The Forgotten Room
Karen White, Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, 2016
Penguin Publising Group
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780451474629
Summary
Three bestselling authors come together in a masterful collaboration—a rich, multigenerational novel of love and loss that spans half a century.
1945:
When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion.
Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate? And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?
In their pursuit of answers, they find themselves drawn into the turbulent stories of Gilded Age Olive Van Alen, driven from riches to rags, who hired out as a servant in the very house her father designed, and Jazz Age Lucy Young, who came from Brooklyn to Manhattan in pursuit of the father she had never known. But are Kate and Cooper ready for the secrets that will be revealed in the Forgotten Room?
The Forgotten Room, set in alternating time periods, is a sumptuous feast of a novel brought to vivid life by three brilliant storytellers. (From the publisher.)
Author Bios
Karen White
... pursued a degree in business and graduated cum laude with a BS in Management from Tulane University. Ten years later, after leaving the business world, she fulfilled her dream of becoming a writer and wrote her first book. In the Shadow of the Moon was published in August, 2000. Her books have since been nominated for numerous national contests including the SIBA (Southeastern Booksellers Alliance) Fiction Book of the Year, and has twice won the National Readers’ Choice Award
Karen hails from a long line of Southerners but spent most of her growing up years in London, England and is a graduate of the American School in London. When not writing, she spends her time reading, scrapbooking, playing piano, and avoiding cooking. She currently lives near Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and two children, and two spoiled Havanese dogs.
Beatriz Williams
... is a graduate of Stanford University with an MBA from Columbia. She spent several years in New York and London hiding her early attempts at fiction, first on company laptops as a corporate and communications strategy consultant, and then as an at-home producer of small persons.
She now lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore, where she divides her time between writing and laundry. (From the author's website.)
Lauren Willig
... is the New York Times bestselling author of fifteen works of historical fiction. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages, awarded the RITA, Booksellers Best and Golden Leaf awards, and chosen for the American Library Association's annual list of the best genre fiction.
After graduating from Yale University, she embarked on a PhD in English History at Harvard before leaving academia to acquire a JD at Harvard Law while authoring her "Pink Carnation" series of Napoleonic-set novels. She lives in New York City, where she now writes full time. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Three's a charm as New York Times best-selling authors White (A Long Time Gone), Beatriz Williams (A Hundred Summers), and Lauren Willig (the "Pink Carnation" series) join forces to craft a...mystery linking three generations of women...to one gracious room in a Gilded Age mansion.
Library Journal
Strong female characters, swoon-worthy romance, and red herrings abound in this marvelous genre blend of romance, historical fiction, and family saga.
Booklist
This sumptuous, suspenseful and heart-wrenching story will keep you up all night...Readers will be utterly enthralled.
Romance Times Reviews
With all three stories taking place in the same location, the novel is filled with both coincidences and parallels, the past finding ways to repeat itself until it reaches a satisfying conclusion. Even with three authors, the story is seamless, and the transitions between narrators are smooth....a compelling and emotionally worthwhile novel.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these Litlovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Forgotten Room...then take off on your own:
1. Kate, Olive and Lucy have different personalities, but they also have some common traits. Talk about how the women differ and the ways in which they're similar.
2. Of the three entwined stories that make up The Forgetting Room, which character(s) were you most drawn to? Which character's story held your interest more than the others? Or were they all equally compelling?
4. What was your experience reading the novel? Did the alternating chapters hold together seamlessly or did you find the shifts jarring?
5. A central concern in the novel, is the power of love, whether appropriate or not. Trace the paths of love in this book. Discuss how love has consequences beyond the two people involved and their time.
6. Lies and secrets are also a major theme in The Forgotten Room: the way they ripple, like a pebble thrown into a pond, through time and across generations. How were the characters affected by the many secrets eventually uncovered in the book. What responsibilities for truth and openness do all of us have to the generations that follow us?
7. As the mystery unraveled itself during the course of the novel, were there any points where you felt you had the answers to the riddles? If so, were your predictions born out...or were you wrong?
(We'll add the publishers' questions when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, feel free to use LitLovers with attribution. Thanks.)