I thoroughly enjoyed The Lost Hours by Karen White which I read for her blog tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotions. It is definitely one of my favorites so far for this year. This novel is a mystery and yet so much more. It’s an emotional journey through lives past and present.
Piper Mills, who the story really revolves around, loses her parents at a young age and goes to live with her grandparents. Piper’s grandmother is quiet and withdrawn, not seemingly too involved with her so Piper naturally gravitates towards her grandfather who had always had high hopes for her. Piper loves horses and had dreams of becoming an Olympic equestrian and her grandfather supported that wholeheartedly. Since being the only survivor of the accident that took her parents, Piper feels pretty invincible. This comes crashing down around her when she has a really serious accident on her horse and ends up injuring herself badly; enough to make her scared of horses and withdrawing from competition permanently.
This accident and her grandfather’s death brings Piper back to her childhood home in Savannah. With her grandfather’s passing on the family lawyer comes by and this is when Piper begins to learn of old family secrets that have been buried for years. She finds torn pages from a scrapbook that her grandmother had hidden. This scrapbook hints at tragedy and also at a life that she never realized her grandmother had lived. She also finds a secret room in the house and a baby blue sweater. She is completely mystified and curious to find out more about this grandmother she never really knew.
Thus begins Piper’s journey into the past and her journey into healing her own broken spirit since her accident. Piper begins by tracking down one of her grandmother’s friends~one from the scrapbook and embarks on finding out the truth which she feels sure that Lily knows. However Lily isn’t parting with old truths easily. She has dark secrets of her own that she wants to remain hidden. Piper finds herself having to open up emotionally again to people and feelings in order to unearth the mystery surrounding what was her grandmother.
What I loved about this book was Piper learning about her grandmother. The grandmother she thought had nothing to share with her or teach her had a whole other life before Piper even existed. As the story unfolds Piper finds herself remembering more than once times when her grandmother had said or done something to help her along. Piper refers to her grandmother as the quiet presence in her life~a presence that she realized too late had actually had a huge impact on her life. There was a whole other person that was her grandmother that she had never known about. Had she just taken the time to ask her grandmother questions about her past and her life, she would have gotten to know this woman. Instead, she was much too busy with herself and riding; yet another aspect of her grandmother she hadn’t known~her grandmother had loved to ride also. I think that’s one important lesson to take from this novel. Take the time to chat with the elderly. They truly have wonderful tales to share with us of times past~times we will never see again in this world. It will make them happy but it will also enrich your own life in ways you probably can’t imagine.
This story wraps up wonderfully and I enjoyed it to the very last word. It deals with so many elements like race, disabilities and Alzheimer’s Disease and does it with grace. Karen White’s writing is beautiful and her words just flow on the paper leading you throughout the story with an elegance I loved. I look forward to reading more of her work.
I’d like to end with my favorite quote from the book…
- ‘Every woman should have a daughter to tell her stories to. Otherwise, the lessons learned are as useless as spare buttons from a discarded shirt. And all that is left is a fading name and the shape of a nose or the color of hair. The men who write the history books will tell you the stories of battles and conquests. But the women will tell you the stories of people’s hearts.’ (pg. 24 and the back cover, The Lost Hours by Karen White)
Many thanks to Karen for writing such a wonderful novel and to Dorothy at Pump Up Your Book Promotion for inviting me to participate in the tour. You can buy The Lost Hours by Karen White here in the US and here in Canada. Make sure and visit Karen White’s website here too.
Sounds like a good book, and the cover is beautiful!
I love the quote, it is so true. I’m gonna have to put this book on my wishlist.
This sounds really good and I love the cover. Great review.
Thanks for your review Dar. It sounds like the book can also be applied to today with such issues that are very real such as Alzeihmers, the elderly and racial understanding…
I have seen this one around so good to finally know mor, and it does like a book I could read 🙂
Sounds like a wonderful story…I will add it to my wish list!
This book sounds great and I will be definitely adding it to my wishlist. I also love that quote Dar.
What a lovely book. The whole plot sounds really good. I hope to read this one Dar.
I absolutely love the quote that you ended with and made me stop and think. I feel that’s why I scrapbook so my boys will have the pictures but also the story behind them. This book sounds top-notch. Excellent review Dar!!
I never had grandparents that were close to me so I love stories that center around them. I love the quote that you incuded at the end too. It almost brought tears to my eyes and made me think of my daughter.
How fascinating for the character to find out about her grandmother’s secret life. Sounds like one of those books you just can’t put down. Thanks for the great review!
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Great review – I really want to read this one.
This is why I scrapbook, to make sure my memories and thoughts stay alive and are passed down. I love the sound of this book and will definitely add it to my list. Thanks for a great review as always Dar.
Her book The House on Tradd Street was my first read of April and I loved it. This one sounds good too but I’m not sure if I would enjoy it quite as much…
Thanks, Dar, for the wonderful review. I loved writing this book–as a lover of history it was fun to research the Savannah of the 1930’s and to write the two stories of past and present simultaneously.
This is the kind of book I love to read!
great post! The Lost Hours sound very good.
I like that quote, its so true. I’m adding this to my TBR.
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Looking forward to interview Karen on Saturday
Storyheart
I read her previous book last year when we were “on tour” together. This one sounds great, too!
I’m currently reading this book and I’m loving it already! I’ve to skim through your review because I want a surprise through my reading journey, but I’ll definitely read your review and add it to mine after I’m done with it. 🙂
This is the second great review I’ve read of this book today. I can’t wait to get to this myself. I really like the cover of this book – and I know that’s not supposed to matter, but still… 🙂
This sounds like such a good book. I’ve been reading reviews of it all week and haven’t read anything negative about it yet. Thanks for another great review, Dar.
I love the cover, too, and I can say that because I had nothing to do with it! The art department at Penguin Publishing Group is really phenomenal–they’ve done all of my covers and I’m in awe. Even if I wish I could take complete credit for them. (grin) And, no, that’s not my arm on the cover (yes, I’ve been asked that!)
Wow, this book sounds amazing! I’ve got to read it! Fantastic review 🙂
PS: You have such a pretty blog 🙂
sounds like a great book. I’ve been hearing great things about this one.
I haven’t read any of Karen White’s books and your review has changed that Dar! I’m adding this one to my wishlist. It sounds wonderful. I treasure the time I can spend with my grandmother who is 91. She has early stages of dementia so that is difficult but she is a fighter and tries to be as independent as she can. She has shared many wonderful stories with me and I need to find a way to capture those memories through a journal or taping her stories.
So glad you loved this one so much! Being so close to my grandma, it makes me sad that Piper never actually knew her own. Sounds like a beautiful and touching story.
I have this book on my TBR pile.. and your review has made me want to read it soon! I loved that quote, Dar.. It is so true. What a woman takes away from an incident is so different from what a man takes away!
I absolutely love Karen White and really enjoyed this book. Great review!
Karen, thanks so much for stopping by the blog and enjoying my review. I bet it was interesting to research 1930's Savannah. I really find it fascinating to learn about any history of the old days. Karen, yes the art department at Penguin did a wonderful job with this cover-it's beautiful.
Wendy, it is a really beautiful cover isn't it. I spent a lot of time just looking at it-I'm a little strange that way. lol.
lily, that is such a great quote. It's one I want to save and look back on. I should really have a little notebook of quotes to save.
Nely, thanks so much 🙂
Lucy, yes the book can be applied to today's issues especially the issues with the elderly. I was raised to treat the elderly with respect and you don't always see that these days. We have Alzheimers in our family and it is a devastating disease.
Bloedeuedd, Missy, Toni, Kathy, Naida, SerenaI hope you get a chance to read it soon.
Jo-Jo, thanks 🙂
Staci & Viv, thanks. Scrapbooking is such a great idea to capture memories. I wish our whole family had taken more pictures over the years because you're right they leave behind a story of the people in them.
Ti, that quote made me teary too. I was close to my my grandparents. They came from the old country though and didn't speak English and very sadly for me passed away when I was 9. I would have loved to have them in my life as I grew up.
Janel, that was a great part of this book-that mystery behind it all. I think it would be exciting to find things that led you to realize the people you thought you knew may have had more to them.
Jen, I think you'd like it. I have a couple others by her that I'm itching to get to know, Tradd Street being one of them.
Storyheart, I haven't had a chance to read your interview but will today.
Karen H. I hope you get a chance to read this one of hers. It's so good.
Melody, I'll be watching for your review. I'm anxious to see what your thoughts will be. I'll add your review to mine when it comes up.
Jennifer, of course the cover matters to us. lol. I don't know why but when a cover is beautiful it adds to the story for me too although this story did awesome all on it's own. I'll be watching for your thoughts on it when you get to read it.
Wendy, thanks. I've not heard anything negative on this book either. I hope you get to read it soon.
Kelly, thanks. Thanks for the compliment on my blog too. I really like yours too 🙂
Bonnie, you're so lucky to still have your grandmother with you. I sure wish I did. You should try to get her stories on paper so they are around after everyone is gone. There will be your son and maybe his kids to read it years from now. That would be awesome.
Trish, it was a beautiful, sad and happy book-all of them. You too, are lucky to have your grandmother and be close to her. I sure miss mine.
Ramya, I look forward to your thoughts on this book. Yes, I think women are just so much more emotional with things and that being the reason you'll get a totally different description of a situation from them.
Swapna, thanks. I loved your review as well. I'm looking forward to enjoying more of Karen's work.
Dar, congratulations on finishing the ARC challenge! You are now on level 3, ARC Obsessed! LOL!
Great review! This was a wonderful book, and my first thought when I finished it was “I need to call my gram.” She’s going to be 91 in June. I agree that the elderly have so many fascinating stories to tell if we just stop to listen. I used to work as a waitress in a retirement home, and they’d keep me there for hours chatting and I loved every minute of it.
–Anna
Diary of an Eccentric