The House of Lost Whispers by Jenni Keer

 

"Few people noticed anything amiss as it lasted the tiniest fraction of a second. A jolt in our physical existence. A juddering of time..."

"I create joy in my daydreams because I've experienced sorrow in my life." As she said those words, she realised how true they were. Her fantasies had never been more important, carried more weight, than after she'd been orphaned".

"It was ridiculous really; a building couldn't care for you, and yet every time she stepped inside, she felt connected to something greater, something beyond its hexagonal walls".

The House of Lost Whispers by Jenny Keer is an emotional, heartfelt story, a mix of historical fiction, romance and a speculative fiction.

Blurb:

The House of Lost Whispers

On 15th April 1912, RMS Titanic sank and 1500 people lost their lives. But what if it stayed afloat?

When the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic leaves thirteeen-year-old Olivia Davenport orphaned, she's sent to live with her guardians, the Fairchilds, in their huge Jacobean mansion - Merriford Manor. But the Fairchilds have more to worry about than a grieving young girl - with war in Europe imminent and four sons to protect.

Olivia feels alone and friendless. That is, until she hears a voice from behind the wall in her tower bedroom. A voice from a man called Seth. At first, she thinks he's a ghost. But it soon becomes clear that he lives in an overlapping world that is just a shudder in time away from her own. A world where the Titanic never sank... And everything since has been just slightly... different.

All Olivia wants is to find a way into his reality. And not just to see the faces of her beloved parents once again. But also to meet Seth. Who might be the love of her life.

An utterly unforgettable reading group historical novel, that is part romance, part gripping mystery, and part completely heartbreaking First World War historical fiction. Perfect for fans of Titanic, In Memoriam and Lucinda Riley.

The House of Lost Whispers is a strange tale of parallel worlds, one of them as we know it, and another, happening in the alternate reality, where the Titanic had never sank, yet the major catastrophic events of the XXth C still occurred.

Olivia Davenport becomes an orphan at a tender age of 13, having lost both her parents on the doomed Titanic trip across the Atlantic. Bereft and distressed, she finds herself under the guardianship of the Fairchilds, who were good friends of her late parents.

The Jacobean estate of Merrifield Manor is sprawling, with its beautiful grounds, picturesque gardens and two towers.

The Fairchilds are the typical aristocratic family of their time, they don't know how to express their feelings, they are not even used to hug their own children, brought up by nannies and sent off to schools to be educated. Olivia has been brought up differently, she misses the human touch, being hugged and comforted. She also has an over-vivid imagination.

In many ways, Olivia resembles Anne of Green Gables, with the same often exasperating idealism and ingenuity, and a total lack of boundaries or any understanding of when to stop with her fanciful ideas. On the one hand, play-acting her fantasies is her escapism and way of coping with the enormous grief, on the other, you realise that she's been like that even before she lost her parents. Olivia is very naive, being cossetted and indulged all her life by her loving family, and doesn't fathom the consequences of inventing foolish lies of romantic origins. In many ways, she is vexing and annoying.

The Fairchilds try their best to be kind to her, even allowing her to indulge in her romantic notions of staying in a tower. Olivia feels adrift and rather isolated. There are four sons in the family, and only the youngest, Benji, becomes her adoring acolyte, folowing her like a puppy.

Everything would change one night, when Olivia happens to hear a mysterious voice, emanating from behind the wall of her tower bedroom. At first, she believes she's being pranked, or perhaps it is a ghost... Or could it be that Seth "was here to help her navigate her unimaginable grief... This disembodied voice was her very own creation, manufactured to help her step into this new phase of life. He was here to help and then he, too, would simply disappear".

It takes them a long time to figure out that theirs voices come from the parallel realities. 

One heartbeat from her own, there is an alternate world, where the Titanic never sank, where her parents are still alive.

"It was only natural that she would want to believe that her parents hadn't perished in the icy North Atlantic Ocean but that would mean that Seth was a real person - and what? There was another version of this world somewhere in the universe, much like the world that Alice had stepped into through the looking glass..."

Sparks fly, there is an undeniable connection between Olivia and Seth. Is there a way to bridge the chasm between their two parallel worlds? As their relationship develops across the divide, and the bond deepens, defying the restrictions of time and space, the looming shadows of the First World War threaten both their realities. 

The story weaves together the threads of real history with the elements of the supernatural, and a poignant romance, presenting a mesmerising version of the world that might have happened.

I loved the concept of the parallel worlds, touching each other via the tower wall and never intersecting. At the same time, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending (which I'm not going to spoil). 

The House of Lost Whispers is a captivating, thought-provoking story which celebrates life's possibilities. A novel of loss and grief, love and hope, emotional resilience and second chances.

Potential triggers: murder, war deaths, scenes of sexual nature (only mentioning it because some of my readers prefer the so called clean romance; they are not exactly graphic, but some people might be uncomfortable with reading them).

This post is part of the blog tour for The House of Lost Whispers.

Many thanks to Jenny Keer, The Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/HouseLostWhispers

Author Bio –

Jenni Keer lives in the glorious Suffolk countryside with her four grown up children, three demanding cats, but just the one husband. She is often frustrated by their inability to appreciate that when she's staring into space, she's actually working, and that watching television counts as research. Much younger in her head than she is on paper, she adores any excuse for fancy-dress and is part of a disco formation dance team.

Keer has written two contemporary rom coms and five quirky historicals, with two more due out in 2025.

The best-selling No. 23 Burlington Square (her 1920s sliding doors mystery) has now sold over 100,000 copies.

 

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