The Memory of Us
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Julianne Westcott was living the kind of life that other Protestant girls in prewar Liverpool could only dream about: old money, silk ball gowns, and prominent young men lining up to escort her. But when she learns of a blind-and-deaf brother, institutionalized since birth, the illusion of her perfect life and family shatters around her. While visiting her brother in secret, Julianne meets and befriends Kyle McCarthy, an Irish Catholic groundskeeper studying to become a priest. Caught between her family's expectations, Kyle's devotion to the Church, and the intense new feelings that the forbidden courtship has awakened in her, Julianne must make a choice: uphold the life she's always known or follow the difficult path toward love. But as war ripples through the world and the Blitz decimates England, a tragic accident forces Julianne to leave everything behind and forge a new life built on lies she's told to protect the ones she loves. Now, after twenty years of hiding from her past, the truth finds her--will she be brave enough to face it?
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When the young and beautiful Julianne meets the handsome Kyle McCarthy, her entire life is about to change. Before she found her parents dark secret, her life revolved around parties, pageants and prosperity. When she secretly begins to visit her twin brother who has been kept in a home, due to his disabilities, she meets the groundskeeper. She begins to visit more and more, just to spend more time with Kyle. When her mother hires him to do some work at their home, they are able to spend even more time together.
She knows that he is to become a priest, however, their budding romance cannot be put off forever. She does her best think about anything or anyone else, but her thoughts always return to Kyle. When his father becomes seriously ill and refusing to see a doctor, Julianne puts her nursing skills to use and spending time with the father to make him more comfortable in the little time that he has left. After his fathers death, Kyle tells her that she is his world, and he is going to leave the seminary, if she will agree to marry him.
While they are happy and planning their new life together, her parents throw a wrench in their plans. They refuse to allow the couple to marry, but true to her rebellious streak, she and Kyle are determined to marry anyway. Considering Kyle below their class, the Westcott's are horrified at their daughters choice. When the couple runs off together anyway, her parents are devastated and she is told that she is no longer welcome in the home. When war breaks out and Kyle joins up, little does Julianne realize just how much their lives are going to change. When a bomb destroys the bomb shelter that she and her friend are taking cover in, her life takes the biggest turn of all, and one that will have huge repercussions for all...
This story is more than just a great novel. It draws you in and keeps you hooked from page one until the end. The story of Julianne and Kyle is not your typical happily ever after. There are so many twists and turns that you are left holding the box of kleenex and wondering what surprises are going to jump out at you next! I absolutely loved this read! If you are looking for an author that can weave a web as delicate as this one and then strand by strand draw you farther in until you finish and can come up for air, this is the one for you!!
