Publication Date: 01st Feb 2024
Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction
4.5 Stars
One Liner: Beautiful (even made me a wee bit teary-eyed)
Sally Harrison has been building a special library for forty-two years. Each year, on her daughter Ella’s birthday, she chooses a book and writes a note on the first page. Of course, Ella left twenty-two years ago after a fight and hasn’t bothered to come back.
However, an emergency forces Ella to visit her mother. Slowly, she realizes things may not have been what she assumed. This could be a chance for the mother and daughter to reconnect.. if they can revisit the past and find closure.
The story comes in Ella and Sally’s third-person POV.
My Thoughts:
January seems to be my month for mother-daughter books. One book was toxic, the other was super sweet, and this is bittersweet.
The book starts with a prologue hinting at what could have gone wrong. We then jump into Ella’s POV (she has a major share with Sally’s POV popping up once in a while to show her side) in the present timeline.
It’s hard to like Ella at first. Her constant ‘If I Were the Queen of the World’ thinking gets on her nerves. However, it is deliberate and meant to show her judgmental side. It shows us how Ella has restricted herself to materialistic things to avoid being hurt. We see her learn, realize, and change as the story progresses.
Sally is very easy to like. She is kind, compassionate, warm, helpful, and supportive. We can feel her loneliness and how she tries to fill the gap through her activities.
The side characters are sweet. Their purpose in the story is to show Ella the truth of her mother’s life. Of course, for the characters, Sally is a dear friend/ teacher/ neighbor/ etc., whom they value and cherish. They are diverse, too, but without taking the attention away from the central plot.
The book is surprisingly steady-paced. I expected this to be a slow burn of sorts, but the % moves ahead steadily. Even with some repetition about the past and Ella’s struggle in coming to terms with the difference between her opinions and reality, the story doesn’t linger for long. The second half feels a bit slower, but it suits the plotline.
The ending is neatly tied up and a little too sweet, but I don’t mind. I read for HEA endings, so this was right in my alley. However, I did want one aspect to be different (Ella should have continued working. She has become capable enough to handle a career and her family now).
Books, naturally, play a vital role. I love how seamlessly they are incorporated into the plot. Hadron, the one-eyed cat, is the icing on the cake. Love her!
I have to mention Charlie as a separate point. While Sally’s friends are all good, Charlie (Ella’s husband) is a rock and a solid support. He is laid back but assertive and accepts Ella with all her flaws. He is mostly in the background, but without him, Ella wouldn’t have done what was necessary.
To summarize, The Memory Library is a heartwarming story about family, forgiveness, second chances, healing, friendship, connection, and books. It did make me teary-eyed a couple of times. I also love the unsaid – a person will have to live actions and decisions for the rest of their life. Some things cannot be undone even when we move on.
Thank you, NetGalley and Avon Books UK, for the eARC.
#NetGalley #TheMemoryLibrary
**
P.S.: Isn’t the cover gorgeous?
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