The Memory House

March 18, 2019
This endearing but muddled tale from Hauck (The Love Letter) follows two women, separated by 50 years, who are connected through a Victorian home. Eighteen years after her father died during the collapse of a tower on 9/11, Beck Holiday is a NYPD sergeant, recently suspended for her anger management issues. But it is actually the perfect time for a vacation, as she learns that she has inherited the house of Everleigh Callahan in Fernandino Beach, Fla. Beck’s family used to vacation in Fernandino Beach, and Miss Everleigh took a liking to Beck, feeling they were “twin souls born sixty years apart.” Beck travels back to a town that is saturated with memories of her father, and also childhood sweetheart Bruno Endicott. In the other plot, set in the 1970s, 23-year-old Everleigh Novak believes she has the perfect life with her new husband in Waco, Tex. But when a tornado destroys their home and kills her husband, she must turn to God and prayer for answers. The arrival of high school friend Don Callahan, and his offer of moving to Florida, provides an opportunity for a new beginning, and they move to the house in Florida. While Hauck’s enjoyable portrait of the Victorian home stands as the main bridge between the narratives, the two plots prove to be an awkward fit.

March 15, 2019
Beck Holiday is a hardened NYPD sergeant who never forgets a perp's face, but ever since her father's tragic 9/11 death, selective amnesia has erased memories of him. Unexpectedly pregnant and on administrative leave, she receives word that she has inherited a distant friend's estate, the Memory House. Her trip to the property awakens memories from the past and reconnects her with Bruno Endicott, her childhood best friend and first love. But does she dare risk opening herself to the joy of memories and foundation for a future, or is the heartache of remembering too much to bear? Accomplished Hauck (The Love Letter, 2018) demonstrates genre finesse as she blends inspirational romance with a cinematic style of storytelling, bringing empathic characters to life as they cope with grief in marriage and faithfulness, parenthood and adoption, death and tragedy. Challenging decisions, the blessing of finding love again, and the solace of a beautiful Victorian home all come together in this spellbinding, lovely novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)