Julianne Westcott was living the kind of life that other Protestant girls in prewar Liverpool could only dream about: old money, silk ball gowns, and prominent young men lining up to escort her. But when she learns of a blind-and-deaf brother, institutionalized since birth, the illusion of her perfect life and family shatters around her.

While visiting her brother in secret, Julianne meets and befriends Kyle McCarthy, an Irish Catholic groundskeeper studying to become a priest. Caught between her family's expectations, Kyle's devotion to the Church, and the intense new feelings that the forbidden courtship has awakened in her, Julianne must make a choice: uphold the life she's always known or follow the difficult path toward love.

But as war ripples through the world and the Blitz decimates England, a tragic accident forces Julianne to leave everything behind and forge a new life built on lies she's told to protect the ones she loves. Now, after 20 years of hiding from her past, the truth finds her - will she be brave enough to face it?

Listening Length

11 hours and 27 minutes
Author

Camille Di Maio
Narrator

Fiona Hardingham
Audible release date

November 21, 2016
Language

English
Publisher

Brilliance Audio
ASIN

B01MTP3ZSE
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	11 hours and 27 minutes
Author	Camille Di Maio
Narrator	Fiona Hardingham
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	November 21, 2016
Publisher	Brilliance Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B01MTP3ZSE
Best Sellers Rank	#79,879 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #148 in 20th Century Historical Romance (Audible Books & Originals) #2,810 in 20th Century Historical Romance (Books) #3,212 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

2,592 global ratings

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4 star		20%
3 star		7%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Judith F. Maclean

A beautiful, tragic, and finally happy, love story.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 24, 2016

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The Memory of Us is a beautiful love story between two people who couldn't possibly come from more different backgrounds. Julianne comes from wealth and privilege and Kyle is the son of a widowed, Irish gardner, living in a rundown, if not immaculate, flat in Liverpool. They meet when Julianne visits her severely handicapped twin brother at a nursing home. It was an accident that she ever discovered she had a twin brother. Her parents had no idea that she was aware of Charles, much less that she visited him on a regular basis at the pricy nursing home where they dumped him, and forgot him, as soon as he was born. Julianne was heading to London to begin her studies to become a nurse. Kyle was in seminary to become a Catholic priest. Julianne falls madly in love with Kyle. He's drawn to her as well, but he's determined to become a Priest to fulfill his dying mothers wish. Of course, when you have two people from backgrounds so diverse that there might as well have been an ocean dividing them, and there is an instantaneous, passionate attraction, you know there will be fireworks. There are many ups and downs for these star-crossed lovers, who are also very good friends. Julianne goes to London for her nurses training and Kyle goes to seminary but they stay in touch through letters and phone calls. There are twists and turns, and fate brings them together again. Julianne's parents hire Kyle's father as a gardner at their mansion, and Kyle helps out in the summers, when Julianne's also home from her training. He tries desperately to fulfill his mother's wishes, but the force of love pulls him farther and farther away from a life as a priest. Julianne does not make it easy on him, and she's willing to give up family and wealth, even her virtue, for Kyle. Her parents try everything to tear them apart, as they see Kyle as beneath their social standing. They're appalled that their daughter would fall in love with an Irish, Catholic gardner/seminarian. However, love wins out and they elope. Julianne's parents all but disown her. She and Kyle live in a tiny little flat in London and their love and joy together is all that matters. Life is hard, they don't have much, but they have each other and their happiness is complete. After marrying Kyle, Julianne's father refuses to pay the tuition for her nurses training, but they manage to scrape the money together and she graduates. Amazingly, Julianne learns to live with very little money, and she's deliriously happy in her near near poverty. All seems so perfect for these two lovers, even though they're terribly saddened when she has a miscarriage. Soon, World War II breaks out and they're separated by powerful forces beyond their control. Kyle is shipped off to combat and Julianne is left to grieve his absence. Shortly after Kyle leaves to join a tank division in the desert, Julianne discovers that she's pregnant again. She writes to Kyle almost daily, but she's so afraid that if she tells him she's pregnant again, it might distract him. All she wants is for him to return to her, safe and sound. As Julianne's pregnancy advances and she's close to delivery, she decides to go home and make peace with her parents. She hopes that the arrival of a grandchild will soften their hearts towards Kyle. However, fate and the Blitz interfere in the most tragic manner. Julianne survives, scarred mentally and physically. She spends a good deal of time in the hospital, where she gives birth to her daughter. She forms a good relationship with her nurse, and gives her the baby to raise. Knowing how her parents rejected their imperfect son, she's afraid to go to them with her once beautiful face and hands scarred by burns. Instead, she disappears from everyone she's ever know, choosing a life of self-imposed loneliness and anonymity. She becomes a traveling midwife, working in small towns that don't ask for credentials because they're so grateful to have a midwife. She's stays a while and then drifts off to the next town, changing her name everywhere she goes. Kyle comes home from the war and searches everywhere for her. In his heart, he knows she's alive, but after years of trying to find her, he goes back to the seminary. The nurse who raises her daughter, Lilly, is also trying to find Julianne, and, eventually, she succeeds. Every year, Julianne sends Lilly a birthday present, and leaves a trial that is being followed. Twenty years later, in a small town in the middle of nowhere, when Julianne's spirits are so low, she's ready to end it all, a frantic young man comes to her door, begging her to come and help his mother deliver her baby. It's a heartbreaking situation and there isn't much Julianne can do but deliver the child, a healthy little girl. The priest is there to give the last rights. It's Kyle. He doesn't recognize Julianne, now scarred and twenty years older. However, she recognizes him, and all the love and emotions she's tried to bury over two decades overwhelm her. Now that she's found Kyle, she doesn't want to lose him again, but she would never tell him who she is. The same fire that scarred her also scorched her vocal cords, so he doesn't even recognize her voice. She finds out that he needs a housekeeper at the rectory of the little church, where they were married, in a small town with few people. It's a quiet, lonely life, perfect for a priest in the throes of never-ending mourning. The Church is in an old cemetery, where Kyle's father is buried. Julianne becomes Kyle's housekeeper, happy to cook and clean for him. She's just so happy to be near him, while believing he will never know who she is Inevitably, as the years pass, Kyle discovers who she is, and the path to a happy ending is fairly obvious. I don't read many romance novels, but I'm so happy that I discovered the Memory of Us. I purchased the novel because I love books, fiction and nonfiction, that take place during World War II. I'm fascinated by the era, even though the how and why of such a brutal war can never really be answered to my satisfaction. Perhaps that is why the survival of love during the horror of war is so heartwarming.

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Lydia McQueen

This story had me from the very beginning.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 8, 2022

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I am at awe of how the love came full circle. Although the story tugs at your heart it was a very nice storyline. I will be reading more from Camille. A job well done ma'am.

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K.L.Romo

Historical Love Story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 21, 2016

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In her novel The Memory of Us, Camille Di Maio carries us away in the love of a lifetime, forbidden by circumstance and overwhelming obstacles.

Julianne Westcott’s life is perfect. The daughter of an English shipping magnate and socialite mother, she has everything she needs and wants. But when she discovers a twin brother, Charles, who was institutionalized at birth – blind, deaf, and mentally challenged – she realizes her life is much more complicated than she knew.

Kyle McCarthy is a landscaper’s son, living within very modest means. Julianne first meets him during a visit with her brother. While taking a break from his landscaping duties, Kyle introduces Charles to the beauty of plants, using only touch and smell. Her heart is taken with Kyle’s loving, gentle soul. But she soon learns that his heart has already been promised to another – Kyle is studying to be a priest.

Julianne’s best friend Lucille convinces her that it would be a sin to seduce a boy bound to God. But even though she tries her best to forget him, Kyle never leaves her thoughts. By chance, they see each other numerous times over the next year, and each time, Julianne feels her attachment to him growing stronger. He is handsome, funny, and kind. All the things a priest should be. But all the things a husband should be as well.

Even if Kyle weren’t promised to the Church, his situation in life is far beneath the approval of her parents. They would never accept her marriage to a boy without station. Julianne would surely have to choose between him and the life she’s always known.

As time passes, Julianne and Kyle battle the devastation that World War II brings to England, coping with the love and loss each struggles to understand and accept.

"Misery loves company, they say, and if the war had brought about misery, it had also created a company of friendships that were forged through common suffering.

It was bewildering to see the everyday aspects of life go on amidst such a ravaged landscape….Perhaps the most unnerving sights were the few children that remained in the city, prancing among this new concrete playground and making toys out of the scraps of someone’s former life."

In The Memory of Us, Di Maio surprised me with twists and turns. Just as I was expecting the plot to take one path, it would turn toward another. The first person narrative brings the reader into the brain of Julianne Westcott, following the longing of her love-torn heart as she tries to deal with her passion for a man she can’t have.

As I read, I was filled with the strong emotion of my past, as well as Julianne’s. I suffered the same struggle as a young woman – falling in love with a man whom the world didn’t see as a perfect match, but loving him none-the-less. The conflict in the novel makes the reader consider the question: How much would you give up for the love of your life? And how would you deal with the consequences?

"The people I’d loved, the people I’d left, their voices came back to me in a rising tide until, overwhelmed, I crumbled down onto the floor and wept with abandon. The tears burned my skin and I made no attempt to wipe them away. I was supposed to suffer – my eternal punishment – because of what I’d done."

For a poignant look into the hearts of forbidden lovers who must question destiny to survive, The Memory of Us will wrap itself around your heart until you cry for what was never had, what was had and lost, and what was never meant to be.

One person found this helpful

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MrsCWoods

A great WWII love story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 17, 2022

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A great WWII love story that shows God always helps us end up where He wants and needs us to be!
I thoroughly enjoyed how the Catholic faith was portrayed in this novel. Highly recommend to all Christian historical fiction lovers!

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Mary Shannon

Moving story of love and consequences

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 13, 2022

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I purchased the audio CD and loved the narrator. The book moved very slowly and was at times boring to me in the beginning - when I got to about Disc 7 my interest was there until the end. I think the Epilogue came too quickly - after suffering so many boring details in the beginning of the book, I wanted more details as to what happened with the main characters and Julianne's parents. I do recommend this book.

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Top reviews from other countries

Ritu B

Emothional read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

The Memory Of Us is the first of Camille Di Maio's books I've read, and I really enjoyed it.
I was touched by the wartime story of Julianne Westcott and her forbidden love for religious man, Kyle McCarthy.
Julianne has it all on the face of it. From a wealthy Liverpudlian family, she has all the luxuries a girl desires, including her beauty, and suitors to match, but her heart is insistent in its demand to love only one, deeply unsuitable man.
Kyle is the son of a gardener and is destined to become a Catholic priest.
Julianne's Protestant background means even a hint of a union between them would cause great grief.
Still, you can't help who you love...
I was wrapped up in the blossoming love story of the two and wanted to cry at the twists and tragedies that befall a near-perfect couple and their love story.
Oh, and the deep secret hidden away by her parents... Not giving anything away.
A wonderful, heartwrenching read.

Amazon Customer

Love, love, 01513759651 this beautiful book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book had me in bits towards the end; I could not put it down.

The story of a woman from when she was a young girl from a well-to-do family to an old woman, battered and bruised by her life and life choices. A very moving book.

Can't recommend it highly enough.

One criticism though. I seen to recall at least 2 instances of Julianne taking a shower, at least one of which was when she was at home in her flat which i think may have been above a shop or something. Well, I'd say this would've been highly unlikely because a bath would've been the norm in pre-war Britain, not a shower. It is also unlikely that she would've had her own bathroom in rented rooms - a shared bathroom would probably be more like it.

It was still a lovely book. 😊

Grandma

The memory of us

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 20, 2017

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A beautiful story which was hard to put down. Written with feeling and much love. A must read full of surprises but tinged with much sadness. Brilliant !

Linda Jill Flower

Great read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 13, 2017

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Thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story developed well and the characters were very likeable. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

EllieKat

Perfect

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 16, 2018

Verified Purchase

I love this book so much it’s so heartwarming, one to keep and read over and over. Book in perfect condition

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