At first I didn't enjoy this book and stopped reading within the first 30% of the book. But recently I came back to it and I'm glad I did! I'll seek out more from this author.

I thoroughly enjoyed this lovely book set in beautiful Cornwall and centred on a few great characters, including May who is 110 years old.. Such an original and clever story., Both moving and witty, I will be looking out for more books by this author.

I absolutely adored this book
It started off a little strange with 110 year old May Roosevelt yearning to make it to 111.
May has a secret gift where she can harvest people memories from their personal possessions - things that mean something to someone and by harvesting these memories she stays young and halts the aging process.
But this is only the beginning of the story about the old lady who lives in the Cornish village of Pengally in a little cottage - number 59 memory lane.
The real story is about the other villagers who Live on her street and their secrets
Julia - in her 80s who recently lost her husband Don and has found a stash of letters his brother and sisters wrote him over the years about a missing family heirloom
Granddaughter Emily who is returning from the states to check everything’s ok with Julia after another neighbour - gardener and widowed single dad Andy calls her to say he is worried about Julia’s memory loss.
Tristram also in his 80s who owns the local seafood restraunt and has been married more times than he cares to remember .
This is truly and enchanting book full of secrets and memories that had me hooked. And can’t wait to read the sequel.

It has taken me a VERY long time to finish 59 Memory Lane. I love the setting (a lot of books I've read lately have been set in Cornwall) and I also love New York but the characters didn't feel natural. They felt forced and unfinished. There were also moments when something was said but we're not given any resolution. Parts of this were also a little creepy and I didn't feel the 'heartwarming' adjective on the cover doesn't really reflect the book. I have no problem with suspending belief when reading but I just couldn't with this one. It was unbelievable and in the end, I skim read to the end. I didn't find any enjoyment in this book. I haven't posted this online anywhere as I don't like to share reviews less than 3 stars.

This book waa written beautifully and made me wish I was part of the group that lives down memory lane.

So much sadness and happiness all in one book. This book drew me in and i couldn't stop reading. When i heard the was a 2nd one, i jumped at the chance to read it, that's how much i loved this one.

Perfect heart breaking and warming at the same time.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

This is such a wonderful, imaginative book. I really enjoyed the cast of characters and it was an easy read. My only wish would be to have more focus on the mystery and the letters. I really love those flashes into the past and all the threads coming together at the end.

I know the author had plans to write a sequel, but maybe she could write a prequel too?

‘59 Memory Lane’ by Celia Anderson has a cozy tone reminding me immediately of MC Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series, but without the crime. Anderson has created the sort of feelgood destination you long to live in, to get away from it all. Pengelly is an isolated seaside village in Cornwall with an infrequent bus service. When a local do-gooder starts an Adopt-a-Granny scheme pairing people together, 110-year old May Rosevere is paired with her eighty year old neighbour Julia. Except unbeknown to everyone else, these two women harbour a long held grudge against each other.
The central premise of the novel is that May’s long life – and she is free of the medical complaints experienced by other older characters in the book - is thanks to her magical ability to collect other people’s memories and extract energy from them; this is described as a kind of frisson, naughtiness, a buzz. May, determined to reach her 111th birthday, steps up her ‘thought harvesting’ and so is delighted to learn that Julia has discovered a large collection of family letters going back decades.
This book has two major storylines spliced together - the feelgood seaside life in Pengelly and the adventures of the community, the romances, the illnesses, the community spirit; and the flip side, the unexplored darkness of May’s theft of other people’s memories. I found the latter quite difficult. It feels as if May is basically stealing other people’s lives; when she takes Julia’s letters, Julia becomes forgetful, vague and weak. May’s ‘thought harvesting’ is not clearly defined, described variously as a power, skill, ability, talent. May’s father tells her, as a child, about her ‘power’ but we see her doing nothing positive with it. It is not a force for good, she simply uses it for a feeling of well-being. In the beginning she gets her buzz from handling secondhand possessions at fairs and sales and by picking up rubbish and forgotten objects. But when did the stealing start?
The community at Pengelly is large and so the first half of the novel includes lots of scene setting and explanation of who is who. For this reason, this feels like the first novel in a series. The story really took off for me in the second half when May’s ‘talent’ comes back to bite her and she starts to feel guilty at taking people’s memories from them when it clearly causes damage. Anderson does an excellent job in creating the world of Pengelly, the community spirit for a village often cut-off, its residents have become supportive and innovative. There is romance for young and old, and support and friendship for everyone when illness strikes.
At the end I would have liked more explanations; to the mystery of Julia’s letters, the death of May’s husband, the mysterious Will who went off to be a priest, or the meaning of the missing ring. I can’t help but think this is a missed opportunity to turn this novel into something more than a Cornish village romance. Pengelly is definitely an escapist village with its beach walks, barbecues, cake, biscuits and mugs of hot chocolate, and it was good to see a cast of characters across the age spectrum, from six-year old Tamsin to 110 year-old May and lots of 50-80+, all getting along together. But I was left feeling I had been led, by the cover design, to expect one novel but got another.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

59 Memory Lane is a very different book and to be honest it’s not a story I really took much enjoyment from. The storyline was hard to believe and I didn’t really engage with the characters

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC

An unusual story of May who has nearly reached the grand age of 110 and this she does through a very unusual way. Nearby in the Lane is Julia grieving for her late husband Don and tackling a mystery about a lost jewel through old letters between him and his sisters. Add to the list Andy a widower with a child who worries about Nulia and gets in contact with her granddaughter Emily and you have a great cast of characters to weave a magical tale around with not forgetting the other minor characters who live in the village and have their parts to play. A wonderful enriching story of friendship and consequences.

Thank You To Netgalley & Publishers For Granting My Request To Review This Book.
What A Rollercoaster Of A Story! I Loved It! Such An Eclectic Assortment Of Characters, All With Their Own Stories Within This Story.
I Love The Idea The Author Used Of Taking On Someone Else’s Memory To Lengthen A Life. What An Interesting Concept.
A Very Emotive Book For Me As I Was Hugely Invested In It. A Brilliant Job By The Author

59 Memory Lane is an strange story. The “main” character May is 110 years old and is waiting for her 111th birthday, which is just a couple of months away. She is some kind on energy/memory vampire and all she needs to last those last months is another dose of somebody’s memories. But May is not the only one who lives on Memory Lane, her over lane neighbor is Julia, who buried her husband Don recently, her next door neighbor is Andy with his daughter Tamsin, who’s mom died shortly after her birth. Other important characters are Julia’s son’s daughter Emily and May’s friend and Julia’s admirer – local restaurant owner – Tristam.

Julia has been cleaning her late husband’s things and she found a case full of his letters – letter from Don’s sisters and brother. May sees the letters as her best opportunity to get enough energy to last till her birthday. Andy is worried about Julia’s health so he writes to Emily and asks her to come home. Emily leaves New York, but before she ends her relationship with her lover Max.

Once they are all together on Memory Lane, things start to happen, they start to happen too often and authors will is too obvious. Many secrets surface from the letters and from their lives and not all of them find solutions, for some revelations you must read till the end of the book and some will stay secrets.

It’s not a bad book, it’s interesting, it just has too many things happening and they do not happen naturally, smoothly, author’s hand is too visible.

A lovely heartwarming read with a great mystery element. I couldn't put it down! One of the best books I've read in a long long time.

A beautifully written book. Utterly enchanting- a pure delight from the beginning to the end
You can’t help but love the main character in this book.
Can’t wait to read more by this author

This book had an interesting premise, but I was unable to go with the imagination in the story and was unable to finish it. Since I did not read it completely, I cannot review it on other sites but I would recommend it to those who like quirky, magical realism infused tales about family and nostalgia.

Mysteries unravelled and family secrets revealed through the examination of long-forgotten letters is one of my favourite tropes, especially when the discoveries take place in a small, close-knit community. So this debut had my attention almost before I’d finished reading the admittedly short blurb. The cover stuck in my mind too, with its treasure trove of a memory box peeping out from under a stamped and addressed envelope. And treasure troves of memories are exactly what we get here, thanks to May Rosevere’s rather unusual gift, which is what she believes has enabled her to live to one hundred and ten. As the story begins, she is hoping her gift will enable her to reach the very special age – in her mind, at least – of one hundred and eleven.May, like her father and grandmother before her, is able to sense the memories captured in everyday objects and is convinced that some of this special energy is transferred to her, causing her to age more slowly than those around her. She suspects that this transference is not without a cost to those whose memories she ‘harvests,’ but has no precedent to refer to, since her father died in the Blitz and her grandmother also died at a relatively early age from influenza. Having heard her father, amongst others, make reference to something never being surpassed, even if they reach the grand old age of one hundred and eleven, May is determined to reach that milestone. Since moving from her family home in the centre of the Cornish village of Pengelly to a more manageable bungalow on the outskirts, however, she has found memorable objects harder to come by. This all changes when one of the local ladies starts an ‘adopt a granny’ scheme and pairs May with her recently widowed neighbour, Julia, who has uncovered a lifetime’s worth of letters hoarded by her late husband and detailing several family arguments and the mystery of a lost opal ring. Seeing an irresistible opportunity to both gain healing energy from the memories contained in the letters and to solve the mystery of why Julia fell out with her years before, May offers to help sort the correspondence with the ultimate idea that Julia can write a book based on her in-laws’ saga.

As May gains strength from the memories, Julia seems to become more forgetful. Panicking that she is experiencing the beginning of dementia, she enlists the help of her neighbours and summons her granddaughter home from the US for an extended holiday. Emily is quite relieved to get some time away, having recently ended an affair with a narcissistic married man, and soon gets involved in both the reading of the letters and other aspects of village life. She also becomes friendly with another of her grandmother’s neighbours, a young widower, who gardens and does odd jobs for all the local old folks and is slightly overprotective of his six-year-old daughter.

I loved all the characters in this book, as well as the hints of magical realism with regard to May’s abilities, and the overarching mysteries contained in the letters as well as around May herself, whose husband drowned in a boating accident under slightly unusual circumstances, and who has been involved with a number of lovers both before and after his not-especially-mourned-by-anyone death. The resolution of all the plot threads is just perfect, but I really want to visit Pengelly and especially Memory Lane again at some point in the future to see how everyone’s getting along.

I absolutely loved this book. So easy to get into then I really couldn't put it down. May can be a spikey lady and you are introducec to a variety of characters in her village and in her life. This is a book about love, loss, making changes and relationships between lovers and friends. You really want to know what happened to May's husband Charles and you care about Andy and Emily getting together. The story is linked together by May's 'gift' and the letters from Julia's past. A magical book and a brilliant read.

loved the book. by celia .good characters and story line. look forward to reading more from this author.

A beautiful novel that has a similar feel to The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan which I loved. The cover intrigued me. It really opens your eyes to loneliness especially felt by the elderly and the knowledge and wisdom that can be passed through the generations. Well written characters and an unusual concept. Captures you and remains with you. An emotional but enjoyable novel..

Memory Lane Pengally is well named; it is a seaside lane which is steeped in memories - some happy, some sad, some kept secret. Throw in a well-intentioned adopt-a-granny scheme with some unlikely pairings, the return from America of a Emily alerted by a neighbour's concern for her grandmother and a very old lady with an unusual approach to longevity... and some of those secrets are bound to emerge.
This debut has an assured style, which reminded me of Sarah Addison Allen's gently magical novels Garden Spells, The Sugar Queen and so on. Although a stand-alone novel, it has all the ingredients of a Village Series ibcludibg a few threads that aren't entirely finished, such as a plan for a retreat for dementia parents and their carers, the possibility of a relationship between Emily's boss and one of the villagers, and finding homes for those unexpected kittens! An enjoyable read; I'll be interested in future developments down Memory Lane.