The fate of the world is often driven by the curiosity of a girl.
What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke remains a mystery, but the women who descended from Eleanor Dare have long known the truth lies in what she left behind: a message carved onto a large stone and the contents of her treasured Commonplace Book. Brought from England on Eleanor’s fateful voyage to the New World, her book was passed down through the fifteen generations of daughters who followed as they came of age. Thirteen-year-old Alice had been next in line to receive it, but her mother’s tragic death fractured the unbroken legacy and the Dare Stone and the shadowy history recorded in the book faded into memory. Or so Alice hoped.
In the waning days of World War Two, Alice is a young widow and a mother herself when she is unexpectedly presented with her birthright: the deed to Evertell, her abandoned family home and the history she thought forgotten. Determined to sell the property and step into a future free of the past, Alice returns to Savannah with her own thirteen-year-old daughter, Penn, in tow. But when Penn’s curiosity over the lineage she never knew begins to unveil secrets from beneath every stone and bone and shell of the old house and Eleanor’s book is finally found, Alice is forced to reckon with the sacrifices made for love and the realities of their true inheritance as daughters of Eleanor Dare.
In this sweeping tale from award-winning author Kimberly Brock, the answers to a real-life mystery may be found in the pages of a story that was always waiting to be written.
Available in all formats: your local bookstore BOOKSHOP.ORG, AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE, BOOKS-A-MILLION, & wherever books are sold.
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Early Praise for The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare
“In this complex, compelling, and beautifully crafted novel, Kimberly Brock explores not only the enigma of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, but also the boundless mysteries of love, family, and the human heart. As Alice Young and her daughter Penn settle into Evertell, the crumbling ancestral estate they’ve just inherited, they discover secrets long hidden in the shadows there, keys to understanding their own veiled pasts. This is a story filled with many charms, both literal and figurative, and I guarantee it will captivate readers from the first page to the last.”
—William Kent Kreuger, New York Times bestselling author
“Compelling and immersive, The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare is the story of Dare’s descendant Alice, who pushes away the pain of the past until her daughter Penn holds her accountable to the family story. Brock’s lush narrative is rich in American and Virginia history with deep roots in the mysterious disappearance of the lost colony on Roanoke Island. As Alice and Penn seek answers, they rely on the enduring strength of their foremother Eleanor, who was determined to leave the truth behind so generations might walk in its light.”
—Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The Good Left Undone
“From its haunting first line, The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare transports the reader to a mysterious land, time, and family. Kimberly Brock’s trademark whimsical storytelling shines in this Southern-soaked tale of family legacy and the magic of female history as she imagines what might have happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke. With only an engraved stone and a book left behind, the captivating women of the Dare legacy must find their true inheritance hiding behind the untold secrets.”
—Patti Callahan, bestselling author of Surviving Savannah and Once Upon a Wardrobe
“Amid the atmospheric backdrop of the Lowcountry, Brock stirs up a beguiling blend of family legacy, historical mystery, and generational connections, examining the unbreakable ties of mothers and daughters, the power of stories told and stories hidden, and the unquenchable need to understand those who came before us. A beautiful tale to curl up with and contemplate the intertwining of lives past and present.”
—Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends
“Kimberly Brock has crafted a luminous story, multi-layered and shimmering with beautiful prose, that deftly ponders the way of sacrificial love.”
—Susan Meissner, bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things
“The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare is a beautiful exploration of the bonds between women; the stories they pass down to one another through grief, adversity, and triumph; the secrets they keep; and the inner worlds they share. Brock has crafted a keenly observed, heartfelt tale that will linger with readers long after they finish reading.”
—Megan Chance, bestselling author of A Splendid Ruin
“A richly atmospheric, distinctively Southern story of mothers and daughters, family secrets, and what it means to find home.”
—Elizabeth Blackwell, bestselling author of Red Mistress
“Kimberly Brock’s The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare is an immersive, engrossing tale about the lost colony of Roanoke, but even more significantly, about the relationship between a mother and daughter whose lives have been irrevocably altered by loss. Brock’s writing is lush and captivating, and her characters are rich and complex. A masterful work by an expert craftswoman, The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare is not to be missed.”
—Aimie K. Runyan, bestselling author of The School for German Brides
“For readers of Patti Callahan and Kate Morton, this harrowing exposition on history and loss is a juxtaposition of love, hope, and the wisdom that binds women across centuries. The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare’s plea that we learn from each other, grow from each other, and empower each other is wrapped in an arresting, urgent voice that reads as much a rallying cry as a tract on the burden of women to suture the cracks of history. A magnanimous undertaking steeped in impeccable research, Brock offers a feast of a narrative that crackles with a resonant, binding echo of sisterhood across the centuries.”
—Rachel McMillan, author of The Mozart Code
“Kimberly Brock should be on everyone’s Southern fiction auto buy list. The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare is an absorbing, lyrical love letter to the magic of the South and to the almost supernatural tie that binds one generation’s life song to the next. Brock’s Evertell—the presumed homeplace of the mysterious Eleanor Dare and her heirs—is important not because of the names and dates etched on a rock long ago, but because of the triumphs and heartaches, joys and stumbles that whisper through the ages to caution and encourage each Dare heir—and us, too—to strive for better, to love bigger. Only in doing so will we settle into ourselves and step into who we were made to be.”
—Joy Callaway, international bestselling author of The Fifth Avenue Artists Society