Julie Owen Moylan - 73 Dove Street

West London, 1958. 73 Dove Street is a shabby house in a shabby street.
But this boarding house’s attic room suits newcomer Edie Budd very well. It’s somewhere to hide.
Tommie, on the second floor, is up in Soho every night. There’s a man she’s pursuing – whether he wants her or not.
Landlady Phyllis has thrown out her cheating husband. She’s burned his belongings in the street. Sometimes there’s no going back.
Three survivors living under one roof. Each alone nursing their secret hurts – and hopes. Because opening your heart could save or destroy you . . .

Comment: This is another book I've added months ago because I got interested in the blurb and in the promise of a story about three women who lived in a shared house in the 50s. The fact this is described as "emotionally gripping" and that the GR average is high despite the low amount of reviews convinced me.

In this story Edie, a woman who clearly hides something, is about to enter the house on 73 Dove Street, a place she hopes will be hidden enough to let her think for a while so she can make a decision on whether to leave London for all, or not. She is welcomed by Phyllis, the landlady, who also seems to be in an agitated state, especially after throwing out her cheating husband. The only other tenant in the house is Tommy, a young girl who works as a companion for an older lady and who has this weird obsession with a man she sees sometimes and whom she hopes might want her to be his girlfriend instead of just a casual lover. The lives of these three surely will mix but are their respective secrets too much for a small house?

I assume the author wrote this with the intention of mixing up an historical setting with a slight mystery vibe. Each main character has a secret or does things in a way that is mysterious and the reader doesn't get to know what from the start. Or, at least, I could say that the intention was that but if at the same time we are given some clues about their actions, some things become more obvious than others.

I actually got this book for the promise of the boarding house element. I figure it would be a place for the characters to find each other, to start friendships perhaps, to have a place where they could fee safe... well, a more romanticized idea of what a boarding house could be I suppose, and the title is even the house's address, but it turns out that the house wasn't that important after all, in the big scheme of things. It is a location where the three main characters meet and stay but in my opinion it never went beyond that.

The story is focused on the three ladies. The chapters are in third person, alternated between the POV of each one of them. This means we get to follow them in their daily tasks and thoughts, and this allows the reader to have an inkling on their personalities and behavior. I should say that I didn't finish the book with this sense of having spent time with incredible characters, although I can't really explain if this happened because I feel the characters weren't that interesting/developed or because the author wanted so much to give the idea of mystery that she overlooked the characterization.

Edie is a woman running from something. Immediately we assume from a crime, especially since she carries with her a huge amount of money. Edie seems to be the main character and, interwoven with the main narrative, we have plenty of chapters set in a previous time, such as five years before, then four, then two, then months and so on. These past chapters are all about Edie, and a picture comes to life, she married but her husband was abusive and this certainly made me sympathetic towards her, but by this time I was already a little disappointed with how the story was being told and I definitely didn't find it "emotionally gripping" as is described.

The issue to me is that none of the main characters are truly likable and that is due to the writing. Things happen in a fluid way and the author's "voice" is competent but it's not engaging to me. If these had been other characters the story line wouldn't change. Besides, although this is a period story, set at a time where certain situations were that way - mainly the social expectations on women and how limited their lives and choices were - I still wanted them to overcome the problems or evolve emotionally and it felt as if this didn't really happen. I also disliked some of their behavior, even if it was acceptable for the time.

Edie doesn't seem to be an easy character to like for lack of characterization, in my opinion. That she married someone who ended up being very different I cannot fault her for, but the author could have written her development differently. As for Phyllis, the landlady, her "path" takes her to a point in which she welcomes her husband back, after they have a serious conversation about their past - we discover they lost a son at war - and it seems they will stay together, despite his infidelity. Tommy, however, is even more difficult to describe. She seems to be a very ambiguous person and not as seemingly worried about her future. I also had this idea because she seemed to be a little promiscuous and I can't understand why. Her obsession with a specific man never felt explained to me either.

Anyway, I was not very impressed with the story but I was still curious to know what would happen regarding Edie's situation. Some interesting news are shared and I thought the author did leave a bit of a twist for the end but then... when things get to a highly stressful moment in the plot, and Tommy somehow ends up helping Edie, and she finally finds courage to leave London, the way the author wrote the final two chapters was just.... let me simply say this isn't a movie by M. Night Shyamalan where the end is shocking. If the author wanted to write things in a way that is meant to be provocative, for me that failed and I only felt frustration.

Well, it was one more experience... books are like this, some are what they promise, others not exactly.

I would think twice about trying other things by the author, but who knows...

Grade: 5/10