History Could Never Be Lost: A Review of History Lost Between Us by Barbara Howard

​Right away, this mysterious slow burn romance was off to an intriguing start. Olivia James’s grandmother Martha recently passed away, leaving Olivia her home. Her home was a cabin loaded with historical treasures, because Martha herself, was a historian and guardian of artifacts affiliated with and used for the Underground Railroad. The cabin, also deemed a historical site, on page one had become the scene of a robbery.
 
Olivia enters her grandmother’s home, noticing that the place had been ransacked. She calls the authorities, and to her surprise and perhaps initially her dismay as well, Cameron, her ex-boyfriend and park ranger shows up to investigate. Now I must admit, off rip, I was blaming everybody who entered the picture from Cameron to Ezra the art buyer, and Regina Olivia’s mentor. In some instances, I was dead on, but Ms. Howard kept me on my toes because I kept hitting brick walls.
 
The setting was so well-written and fleshed out that I could feel when the energy changed. Olivia’s inherited cabin, though it held a lot if history and was filled with the courageous spirits of those who were once enslaved, never once felt eerie. At first, I thought to myself “Could I have stayed in an old cabin in the woods?” The cabin was a second home to Olivia though and the place where her grandmother taught her a lot about their history as well as the town’s history. If I were her, then yes, I could’ve pulled it off too. From the opening of Chapter One, Ms. Howard pulls us into a rustic world that is more than aesthetically pleasing, with its heavy wood, colored fallen leaves, and older furnishings. All that was missing was a musical score.
 
I understood this to be a slow-burn romance, but Olivia and Cameron drove me absolutely insane. The deliberate miscommunication just proved how human beings are constantly getting in their own way when it comes to love. Olivia, being the main character was the most developed and she felt like a sister or close cousin that I occasionally wanted to shake. I liked Cameron’s attempt at being stoic until it became too much for me and I was talking back to him out loud as I read. I did flip through Ms. Howard’s other books to see if these two return though. I wouldn’t mind knowing what happens next with them.
 
The prominent theme to me aligned with something my grandfather said to me years ago. I was asking him questions about when he’d moved further up north in New York, and he said, “I thought I was running from my problems, but ya can’t run from ya problems. They will travel with you.” This novel is named History Lost Between Us, but nothing was ever lost. Olivia and Cameron thought they could run from and ignore their feelings for each other. They thought they could continue without closure, but their history lingered, forcing them into a situation together where they would have to face and solve their issues as a team. The importance of Black history woven throughout the novel reminds those who willingly forget how important Black people are to the structure as well as the breakthroughs of this country. There is no running away from the past, so we might as well embrace it.
I have already recommended this novel to fellow readers. It’s a dynamic blend of romance, desire, mystery, tension, and history. I enjoyed it from start to finish, and when I was done yelling at Olivia and Cameron, I was clapping for them. It is for sure a 4/5 star read, and should be considered for the big screen someday soon.