THE FORGOTTEN ROOM – Karen White, Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig
A Perfect 10
NAL
ISBN-10: 0451474627
ISBN-13: 978-0451474629
January 2016
Historical Fiction

New York City

This is the story of a mansion and a room in that mansion that plays an important part in the lives of three women, Olive, her daughter, Lucy, and Lucy's daughter, Kate.

1944
Young Dr. Kate Schuyler has been assigned to work at Stornaway Hospital in New York City, where she struggles to overcome the prejudice of being a woman physician, and to thwart the advances of the senior doctor. When a badly wounded Army captain is brought in to the already over-crowded hospital, Kate gives up her room at the top of the former mansion to him. His emotional insistence that no one take off his leg hits Kate hard, and she must fight the senior doctor over this. But it's Captain Ravenel's response to seeing her that makes her care more personal. He seems to know her, or recognize her, and as they come to know each other better, Kate and the captain also begin to notice the room he is in.

1892
Olive Van Alan has taken a job as a maid for the Pratt family in their newly built mansion. Although well-educated and the daughter of the architect who designed the house, Olive is in the Pratt mansion for other reasons. Shortly after it was finished, the senior Pratt refused to pay Olive's father, thus destroying his reputation and career. And after he killed himself, Olive vowed to find out why Pratt did this to her father. It was on one of her night-time forays to search Pratt's desk that Olive meets one of her employer's twin sons, Harry. All Harry wants to do is paint, and he befriends Olive, determined to make her his muse. Olive is flattered, and attracted to Harry, but she knows if the elder Pratt discovers them, that her plan to exonerate her father will fail.

1920
Lucy Young works for a prestigious law firm and lives in a boarding house that used to be known as the Pratt mansion. She has purposely moved there as well as taken the job at the law firm because they handled the Pratt estate. The junior partner was, in fact, stepson to the last of the Pratt family, Prunella. Moving in to the mansion, Lucy recognizes the St. George and the dragon painting that her own mother had painted in her room. Her mother's mysterious reaction when Lucy asked about it has always remained in her thoughts, even though her mother had died the previous year of the influenza.

All three women come to discover different feelings in the hidden room at the top of the house. A portrait miniature, the St. George mural, a name whispered, and the mystery of Harry's disappearance draw Olive, Lucy, and Kate together across the years. Beautifully written by the three authors, each story seamlessly takes readers through the decades.

THE FORGOTTEN ROOM is a novel to be cherished on a cold winter's night. Each woman will draw readers in emotionally. Don't miss this Perfect 10 – it's a winner.

Jani Brooks