About the Book
A woman learns to expand the boundaries of her small world and let love inside it in this sparkling and unforgettable novel by Audrey Burges.
From her attic in the Arizona mountains, thirty-four-year-old Myra Malone blogs about a dollhouse mansion that captivates thousands of readers worldwide. Myra’s stories have created legions of fans who breathlessly await every blog post, trade photographs of Mansion-modeled rooms, and swap theories about the enigmatic and reclusive author. Myra herself is tethered to the Mansion by mysteries she can’t understand—rooms that appear and disappear overnight, music that plays in its corridors.
Across the country, Alex Rakes, the scion of a custom furniture business, encounters two Mansion fans trying to recreate a room. The pair show him the Minuscule Mansion, and Alex is shocked to recognize a reflection of his own life mirrored back to him in minute scale. The room is his own bedroom, and the Mansion is his family’s home, handed down from the grandmother who disappeared mysteriously when Alex was a child. Searching for answers, Alex begins corresponding with Myra. Together, the two unwind the lonely paths of their twin worlds—big and small—and trace the stories that entwine them, setting the stage for a meeting rooted in loss, but defined by love.
My Review
When I first started reading, I had a difficult time getting a handle on what exactly was going on. I worried going into the second chapter that this would be a rare DNF for me, but I wanted to keep going because I could sense the magical realism in here, which is a favorite of mine. I just couldn’t fit all the pieces together to make it make sense, but once it finally happened, I found the story quite riveting. Myra was a curious character to follow, a recluse who has dealt with hardships in life and turned to the internet and her blog to escape her reality and create a new one. Alex comes from a fascinating family, and when he starts to search for more answers about his past, it leads him to Myra. Following that discovery, readers are entertained with romance, family secrets, and tragedy, all centered around a mysterious mansion.
I’m really glad I stuck with this one because especially around the halfway point, I was swept up in the story and trying to understand where it could lead to. This is actually a bit of a hard review to write because the book was quite different from a lot of what I read, and to try to explain it might get convoluted. It could make an interesting book club pick, to get everyone’s take on the mansion, the family at the helm, and Myra’s inclusion of the story. It was great that so many of the characters take on personal growth and we truly see them change and get stronger throughout the pages. A unique read that would be a great addition to your reading list.
4 stars
