This was such a good premise, and I'm really loving all the stories of Roanoke/Eleanor Dare lately! I love the cover, and I was super excited to read this. I thought the author did a great job of creating a mystical atmosphere, but the overall story didn't completely work for me. I was looking for more of a connection and Roanoke story. I would have liked that to be more incorporated into the overall story. The second half of the book was stronger than the first half. I would still look for more books by this author, so I don't think this was a bad book by any means, I was just looking for a bit more.

If you liked Where the Crawdads Sing or anything by Alice Hoffman, this is the book for you!

Toward the end of WW2, Alice and her daughter Penn find themselves reeling in grief after a string of painful passings in their family, forcing Alice to return to Evertell, the home she has hidden for a decade. Alice must revisit a past she thought she escaped, reliving the trauma of her childhood as she finally shares the family history she shielded her daughter from. It's not all darkness and grief, as Evertell possesses a mythical, otherworldly quality that just might nurture and heal decades old wounds.

This is a book for mothers and daughters who constantly redefine their relationship, for families working through the residual trauma of their ancestors, for mental health survivors, for proud southerners. You will be transported to a different time through characters you wish could help solve your problems. There is a gentleness Brock writes with that tells us it's ok to not be ok and encourages us to lean on those going through similar cycles of grief. In times of loss, our greatest strength is our community, and by the end of this book, you'll wish you were a member of Evertell.

A quick read with dual timelines. The story is well written, the author lets you feel the profound loss of the main character.

Her descriptions of the family homestead made the entire story come alive for me and reading those parts were some of my favorite parts of the story. Don't you just love when you get a clear picture of the surroundings?

I did love the second half of the book more than the first with its historical factor and wished it had been more of the story.

The author's notes at the end really made me think and look back on the ook slightly differently

Kimberly Brock is certainly on my radar after reading The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare, and I look forward to whatever she gives us next

I had high hopes for this novel.

I was ready for a creatively imagined story based on the real - but little known - tale of Eleanor Dare, who left England in 1587 as part of an expedition for North America - and, along with her fellow colonists, mysteriously disappeared.

A few pages in I thought, great! What a unique angle. Kimberly Brock’s take on Dare’s intriguing plight is through the eyes of her relatives some four centuries - or 15 generations - later, during World War Two.

But I’m sorry to say, as I got further in, I struggled to connect with the novel’s characters, plot and style. Perhaps it was too mystical for my tastes? Perhaps the narrative too lush?

I’ve no doubt many readers will enjoy it, but I found myself labouring through, and skipping large chunks to get to the point. I wanted to love it, but found my heart was just not in it. I do hope the book makes it into the hands of readers who will love it.

I absolutely LOVED the cover of this book. And the premise of the story 100% sucked me in. I'm also a sucker for multiple POV, so this book had all of the potential to be an instant favorite of mine. And yet it fell a little flat. I liked the story, but I wasn't invested. Couldn't relate to any of the characters, and honestly the "Eleanor Dare" connection felt a little thin.

This story immediately peaked my interests because it is about the Lost Colony of Roanoke, which has always interested me. Eleanor Dare was a real person and you can really tell that the author put a lot of thought and research into this novel!

I definitely enjoyed this book full of magic and mystery! This story goes as it's own pace as the study unfolds and was absolutely beautifully written. I was pulled into the story and truly felt each emotion along with the characters.

My favorite character was Penn. Penn was such a great kid, you couldn't help but smile are her curiosity and intelligence! Overall, I really enjoyed this book!

Thank you Kate Rock Book Tours and Harper Muse for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is due for publication 4/12/22! This review will be posted to my blogs on April 1st for my tour day!

My husband and I have long been intrigued by the mystery of Roanoke, and I was so excited about this book. Alas, I found it confusing,disjointed, and lacking in characters to attach to.
The author obviously did lots of research and parts of it were interesting. But the narrative was often hard to follow, and turned into more fantasy novel than historical fiction it was touted to be.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Not my kind of book. More mystical than historical.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

Title: The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare
Author: Kimberly Brock
Publisher: Harper Muse
@harpermusebooks
Genre: Historical Fiction

Today is my book stop tour date for @katerockbooktours and The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare. Thank you to the author @kimberlydbrock and publisher @harpermusebooks for the digital copy via @netgalley.

Historical and Literary fans mark your calendars for the April 12th release of The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare! Fans of Where the Crawdads Sing and Alice Hoffman, I would say this is right up your ally. This gave me serious vibes to those.

Lush, atmospheric, mystic, magical, mysterious, historic . . . all of these things woven together in a tale with characters to root for makes for an outstanding story. I especially adored the teenage daughter, Penn.

“A story doesn’t matter because it’s true but because it’s been told.”

Told in a dual timeline and multiple points of view; my absolute favorite story telling. It weaves the 1500s Roanoke and nearly post WWII coastal Georgia. Then the story is told from Dare descendant Alice. Her daughter Penn. And through the relative Eleanor and the Book of Eleanor Dare. The book timeline makes things both interesting and complicated. I don’t say this to necessarily be negative, just as a warning to go into this book knowing you need to pay attention to things.

Rating: Mysterious stones and a book, a charming guy, a graveyard, coastal town, characters that had been through some tragedy so you’re mmediately rooting for them, teas, herbs, and an awesome teen girl well on her way to being a feminist. Yep, I was sucked into this book! My only hangups were that I felt it was too long at 464 pages and a confusing flow at times. I’m a fast reader and it took me much longer to read than usual. I had to stop many times and read this one in chunks, despite my enjoyment. Again, not trying to be negative. Just preparing those mood readers out there. This is a really good book and I don’t want you not to finish because you are reading it at the wrong time! I wish The Book of Eleanor Dare much success!

I'm not usually into historical fiction but I know who Eleanor Dare was and this book absolutely captivated me from beginning to end. The shift between timelines made the book extra special because I thoroughly enjoyed the 1500's but also WWII, as well.

The writing was lovely, the story was absolutely engaging and the work that went into the settings was noticeable and superb. I felt absolutely transported and I'm so incredibly glad I was able to read an arc of this story.

This was actually an enjoyable historical fiction that shifts between two timelines--between 1500's to the WWII era in Georgia. Eleanor Dare has brought a book from England back in 1500's and was passed from generation to generation through the daughters. When thirteen year old Alice was going to inherit the book, the tragic death of her mother changed everything and the book got lost. Now an adult and a widow, Alice returns back to the town to inherit the house and the will. But her own daughter, Penn is curious about her lineage...

Though the first part of the book was slightly boring, it got interesting towards the middle. There were multiple perspectives--Alice, Penn in the present day WWII time and Eleanor during the 1500's. I actually like the author's style of writing as she does a good job of taking the reader through different periods of times. Her writing style is almost poetic. The ending was unexpected but I actually enjoyed reading this story in the end! Worth four stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Not really what I was anticipating. The blurb talks about a book of knowledge being passed down through 15 generations of women, so I was expecting a book about potions or something, and some details about some of the various 15 women, I guess like Anne Rice's The Witching Hour. Instead, the book is mostly focused on the last woman in this multigenerational line, Alice, Alice's husband has recently died in WWII and after her father dies, she learns she has inherited her childhood antebellum home in Savannah with her daughter Penn. The book's focus is mostly on Savannah and Penn. The first ancestor, Eleanor Dare, doesn't figure into the story until around the halfway mark. This novel is well-written and the setting is gorgeously rendered, but I was expecting more plotwise.

Sometimes I get confused if you have too many folks telling the story. That did not happen with this book. This story flows so well and it was so interesting reading what each person had to say. The characters are fantastic. I really enjoyed this story and reading about the Dare descendants and their individual stories. Penn is a special young lady. I love her talents and her drive. I so enjoyed watching Doris become the person she really is. Characters and storyline are wonderful. I hope you check it out. I received this book from NetGalley, but my opinion is my own.

This book is a multigenerational historical fiction book. The characters are wonderful strong women! The lost colony of Roanoke is a mystery still today! Eleanor Dare and her father left England for the new world. Her father left to go back to England for supplies and when he returned the colony of Roanoke was gone! Eleanor wrote in a journal and the journal passes to oldest daughter in each generation. Alice and her daughter Penn inherit Alice's father's house, Evertell. They find Eleanor's book. This was a beautifully written story of mother and their daughters and carries the reader on an incredible journey! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

"A story matters not because it is true but because it's been told."

Alice is a widow whose father has recently passed away. After Alice's mom died when she was a child she and her father had left their family home in Evertell. Her father never sold the property when they moved away to start over. She has now inherited Evertell and decides she'll take her daughter Pennilyn to Evertell and meet with the lawyer and arrange the sale of property so that Penn can attend the prestigious school she's always wanted to. Returning to Evertell forces her to face her past, her mother's illness and her family's history. The story in this book explores the Lost Roanoke Colony and the Lost Stones of Eleanor Dare. The book is slow paced with many subplots, and characters with their own stories. The book unfolds through multiple time periods, with the most recent being near the end of WWII. There are alot characters and storylines and a few different points of view in this book. The author did an excellent job of keeping the different characters clear. I didn't find the story confusing and was able to follow the timelines and different POVs and read all the different stories.

One of the main themes threaded through the story was about motherhood and the connection of mothers to their daughters through their ancestry line which I enjoyed. I have never heard of Lost Colony of Roanoke where 115 people went missing in 1587. I thought it was a creative way to tell the story and thread the storylines together. I've been reading up on the Dare Stones and the controversy surrounding which has been interesting and new to me.

I really enjoy reading historical fiction as I often come away learning something new.

This beautifully written historical fiction novel is about making your home wherever you are. It's a story about love and family and about the strong women in a family over the generations. It's dual time line novel with several points of view.

1585- After her mother died, her father began to ignore his daughter Eleanor. When he offered her a chance to sail to a far off country and start the first colony she agreed to go hoping that he would start paying attention to her. After a long trip, they arrived in what they called Roanoke. The small colony had troubles with farming and her father left for England to get more supplies and when he returned the small colony of people were gone. Eleanor stayed with the colony and got married. Her first daughter, Virginia, was born in 1587 and was the first English child born in a New World English colony. The settlement was never found again and the mystery involving The Lost Colony has lasted for generations. Eleanor kept a book and wrote down observations about her life. The book was passed to the oldest daughter in each generation for thirteen generations before Alice found it.

1945 - As the war is getting near it's end, Alice finds out that her father has left Evertell to her.
Her husband was killed during the war and money is tight, so she and her daughter, Penn, travel to the house she grew up in with plans to sell the house and land so that she has money for Penn's education. When they find Eleanor's book, Penn wants to read it to find out more about her family over the generations and becomes enthralled with Evertell because she sees it as part of her history. Alice is forced to decide if she wants to sell or remain in the house that was passed down to her and holds so many memories.

This book has family, mystery and a bit of romance. It's an intriguing story of the women in a family who are strong and resilient through the generations. Ultimately it's a story about mothers and daughters learning to make a home built on love.

Kimberly Brock's novel, The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare, is an unusual coming of age story based on seventeen generations of Dare women, beginning with Eleanor in 1585. It tells of the magic and mystery of a mother's wisdom passed to her daughter, linked to the legend of the Dare Stones, purportedly inscribed by the Lost Settlers of Roanoke, who disappeared in Virginia between 1587 and 1590. Eleanor Dare accompanied her father to the New World and was part of the group of Lost Settlers.

Alice and Penn are the latest generations of Dare women. In 1943, Alice lost her husband Finch in Italy during WWII. Mother and daughter were both traumatized by his death and the subsequent death of Alice's father. In a surprise legacy, he left Alice their family farm, Evertell in Belle Isle, Georgia, abandoned many years previously. Penn has many surprises at Evertell, a church with a bell that no longer rings, lovely concoctions made from herbs, and some very caring people. Will she find Eleanor Dare's lost book? Will it reveal the secrets of the generations of Dare women that went before?

I loved that the story is in the first person of Alice, her daughter Penn, and through letters from Eleanor beginning in 1585. This mode of story-telling is super interesting; we are privy to the inner thoughts of the storyteller – the doubts, fears, aspirations, and passions of the heart; resulting in characters of exceptional depth and interest. In addition, it's a luxurious treat to hear the words, dialect, and feel the ambiance of the south.

I am in awe of Kimberly Brock's extensive research. She is knowledgeable of the Dare stones, the Lost Colony, and she traveled in the footsteps of Eleanor 500 years before. She manages the drama of Penn discovering Evertell to convey to us the character of a Dare girl. She reveals Penn's spirit of adventure, her renewed self-esteem, and her outgoing nature. Additionally, we learn of the good people of Evertell, Sonder Holloway - Alice's childhood friend and Doris La Roche; they welcome Alice and Penn back into the fold. Will this cathartic process allow Alice to rediscover her own belief in herself and her ability to pass a faithful legacy to Penn?

I rate The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare 5 out of 5 stars. I appreciated the exquisite analysis of a mother's and daughter's psyche, the extensive research, and the history and explicit description of the south. I detected nothing to dislike. The prose was lilting and magical.

I recommend The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare to all mothers and daughters and anyone who seeks to understand the enigma of coming of age.

Boy oh boy, not another DNF! And it’s only March!
I’m afraid I just couldn’t get into this one. It dragged on way too much and I couldn’t even be bothered to try. It has had raving reviews on goodreads but I have no idea how they got past all the waffle to get to the good bits.

I lost myself in this book—I was mesmerized by the characters, the story, the setting, the history. This lyrical novel transported me to 1945, when, after losing her husband and her father, Alice brings her young daughter Penn to her abandoned family home, Evertell. Alice has plans for the estate, with a vision of helping Penn achieve her dreams and gain independence, to help Penn heal from the weight of grief. But Evertell, with its rich history and legacy, where mysteries and magic and family abound, Alice and Penn might find something even more important. Not only was I swept up into Alice and Penn’s journey, I was also taken back several hundred years ago, to the lost colony of Roanoke and the fate of those who disappeared. The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare is rich and lush, emotions heightened by the history and the future of Alice’s family home. I was spellbound by Alice and Penn and their journey to heal and hope, to honor and grow, to find their truth and their home. Ultimately, this is a story about mothers and daughters, paying homage to all the mothers and daughters who came before.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to finish this book. I am 44% in and struggling to connect to the story and the characters. I am not understanding the importance of the book and the stones. I feel it's taking too long to get to the point. I may try it again at some point, as it may just be my current state of mind and being a mood reader but currently, it is being left unfinished. I have too many other books to read to spend time trying to force myself to get into one I am just not enjoying.