This tale swept me away. With an atmosphere reminiscent of National Treasure, I devoured this mystery about the lost colony of Roanoke.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2023 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2023/01/2023-reading-list-announced-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

I really struggled with this book. I found it had a very slow start, there's was lots of information but not a lot going on. The story is based around real historical information, but I just couldn't get into it. I felt like there wasn't really a lot of plot, it felt a bit more of a history dump of information. There is a nice story of a mother and daughter relationship, but still even then I just couldn't find the love for the characters. I think it would be more interesting for big fans of historical fiction.

So much mystery. The passing of something from generation to generation, and the people who are affected makes a great story. I liked the characters, and didn't know exactly what was going to happen which is always nice. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

DNF. I made it about half way through the book. The historical aspect interested me and I did enjoy the strong women portrayal, as well as the historical context. However I just couldn’t connect with the characters at all. I don’t know if it was just me but I really didn’t have a connection where I felt I cared enough to finish the book.

The stones of Eleanor Dare were unfamilar to me when I started this story. The Lost Colony of Roanoke is the historical link to the story. This is a creative story that follows mother Alice and daughter Penn during the later years of WWII. They have gone out to Alice’s family estate in Georgia to settle things after the death of both her mother (long ago) and her father, recently. A war widow, Alice is hesitant about returning to the town where she grew up. Her mother suffered mental illness and that greatly shaped Alice’s sense of self through her growing up years and into the present.
Family friend Sonder has stayed on the scene all these years to watch over the estate.
Penn and her mother need to learn how to navigate as a team after they have lost so much and are seeking their new path. They easily find the Commonplace book that has been handed down from Eleanor Dare’s mother through all generations of Dare women and their daughters. It gives advice, though the holders of the book often believe it to have special charms for the descendants.

This is essentially about Alice Young, a widow, and her 13-year-old daughter Penn in the final days of WWII. The story begins in 1945, just before the end of the war, when upon the death of her father, she inherits her childhood home Evertell, where her mother had died decades prior. Alice is one of the descendants of Eleanor White Dare, a survivor of the lost colony of Roanoke that was settled in 1587 by Eleanor’s father. I enjoyed alot of this but for me it just moved slowly and the flashbacks were often confusing in the timeline. Penn and Alice's relationship with Sonder were the highlights for me.

DNF - I thought this would be the type of book that I would love seeing as I typically really enjoy Historical Fiction but, I don't think I'm the target reader here. I really love the cover art though & it seems clear that many other readers have found ample to enjoy & appreciate here!

A real life, centuries old mystery surrounding the fate of Eleanor Dare and her carved stone whispered across time and gave wings to Kimberly Brock's storytelling imagination. Kimberly plants her story in 1945, and then carefully reveals its deep roots. It’s an exquisite story about being found and seen - about finding your way and feeling lost. And - wow - the truths Kimberly illuminates along the way about mothers and daughters! The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare is about family legacy and the timeless desire to be remembered. And actor Brittany Pressley’s narration and accent work is spot on. She walks with Kimberly’s characters and transports the listener back, back, back in time and then home again.

Firstly, I would like to thank Netgalley & Harper Muse for the opportunity to receive a complimentary copy of The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare by Kimberly Brock. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own, and I also want to apologize for reviewing the book after its publication date.
I never heard the stories of Eleanor Dare, the lost inhabitants of the first colony of Virginia, or the lost rocks of Eleanor Dare. There​ were​ times in the book when the description or narrative seem​ed​ to run long and maybe ​felt ​unnecessary. Still, I realized that every paragraph, sentence, and word contained valuable information and touching emotions that could not be left out or overlooked.​
​There is so much magic and mystery, but at the same time, all of the leading and secondary characters are dealing with some grief.
What impressed me was when Alice took Penn to the Jewish Cemetary and explained the stone tradition.
I had some trouble with the plot's pacing, but I believe I committed to reading the book as an audiobook, and second, I wanted to write my review at Netgalley.
The quote I take from this book is the following. "...we are not to be content with simply being part of the story and may choose to be the storytellers."

How many of us have wondered about Eleanor Dare and the Lost Colony of Roanoke? I have since I first heard of it in grade school. It became one of my favorite real-life mysteries upon which to ponder. . .

Totally absorbed in this read, I appreciated the mother-daughter theme throughout the book, the homecoming feel for the characters, and then the alternating reveals in time and place as the story unfolds between present and past. The interactions between Sonder and Penn, two people who'd lost so much having the surprise of each other suddenly thrown together appealed to me.

Twisting history, actual and hoped for (we do hope, don't we? We all want Eleanor to have made it through somehow, to have survived all the terror and trauma), the author took me away for a few days, and laid out a delightful way to resolve all those questions about how it just might have gone for Eleanor. . .

A Sincere Thank You to Kimberly Brock, Harper Muse and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review. #TheLostBookofEleanorDare #NetGalley

With a deceptively meandering pace, The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare by Kimberly Brock wends its way through the history of a family as Alice returns to her childhood home for the first time since she was thirteen and failed to realize the gift of the female descendants of Eleanor Dare and began to blame herself for a tragedy that had already been set in motion.

Set toward the end of World War II this is a story of reckoning with the past, of grief and loss, and the love and perseverance of generations of women beginning in the early history of America and the lost colony of Roanoke. As Alice and her own thirteen year old daughter Penn navigate the secrets and the history of their family along with the realities of the family estate, Evertell, and the community that Alice had left behind.

Blending mystery, family drama, true history and Southern mysticism, Kimberly Brock has crafted a story of generations and the legacy that haunts and shapes them. This is a captivating work of historical fiction. Recommended.

This review refers to a temporary digital galley that I requested and read via NetGalley, courtesy of the author. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own.

I had a little higher hopes for this story, I thought the pacing was ok but we don't get much of Eleanor Dare until about halfway through. I do enjoy literary/historical fiction, the story telling is always slow moving and you really get to enjoy the story being told. I enjoyed the characters and the setting for the most part. But there were also moments when I wasn't fully engaged and lost a little interest. But overall a decent story with multiple timelines and POV's.

The synopsis of this book pulled me in, as the lost colony of Roanoke has always been one of those intriguing historical mysteries. This book was good, but it was more focused on the fictional family history and sort of bringing closure to elements of the family's past. I think readers will enjoy this book as long as they understand the focus is really not on the lost colony.

Wow! Kimberly Brock has such a beautiful writing style and I couldn't put this book down. Living is the south, I was so surprised that I didn't know more about the Dare stones and after reading this book I am fascinated! The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare is very well-written historical fiction novel that tells the story of the decedents of Eleanor Dare, a member of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. The characters are relatable and you root for them, there is mystery around the stones, family relationships and discovery, girl power, romance, and more. Anytime I can read a great story and learn about history at the same time, I am a happy woman. I loved this book so much I read it on my kindle and listened to the audiobook as well. The narrator, Brittany Pressley, was fantastic! Her southern accent was authentic and was perfect for this story. I highly recommend reading this book and reading the author's notes at the end (and also check out Kimberly Brock's website for her book club kit). It adds icing to the Eleanor Dare cake!

This one was a miss for me. It was a good book but wasn't very fast paced. It seemed very slow and wordy. Also the middle of the book was very slow, very long and didn't hold my attention. I had a hard time sticking with this book and put it down multiple times.

The writing is wonderful and beautiful and I feel like this just was a bad pick for me. The book will probably work better for someone who is more into women's empowerment and that. Just wasn't what I was looking for at the time.

For Historical Fiction lovers, The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare will be a fascinating read. The cover is so beautiful and the story follows distant relatives as they discover their relation to Eleanor Dare, one of the original settlers in the Roanoke Colony in Virginia. If you love multi generational stories with female main characters, then you'll love this book.
I felt like it was a little slow in places, which led me to lay it down from time to time.

I think this book is hit-or-miss, and for me it was a miss, though I wanted to like it a lot. To me it just felt like it wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be, and wasn't cohesive.

I enjoyed the prose in this novel immensely. The style I had a little bit of trouble with at first because it was different but it was good! So it turned out to be a slow read for me which is fine but I have to be in the mood for that! I love Roanoke stories and I enjoy witchy vibes so this was all around a pretty good read for me. It was a slow read for me which is unusual since normally I slice thru novels like buttah, hence the 4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

If this book had just stuck to the story of Alice, and her daughter, Penn, it would have been much stronger. Instead, Brock chose to make it more convoluted by throwing in their family history: they are descended from Eleanor Dare, the only survivor of the lost colony of Roanoake. And supposedly, Eleanor left behind a book that has been passed down through all the generations of female Dare descendents since 1585 through to 1945, when the book takes place. Or maybe the book was just the invention of Eleanor's mother? And there's a stone that she carved soemthing on, that was lost, but then found, but then lost again? This is where a started to get bogged down, and ultimately, I found that I just didn't care enough about this part of the story.

I liked Penn and Alice as characters, though, and was interested enough to want to know what happened to them. Did Alice ever come to terms with her mother's mental illness and death? Was Penn able to get a fresh start and make friends? Were they able to come to terms with each other in the wake of Penn's father's death? There's more than enough there for a good story without the intrigue.