Review: The Forgotten Room

The Forgotten Room

by Karen White, Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig

Publisher: Berkley NAL

Pages: 384

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  A rich, multigenerational novel of love and loss that spans half a century....

1945: When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion.

Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate?  And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?  In their pursuit of answers, they find themselves drawn into the turbulent stories of Gilded Age Olive Van Alen, driven from riches to rags, who hired out as a servant in the very house her father designed, and Jazz Age Lucy Young, who came from Brooklyn to Manhattan in pursuit of the father she had never known.  But are Kate and Cooper ready for the secrets that will be revealed in the Forgotten Room? 


Kritters Thoughts:  Three women, three generations, three authors - genius!  To dive right in, I want to say that I loved having three of my favorite authors come together and put a book together, but I was nervous as to how they were going to do it and it feel like a one seamless book.  But this one worked!  To have each author write one of the generations of this twisted family story, was just perfect!

I loved all three women characters, but for some reason Kate the doctor's story really stood out for me.  I don't know if it is because it was the most contemporary or because I felt like she was finding out the truths of both women that came before her, but her story seemed to encompass the other two and it was the one I kept really enjoying through the book.  But to clarify, Olive and Lucy were just as entertaining and I never didn't enjoy theirs - Olive was the foundation of the story while Lucy was the middle trying to not live by her mother's story but create her own.

For this book I had a scratch note pad, where I was family treeing!  This is one that is worth taking it slow and enjoying the story as it unfolds.  I may even dare say that I could read this again, which I never do!


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Berkley NAL.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.