The Library of Lost and Found by @PhaedraPatrick ~ a @HarlequinBooks Review

by Susan Roberts

I love books about libraries and this was a great book about libraries and a librarian. There were references sprinkled throughout this book about current novels which I always think is a lot of fun. Even though the main character of this book is in her 40s, I would classify this as a coming of age story - you're never too old to grow up.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

March 2019; Park Row; 978-0778369356
audio, ebook, print (352 pages); women's fiction

Martha Storm is a librarian who always enjoyed books and stories more than she enjoyed people. She had been in love when she was younger but made a decision to stay home and take care of her parents. She has a sister, a niece and a nephew and no friends. Her main problem in her life is that she can't say no - she does laundry for one of the library patrons, hems pants for her nephew, keeps plants and fish for another library patron. She lives in the home that she grew up in because her parents left her the house when they died. She hasn't gotten rid of their possessions yet and along with those boxes are all of the projects that she's working on for other people - basically, it's a hoarders house with narrow pathways to walk through. She leads a sad solitary life until...someone leaves her a mysterious book that was signed by her beloved grandmother and the date was three years after her grandmother died. Was this a joke or was her grandmother - the only person she truly loved - still alive? As she tries to find out the answer, she realizes that its time to make a lot of changes in her life. Will she go ahead with the changes or will she stay locked in her solitary life forever?

This is a dual timeline book. The first timeline is when Martha is a young girl living with her parents and sister. Even though she felt like her dad didn't like her as much as her sister, she was happy in her life, writing stories and spending time with her grandmother. The other timeline is Martha in the present day working in a library. I like the way this was done so that the reader had the information about why Martha acted the way that she did.

Martha is a fantastic main character. Seeing her go from invisibility to visibility in her world and learning to say NO was a fantastic change for her.

Buy The Library of Lost and Found at Amazon

About the Author

Phaedra Patrick's debut novel, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, is set to be translated into over twenty languages worldwide and film rights have been optioned in the US.

An award-winning short story writer, she now writes full time. She lives in Saddleworth, UK, with her husband and son.

Connect with Phaedra
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter. 

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