Audiobook review: The Memory House by Jeanette James
A current day London woman lands a position as nanny in a great situation and, with her employer, discovers a mystery in their own backyard, while in the past, a young heiress living in that very house is being pushed to accept an undesired suitor of her father’s making.
Jenetta James has written some fabulous reads and paired with the vocal talents of Harry Frost, The Memory House hit emotions and senses alike.
Told in split time between Kitty Cathart’s 1859 and Josie Minton’s 2019 story narratives, the listener/reader is pulled into the lives of two women separated by time and brought together by one woman’s struggle for freedom of choice and their shared complicated love lives.
With split time stories, I tend to prefer the historical over the contemporary, and this started out that way for me with Kitty’s ruthless and abusive father pushing her to marry high and her newly discovered feelings for a man her father would never countenance. However, as Josie settled into her new job as nanny to a wealthy London man of business and they discovered the mystery in the back garden and worked on it together, I found I was fully engaged with both storylines. It spoke well that I was able to reluctantly part with one story thread to immediately dive back into the other with no struggle.
The author’s well-developed characters and backdrop for both settings and diversity of historical period were written well. There were times when the women experienced similar situations and feelings, but this wasn’t a cookie cutter story told in split time. I loved the atmospheric overtones of Kitty’s side of the story and the interesting complications woven into Josie’s life that came out after a time. I liked the unpredictability as a result.
Narration: Harry Frost did great voicing all the characters even the two main female leads, but also did a bang up job making it crystal clear when the story shifted between periods and situations, too. I never struggled to know whose storyline I was experiencing.
All in all, no surprise, this as another stellar story from an author who wowed me with her Jane Austen adaptions and now took that step away to write a fabulous standalone split period mystery.
My Ratings
Story: B+
Narration: A
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
A house in one of London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods is home to secrets, mysteries, and two love stories spanning two centuries.
In 1859, independent-minded Kitty Cathcart dreams of escaping Veronica Gardens but her father’s determination to marry her off to a rich man of his choosing forces her to seek happiness and find her own voice by other means. And then the handsome but poor Alex Faraday walks through the front doors.
In 2019, Oxford-educated Josie Minton never dreamt of living in a house as grand as Veronica Gardens, but the nanny’s quarters are a perfect fit for a young woman in need of a job. Wealthy financier James Cavendish and his twin girls quickly find her indispensable to their happiness, but Josie is still searching for her future.
Then the great house reveals the first of its secrets, and the tragedy and romance of one era are brought into sharp relief with another.
Author: Jenetta James
Narrator: Harry Frost
Series: Standalone
Genre: Historical Romance; split time narrative
Audiobook Release Date: November 12, 2020
Publisher: Quills & Quartos Publishing
Length: 9 hours; 34 minutes
Source: Narrator
Purchase info:
Audible/Amazon (affilate link)