A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about all the books I’ve read in 2019. Which was the best book? Nothing sprang to life for me. Now, having read the “The Dutch House” I have my top pick for 2019. Patchett has created a story with interesting characters in an enchanted setting. It is almost like a fairy tale brought to life.

As children, siblings Danny and Maeve live with their parents in the large, expensively decorated Dutch House. Then one day their mother disappears. She’s gone to India according to their father. Several years later their father remarries. Upon his death the sibling’s step-mother banishes Danny, then 16, and Maeve, 22, from their home. An education trust provides Danny with the means to attend a private boarding school and then college. Maeve continues working at what she thought would be only a summer job. What happens to the pair as they make their way through life is told through Danny’s eyes. But, always in the background is The Dutch House.

Patchett writes about family as they deal with life’s challenges. While the story may seem rather ordinary the magnificent writing, pulled me in as if I was there, just behind Danny. “The Dutch House” is hauntingly magical, and truly magnificent work.

[Dear NetGalley + HarperCollins, I will add a review of 'The Dutch House' ASAP but I wanted to give it a Library Reads vote before the July 31 deadline. I highly recommend the book and will detail why before its publication date....!]

Ann Patchett is one of my favorite authors and I was so excited to read this book! It's the story of a brother and sister trying to make sense of their past and present, all of which seems to be tied up in their childhood home, the Dutch House. The writing is beautiful and I really enjoyed the storyline. Thank you to Netgalley and Harper for letting me read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of the lives of brother and sister who are displaced from their family home when their father dies and leaves everything to his new bride and her daughters. Over the years they revisit the neighborhood to observe the home and reminisce and connect.

I know Ann Patchett has a large following and so I was excited to read one of her books. Her writing is excellent but her storytelling felt flat. The characters were interesting, but not compelling. The story just meandered without much suspense or drama. That being said, when I set down my Kindle, I did want to return to see where the story was going to go. It just didn't go very far.

I didn't dislike the book, but I didn't love it either. I will try another of her books someday. Maybe it was just this book, or maybe it was just me. 3.25 stars if I could.

Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Collins for the eARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

#DutchHouse #NetGalley #HarperCollins #AnnPatchett

Another wonderful novel by Ann Patchett with realistically complex characters and, of course, fantastic writing that immediately draws you in to the story. Maeve and Danny are close-knit siblings who dissect their memories to try to understand their childhoods and navigate the aftermath of their personal traumas. Patchett interjects events from the past and reveals how some consequences play out in the future, which adds satisfying depth for the reader. This will be an excellent selection for book clubs, which will likely incite lively discussions surrounding the power of memory, the constraints of perspective, and "the ties that bind."

I told this book to my soul in pieces.

We're all so fucking flawed. We're all so fucking beautiful.

I wanted to love this book so much, and I did for for the first three quarters. I felt that the ending was rushed and unsatisfying in the effort to bring it to a logical conclusion.

The plight of two children, Danny and Maeve, grabbed me from the beginning - the story of a sister and her young brother whose mother disappeared from their gilded mansion in the Philadelphia suburbs and left them and their father in the care of a cook, a nursemaid, and a housekeeper. The children are later turned out of the house by their stepmother, Andrea.

The house in which they lived, called the Dutch house because of the previous owners, seems to be the center of the novel. The house and their past family life continue to influence Maeve and Danny as they make their own future without the benefit of their father's house or fortune

Intense and forceful, the story narrated by Danny, held on to me, the reader, till the very end. The characters Elna and the stepmother Andrea are two opposites, distinct in their response to and relationship to the Dutch house.

A five-star recommendation.

A gorgeous, moving and intimate character study, Patchett does it again! The Dutch House and its inhabitants pull you in right from the beginning of this elegant and melancholy novel.

Another good book by Ann Patchett. A well written tale of a family that gets torn apart by a mother who leaves her children so she can go help the poor. The father is an unemotional, emotionally neglectful father who marries a woman whose only reason for marrying him was that she wanted his house. Told by Danny the son in the family, we learn about the events that shaped his life, his sister Maeve’s life and others who had an influence in the family.

Ms Patchett has written a great tale that is hard to forget after the last page is read.

Not sure how I feel about this one. Maybe I'm just tired of reading about dysfunctional families (aren't they all?). Certainly well-written (as one would expect from Ann Patchett), with engaging characters and a well-paced story. However, when I finished, my overwhelming response was "so what." Not sure it was worth the investment, but maybe that's more a reflection of my mood than the book itself. I'll keep reading Ann Patchett, so make up your own mine.

I really wanted to love this book because I love Ann Pachett, but it felt achingly slow to me. It lacked the suspense of many of her earlier books, I had no incentive to keep reading besides wanting to finish, and hoping it would start to feel compelling. Maybe to scope was too grand, to follow a story from a young boy through his later adulthood. Some of the characters felt underdeveloped and I didn't get the sense I really knew any of them besides Danny, the narrator, and his sister.

All that being said, I am sure some people will love this book. The architectural descriptions, the bits of American history, etc. And I didn't hate it, I just had higher expectations.

Very good book on the lingering effects of family life and environs. Told through the eyes of a young man throughout the course of his life. Another great Patchett book

Many thanks to Harper Books and Netgalley for letting me experience this one before release. It was wonderful. I have read every book Ann Patchett has written, and always enjoyed them, but this one is one her her best. Danny and Maeve are such complete characters, and the Dutch house such a haunting place. I only wish Patchett had written an even longer book. I did not want it to end. I tweeted this morning, and will look for an opportunity to place a review.

This is the story of a house and a family who lives in the house, and what happens to them even when they don't live in the house anymore. I love books like this, where you just get to know the characters and their stories unspool as you travel with them back and forth in time. Danny and Maeve live in the Dutch House in the 1950s-60s with their father, a cook, and a housekeeper after their mother leaves when they're little. Then their father's new wife and her little girls move in and push them out. The bulk of the story is Danny and Maeve trying to figure out how that could happen and how to let go of the Dutch House. But it's more than that, and it's impossible to describe. I loved it.

Fabulous new title from renowned author Ann Patchett; this is, in my opinion, one of her best! This is the story of brother and sister Danny and Maeve, and their life in the luxurious and artful Dutch House. Following them from adolescence to adulthood, the reader is taken on a moving journey that raising many questions on the meaning of family.

Ann Patchett's latest novel THE DUTCH HOUSE is a book to be savored. As a fan of Patchett's work, I was delighted to be able to read this story that lives on the literary borderlands of dark fairy tale and family drama.

Siblings Danny and Maeve Conroy's story is told across five decades. It's a story about their relationship and bond. About the forces that bond them and threaten to tear them apart.

The Dutch house itself is both a place and a character in the novel. It's symbolic of the paradise they once had and what was lost and what we're left to wonder if it can ever be found again.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The novel is based upon the inhabitants of and employees at a house that was maintained as a sort of shrine to its original owners. The relationships within the family, step-family, and workers are complicated and interesting.

The Dutch House-think: Hansel and Gretel and the house made of candy. Think: Cinderella's wicked stepmother but with not so wicked stepsisters. Think: not so fairy tale ending.
Danny Conroy narrates the story of the Dutch House and the people who live there beginning when he was eight and his father brought Andrea home to meet his sister Maeve and him. Immediately you will sense that the house is an important character. Danny moves back and forth in time, which can sometimes make you pause and look back (hence four stars rather than five). Constant questions pop up. Why did Maeve and Danny's mother leave? Did Cyril choose Andrea, or did Andrea choose the house? The answers are often surprising which adds to the experience.
I came to love Danny and Maeve, as well as the supporting characters. Ann Patchett's ability to weave and expand the storyline while developing the characters through the years is remarkable. As always, she dies not disappoint. I look forward to recommending this book.

"The Dutch House" is the story of a mansion and the family that lives there: Danny Conroy, his older sister Maeve and his father Cyril. Danny's mother left the family before he can remember.

Brilliant but female in the 1950s, Maeve serves as Danny's protector. Their father shares his knowledge of real estate and construction with Danny on Saturdays as they drive around collecting rent, but he has no interest in sharing memories or affection with his children.

When Cyril brings home a new wife and her two daughters, Danny and Maeve lose their standing and spend decades trying to process how it happened and why.

Ann Patchett's storytelling talent and unique characters make this a joy to read and an experience to remember.