Blog Tour: The House of Lost Whispers by Jenni Keer

 

Olivia Davenport and her parents are due to travel on the inaugural sailing of RMS Titanic. However, the week before departure Olivia contracts measles and her parents travel without her. When the 'unsinkable' Titanic hits an iceberg and does sink, she is left an orphan. She goes to live with the Fairchild family at Merriford Manor. There she learned to cope with her loss, often withdrawing into her own vivid imagination. However, she is determined to live her life to the best of her ability and so she is a very positive, very fanciful and spirited young lady, who manages to provide inspiration to those around her. 

The Fairchilds do their best to accomodate the young girl but they are a very different to her own family. Whereas her own parents were tactile and joyful, the four Fairchild boys know that they are loved but are never shown any affection.The family is very correct, very wealthy, very upper class. 

One of the things that helps Olivia during this time is the voice on the other side of the wall. At first, Olivia and Seth annoy each other mainly because they are confused by the fact that they can hear each other but they can't physically see each other. They gradually look forward to the conversations that they have through the wall.

We see Olivia as she grows from a young girl into a young woman. We see her fall in love for the first time, and we see her dreams for the future.

As the years pass, World War I looms, and the Fairchild boys head off to war, one by one. Being wealthy does not protect young men from German bullets so, once again, Olivia faces unimaginable grief and tragedy. But this time, Seth is no longer on the other side of the wall, until one day he is back. 

In time, they figure out that while their worlds are fundamentally the same, there are differences. In Seth's world, the Titanic did hit the iceberg but assistance came in time and the ship didn't sink, therefore Olivia didn't come to live at Merriford. It would have been easy to make the alternative history one where everything was bright and breezy, but the author avoided that. WWI still happens in the alternate history. It is still a terrible time of great loss but the outcomes were ever so slightly different in the other world.

Seth and Olivia rely on each other in many ways and realise that their feelings are growing, but with their two worlds being so separate and different, how can they be happy in the future. 

This book is best described as genre bending. Is it a strong historical fiction story about the years between the Titanic sinking and post WWI England? Yes, it is. Is it also fantasy with the magical realism and alternate timelines? Yes, it is that too.  Is it an unconventionally romantic story? Yes, it is. Regardless of how you want to label it, it is a compelling, well told story which tells of the traumatic effects of tragedy and war and the changes in society that it heralded.

This is the second Jenni Keer book I have read and I really like the way that she plays with genre and structure, and still manages to pull together all the different strands to make it a truly satisfying reading experience. I still need to read At the Stroke of Midnight and work through the rest of her backlist, but I will also be eagerly anticipating whatever she comes up with next

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host. Be sure to check out other stops on the tour shown below. Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. 

Rating 4.5/5

About the book

The House of Lost Whispers

On 15th April 1912, RMS Titanic sank and 1500 people lost their lives. But what if it had stayed afloat?

When the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic leaves thirteen-year-old Olivia Davenport orphaned, she’s sent to live with her guardians, the Fairchilds, in their huge Jacobean mansion – Merriford Manor. But the Fairchilds have more to worry about than a grieving young girl – with war in Europe imminent and four sons to protect.

Olivia feels alone and friendless. That is, until she hears a voice from behind the wall in her tower bedroom. A voice from a man called Seth. At first she thinks he’s a ghost. But it soon becomes clear that he lives in an overlapping world that is just a shudder in time away from her own. A world where the Titanic never sank… And everything since has been just slightly… different.

All Olivia wants is to find a way into his reality. And not just to see the faces of her beloved parents once again. But also to meet Seth. Who might just be the love of her life…

An utterly unforgettable reading group historical novel, that is part romance, part gripping mystery, and part completely heartbreaking First World War historical fiction. Perfect for fans of Titanic, In Memoriam and Lucinda Riley.

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/HouseLostWhispers

About the Author-


Jenni Keer lives in the glorious Suffolk countryside with her four grown up children, three demanding cats, but just the one husband. She is often frustrated by their inability to appreciate that when she's staring into space, she's actually working, and that watching television counts as research. Much younger in her head than she is on paper, she adores any excuse for fancy-dress and is part of a disco formation dance team.

Keer has written two contemporary rom coms and five quirky historicals, with two more due out in 2025.

The best-selling No. 23 Burlington Square (her 1920s sliding doors mystery) has now sold over 100,000 copies.



Social Media Links –

Facebook: @jenni.keer
Twitter: @JenniKeer
Instagram: @JenniKeer
Newsletter Sign Up:https://bit.ly/JenniKeerNews
Bookbub profile: @jennikeer

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with the Word Cafe in the Title

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books with the Word “[Insert Word Here]” in the Title (Choose a word and find ten books with that word in the title.)

My initial thought was to use the word girl but in the last few days I have read a couple of really good books which both had the word cafe in the title, so I am going with that! 

The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith - This is book number 15 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series

The Cafe by the Bridge by Lily Malone - This is the second book in a trilogy set in in southern Western Australia.

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webb - I loved this book when I read it a few years ago (my review)

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - This is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series

The Custard Tart Cafe by Isabella May - Just thinking about this book makes me want to eat a Portuguese Custard Tart! (my review)

The Enchanted Garden Cafe by Abigail Drake - This is the first book in a series set in Pittsburgh. (my review)

Finding Family at the Cornish Cove by Kim Nash - whoops. Had this recorded in my spreadsheet as Finding Family at the Cornish Cafe. It is, however, set in a cafe so I am keeping it! It is the second book in the lovely Cornish Cove series. (my review)

The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore - This is the first book in the very popular Dream Harbor series.

The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer - I just read this last week and I loved it. I will be reviewing it in a couple of weeks.

The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods - Whoops this is a bakery not cafe but it was such a good read I am going to count it anyway! 

I am also going to be sharing this post with Weekend Cooking which I host here! 

This week....

Global Book Crawl

Last week was the inaugural Global Book Crawl in Melbourne, so Bree from All the Books I Can Read and I couldn't resist the idea of wandering around the city visiting bookstores! The idea behind the crawl is that you have to visit between 8 and 12 bookstores around the city and collect stamps. As long as you visited the required number of stores then you could get a free book and you would go into the draw to win 50 books. If you spent $100 in a single store you should have received a Global Book Crawl tote bag. 

We were somewhat thwarted by the fact that one of the stores that you had to visit was only open on certain days so we didn't get to get the free book, but we did have a fabulous day visiting some bookstores that we were familiar with, others we had never visited before. We got to talk books, life and everything in general and I did as many steps on that day as I normally do when I am holidays! The photo above was taken at the first bookstore so I still look relatively fresh!

I did get a bag from the last store that we visited but they had already run out of  the specific tote bags and it was only the second day when we did it.

The stores that we visited included Books for Cooks, Hill of Content Bookshop, Kay Craddock Antiquarian Booksellers, Mary Martin Bookshop (where the pic above was taken), Paperback Bookshop, Readings Emporium and Readings at the State Library.

I can definitely see myself doing this again if they have it again next year. 

Here are a couple more pics, including my haul for the day. 

I'm reading

Unlike last week I actually finished more books than I started this week! I also posted 5 reviews which is a very unusual for me! I have a few I would like to post this week and then I will be almost caught up I think!

I finished reading Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods which I thoroughly enjoyed. Last year I listened to the audio of The Lost Bookshop and was underwhelmed but this one grabbed my attention straight away and didn't let go!

I also finished The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer which was a really good read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will post a review of this one in a couple of weeks time.

I also read A Greek Island Gift by Mandy Baggot. I have read a few of Mandy Baggot's books now and enjoy her portrayal of Greece in the pages of her books. My review for this one will be up later this week. 

I went to the library to pick up a cookbook that was on hold for me and saw The Rainfall Market by Korean author You Yeong-Gwang on the hot picks shelf and couldn't help myself. I have started reading it and so far it is good. Different from my usual reads but good.

I'm watching

We sat down this week and watched the most recent version of All Quiet on the Western Front which was an excellent film. What I didn't expect is that we would watched some of the 1979 version starring Ernest Borgnine as well. By comparing the two you can definitely see how movies have changed over the last 50 or so years. For example, the soldiers in the earlier version were very clean and tidy. The ones in the recent version with covered in mud and other things for most of the movie

However, they both don't compare to the gritty reality of war, as we saw when we watched a couple of epsides of the Ken Burns documentary about Vietnam. 

We have watched a few documentaries this week. We watched a four episodes of a documentary series about the life of Winston Churchill which was very interesting. Whilst he is rightly famous for leading the British during WWII, there are some less than stellar instances in his life where he made decisions that had devestating consequences.

On a lighter note we went to the movies over the weekend to see The Penguin Lessons which stars British actor Steve Coogan. It is about a man who is a bit lost really who starts teaching at a school in Argentina right when the military coup happens. He acquires a penguin, and the movie tells the story about how his life changed as a result. It wasn't a bad movie. The word nice probably applies more than anything. 

I did catch up on my Springtime in Paris movie viewing this week by watching Paris Blues and Hugo. 

Paris Blues stars Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, Joanne Woodward and Diahann Caroll, with a guest appearance by the great Louis Armstrong. The story is about two American musicians who live in Paris. They meet two American women who have come to Paris on holidays and they quickly fall in love. I hadn't heard a lot about this movie but I did enjoy it for a number of reasons. Firstly, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married in real life so it was fun seeing them together on screen. Secondly, it was interesting to see the way that the race question was addressed in this movie. If you had of asked me to name a movie which starred Sidney Poitier which addressed issues relating to race I would have said Guess Who's Coming to Dinner or To Sir With Love. This movie looked at how different the experience was for Poitier's character living as an African American in Paris compared to what it would have been in America at the time. Another point of interest for me was seeing Paris itself. Yes, there was glamourous side of Paris, but this movie was made in 1961 and there were evident signs of the destruction of Paris during WWII. For example, there was a scene where they visit what looks like a market, and the market is set up amongst some runs. 

After watching two older movies, Hugo was a more recent movie (made in 2011) but set in the 1930s. It surprised me that this movie was made by Martin Scorcese. I always associate his name with more violent movies but this was a very sweet movie which was based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabaret by Brian Selznick.

In this movie orphaned boy Hugo lives in a train station in Paris, keeping the clocks wound up as he was taught to do by his uncle before he disappeared. He is trying to fix an automoton that his father had found at a museum, in the hope that he would get one final message from his dad. In order to survive and get the parts that he needs he steals from various stores in the train station, which brings him to the attention of the station policeman. If I had one criticism it is about the police man, but otherwise it is a great cast that brings a lovely story to life.

There were so many layers to this movie, which at its core is about the power of imagination and in particular the magic of movies. 

I am really looking forward to watching The Intouchables this week. It is a movie I have been meaning to watch for years!

Life


We did spend a lovely afternoon have afternoon tea at Oxi Tea Rooms. It is more of an immersive experience rather than just afternoon tea. I will post more about it in a couple of weeks for Weekend Cooking but this  is one photo. 

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Surprise!
Blog Tour: The Best Days of Our Lives by Helen Rolfe
White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton
The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
Weekend Cooking: The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki
Pictures of You by Emma Grey




I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date and Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Pictures of You by Emma Grey

 

When Evie wakes up from a coma after having a serious car accident she is very surprised that neither her parents or her best friend Bree are by her side. She is shocked when she is given the news that her husband, Oliver, died in that same car accident. The problem is Evie doesn't remember him at all. In her mind, she is still 16 years old!

At Oliver's funeral, it all becomes too much and she asks the guy she thinks is her Uber driver to help her get away from the event. However, photographer Drew isn't there randomly or as her driver. He met Evie around the same time as Oliver did, and their paths have intertwined throughout their lives. 

We follow Evie as she tries to discover who she is now, who Oliver was, and who they were together. And to be honest, the story she learns isn't the fairy tale that 16 year old Evie expected. Evie met wealthy and handsome Oliver at a party and they were pretty much inseparable from that point on. Certainly Oliver ingratiated himself into Evie's life until he was the centre of her life, pushing all others out in due course. Drew was one of those whose friendship was affected, not helped by the fact that Oliver hated him. Drew has no idea why Oliver hated him so much, but he did.

The amnesia story line is done so well in this book! As a reader we watch as Evie uncovers her own story piece by piece.I had a fair idea of what was going to be unveiled, but the suspense leading up to the reveal was really well paced. We also get some of the story from Drew's perspective, although he is very careful about how much he reveals to Evie. He wants her to learn her story in her own time and way. He is taking a risk with that approach though. Will Evie see it that way or will she think that he is keeping secrets from her.

One of the things that I loved about this book was that there was nuance even in the worst of characters. I have read a few books this year where there are some similar themes explored. The bad guys are all very bad and the good guys are all very good, but in this case the author was careful to give a back story to all of the characters which showed where their own issues came from. Importantly,  this back story doesn't excuse their behaviour and actions, but does gives it some context. 

The title of this book comes from when they first met. Evie joined a photography club dominated by the boys from the private school that both Drew and Oliver attended. When they are looking for a subject for a photography exhibition, Evie suggests that it be girls in order to combat some of the ways that the boys see the girls, and Drew chose Evie as his muse.  I loved young Evie. She was feisty and optimistic, and so it is a shame to see how the influence of Oliver, and I guess ageing in general, robs her of that. 

Emma Grey was one of the authors who was at the Rachael Johns Readers Retreat last year, and she talked about both of her books. I had already bought The Last Love Note but I haven't read it yet. I saw this on the shelf at the library and borrowed it. I am so glad I did. I really, really loved this book! I started reading it and just couldn't put it down and so I finished it that same day! That doesn't usually happen for me anymore. Other things get in the way, but not with this book. I am also very happy to hear that this book has been optioned to be adapted for the screen. Now I am going to have to read Grey's earlier book and, of course, anything new that she comes up with!

The good news is that this book has been released in the US and so should be easy-ish to find. It isn't always the case with some of the great Australian books that I talked about on my blog!

This was a standout read for me and will absolutely be on my list of best reads of 2025. 

Rating 5/5

Weekend Cooking: The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

 

Over the last few years I have read several books translated from Japanese to English, and I have noted that the books I have been choosing seem to have certain similarities. They are usually episodic with a story connected to one particular scenario and then the next story is about someone else. They often are looking at grief and those who are left behind, often they feature food and there are often cats. 

Whilst the Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki certainly fits three of these similarities, it is not so much a book about those left behind after a loved one dies, and it has a kind of magical realism running through it! Obviously you can tell from the cover that there are cats, it is episodic in structure (although it does tie together nicely at the end) and the food is out of this world, as you might guess from most of the chapter titles.

The sections of the book include 

Aquarius Trifle
Lunar Chocolate Fondant
Mercury Cream Soda
Moonlight and Venus Champagne Float

The Full Moon Coffee Shop is a very unusual coffee shop. It can randomly pop up and then be gone just as quickly, it's waiters are talking cats, and for those who are lucky enough to visit, there is a side of astrological readings and otherworldly wisdom.

The first visitor is a down on their luck scriptwriter named Mizuki.  In her twenties she was an in demand writer who had written hit TV shows. These days though, her TV scripts are out of fashion so she is writing for games, she lives in a much smaller apartment and she is something of a recluse. She has recently submitted a script that she is working on. 

The second visitor to the cafe is Akari who works in TV and has the horrible job of telling Mizuki that her script isn't going to be picked up, which is difficult because they have a past connection. Akari has a reputation as a driven TV executive who has a mess to clean up when her leading lady gets caught up in a scandal.

Then there is computer guy Takashi who ironically seems to have a lot of technology related issues a lot of the time.

The final visitor is Meguma, a hairdresser who has moved back home to help out in her parents small salon but who is trying to work out what she wants her career to look like in future.

I thought would share a passage from the book to give a bit of a taste of the writing. When I was reading this on the plane, I was amused to see that there was a chapter called Mercury Cream Soda, because I knew I had scheduled a Weekend Cooking post about creaming soda for when I was away. So here is a short passage about Mercury Creaming Soda

At the end of a road, I spotted what looked like a popup cafe.

In front of a truck were several sets of wooden tables and chairs, where the passengers from the train were sitting. I recognised them, somehow, and yet their faces remained a blur.

I took a seat at a free two-seater table. Someone appeared and placed a glass in front of me. "Here you go. A Mercury Creaming Soda."

Unlike the scenery and people around me, the drink was vivid and distinct. It had all the usual components of a cream soda  - ice cream and a cherry on top. What distinguished it from the normal version was that its soda wasn't the usual green, but instead a beautiful sky blue, and the ice cream was a greyish-what colour rather than the usual vanilla.

I pulled the glass toward me and sipped the drink through the straw.

The soda tasted pleasant and refreshing as it trickled down my throat, and the sweetness was just right. The taste was vaguely familiar and yet totally new,

The pale grey ice cream turned out to be a lemon-flavoured sorbet that went perfectly with the soda. As the flavours danced on my palate, I caught the sound of a woman's voice from the neighbouring table. She seemed to be complaining about something.

"Emails getting lost, data corrupting itself and now the train's late...Sheesh!"

The woman could have taken the words right out of my own mouth. It was if she was giving voice to my inner thoughts.

"Typical Mercury retrograde, isn't it?" she continued.

There is quite a lot of astrology in this book. Some of it I kind of skipped through, but some of it was very interesting, and some of it was just plain fun!

Interestingly, Jesse Kirkwood also translated the Kamogawa Food Detective Agency series by Hisashi Kashiwai. I might have to check out what else they have translated. The second book in the Full Moon Coffee Shop series is due to be released later this year. I will be reading it!

Weekly meals

Saturday - Out for dinner
Sunday - Steak Egg and chips
Monday - Normandy pork
Tuesday - Chicken Kebabs and baked potato
Wednesday - Beef Stroganoff
Thursday - Mexican Chicken and Rice
Friday - Leftovers

I am sharing this review with Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story and Translated Fiction challenge hosted at Introverted Reader.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin

 

I have been meaning to read Madeline Martin's WWII historical fiction for quite a while now. A few months ago I picked up a book thinking it was by her, but it turned out to be by someone else. However, when my read on a theme book club chose Spy as it's theme, this was my chance!

Ava Harper is happy working as a librarian at the Library of Congress but given that she speaks two languages it probably isn't a surprise when she is recruited for something different during WWII. She is sent to Lisbon in Portugal. Portugal is a neutral country but that doesn't mean that it isn't a hotbed of activity. There are active spies from every country. There are refugees from countries like France who have made it this far but now they need the right documents in order to be able to fully escape to a new life. There are also the notorious Portuguese secret police who don't need much of an excuse to arrest people.

Ava's job is to collect all the different publications from different countries that end up in Lisbon and to photograph them so that they can then be saved to microfilm and sent back to the US to be analysed in the hope of finding any piece of information that might help turn the tide of the war. As soon as she arrives she catches the attention of both a British and a German spy, and so, over the course of her stay in Lisbon, she gets a bit more caught up in the spy game than she otherwise might have done. She also begins to make connections in the refugee community and it is here that she learns of the difficulties that the refugees face.

The other side of the story is set in Lyons in France. Elaine's husband has insisted that she do nothing for the resistance but when he disappears she realises that she is going to have to get involved. She starts working with the Resistance in the printing of illegal newspapers, but also gets involved in other activities. It is in the course of these activities that she meets a young Jewish woman and her child and she decides that she needs to help them escape in any way that she can. 

One day Ava is reading a French Resistance newspaper and she realises there is something unusual about the article. She cracks the puzzle and finds a plea for help. Can two women who have never met, who cannot communicate directly with each other, and who each face different kinds of danger on a regular basis help save a young family. 

I really enjoyed both aspects of this story, and even more so given that both aspects were inspired by true stories. I never really thought about what kind of activities would be happening in neutral countries like Portugal, and how for the refugees getting there was only one step on the journey. There were still more dangers and challenges to face before they could truly feel safe.

Elaine's story was the more dramatic of the two between her missing husband, her work with the Resistance putting her in danger, and the fear of being betrayed. She had many losses but she still decided to take risks for other people when they needed it.

I will now be looking to read Martin's other WWII novels. From what I can see her future books are moving away from the WWII setting so it will interesting to see how they are received.

I am sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading challenge which I host here.

Rating 4/5

White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton

 

Recently we went on a cruise that visited both Japan and Korea. I already had this book on my TBR list but I decided to move it up the list because it was set both of the countries we were visiting, and I was very glad that I did.

White Mulberry tells the story of Miyoung who is a young girl who lives in a village near Pyongyang in Korea. Both of her sisters have gone abroad to marry leaving Miyoung at home with her ailing mother. Miyoung is very clever and dreams of becoming a teacher, but her mother knows that there are limited opportunities for her in Japanese occupied Korea. She is therefore sent to Japan to live with her sister to continue her education.

It soon becomes clear that Japan is not going to be any easier than Korea was. Koreans live segregated lives, working only the lowest of job and are discriminated against consistently. The only way to get ahead is to pretend to be Japanese, so Miyoung becomes Miyoko and trains to become a nurse. 

Eventually Miyoko starts attending a clandestine Korean Christian church and there meets a young man who is fighting for better rights for Korean immigrants. This makes her life even more complicated. She is a Korean pretending to be Japanese but in love with a Korean man and she is Christian at a time where this is frowned upon by the Japanese authorities. It doesn't help that when she marries her husband's family is difficult as well.

As World War II rages, Miyoungknows that her only hope is to get back to Korea, but also that will be difficult to say the least. What will it cost her in terms of her family and her life? And who will be left in Korea to help support her re-establishing her life there?

It was interesting to read about the differences between these two cultures and how someone who is trying to navigate these different worlds. I enjoyed the food talk, and I really liked the relationship between Miyoung and her sister, Bohbeh, who faced her own challenges and yet supported Miyoung when she needed her the most.

One of the reasons I read historical fiction is that you can learn so much. I had no idea that Korea was occupied by Japan as far back as the 1910s. I did know that they invaded Manchuria in the years leading up to WWII but not Korea! While I was in Japan I learned some things about the post war years that really surprised me. For example, did you know that the US controlled the Japanese island of Okinawa and only gave it back to Japanese control in 1972? They still have a significant say in the decisions of the island because of the military bases on the island. 

This story is made all the more interesting in that it is based on the author's own family history. It seems that there are quite a few WWII stories now that are based on true stories like this. I am sure that there are a lot more interesting stories out there still!

I am sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading challenge which I host here.

Rating 4/5