3 Star
Ophelia Browne knows the answer is yes. She knows because she’s been granted the unique gift of finding and caring for those forgotten memories. But now she’s nearing ninety, and Browne women seldom live beyond ninety.
Before time runs out Ophelia must find a successor. Someone who can take hold of the gifts and keep the memories from fading.
When broken-hearted Annie Cross shows up on the doorstep of The Memory House Bed and Breakfast, Ophelia knows she is the one. The two women forge a bond of friendship as they sip magical dandelion tea and share stories. When Annie starts to sense the memories Ophelia is delighted, but then a thread of violence begins to unravel and Ophelia fears things have gone too far.
Kathryn - 3 Star
I was intrigued by the concepts in this novel from the very start and have always had a fascination with things like energy transference. Not sure I’m entirely a believer, until it happens to me it’s hard to truly get on board…but this book lends itself to an understanding of the possibility while accepting the possibility of scepticism.
I enjoyed Bette Lee Crosby’s writing style, it’s the first novel of hers that I have read, and I appreciated her ease of words.
My dilemma with the book is that I wanted more. I’m not sure what the intention was in this particular publication- from the author’s notes at the back each object in The Memory House can be linked to another one of her novels which is interesting but doesn’t actually give any closure in this book if this is the only one that you’ve read.
I felt like there was so much left unsaid and un-done to be able to give this novel the review stars I wanted to give it. The subject was fascinating, the writing was lovely but the entity of this as a “novel” seemed so incomplete that I couldn’t give it the rating I feel it would have deserved. I would advise perhaps reading one of the author’s other novels first and then picking this up as an accompaniment perhaps?
I had so many unanswered questions…did Annie take over where Ophelia left off? Did Annie end up having a relationship with Oliver? Edward? What happened to the apothecary shop? How much time did Ophelia and Annie have together? Too much was left undone for me to feel satisfied and while I realise this was intended as a first book in a series I was still left frustrated.
Thank you to the author for our review copy. All opinions are our own.
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