Memories of the Lost by Barbara O'Neal ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

An unsuspecting artist uncovers her late mother’s secrets and unravels her own hidden past 

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

July 2024; Lake Union; 978-1662514920
audio, ebook, print (285 pages); women's fiction

Barbara O'Neal is one of my favorite authors and this book further solidifies her place among my favorites.  This is a book about family and memories, art, and the beauty of nature.  It has a mystery, friendship, and romance all wrapped up with a wonderful plot about the love within a family.

Tillie is an artist who is preparing for a show at a gallery in New York City.  She visits her best friend's art show at a local gallery and one of the paintings hanging in the gallery leaves her light-headed.  She has no idea why but has to go back to see it again.  While she's at the gallery, she meets Liam and there is an instant spark between them -- but he's only in town for a few days.  He feels the same way about her and wants to spend all of his remaining time in NYC with Tillie.  Her beloved mother had recently died and Liam goes to upstate New York with her to remove some of the remaining boxes so that the house can be put up for sale.  While they are there, Tillie finds a document of her mother's that makes her question her whole life and wonder why her mother raised her based on a lie.  After she sees the document, she goes into a fugue state more often and paints pictures that he has no memory of painting.  She also begins to have memories of people she's never met and places that she's never been.  She tracks down the painter of the original painting that started it all and tries to find out more about the painting and travels to England to try to find out where the painting was made and why it is causing so many memories of a life that wasn't hers.  As she is working on uncovering the mystery of the painting, she is also trying to figure out her relationship with Liam and whether it is as real as she first thought.

I really enjoyed this book.  It was almost like reading a modern-day fairy tale.  At first, I was a bit confused about the chapters of a woman in England but then when all was revealed, her chapters made a lot of sense and were an important part of the story.  I really liked the main characters - Tillie and Liam and enjoyed watching their relationship bloom very quickly.  The writing was lyrical which added to the feeling of a fairy tale.  This is a book about love and family and has characters that I won't soon forget.

Buy Memories of the Lost at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is two hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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