My Rating: 3.5 stars
I had wanted to read this book primarily because of the historical setting and in a way, from a historical perspective, the author Fiona Davis was able to deliver, as she did a pretty good job establishing a sense of time and place with her vivid descriptions of the Dakota apartment house building in New York City, the infamous location where Beatles lead singer John Lennon was murdered back in 1980. The present day narrative does refer to the Lennon murder in a historical context, but that's about the extent it goes, as the main story itself is a fictional one about the Camden family and their connection to the Dakota.
Through a dual timeline primarily taking place in New York City in 1885 and 100 years later in 1985, the Dakota is the link that binds the two past and present narratives together. The first narrative is about a woman named Sara Smythe who, through a chance encounter with architect Theodore Camden in London in 1884, is hired on to become manager of the new apartment house complex he was in charge of building in New York City, called the Dakota. Once Sara arrives in New York, she is able to put her skills to good use and rise above the circumstances in an era when women were looked down upon and given little respect. In the second narrative, taking place in 1985, Bailey Camden is a recovering alcoholic who finds herself in desperate circumstances after completing rehab, so she reconnects with her cousin Melinda, the official heir to the Camden legacy, and is tasked with redesigning her apartment in the Dakota. The 2 narratives start to collide when Bailey finds 3 trunks belonging to Sara, Theodore, and his wife Minnie in the storage area of the building, which sets off a "mystery" of sorts with Bailey trying to find out what exactly happened 100 years ago as well as her own connection to that past.
This was a simply written story and a good choice for a quick, enjoyable summer read. While I liked it enough overall, I felt that there was not much depth to the story or the characters, which was one reason why I couldn't rate this book any higher than I did. The story was quite typical and predictable and the way some of the events unfolded felt a bit too contrived – there were times I felt like I was reading an outline with a series of events filled in neatly one after another, all leading to an ending that I pretty much already figured out halfway through the book. I did appreciate the historical elements that Davis was able to incorporate into both narratives, though I will admit that I was a little disappointed when the second half of the book strayed a bit and focused more on the mystery and romance aspects of the story rather than the history. There were also a few sections where the way certain characters were written, their reaction to things that happened either didn't make a whole lot of sense or wasn't strong enough, which I think contributed to why I wasn't really able to connect with the characters much.
In the author's note, Davis indicates that this story is a "blend of historical fact and fiction" and for me, it was interesting to find out which parts were real versus the ones that were made up. I actually did a little bit of Google searching afterwards, as the book had piqued my interest in the Dakota (I live in California and have never been to New York, so I had no idea about the landmark's historical background) and was happy to see that many of the historical details Davis had incorporated were quite accurate. With that said however, I also feel that the historical context was a little underused at some points when there was opportunity to make it stand out more. I've seen this book marketed as historical fiction but to me, it felt more like a "cozy mystery in a historical setting" – regardless though, the story was quite readable, just not really what I expected.
Received ARC from Dutton / Random House via Penguin First-to-Read program.
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