The girls are allowed to run free and enjoy all that the beach life can offer them.
Rachel, the eldest, takes on a lot of the motherly duties and eventually ends up married with children of her own, with a husband who is doted on by her mother. They even end up taking on the large sprawling family home, Sandcove, in Seaview. Margo stays close by in a smaller home , but spends most of her time in Sandcove, even hosting her parties there!
Rachel wants to move back to London, but is held back in fear of upsetting Margo and her husband Gabriel.
Imogen is an author/playwright, a daydreamer. She is constantly under pressure to marry from her mother, her fiancé is a lovely, kindhearted guy but does she just want to settle for the safety and security of married life?
Sasha, the youngest, was so young when her father left, she barely remembers him and nobody will talk of him. Her ties with the family are loosening due to her possessive, controlling husband.

There’s so much going on in this book! A young man seen coming and going from Margo’s place. A confused and emotional girl turns up to threaten Rachel’s marriage. Imogen is increasingly attracted to the female lead of her play. Sasha is controlled and belittled and just wants to do something for herself for a change.

This is an epic and dramatic family tale, all with the background and setting of the beautiful Isle of Wight. I desperately wanted to read this as I live very close to the Isle of Wight and have spent many happy holidays there, as a child and now with my hubby and girls.

This would make the perfect holiday/summer read and I highly recommend it!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This is a perfect summer read about mothers, daughters and the secrets that can come between them. I have family in the Isle of Wight so this book had a personal connection for me, and Moore does a wonderful job of evoking the island. Margo was a bit manic pixie dream woman, but I really enjoyed the plot and its twists and turns.

I'd heard many good things about The Garnett Girls and was looking forward to getting the opportunity to read it.

The story follows Margo and her daughters Rachel, Imogen and Sasha and how their lives were impacted by their father Richard leaving the family when Sasha was only 4 years old. A lot of the story revolves around the family home Sandcove on the Isle of Wight, at times it seems to be both the root of problems and the anchor for them all, guiding them home.

Margo and Richard meet when she is just 16 and he a few years older, she runs away to be with him and is determined to defy her parents. For a while things seem to be ok but Richard is an alcoholic and slowly withdraws from the family until he makes the decision to leave and they never hear from him again. Margo is devastated at losing her grand passion and not being enough for him, taking to her bed for a year and leaving three little girls to be looked after by their aunt and an assortment of friends.

The story is told from the different POVs of Margo and her daughters, so we get an inside view of their perspective on what happened in the past and how this is influencing their current lives and decisions for the future. It can be messy and complicated and stressful, there are secrets being kept and things being left unsaid which all add to the unsettled feel.

I enjoyed being drawn into the Garnett girl's lives and being with them as they try to work through this big part of their lives in order to move towards the futures they want rather than what they think they should do or have. Margo is both strong and deeply flawed, I enjoyed being able to get glimpses from her viewpoint as I think it helped make her feel a more rounded character.

A great read, I found myself being drawn back to read 'just a bit more' so finished the book in a matter of days. Very enjoyable and would definitely recommend.

Many thanx to NetGalley, the authors and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

I started this book not really knowing what to expect and was a little confused to start with! Everyone seemed to become a little clearer as I carried on reading but the book became "stodgy" for me and, after trying a few times, had to give up, unfortunately.
The book didn't hold me, I love those family sagas and stories but, for some reason I couldn't really make head nor tale of the story.

I thought this would be a perfect read for me, as I enjoy family sagas. But this one failed to hit the spot. .The three Garnett sisters and their very odd mother, share a suffocatingly close relationship, which seems to be completely devoid of warmth and affection. A strange paradox.
I really tried with this book, coming back to it after a few weeks. Sadly I just couldn’t persevere to the end, as I was unable to warm to the characters, or care much what happened to them. .
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

4.5 stars
A beautiful read full of family secrets and heartache. I loved the stories of the girls - each so different but tied so strongly to the sense of family. The back stories of Margo and Richard were beautifully written and served to show the impact of relationships and decisions on both the past, present and future. The location of the Isle of Wight was a lovely reminder of my childhood too and certain scenes and places conjured my own family knowledge.

This book has all the makings of an easy summer read. It's perfect for fans of Rosamund Pilcher and Elizabeth Jane Howard, although lacks some of the romance of the former and the literary skill of the latter. This is a character-driven novel and the Garnett sisters are well-drawn and compelling, all responding in their own ways to the childhood trauma they collectively experienced. I strongly suspect this book will be everywhere this year!

General Thoughts 🤔

This book was exactly what I was expecting it to be and I mean that in a positive way. I wanted to read about family drama, loves; good and bad and general stories about the women of The Garnett family. It was easy to get wrapped up in their lives and want to follow them and their decisions. They were real women with real problems and that made for some great reading.

Characters 👫👭👬

This entire book was about the characters. In fact I’d go as far to say that there really wasn’t that much plot. The Garnett family dominated the story with their spouses, children and extended family making some cameo appearances

It’s really difficult for me to try and pick a favourite out of the Garnett women because I liked them all for very different reasons. I liked Margo because she was full of youth and loved her daughters fiercely. I liked Rachel because she was strong minded and I admired the way that she took responsibility for her sisters at such a young age. I liked Imogen because she was vulnerable and I was rooting for her to make the right decisions for herself. Lastly, I liked Sasha because she was wild, didn’t care about what other people thought of her and she was brave.

Writing Style ✍️

As I mentioned, there wasn’t much plot to this book which did mean that I found it a bit of a struggle at times. I would have liked for a touch more story and background for the characters, but it wasn’t a show stopper for me. Once I adjusted to the slow pace of the book, I was able to leisurely read it and enjoy it for what it was.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

This was a lovely story about family, love and drama. The characters were easy to fall in love with and get behind and because of that, I found myself feeling like all of the Garnett girls were friends of mine by the end of the book. This wasn’t a quick read for me. I think because of the slow pace, I found it easier to digest little and often. If you’re in the market for a slow burn book with glorious characters, then I recommend this book for sure.

The story follows the Garnett sisters, who are struggling to make ends meet after their father's death and the loss of their family's business. But as they come to terms with their new reality, they discover unexpected opportunities for love and success.

Moore does an excellent job of capturing the spirit of post-war Britain, with vivid descriptions of the settings and nuanced portrayals of the characters. The sisters are well-drawn and complex, each with their own struggles and aspirations, and the relationships between them are at the heart of the novel.

Set on the Isle of Wight, the author had me captivated straight away. Margo has never gotten over her painful break up and her daughters are not allowed to talk about their father. The three sisters feel trapped by the past. Three very different but very likeable characters who can't move forward because of the past. I really enjoyed the author's voice.

I love a book that makes you feel immersed and like you want to visit the place and this is exactly that. A great tale of family dynamics that transports you to the Isle of Wight. I reaaly hipe there is more books in this series as I would love to revisit them.