by Lisa Jewell
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 359
Format: eARC
Buy the Book: Amazon
Goodreads: When she was a child, Melody Browne’s house burned down, destroying all her family’s possessions and her memories. Ever since this tragic event, Melody Browne has had no recollection of her life before she was rescued from the flames.
Now in her early thirties, Melody is a single mother, living in the middle of London with her teenaged son. She hasn’t seen her parents since she left home at fifteen, but Melody has no desire to reconnect until one night, while attending a hypnotist show with a date, she faints. When she comes around, she is suddenly overwhelmed with fragmented memories of her life before that fateful fire.
Slowly, she begins the arduous process of piecing together the real story of her childhood. Her journey takes her up and down the countryside, to seaside towns to the back streets of London, where she meets strangers who seem to love her like her own. But the more answers she uncovers, the more questions she is left with, and Melody can’t help but wonder if she’ll ever know the whole truth about her past.
Kritters Thoughts: Melody Browne lost all of her physical possessions in a house fire at the age of nine and in the fire she also lost her memories of her life before that point. A chance encounter with a hypnotist reignites her brain and memories start coming back to her and with that she must confront the pain and joy of the past that she lost in and before the fire.
From her early childhood to the present day as a single mom, the chapters in the book are clearly labeled, but bounce back and forth as Melody remembers the childhood she lost. It was so easy to keep track of the plot of this story as everything felt like it was labeled and easy to know where in the timeline we were reading. I loved how it was laid out and how it worked out.
I always thought of Lisa Jewell as an author that would keep me on the edge of my seat with suspense and while I couldn't put this one down at all, the air of suspense wasn't in this one, but instead there was a feeling of wanting to know more about Melody and find out what memory she would unlock next! In this book, Lisa relied on character and she wrote a fantastic character that I couldn't wait to keep reading and watching her find herself.
After finishing this Lisa Jewell, it made me want to dive into another one. I still have quite the backlist of hers to catch up on and I wouldn't mind finding another like this one where the suspense may be a little diminished and the characters were amplified.
Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row
Ebook 2021 Challenge: 107 out of 100
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of this book free of charge from Atria Books. 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.
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