#BlogTour The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick

Today it's my turn on the BlogTour The Library of the Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick. It's an intricate contemporary read, a mystery.

About the Author
Phaedra Patrick studied art and marketing and has worked as a stained glass artist, film festival organiser and communications manager. Her short stories have won competitions run by Penguin and Darley Anderson and she now writes full time. She lives in Saddleworth with her husband and son.

Follow @phaedrapatrick on Twitter, on Facebook, on Goodreads,Visit phaedra-patrick.com
Buy The Library of Lost and Found 

About the book
Librarian Martha Storm has always found it easier to connect with books than people--though not for lack of trying. She keeps careful lists of how to help others in her superhero-themed notebook. And yet, sometimes it feels like she's invisible. All of that changes when a book of fairy tales arrives on her doorstep.

Inside, Martha finds a dedication written to her by her best friend--her grandmother Zelda--who died under mysterious circumstances years earlier. When Martha discovers a clue within the book that her grandmother may still be alive, she becomes determined to discover the truth. As she delves deeper into Zelda's past, she unwittingly reveals a family secret that will change her life forever.

Filled with Phaedra Patrick's signature charm and vivid characters, The Library of Lost and Found is a heart-warming reminder that even the quietest life has the potential to be extraordinary.

Review
Martha does everything for everyone. Their laundry, sewing, fixing costumes, baking and any other thing she thinks will help others. Except there is a fine line between helping and be taken advantage of.

That's is the crux of Martha's problems, she is unable or unwilling to stand up for herself. A lifetime of being oppressed and of kow-towing to her father, putting her needs last and playing by rules made by others. It has made her a target for those who like to bully, use and abuse.

The other side of her helping out is the way her inability to say no impacts her living situation. It appears to be quirky and eccentric at first, but the truth is perhaps more serious.

Her life changes when a mysterious package is left outside her place of work. It leads her to questions she didn't know existed or that she needed to know the answers to. To a world behind the truth she knows, the only truth she knows.

Read me, I'm yours.

Would you be able to resist a book with a post-it note reading the aforementioned? I am certain I wouldn't be able to. The question is why someone would do that. To share the love of reading, to create an invisible thread to the source or is it ego-centric?

It's all connected to the stories Martha wrote as a child and the fact that she stopped writing them.
This story is all about finding your inner mojo, especially when it has been repressed and locked away for many years. Martha comprehends the level of emotional and coercive abuse her mother suffered, but it takes meeting Zelda to finally understand what her father did to her.

It's a beautiful and heartfelt story about mental health, self-discovery and the kind of secrets that change lives. It's an intricate contemporary read, a mystery. A family full of secrets, hidden heartache and the soul of a little girl lost in the body of grown woman. The story has a hint of mystique, which in the end is perhaps just the culmination of human mistakes and a love for the written word.

Buy The Library of Lost and Found at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.

Read my review of The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick

The style of the story is reminiscent of The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy and the subsequent Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.

Arthur is grieving for his wife. His story is about processing the grief and coming to terms with the woman she was with him and the woman she was before he come into her life.

Isn't that true for all of us or at least the majority of us? There is always an element of ourselves and our lives we keep hidden from our spouses and/or life partners. The life, friends, adventures and experiences before you settle down, and sometimes even after you've settled down. Secret lives and the unknown facets of the person you love.

This is exactly what happens to Arthur. He finds an expensive charm bracelet in a small box hidden in a shoe in his wife's cupboard. A trinket he has never seen before and knows nothing about.

The charms end up leading him on a lifetime of adventures. He discovers so many new things about Miriam, things he couldn't have imagined her ever doing. Ex-lovers, trips to exotic places and even living in India for a while. It makes him doubt the life they had together and the love they had for each other.

In the end this is a story of how Arthur emerges from the darkness and the depths of his grief. How he reconnects with life and in a way with the Miriam he used to know and most importantly the Miriam he knows now.

It's a lovely tale of sorrow, loneliness and despair, which is replaced by curiosity, happiness and a zest for life.

Buy The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.