The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig (2016 fiction)
Normally I am wary of collaborations, but this one is different. The story concerns 3 women in 3 different eras and their relationship with a special room in an 1890’s New York mansion. In 1892, Olive goes to work as a maid in the Pratt Mansion in order to discover why her architect father was never paid for his work designing the building. In the 1920’s, Lucy Young takes a room in the mansion, which is now a boarding house for single professional women. And in the 1940’s, Doctor Kate Schuyler is employed in the mansion, which has been converted to a hospital for returning World War II wounded. Each of them meets and forms relationships with men, and each discovers something in the special room at the top of the building, the Forgotten Room. The book is constructed in alternating chapters, and each author has written the story of one of the characters. As each character’s story unfolds, the various relationships to each other and to the building reveal themselves. This is a fascinating story with both mystery and romance. Recommended.
Reviewed by Ginger Russell
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