Cover Image: You Must Remember This

You Must Remember This

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

2.5⭐
So excited to get my copy of Kat Rosenfield’s latest release after enjoying the originality of her previous book, No One Will Miss Her.

Sad to say, this book lacked that same spark that drew me to this author in the first place. The writing style felt completely different. Susanne and I kept asking each-other, “Is this the same author?”

The Caravasios family is gathering for what they feel will be their final Christmas with Mimi, their beloved mother/grandmother who’s rapidly slipping away from the effects of her dementia.

Told from the perspectives of Delphine the granddaughter in the present. And Mimi in the past.

This book just labored along with a mostly predictable ending. I found it too descriptive at times and ended up skimming over on occasion just to move it along.

Hoping I end up being an outlier and there will be many positive reviews!

A buddy read with Susanne that left both of us underwhelmed.🙁

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow.

Was this review helpful?

Grandmother (Mimi): dead, wandered off and froze under ice under mysterious circumstances.
Mimi's caregiver Adam: hot.
Family: obnoxious. It is Christmas, so naturally they are more obnoxious than usual.
Mansion: creepy. Very. Its name is Whispers.
Granddaughter: main character, named Delphine, the surprise heir, doesn't belong or fit in at all.

Surprises, twists, turns, with the readers' assumptions upended nicely.

All quite Gothic, and all quite satisfactory despite the cliches (family fights over a fortune, but then I adore that plot, so). The writing is fairly solid. I enjoyed myself, and recommend the novel for light reading any time you need a good diversion. Read it in front of a roaring fireplace if at all possible, a shivery novel in which an old lady also freezes to death requires some warmth.

Was this review helpful?

If you like a good mystery, you might like this book, there's nothing really to new in the storyline, it's all been written before, but that's not to say the book is bad. I myself enjoyed it for the most part, it held my attention, the characters and storyline were very interesting. As I said before it's been done before but it was still a very good mystery book. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Absolutely fantastic gothic tale! I really enjoyed this eerie story and the twists it had!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

Was this review helpful?

This book was enjoyable, it really was. It was kinda slow in some parts, but I still would recommend it.

Was this review helpful?

You Must Remember This by Kat Rosenfield left me speechless!
My first book by this author, but she is now on my faves list. I couldn't stop turning the pages to my Kindle.
Obsessed with this compulsive, unputdownable thriller! I raced to the end and was NOT disappointed.
The twisty plot builds, gradually growing more tense as this family starts to unravel.
Rosenfield's ability to weave the plot and keep us guessing, wondering exactly what happened and who did it, is masterful.
I became obsessed with this compulsive story!
The brilliant and scenic writing, and the interesting characters, make this an unputdownable thriller that I flew through.
Atmospheric, unsettling and totally gripping, YOU MUST REMEMBER is an intelligent and observant novel from a very gifted and talented author.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

William Morrow,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my blog, platforms, BookBub, B&N, Kobo and Waterstone closer to pub date.

Was this review helpful?

I devoured "You Must Remember This" and can't wait for another one by Kat Rosenfield. Love her books!!

Was this review helpful?

It was Christmas Eve when Miriam Gardliner took a walk out onto the frozen river behind her home. Her dementia may have clouded her judgement when she stepped out to the thin ice, but no one will ever know because she did not make it back. Mariam’s family quickly starts to squabble about the family fortune and there are inconsistencies popping up about the night of Miriam’s death.

This was my second book by Kat Rosenfield and I really enjoyed both of them. YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS is a great whodunnit told in alternating timelines. All mystery fans should check this one out!

Thanks to William Morrow Books and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.

Was this review helpful?

You Must Remember This is a good who-dun-it. An elderly woman with dementia leaves her palatial home for a walk. Set in Maine, the local body of water has frozen over but not thickly. The woman falls through the ice and the questions begin. Was this a suicide or a murder.
If it was a murder did someone coax her outside.
She was quite wealthy so that opens up the field as to who could be the killer, if murder it be.
It was a Christmas party so her family (whom she has disinherited - except for her granddaughter) and favorite employee are all present.

Money and potential murder, Christmas and Maine. All the makings for a terrific mystery.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Loved this one! Switching back and forth from the perspective of Del, a young girl who has moved back into her grandmother Mimi’s old Gothic mansion to celebrate what would be Mimi’s last Christmas, and young Mimi/Miriam, who has just met what would become the love of her life and future husband. In present day, Mimi has dementia and is declining quickly, and among her family in her old home, strange things start to happen. Is it symptoms of her dementia, or is something wrong in the house, with the family? So so good! 4.5 stars.

Was this review helpful?

"You Must Remember This" is a tale of family, memory, and secrets - with a mystery thrown in for good measure! I did not find the storyline, characters, mystery, or twist (part of it, the other part was something I haven't come across before) to be anything especially new, but I am a person who enjoys a formulaic book to get lost in. What I appreciated most about this book was the reminder that human lives are just memories and that we have to learn as much about our loved ones during the time that we have.

Was this review helpful?

Not much in this book to differentiate it from others I've read in the past two years. In this same vein, I recommend "Daisy Darker" by Alice Feeney. Basically the same plot, but "Daisy" is twistier and much more fun.

Was this review helpful?

Old money and dark deeds. Absolutely love this novel of greed and viciousness in the heart of a family. I absolutely was interested from the first chapter and couldn’t stop reading. The ending definitely caught me by surprise in the best way possible.

Was this review helpful?

I enjoyed this ine by Kat Rosenfield, although not as much as her previous book, No One Will Miss Her. I loved the duo storyline in this one, and Mimi’s fire as a young woman, and in her later years despite dementia. There were a few twists I never saw coming but I felt the ending was almost too predictable. If not for that I would have given one more star.

Was this review helpful?

That’s the best kind of mystery you can truly enjoy! Think about a gothic family mansion named Whispers with secret tunnels, mysterious getaways, cracking floorboards, carrying its own secrets and own ghost lurking around the corridors in the middle of the night, visiting you in your own bedroom! Aren’t you intrigued enough? If your answer is yes, let’s move on!

This is great mash up of Knives out (notorious family members who wait for their old mother to die)- Gothic mystery and a little vibes of Boardwalk Empire.

It opens with Miriam Caravasios/ Mimi’s waking up in the middle of the night at her estate with a faceless man smelling and talking just like her husband. Just like their secretly dating times when they were young and reckless, he offers her to walk across the frozen reach to go to their secret meeting place: a cabin in the woods where they have been making love!

Miriam follows the man acting like her husband, forgetting her own husband has already died decades ago, suffering from dementia. As they walk in the woods, she slowly realizes she’s not the young girl in love anymore and the ground she’s walking is not frozen! She doesn’t hear the snap of the ice either. And…. She falls!!! Is everything a part of her imagination? Did she dream of the man? Was this suicide or did the mysterious man or ghost of her husband kill her?

I was thinking things will get heated sooner and i was gonna read a murder mystery but the story moved on different direction focusing on family members’ reunion and Miriam’s life story.

We see how family members gather at the family mansion Whispers which built in 1920 by Miriam’s rich and intimidating father as a wedding gift to his wife. A place : cracked and creaky and full of locked doors, cluttered rooms, no company but stacks of old books and magazines and the muttering of the wind.

Miriam’s granddaughter Delphine who is forced to leave her old life in New York moves to the estate to live with her divorced mother Dora ( she’s the youngest daughter of Miriam) to take of the estate and Miriam who is normally living in the cars house because of her dementia.

For spending a family Christmas, the facility members bring Miriam to the estate. Miriam’s sweet, gold hearted and handsome caregiver Adam joins the family gathering. We’re introduced to the other family members: elder drunk brother Richard holding a long time grudge against his mother, Diane and her creepy husband are interested more about their share of inheritance than Miriam’s health condition and Dora looks like exhausted to take care of her mother alone.

Let’s not forget Shelly Dyer who left her employment under suspicious circumstances and her creepy son who keeps visiting the estate in early hours, knowing the secret passages.

Everyone has a motive, keeping big secrets to themselves. But as we go back to their estate’s early days we learn more about Miriam’s childhood, her passionate love story with her future husband Theo, tragedies and life changing secrets that family members hiding.

I love how the past and present events collided and the jaw dropping unfolding of the mystery.I didn’t see it coming. All of those twists are smart and shocking.

Miriam’s story ached my heart and her kind granddaughter Delphine who struggles with trust issues is also one of the characters you can easily resonate with.

Overall: I literally devoured this story. Different genres blended in each other perfectly: romance, historical fiction, whodunnit mystery, gothic thriller.

I’m giving well deserved whispery geronimo stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Was this review helpful?