The Garnett Girls

By Georgina Moore

What it’s about?

‘Love makes you do things you never thought you were capable of.’

Forbidden, passionate and all-encompassing, Margo and Richard’s love affair was the stuff of legend– but, ultimately, doomed.

When Richard walked out, Margo locked herself away, leaving her three daughters, Rachel, Imogen and Sasha, to run wild.

Years later, charismatic Margo entertains lovers and friends in her cottage on the Isle of Wight, refusing to ever speak of Richard and her painful past. But her silence is keeping each of the Garnett girls from finding true happiness.

Rachel is desperate to return to London, but is held hostage by responsibility for Sandcove, their beloved but crumbling family home.

Dreamy Imogen feels the pressure to marry her kind, considerate fiancé, even when life is taking an unexpected turn.

And wild, passionate Sasha, trapped between her fractured family and controlling husband, is weighed down by a secret that could shake the family to its core…

The Garnett Girls, the captivating debut from Georgina Moore, asks whether children can ever be free of the mistakes of their parents.

What I think:

I absolutely loved this book!

From the first page to the last, I adored everything about it.

The Garnett girls are three very different sisters bound together by love, family and a shared traumatic childhood.

Growing up in rambling seaside house on the Isle of Wight, older sister Rachel finds herself dealing with the consequences of her father’s alcoholism. When he leaves the family and her mother Margo suffers a complete breakdown, she finds herself having to hold things together and look after younger sisters Imogen and Sasha.

Years later, now grown up, the sisters are back together in the Isle of Wight and forced to face their pasts and deal with their complex relationships with mother, Margo.

The past and present are seamlessly woven together as the story of Margo and Richard’s marriage and the impact it has on their children is told. And while Richard remains physically absent, he is ever present in their loves.

I loved the different personalities of the sisters who are all working through their own relationships and lives and all searching for happiness.

The whole book is utterly compelling and beautifully written. Without doubt one of my favourite reads of 2022!

Thank you to Netgalley for my gifted digital advanced reader copy of The Garnett Girls.