The Story Keeper, Kelly Rimmer (Review by Darlene Smoliak)
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
The Story Keeper by Kelly Rimmer kept me reading late into the night. I didn’t want to put it down and kept telling myself just one more chapter. This story completely captivated me from the first page with an old rambling family estate full of secrets that may or may not be haunted and a mystery that begged to be solved.
Fiona, a historical architect, has had a rough year with her marriage ending. It’s best she makes a fresh start so when her Uncle Tad passes and the house she lived in for a time as a young girl, Wurimbirra, goes up for sale, she buys it. The house needs a lot of work but this is what Fiona needs and her dream is to restore the house to what it once was. The house is rumoured to be haunted but Fiona doesn’t believe in all of that, even as some strange things start to occur and she finds it impossible to get anyone out to fix anything.
As Fiona is going through things she stumbles upon a unopened box with copies of a novel called The Midnight Estate in it and her curiosity is immediately piqued. As she reads she discovers that this story is strangely mirroring her own life and it’s somewhat disturbing. Did her uncle write this under a pen name? Does this novel have anything to do with her own family? She’s beginning to think that it holds the answers to some very old family secrets that have been kept hidden for years.
The Midnight Estate is a story within the story and it was intriguing watching it unfold and seeing Fiona put together the pieces of the past as fiction and reality collided. I also love how this book, and what it revealed brought Fiona and her mother back to a place of healing their own relationship and gave Fiona the new lease on life she had been looking for.
I really enjoyed this story, the characters, and even the house in all of its gothic glory. I do want to say that the story within the story does have mention of domestic abuse but it is crucial to the story so take care. I love that the author tackled the subject to bring about more awareness to a very important topic.
The Story Keeper is an emotional and beautifully written story of love, loss, deeply buried secrets, and new beginnings. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it!