The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A woman learns to expand the boundaries of her small world and let love inside it in this sparkling and unforgettable novel by Audrey Burges.
From her attic in the Arizona mountains, thirty-four-year-old Myra Malone blogs about a dollhouse mansion that captivates thousands of readers worldwide. Myra’s stories have created legions of fans who breathlessly await every blog post, trade photographs of Mansion-modeled rooms, and swap theories about the enigmatic and reclusive author. Myra herself is tethered to the Mansion by mysteries she can’t understand—rooms that appear and disappear overnight, music that plays in its corridors.
Across the country, Alex Rakes, the scion of a custom furniture business, encounters two Mansion fans trying to recreate a room. The pair show him the Minuscule Mansion, and Alex is shocked to recognize a reflection of his own life mirrored back to him in minute scale. The room is his own bedroom, and the Mansion is his family’s home, handed down from the grandmother who disappeared mysteriously when Alex was a child. Searching for answers, Alex begins corresponding with Myra. Together, the two unwind the lonely paths of their twin worlds—big and small—and trace the stories that entwine them, setting the stage for a meeting rooted in loss, but defined by love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Burges's lackluster debut, a reclusive Arizona copywriter blogs about a magical dollhouse from her childhood. When Myra Malone was five, she was in a car accident with her grandfather's partner, Trixie, who died in the crash. Myra inherited Trixie's dollhouse and went on to lead a hermit-like existence, due in part to the scars on her face from the accident. Trixie had hinted about the dollhouse's magic to young Myra, and, now in her 30s, Myra maintains a blog that describes the house's rooms and furniture, which Alex Rakes recognizes as a miniature replica of his childhood home. He and Myra begin corresponding as more is revealed about the not-so-nice Rakes family (Alex's father is bigoted, his grandmother conniving), their connection to the strange dollhouse (somehow, rooms and furniture appear and then vanish), and other ways that Myra and Alex are linked. Alex's unpleasant, ailing father, meanwhile, hints that these ties might put Alex in danger. While parts of the plot work, the work is sunk by a plodding pace and a dearth of explanation about what drove the Rakes family's misdeeds. There's a fun premise, but overall, this is one to pass.
Customer Reviews
Beautifully written story
Four and a Half Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭒
The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges is a sweet, slow-burn romance with just a bit of magical realism.
Story Recap:
Myra Malone lives in a cabin with her mother in the Arizona Mountains and she blogs about her extraordinary minuscule mansion, or dollhouse. But, don’t let Myra hear you call it a dollhouse! She has thousands of followers who hang on her every word about the mansion. She changes the decor in each room with hand-crafted furniture and accessory pieces. But, the mansion sometimes has its own ideas as rooms appear and disappear as do Myra’s decor choices. Myra is a recluse and doesn’t leave her mountain cabin ever. She relies on her mother and her best friend to bring her supplies and they are her only human contact.
Alex Rakes works in his family's custom furniture business, but he doesn’t enjoy the work. When a couple of customers mention The Minuscule Mansion’s blog, he is instantly intrigued. The mansion is an exact duplicate of his full-sized mansion, which he lives in alone. It was his mother’s home, and a home his father despised. So what is a woman, who lives in the Arizona mountains doing with an exact duplicate of his home?
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this sweet, unique story. I was intrigued by the dollhouse, and I could see its popularity with Myra’s blog followers. Myra is a recluse, and I wanted to know why she became that way. Her best friend Gwen is the powerhouse behind the blog and just a wonderful best friend for Myra.
This has a few timelines, but the current timeline was the most compelling for me. The book has flashbacks to Myra’s past and we get to learn more about why she is a recluse, and how she acquired the minuscule mansion. And there is another timeline that follows the history of the full-sized mansion that Alex lives in.
The pacing is a bit slow, especially in the middle, but it’s worth hanging on, as it’s such a unique story.
Recommendation:
I highly recommend The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone to anyone who enjoys women’s fiction. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.