This first novel from Ruth Hogan has a premise which intrigued me enough to be let down when a different story was delivered. The idea of returning found objects to their original owners is largely forgotten in favour of a romance with the gardener, a new friendship, a little mystery about the neighbours, and a little ghostly magic. The attractive cover design ringed with paper flowers should have been my first clue this is a very light novel.
Newly divorced Laura answers an ad for assistant to a writer. Anthony works in his private home studio, and Laura types up the text. He has a habit of picking up loose and forgotten objects in the street, with the dream of returning them to their owners one day. Meantime, he writes successful stories imagining where they came from. When he dies, Laura inherits the house, and his locked studio filled with shelves and drawers of items collected over 40 years which he wished her to somehow return - gloves, jigsaw pieces, even a box of what he thinks are ashes.
Alternating this story is another taking place in the 70's, about the neighbours - a publisher named Bomber and his assistant Eunice. As they work their entire careers together, of course she has fallen in love with him, but he is not the marrying kind.
I was expecting a story about objects and their return, but that is not a priority for Laura, who spends time with Anthony's handsome rose gardener, and a neighbour girl with Down's (and perhaps a psychic gift) named Sunshine. There are other subplots keeping Laura busy, and they do create a website for the items, but I felt a promising idea had been set aside for endless cups of lovely tea. The plots of Eunice and Laura eventually weave together, and the writing was competent.
There are books for everyone, and sometimes it's nice to read an undemanding book. However, I found this so light as to become etheric, the majority taken over by the lives of friends and family instead of that room stocked with mysterious treasures. Conventional storytelling and romance with a sprinkle of magic, it has been described as: whimsical, charming, delightful. For me, there is not enough substance to recommend it.
2017 / Tradeback / 311 pages
Comments