📖 Book Review 📖 Over thirty years ago my
Mom built a dollhouse for me, complete with electrical wiring. It was a true labor of love and going to Doctor’s Dollhouse with her as she underwent this feat was such a privilege. It sat preserved in our basement until our girls were old enough and then it was passed down and nothing brings more joy than seeing my kids play with this heirloom. My mom died last year but a piece of her lives on in this special dollhouse she constructed. Elise Hooper’s The Library of Lost Dollhouses beautifully encapsulates this sense of nostalgia and creates a cathartic read, whisking readers away on a journey through the past through the story of lost dollhouses. Told in multiple timelines, Hooper connects the stories of women across generations in a masterful manner.

The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Elise Hooper was a must read for me! For one thing it combines libraries and dollhouses in one story! Written as a dual timeline we meet Tildy who is a curator at the library to beat all libraries in San Francisco. The description makes you want to get on a plane to visit this amazing building. One day Tildy finds a hidden room and discovers two dollhouses that are truly a work of art. Where did they come from and why are they hidden? And what is hidden in them? Loved this story!

When a young librarian discovers historic dollhouses in a hidden room, she embarks on an unexpected journey that reveals surprising secrets about the lost miniatures.

When I first read this sentence of the synopsis of this book I know it was going to be a gem of a book. This book is definitely on to read if you love romance and secrets.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

I enjoyed reading this and traveling through the world in everyone’s stories. How experiencing tragedy and being transformed into the person they are and the choices they made. I would recommend this book to those who like historical fiction as well as LGBTQ, it had some relationships imbedded into the story.

Cora was by far my favorite, I just love the passion she had for making dollhouses for her customers a and adding details to put into perspective of that persons life and secrets.
Tildy was a great character and I enjoyed her evolution throughout the book.

Beautiful!
Magical!
Everything I wish for in a book!
"Spanning the course of a century, The Library of Lost Dollhouses is a warm, bright, and captivating story of secrets and love that embraces the importance of illuminating overlooked women of the past."

The Library of Lost Dollhouses is one of those books that goes back and forth in time, with two narrators slowly spinning out their stories. Tildy is a young librarian who discovers hidden dollhouses in a secret room in the library where she works. Her chapters are told in third person. Cora is the creator of the dollhouses. Her chapters are told in first person.

Tildy has a mysterious connection to the dollhouses that I found hard to accept. Cora has a deep dark secret, about a Bad Thing that she did under pressure, that I really found hard to believe. This is one of those books that very earnestly wants to show different people with different sexual interests in the past, and while inclusion is great, I found the way the author handled it got in the way of my immersion in the story at times.
For example, this passage reads to me like an author note, not something a teenaged girl sexually involved with a female friend would say:

“If such a Sapphic relationship sounds rather advanced, you might be surprised to learn our sudden intimacy didn’t raise any eyebrows. For two young single women of our era, chumminess easily entailed holding hands, even exchanging a few kisses on the cheek.” (p. 191 of the ARC)

There is also a lot of telling, telling, telling of things.

The book seemed well researched, and it was an easy read. I enjoyed the dollhouses and miniatures. But I had a hard time suspending my disbelief for some of the plot twists.

This book seemed like it should have been perfect for me, but we just didn’t click. However, I think it will find many readers who love it. It reminded me of The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis and books by Kate Morton. I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley.

In Elise Hooper's novel, The Library of Lost Dollhouses, Tildy is the dedicated head curator at the Belva Curtis LeFarge Library in San Francisco, and it's her job to know everything about the library. So she is shocked, one day, to find a secret room she never knew existed. In it she discovers a large, intricately detailed dollhouse, a miniature of the Paris home of library founder Belva LeFarge, including tiny copies of some of the paintings currently hanging in the library. A second dollhouse is even larger, in the fashion of a British country estate. Tildy is excited, imagining that a display of these dollhouses might help bolster the library's dwindling funds, but she is taken aback when she finds, in the LeFarge dollhouse, a small portrait that is instantly recognizable as her own deceased mother.

What follows is the tale of Tildy's attempt to look into the history of the dollhouses after discovering that the artist was Cora Hale. The story is told in two timelines--present day and the early to mid-20th century. Cora's life takes many fascinating turns, including interactions with real-life celebrities, travel, war, a celebrated painting, and romance. But dollhouses are her greatest passion, as she aims to incorporate in each one the hidden stories of its owner's life. We follow the lives of both Tildy and Cora and their families in alternating chapters, and it makes for a breathtaking, entertaining read. On one hand, I enjoyed following both women in their quests and their character development. But I equally enjoyed reading about the details of each dollhouse, which are beautifully described by the author, who based the story loosely on her research. I highly recommend it for readers who are looking for something unique.

My thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of the book.

WOW! 5/5
Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers, for an ARC of this wonderful story, The Library of Lost Dollhouses, by Elise Hooper, in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it! About a year ago, I discovered a box of miniature dollhouse pieces when going through my dad’s house and I still remember the feeling of JOY as I unwrapped every amazing piece. Therefore, this title had me excited before I even made it to page 1.

Dual timelines:
2024 Tildy runs a library that, according to the author’s notes, is partially inspired by the Isabelle Stuart Gardner Museum. Tildy stumbles upon a hidden room within the Bel library – short for the Belva Curtis LaFarge library - where she finds two gorgeous dollhouses completely outfitted to look like a 1/12th size replica. Where did it come from and what is the story? As the story unfolded, we learned : “Each of the dollhouses in the Bel’s possession is here because their owner wanted their true stories to be told someday.”

1910: 17-year-old Cora Hale arrives in France after a scandal in NYC. Her parents are both gone, and she needs a place to stay where she can pursue her love of art. Madame Belva LaFarge takes an interest in young Cora and finds a way to ensure she can stay in her boarding house.

The majority of the story took place as we follow the amazing life of fictional Cora Hale, who the author made parallels to several women in history including Carrie Stetthheimer (1869-1944) a theater set designer who re-created her family home in miniature and commissioned several famous friends (so famous I have not heard of them, ha ha) to assist. Another character was modeled after Amelia Earhart and Osa Johnson.

I was lost in the story at many stages but do not want to spoil the parts in case any of you wish to read this when it is released in April, 2025. Any one commission would take YEARS to complete so Cora’s life story, in some ways, was told in stages. Each as if not more interesting than the last. It was fascinating to read about the process of making the pieces and as any good book will do, it had some wonderful relationships formed along the way.

As I often do, I will close my review with some of my favorite passages.

“In fact, dollhouses didn’t really become considered toys until after World War II when mass manufacturing made them affordable to produce. Before that, upper-class women were known to commission dollhouses to show off their wealth as status symbols.”

“There’s actually a psychological rationale to explain our affinity for small things: dollhouses offer us a sense of control and imagination. They can provide a feeling of agency. Miniatures allow us to create the world as we would like to see it.”

“The dollhouse had been the center of my life for three years. Miniatures had changed me. I viewed the world differently now. Everything I saw, no matter if it was a building or a hairbrush, I studied, wondering how I could miniaturize it.” NOTE: I felt this way after I started scrapbooking in the early 2000’s. I started to take pictures base on how I planned to present it on the pages so this passage resonated with me!

“We can get this going up to 28 miles per hour!” I won’t explain this one but it was funny.

A lovely story that stretches across time and Iives. Fiona Davis reminiscent. Touches on so many facets of lives lived and lost, great for curling up with a cup of hot chocolate and getting lost for an afternoon

Embued with wonder, this is a charming novel that manages to be both a page turner and an emotional exploration of women's desires throughout history. Hooper does a wonderful job of weaving the past and the present. The characters within these pages come to life beautifully. Highly recommended for fans of uplifting fiction and women's fiction.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-galley; all opinions in my review are 100% my own.

I loved everything about The Library of Lost Dollhouses, the original and interesting plot, how past and present are seamlessly woven, the depth of the characters, all women with different and interesting special lives, and of course the world of dollhouses and miniatures. I love how the story all comes together via different women, times, locations, and their desire to remain visible in a world so often women aren’t.

this was a great book! I love the wonder feeling when I go to a new library, and this book properly evoked that feeling. I loved the discovery of the miniature dollhouses and hidden secrets along the way. I enjoyed that this book was told through an alternating timeline way!!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Loved the title of the book as I like reading anything about a library. Lovely main character and covered such an array of topics - dollhouses, miniatures, art and women’s history. There is also just the right touch of intrigue. Thanks to HarperCollins for the chance to read this advanced copy.

I have always loved libraries, miniatures, historical fiction and an alternating timeline so this book was perfection. It was so sweet and hopeful. Cora's story was so heartbreaking but also so uplifting and full of promise.

This was an unexpectedly charming novel. The history weaved throughout was very fun! Going from San Francisco to France to England to New Hampshire to LA/Walt Disney, this had so many fun stories to explore.
This is a dual timeline novel split between Cora Hale’s life in the past and Tildy in the present. I actually preferred Tildy’s timeline way more in the first half of the book. I couldn’t really get into Cora’s until about 65% through and then I couldn’t stop reading it.
I will say, I’m surprised this is not listed under the LGBTQ category as it has themes and relationships regarding this. I’m curious why it’s not being marketed that way (I feel like it’s a very big role in this particular novel).

All in all, I enjoyed it. Great writing of an imaginative story! 4 solid stars.

Two of my favorite things wrapped into one - libaries and miniatures.

Tilda works at a historical library museum in San Francisco, and one day, she uncovers a secret room filled with two of the most detailed dollhouses she's ever seen. She quickly uncovers the history of the creator and the story behind them.

The entire backstory is draped in a very quick history and mix of WWI and WWII, secret loves, family histories, women who worked under cover during the wars, even Walt Disney is thrown into the mix.

While this could actually be a much longer detailed historical fiction book about how women were a key component to working during the wars, it instead is a very quick read on how the dollhouses have shaped Tilda's entire existence.

In the end, while this book isn't bad, I found it to be not as immersive as it could have been. I left having more questions than answers. Either it should have been more about the wartime era, or more about the creation of the dollhouses themselves.

This was an entertaining read. The dual timelines work well but Tildy's story fell a little short for me. I kind of got lost as to who her mother was to the main characters and the portion explaining it felt rushed and kind of convoluted.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First, a big thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for the ARC of Elise Hooper’s novel “The Library of Lost Dollhouses" – “When a young librarian discovers historic dollhouses in a hidden room, she embarks on an unexpected journey that reveals surprising secrets about the lost miniatures.”

New Englander, Head Curator, Dollhouses, I feel like this book is begging me to read it. I love that this novel appeals to fans of art, architecture, miniatures, and women’s history. I love how Hooper weaves the lives of two women through a dual timeline - and it is well done!

In 2024, Tildy works as a librarian at a library in San Francisco, enjoying her quiet life until she finds two old dollhouses in a hidden room behind a closet wall, an odd spot for an archival collection. While researching what she found, she discovers an opportunity to save her beloved library and highlight the women of the past into the future. As a librarian and someone very interested in archival work and digitization, this is wildly exciting to me.

While the plot is complex the pacing is great. I think that it is extremely well written, while the story is complex with many characters this book engages its readers. I love the idea of this being a book club pick similar to groups who liked “The Last Garden in England,” “The Lost Apothecary,” and “The Library Book.” I really enjoyed this book a lot and could not put it down. I feel like this title really appeals to the librarian, archivist, and women’s history enthusiast.

Thank you William Morrow Paperbacks for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Harper Collin’s and Net Galley for a review copy of this book.

I haven’t read any of Elise Hooper’s other titles, but I will definitely be adding them to my TBR immediately.

A mix of historical fiction and a modern day love story of mixed media libraries, the reader is immediately drawn into a world of art, love, and secrets. Cora Hale in the early 1900’s is a miniature artist, creating dollhouses as portraitures for those wanting to tell their stories - but their secrets are hidden within the tiny rooms and their furnishings.

In 2024, Tildy works as a librarian at a library in San Francisco, enjoying her quiet life until she stumbles upon two old dollhouses in a hidden room behind a closet wall. Researching what she has found brings an opportunity to save her old library and bring these women’s pasts to the future. (As a librarian - I would kill for this to happen!)

Extremely well written. While the story is complex and there are many characters, it really pulls the reader in quickly. I felt like I was in Paris and London with Cora (definitely the stronger of the two time lines) and I think I fell a little in love with her myself.

Hoping Elise Hooper will be making a tour next year when this comes out - Reading with Robin and An Unlikely Story, I’m looking at you!

An interesting story of finding dollhouses in a secret room in the library, and the search for the meanings behind the dollhouses leads to finding more dollhouses.