Published: Park Row
Date: March 26th 2019
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
I am always drawn to a book with the words library or book or bookshop in its title. Books on the cover also help. So even though I’d never come across a Phaedra Patrick book before, The Library of Lost and Found was a book that I knew had my name on it!
The main character is Martha Storm, and she is rather quirky. It took me awhile to work her out. She keeps lists, only has a part time job at the library, lives in a house that at first sight could belong to a hoarder. She is a people pleaser and allows others to walk all over her, with their requests. She doesn’t let others close. So my question was “Who is she?” “Will I like her?”
When Martha finds a book on the doorstep of the library, it leads her to question the belief she has that her grandmother is dead. The book appears to be stories that her grandmother Zelda and Martha told when Martha was a child. But she died when Martha was thirteen – or did she?
As we track down the mystery with Martha we learn about her life at home as a youngster, the little stories she told, interspersed with the main text give us insight into what kind of home life she had. No wonder Martha is like she is. But her inner spirit is quite different and slowly it emerges and the real Martha steps out.
I enjoyed the cameo minor characters, the unravelling of the mystery, the book references of course, and of the main characters finally returning “home”. And yes I ended up really liking Martha and being very hopeful for her future.
I keep seeing this title pop up, I’ll have to get my hands on it, looks good!
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I keep seeing this title pop up, it looks good. I’ll have to get my hands on it!
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I am glad you enjoyed this book too.
Nice review…thanks for sharing.
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I have loved her past books Kathryn and this one is patiently waiting on my shelf! Great review
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I’m always attracted to books with the word, library, in their titles too. I like the sound of Martha and her metamorphosis transformation.
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The title is catchy. Thank’s for sharing.
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I liked her previous book, but i did not go for this one cos of some neg reviews
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If you love books about books, with warm quirky characters, fairy tales, a woman who says ‘no’ to take control of her life, then you’ll like this one!
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Totally agree.
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I so regret not going for this one back then! But hey it is not like the book went somewhere lol.
ANd yes your previous book rocked. Keeper shelf
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Couldnt get this one. Sigh!
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It sounds absolutely lovely.
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Hi Kathryn,
This looks like a fascinating book. It does sound like a charming mystery. Do we get enough on the grandma to motivate us to learn more about what happened to her? Or, is it more of an implied sentiment/connection? I like what you said about Martha’s character slowly being revealed to the reader. It’s nice to not have that character be open right away. It feels more real that way because people have layers and it takes a while to get to know someone. When you say that there are cameos, do you mean characters from fiction in general or do you mean characters from other stories by this author?
I freaking love how your review doesn’t spoil things but still makes the story interesting. I am still trying to figure out how to do that. I just had to share how wonderful the way you write is.
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Thank you and yes we do get to hear more about the grandma as the story develops. The cameos I refer to are the minor characters in this book.Yes always hard to talk about a book without revealing too much. I am not sure I have mastered that well myself!!
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I just got this book and I can’t wait to read it. Great review.
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