Garden of Lies

While I did enjoy the character development in this book, the plot was unbelievably contrived. There were too many thoughts of "what are the chances of THIS happening in anyone's life?" that took away from what was a great story line.

I liked the story line as that is what interested me in the book...but the graphic sexual part turned me away. Just wondering why the author includes graphic sexual scenes in a story that can well do without them.

Enthralling Book from beginning to end.....

I did not want this story to end; upon finishing the last page I immediately logged onto the store.com to find any other books by this author. Unfortunately, there wasn't any; so I'm waiting in anticipation for at least a sequel to "Garden Of Lies".

This story had a lot of heartache, sadness and total repulsion, but our heroine not only survived all the bad things that happened in her life, but she excelled in so many ways. I was gratified to be an observer in this story.

This amazing book held me enthralled for days. Such amazing characters but totally believable captured my heart. I am recommending it to all who read and feel love and pain.
I cannot wait to read the sequel!

Great novel looking forward for the sequel thorns of truth. Two daughters separated from their biological mothers. Their living lie because of one mother sin. Very well executed novel that kept me reading and reading with passion. I don't want to give away too much. Hope the sequel as good.

During a hospital fire, a desperate woman, Sylvie, switches her dark-eyed, dark-skinned daughter, Rose, for the blue-eyed, fair-skinned Rachel, daughter of her roommate, who perished in the fire. Rachel grows up in a world of plenty. Rose grows up in a world of want. Rachel is cherished, while Rose is despised and mistreated by the grandmother who raises the child, who does not look like the rest of the family.

Rose's lifeline growing up is Brian. And, over the years the two come to love one another deeply. In the meantime, Rachel becomes a doctor. Brian ends up serving in the Vietnam War. Brian and Rose plan to marry when he returns. Rose goes to work at a legal firm, where older, married Max eventually helps her become an attorney.

After an unexpected pregnancy, Rachel forces the angry father, a doctor, to perform the abortion that he insists she have. This prompts Rachel to get away from baby daddy, by heading to Vietnam to aid the wounded troops. You can see where this is going. Brian is seriously injured and Rachel saves his life and they fall in love and get married. When Brian then writes a bestselling book about the Vietnam War, the unusual love story becomes picked up by the media. It is a newspaper story that reveals to Rose that Brian now has a wife that is not named Rose.

The ridiculousness continues when Rachael is again practicing medicine back in the US and opens a clinic in a poor neighborhood. A risky pregnancy, handled by Rachel, results in a malpractice lawsuit against her. Who turns out to be her lawyer? Rose, of course. Who is the key witness against Rachel? The old baby daddy, doctor who wants revenge because he hasn't been able to get it up since he aborted his own child. Now, stop laughing. I'm not making this up.

OK enough is enough. The absurdity does continue but I'll leave some spoilers for you to discover.

Although I find it extremely implausible that two women switched at birth would somehow miraculously find and fall in love with the same man a half world apart, that is the wonderful thing about fiction you get lost in...it's like a soap opera, you never admit to watching one, but you know you're addicted! It's the Danielle Steele phenomenon. This story is just perfect; Rose and Rachel are knowingly switched at birth after a tragedy in the hospital where they are born. Rose grows up in a poor, strict, catholic home and is in love with her neighboring boyfriend Brian. Rachel is raised in opulence, becomes a doctor and after finding out she can never have children, volunteers to serve in Vietnam. There she meets Brian and they fall in love. The scene where Rose finds out that Brian and Rachel have gotten married just breaks my heart, and anyone who has ever been dumped out of the blue will have tears in their eyes, I promise. Years later, Brian and Rose come face to face and it is evident that Rose has never gotten over him. I got this book when it was originally published 10 years ago and have read it several times.

A story that begins with deliberatly switched babies, done to hide adultery, doesn't sound either promising or uplifting. But Eileen Goudge has done it-this reader came to care about those babies as they grew into fascinating, strong young women, and to care about all the tangled familial webs surrounding them. The surprise punch of the story isn't theirs, however, it's the Vietnam vet turned writer, Brian, loved by both young women, as he peels back the platitudes and exposes the raw truths of that long, sad, painful war. His insights into the war's terrors and into the courage of those who were there will remain as a haunting memory long after the romances of this novel have faded. Goudge has a particularly deft hand with the older men in this family saga, as well, offering insights into their stoicism, their shattered dreams, and their willingness to dare to hope again, and to act on that hope. All in all, a terrific tale, with moments of real and rare power.

Eileen Goudge, Garden of Lies (Signet, 1989)
This book was, upon its release, not just a sensation; it posted numbers that scandalized the publishing world. How on earth could a romance, of all things, sell like this? Almost fifteen years in the future, we can look back and snicker at our naïveté, of course. The last piece of the genre fiction puzzle gained respectability, and now Danielle Steel, Sandra Brown, and Nora Roberts sit atop the bestseller lists as comfortably as do King, Clancy, and Grisham. Steel was already on the brink of megastardom (and was, of course, a megastar in the romance world long beforehand), but most, if not all, other romance writers owe a great deal of their present respect in the world of modern literature to Eileen Goudge�s debut novel.
Garden of Lies is the torrid tale of two girls switched at birth. After one�s mother dies in a hospital fire, Sylvie, the mother of the other, switches the two babies in order to prevent her spouse from realizing her actual daughter is the product of an affair. The two girls, Rose (Sylvie�s natural daughter) and Rachel (Sylvie�s �adopted� daughter), lead oddly parallel lives despite their vast gulfs in economic and social status. Through a series of coincidences, the two both end up in love with the same man, and the close ties both have to him threaten to reveal Sylvie�s long-held secret.
The first thing to say about this novel, as any romance novel, is to benchmark it against the doyenne. And Garden of Lies is so much better than the works of Danielle Steel that they may as well not be on the same planet. Aside from the proofreading (I�ve never yet encountered a Danielle Steel novel that looks as if it had been proofread at all), Goudge seems to have turned her back on the cookie-cutter philosophy of genre fiction (simply stated, �create character who fits plot, insert here�). Not that you haven�t seen this plot and these characters before, but unlike most straight genre fiction, Goudge�s characters are three-dimensional, they react to the plot as if they were actually reacting to it instead of doing what thousands of cookie-cutter characters have done before them, and when they emote, they�re not giving us dialogue straight out of the pages of the scripts for The Guiding Light. Refreshing, to say the least.
This epic (and really, when a romance novel goes over 500 pages, it�s acceptable to call it an epic, no?) has a whole lot going for it. It�s probably best to have your suspension-of-disbelief mode set pretty high; there are a few �okay, that�s too coincidental� events, and the whole stretch that takes place in Vietnam is too pat. But by the time you hit either of the above, the novel is barrel-racing along too fast for you to stop and compare Goudge�s jungle to, say, Lucius Shepard�s, you only have time to hang on and enjoy the ride. A rollercoaster ain�t a rocket, either, but it�s still fun.
Garden of Lies has rightly carved itself a place in the history of the modern romance novel. Probably the best of the bunch I�ve encountered since the glory days of Stephanie Blake in the early eighties. Definitely worth your time if you�re looking for a good, easy summer read. *** ½

This book drove me crazy. It was so difficult to keep track of the people in the story and keep them straight. I am not one to not finish a book, but if I was, I would have quit several times! I also did not like the ending.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The plot was rich and deep. I love the way Rachel's and Rose's lives became very interwined. This book was very entertaining. The story was so good that I have to give it a 10, even though Ms. Goudge could have told the same story, same exact plot on half the amount of pages. She does go into too much descriptive detail, and sometimes that detail becomes boring (while the story itself remains entertaining). I just think she goes overboard with the descriptive detail. (Since I have read all her novels, I do know about her descriptive detail). I can not wait until April 1, because I will be the first one in line to get the sequel to this book, 'Thorns of Truth'. I am sure it will be as fascinating as 'Garden of Lies'. Thank you, Ms. Goudge, for presenting your rich talent to us.

Initially this book is very intriguing. It exams the lives of of two women who were switched at birth and grew up under very different circumstances. Rachel is raised by a wealthy family and has all the advantages that go with it. Rose, on the other hand, grows up in poverty and experiences endless tragedy. When they reach adulthood their lives begin to merge. Twists of fate gradually bring them to a confrontation. Despite their opposite backgrounds, these two women are uncanningly similiar in personality traits and ambitions. This book does a fine job at examing the nature vs. nuture issue. Miss Goudge's writing style flows nicely and she is able to accurately portray her characters emotions and thoughts with depth. The downfall of this book, however, is that is becomes too predictable. Halfway through the book you know what is going to happen chapter by chapter. Their is no element of surprise. What could have been made into an exciting conclusion, comes to an abrupt and dull end. An otherwise good novel, but by no means perfection.