Book Review: The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds by Jennifer Moorman

Pages: 320

Genre: Adult Fiction/Historical Fiction

Pub. Date: January 14, 2025

Publisher: Harper Muse

Source: Publisher for review

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

 

Goodreads says, "Can an entire life be erased by one thoughtless wish that changes a single moment?

Josephine Reynolds never imagined she'd be a widow in her midthirties. Grieving and barely able to contemplate one more night alone, she carelessly wishes she'd never been born. At the exact same moment, her inbox dings with an it's a link from her sister that lists local foreclosures, and, to her immense surprise, she sees her great-grandmother's house listed and immediately conspires to reclaim it.

But as Josephine restores her great-grandmother's home to its original glory, she comes to realize not everything is as it seems. Replacing the modern front door with the original hand-carved and solid wood one, she notices minuscule words carved into the edging. As she speaks the words aloud and opens the front door with its original key, Josephine finds herself transported back almost one hundred years ago to a 1920s party thrown by her great-grandmother Alma.

A shocked Josephine fears she is losing her mind. Has her grief caused her to lose touch with reality? But it quickly becomes clear that her life and future--thanks to her throwaway wish--hinge on one single moment that happened almost one hundred years ago. The two parallel timelines start blending together, and Josephine witnesses her present life disappearing right before her eyes. She can only hope it's not too late to save her own future."

Josephine finds herself in a position that she never imagined she would be in. She's 35 years old and a widow. Her life always centered around her husband and his career, as she never finished school, they never had children, and she did whatever he wanted to do. After his untimely death, she finds herself in their expansive house with no purpose to her life. With her sister's encouragement, they find out their ancestral home is for sale in Nashville. Josephine has so many wonderful memories there, so she sold her current home and relocated there. Returning her family's home to its former glory becomes her new purpose and when at a salvage yard, she comes across the actual door to the home, which she assumed was long gone after a renovation. Once she brings this door back to the house, it becomes a door to the past - quite literally - in that when she enters it, she finds herself in her home, but the year is 1927. Josephine encounters her grandmother, who is a force to be reckoned with, but she quickly realizes that her grandmother will die at her speakeasy during a raid if she doesn't fix things. The more she travels back, the more it alters things for Josephine and her family. Jennifer Moorman's The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds is a cozy read filled with historical details and magical realism.

At first, I wasn't a big fan of Josephine in The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds. She was pretty whiny and helpless. She had low self-esteem and it got, quite honestly, boring. Once she started to gain control of her life and fix up her family's home, I enjoyed her a bit more. Her interactions with her grandmother in the past were charming and I was rooting for her to not only take back her life but help with her grandmother's unfortunate fate.

Moorman includes a lot of details about the Jazz Age and speakeasies, which made this a fun read at times, especially if you are a fan of the time period. However, I did not really believe that Josephine would find a love interest in 1927, so I could have done without that part of the story, but overall, it worked out just fine in the end.

If you are looking for a slow read to escape in filled with magical touches, give The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds a try this winter. Let me know in the comments if you are a fan of books with magical realism and if this book is on your winter TBR list.