Patty Pick is The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams & Lauren Willig

I really liked this book! Karen White is one of my favorite writers anyway, so when I saw this book written by her and two other terrific writers, I was definitely interested. Karen White has a really nice way of introducing female characters you can relate to and her female characters are usually facing some type of emotional crossroads. In this book, "The Forgotten Room," we meet three, interesting strong women who seem to have a connection from the start.

It took me a while to get used to going back and forth from one
generation in time to another and that relationship between the main characters. I guess my old brain just doesn't keep ahold of the facts like it used to! Once I had them down, the jumping back and forth with the characters made more sense, and I loved seeing how they were related. The intertwining relationships were fascinating to watch/read. The novel revolves around Olive, Lucy and Kate. Their lives, connections, families and the world around them unwinds to show us the effects of the decisions from the women and men in the earlier generations and how those touched the life of their daughters and granddaughters.

Our tale opens with Kate saving the leg of Captain Ravenel against the judgement of her boss. She is a doctor working in the old Pratt mansion that is now a hospital. Needless to say, a female doctor during this time in our history, World War II, was rare. Kate had to fight hard for the respect she deserved as a doctor in a man's world and she had to suffer through discrimation for being a woman doctor from her fellow male doctors and female staff. She is drawn to Captain Ravenal and he to her. Copper Ravenel has her image in a portrait belonging to his grandfather, but it couldn't possibly be
Kate, right?

The story revolves around the choices each woman made over the years, going back to the first character Olive. Olive's father was a well-respected architect and built the house for the Pratt family who lived in the house. The house later became a rooming house, which rented a room to Lucy later to live in and was now the hospital that Kate works in. We watch how each woman makes choices that effect later generations and themselves, all the time this house plays a part in their lives. I enjoyed very much reading this historical fiction. Thinking about the ways my mother and grandmother's choices effected my life, made this story resonate with me. I don't want to ruin
the story for anyone, but this well-written book deserves a read! 4.5 Stars!!