On the surface, Melanie Kingstad-Keyes’s life is the picture of success. She’s a tenure track professor at a prestigious university and has a perfect husband. But a recent miscarriage has left her reeling and her marriage tenuous. Selling her family’s Lake Indigo summer home, which she hasn’t visited in fifteen years, feels like the perfect distraction from her problems. Now, she only needs to … to persuade her younger sister, Kelsey, to go along with her plan.
Stuck in a dead-end job, Kelsey Kingstad bounces from one doomed relationship to the next as she struggles to jumpstart her adult life. Carrying the guilt of her mother’s untimely death, Kelsey is reluctant to let go of the Victorian house filled with memories of her mom and their childhood.
When the sisters find a mysterious hidden door, Melanie and Kelsey discover that they can directly view their mother’s younger years and learn all the secrets she never shared with them. Delving into her memories is fun at first, but Melanie and Kelsey quickly uncover difficult truths, throwing their own life choices into question and making them wonder if they ever truly knew their mother. Visiting the past may help them find closure, but the cost could be steeper than they realize.
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Dollycas’s Thoughts
Sisters can be as different as night and day and that is the case with Melanie Kingstad-Keyes and Kelsey Kingstad. Melanie has always been driven and Kelsey is more laid back. But Melanie has recently suffered a miscarriage and the life she has planned so carefully may not come to fruition. Kelsey is having trouble dealing with her mother’s death and it is affecting her life. Their father has remarried and left the area. They try to get together for the holidays.
Melanie has decided it is time to sell the family’s summer home on Indigo Lake. She has the blessing of her father but Kelsey isn’t so sure she is ready to let go. But Melanie goes ahead and sets up a meeting with a realtor and tells Kelsey to meet with her. They find the home in worse shape than expected, but Melanie is sure they can get everything ship-shape and ready to sell quickly. She decides that after her miscarriage some time away from her husband at Indigo Lake is just what she needs. It will give her a chance to think while overseeing the repairs the house needs.
Soon after she arrives Melanie makes a surprising discovery and can’t wait to share it with Kelsey. She has found a hidden door that opens into a hidden room. That room enables some amazing things to happen. Things that give the girls pause. Things that shock them and things that make them rethink their lives.
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I just skimmed the synopsis provided by the publisher before I started reading and I think it gives too much away. That being said, I hesitate to say too much because I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone. But I really enjoyed discovering the treasure of the story and what it encompassed right along with the Kingstad sisters instead of expecting it and knowing what it entailed. I really got caught up in the mystery room and wish so much for one of my own.
This story was incredibility well-written. The characters were all introduced well and depth was built over the course of the book. I feel the sister dynamic was realistically portrayed. Being the younger sister in my family I did identify with Kelsey and could see some of Melanie’s traits in my sister. It is clear the sisters have a strained relationship and they needed this time together. Kelsey’s dog, Sprocket was a great unifier and brought some humor into the story. The other characters we meet all have a purpose and are fleshed out as time passes.
I love that the story is set in my home state of Wisconsin. There are a lot of lakes throughout the state with plenty of homes surrounding them. The author did a great job of describing the area and bringing it to life. I could easily imagine all the activities that happened there over the years.
Versions of Her is a heartwarming story filled with memories. It also a clear message. I found the story to be filled with emotions and growth. Melanie and Kelsey took a journey within these pages and I was happy to go along for the ride.
This is not the type of story I would typically read but I found it to be entertaining and memorable and a Perfect Escape!
Versions of Her is the first novel I have read by Andrea Lochen and it will not be my last. I was immediately drawn into the intriguing story and I wanted to keep reading to see what would happen next. I thought Versions of Her was well-written and it had a good flow. I thought the characters were realistic and relatable. The sister’s relationship was an accurate representation as it reminded me of my relationship with my sister. Siblings may have the same parents, but they have differing personalities, likes, and looks. I enjoyed the portal to the past that Melanie discovered. Each sister had a different approach (of course). Melanie was scientific and cautious while Kelsey was the adventurous one. I could understand their struggle over whether to keep using it and if their actions could change the course of events. They wanted to learn all they could about their mother. But what if they discovered something about her that would change their view of their deceased mom? Versions of Her is an emotional novel with Melanie agonizing over her miscarriage and Kelsey grieving for her mother along with the guilt she feels over her death. I enjoyed the various book references throughout the story with my favorite being Amelia Bedelia. Versions of Her shares an important message about being yourself (do not try to be something you are not). Versions of Her has reflection, struggle, memories, challenge of forgiveness, a charming Victorian lake home, a cute canine named Sprocket, and two diverse sisters.
A beautiful story about the bonds of sisterhood and motherhood, well-written and very imaginative. Heartfelt, honest and asks some serious questions. Likable characters. The plot has some surprising twists and turns, but the real story is the complicated but loving relationship between the three women at the center of the story, a mother and her two daughters. Women’s fiction at its most lovely and loving.
A secret door covered by a tapestry that Kelsey and her sister Melanie were never allowed to move when they were children held and hid secrets of its own.
The secret door allowed Kelsey and Melanie to see their mother’s life and to see her secrets, heartaches, and feelings that they never knew about.
I’m not sure how I would feel if I could see what my mother’s life had been like, but it would be quite interesting.
The current problem now that they found this door, though, was that Kelsey and Melanie had to decide whether or not to sell their family’s lake house or keep it.
Selling it meant the memories would be gone forever. Keeping it would preserve the memories but also incur expensive upkeep. Melanie was all for selling the house, but Kelsey was not in favor of selling it.
I enjoyed learning about the cottage and the memories associated with it and finding the portal for time travel. It also had me wondering if time travel like this was actually possible because time traveling through the portal seemed real.
This was a creative premise for a book and a book that also addressed sibling rivalry as well as sibling closeness.
VERSIONS OF HER was a cozy, nostalgic, heartfelt, and at times heartbreaking read. You will need tissues.
Women’s fiction fans will adore this book.
Readers will experience family, love, and a light, yet thought-provoking read. 5/5
This book was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.
I read Andrea’s previous book, Imaginary Things, and loved it. I was so excited when she contacted me about reading Versions of Her, her new book which just came out. I loved this one just as much!
Melanie and Kelsey find themselves at their family cabin on the lake, getting it ready to sell so they can move on with their lives. They soon discover a hidden door that takes them into past moments of their mother’s life. What they find there has them reeling and questioning everything they thought they knew about the woman they called “Mom”.
I love the thought of the possibility of a little bit of time traveling. I love that Andrea was able to weave a story combining past events with the present. And I love that, because of that mysterious door, Melanie and Kelsey are better able to understand the past—and their mother—and are able to move forward. I was just as fascinated by the secret door as the two sisters were and couldn’t wait to take another look into the past. The magical element of time travel has always intrigued me and it’s one of the things I loved the most about this book. Oh, the possibilities!
Andrea has written another beautiful story with characters I came to care about. This is definitely a book that you should put on your TBR list this summer. I’m sure you’ll be swept away by this story as much as I was.
This is a great heartwarming story of sisters who find a secret room that allows them to see their deceased mothers life. They have conflicts like all sisters do but have the chance to learn learn and grow from what they see. Or let their different opinions tear them apart.
Book source ~ ARC. My review is voluntary and honest.
Sisters Melanie Kingstad-Keyes and Kelsey Kingstad have decided to sell their family lake home, a house that has been in their family for a very long time. Even though they haven’t been there for fifteen years all the memories come rushing back when they go to clean it up for sale after their long-term renters have decided to move out. When they find a hidden door that magically transports them to the past, their mother’s past, they decide to use it to see their mother once again. Dead four years they miss her very much, but the things they discover shake them to their very foundations and they need to rethink everything they once took for granted.
Wow. This is quite the book, filled with flawed characters, truths, self-recriminations, and sibling rivalry. Family dynamics, you gotta love them, right? Melanie is laser focused on selling their summer home after her miscarriage rocks her to the core and Kelsey is a screw up on nearly all fronts. And really? She’s quite the brat. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to smack her. She has quite a chip on her shoulder.
The push and pull between the sisters is so real, it’s like I’m living it. Though I don’t have sisters. I have much older brothers and we’ve never had such a contentious relationship. But that’s how good the writing is. I felt like I just knew what they each were going through.
The added dimension of the hidden door and the jaunts to their mom’s past is a great addition to what otherwise might have been a plodding book about sibling bickering. Now they have to focus on the staggering secrets their mom has kept all these years. And they have to decide if they are going to keep going through that door or stop altogether. And the whipped cream on top of the whole confection is: Kelsey doesn’t even really want to sell the house. The sisters have a lot to talk about and healing to do. If you like books with prickly family dynamics and secrets that rock the very foundations they’ve built their life on then do not pass this up.
I listened to the audio version of this book. Versions of Her was a Women’s Literature book with some interesting time travel thrown in.
The premise is that in getting a family property ready to sell, sisters Kelsey and Melanie discover a secret door that allows them to travel back in time to witness different times and events in the life of their now dead mother. The events aren’t always what they expect and are sometimes very shocking to them.
Both girls also have things going on in their lives that they are also dealing with. They are sometimes at odds with each other, but are trying to learn to listen to each other. I really enjoyed this book! The story and narration were both very enjoyable.
I was given a complimentary copy of this audio book. All thoughts are my own.
Did not finish–a weird combination of reality and fantasy.
Kept me reading from the very beginning. Several plot shifts that weren’t predicted. Love novels like this that engage me.
I would give this 3.5 stars if I could. I think the book read well and the characters were well developed, however the subject turned out not to be something I enjoyed. If you like time travel you will likely enjoy this book.
Enjoyed it.
I gave this book a fair shot over the course of four evenings, but it never caught my imagination. I found the characters to be boiler plate, the ‘mystery’ so lamely written, there was little point of reading further and finally, I abandoned the book out of boredom.
I don’t write this to be cruel, but honest.
This is a healing story of love, loss and healing for three women who happen to also be mother and daughters. As women they have their singular stories, as sisters, they come to understand their past and as mother and daughters they come to a place of immense love and reconciliation regarding past and present.