The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone

I was so engrossed in this magical story. Loved it! Can’t wait for more works from this beautiful writer

The book was a delight!! Very imaginative with wonderfully detailed characters that dealt magically with the drama of their circumstances. Often even the magic solutions were relatable. The book handled the tiny details of the heroine’s very tiny life with exquisite patience…until it didn’t. The concluding chapters almost feel like an editor has wrenched the manuscript away from the author with a disappointed comment “ You are taking too long to reach a conclusion! You are using too many pages! I will finish this for you!!” The last part of the book has a totally different voice from the earlier 85% of the lovely story. It is Rushed, Missing Detail and Depth. The warmth and exquisite details that filled the totally book ( until the end ) was totally missing. However, even with this shallow conclusion the book was wonderful and lovely to read.

A truly unique read that left me wanting more! I wasn't ready for it to end. Will there be a part II please????

The world this story is so big and so tiny at the same time. I don’t want to try to explain it to anyone. I think you have to read it for yourself. Maybe look at the first few pages and see if it’s for you it was definitely for me and I am so glad, I read it

This book was interesting. The story was very descriptive and I enjoyed the characters but there was more then 1 plot hole that I was questioning.Overall, a good book but not sure if I would recommend it to friends.

Happy New Year to all!For my first read of the new year, I decided to start with an ARC of a book that normally wouldn't be up my alley in terms of genre, but the premise of the story interested me enough that I wanted to give it a try. I'm honestly glad I did because I ended up enjoying this one way more than I thought I would."Once upon a time, there was a house." Such an appropriate first sentence for a story that has both a fairy tale feel and a mysterious house as a central character. Myra Malone came into possession of the Minuscule Mansion (essentially an antique miniature dollhouse but with no dolls) when she was six years old and since then, she became its meticulous and thoughtful "caretaker", dedicating her life to the Mansion's maintenance and upkeep such as mending broken furniture, decorating rooms with themes during holidays, etc. Now 34 years old, Myra has been living a reclusive life in her family's cabin in Arizona ever since surviving a car accident when she was a child and spends most of her time in the attic tending to the Mansion as well as writing about her experience. Through the encouragement of her only friend (and former neighbor) Gwen, Myra begins to share her writing via blog posts and soon amasses a huge following that numbers in the hundred thousands. Meanwhile, in Virginia, Alex Rakes, who works for his family's custom furniture business, encounters a couple looking to recreate one of the Mansion rooms — when they show him pictures of the room from Myra's website, he is shocked to discover his own bedroom mirrored back to him in miniature scale. Hoping to find out what is going on, Alex starts up correspondence with Myra and as they begin to share their respective stories as well as slowly unravel the mystery behind the Mansion, they end up going down a path that neither of them expected.I found this story enchanting and delightful. Even though there are tragic and sad things that occur, these are handled in a thoughtful manner that doesn't diminish the seriousness of the events, while at the same time, maintaining a lightheartedness to the story that made this a compelling but by no means heavy read. I loved the bits of humor sprinkled throughout the story, especially in the excerpts from Myra's blog posts as well as in the dialogue between the characters. Speaking of the characters…yes, the main narrative revolves around how Myra and Alex ultimately fall in love, but this was so much more than just a love story — this was also a story about friendship and family, about hope and resilience and overcoming tragedy, about loneliness and finding a sense of connection — most centrally though was the theme of remembrance and how we carry the memories of people and places with us, even when the physical manifestation of them are gone.This is one of those books that doesn't fit nicely into a particular genre — some may consider this a fantasy, others may categorize it as contemporary fiction with magical realism elements (I lean toward the latter). Whatever the category though, I appreciated the uniqueness and charm of the story, which was evident in the fact that, even though some scenes were a bit too "cutesy" for my tastes and the "mystery" part was obvious from the get go, I still found this book irresistibly hard to put down. This was also an instance where reading outside of my usual comfort zone paid off and it's an experience I definitely recommend. The ARC I read also had an excerpt from the author's next book, which is scheduled to come out in 2024 — it sounds just as charming and I look forward to reading it!Received ARC from Berkley via NetGalley.

Burges weaves a tapestry rich with longing for connection, and for sanctuary, with Willa / Trixie as the thread that draws the characters into it's web. This story "Once upon a time there was a house" kept me yearning for resolution with hope for a future refuge where those who need it can find one another.

If I were going to play the game of saying this book is “x meets y,” I’d say that it’s Mortal Love meets Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts. Not that those comparisons mean much to you, probably, since neither of those books was a bestseller. Suffice it to say that the magic here is the serious kind, evocative and mysterious, but at the same time the book has a playful side and doesn’t take itself too seriously.Full disclosure: I’ve known the author for some time now, and although we haven’t met in person, I’m pretty familiar with her online persona and with the hilarious stories she writes for places like McSweeney’s. The voice of this book is, on the one hand, exactly the Audrey I’ve come to expect, but on the other hand, much deeper and more sophisticated. This story could only come from someone who has seen things and come out the other side. It left me feeling hopeful and haunted at the same time, a combination I would scarcely have thought possible. I read it in only two days, but it’s going to take a long time to get out of my head.

Good book

Good book to cosy up with. Well written with sympathetic characters and imaginative detail. A few stories are woven around a magical mansion and its miniature replica and the author carefully paces the story towards the final bringing together of the characters. The reason for 4 not 5 stars is that, though the story is very readable it does not bear delving into too deeply. The purpose of the mansion was never properly explained, it was referred to as a refuge but it never had this role in the story, there was no explanation about why it was so significant and what the main characters`s connection to it really was. All said, I enjoyed it a lot and as long as you take it at face value it is definitely worth reading.

A wonderful story, beautifully crafted. I got completely lost in it.

I found it hard to engage with the characters, like the story line as it was different to other stories but wouldn't read again