Laurie Sassalyn has returned to her hometown to help settle her great-aunt’s estate and go through her home. While there she reconnects with her high-school boyfriend and embarks on an adventure involving a wooden duck, while at the same time going on her own journey of self-discovery and dealing with the reality of her upcoming fortieth birthday.
This was a charming novel. It’s about second-chance love, healing from grief, and figuring out who you are. I really liked Linda Holmes’ first novel, Evvie Drake Starts Over, and I like listening to her on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. I was excited to see where this next book would go.
That being said, this book was a bit different than I thought it would be. I wasn’t expecting a big romance or anything but I guess I thought the romance would have been more of a plotline. I enjoyed the caper involving the missing duck and I loved the sibling relationship between Laurie and her brother Ryan and how they came together to solve the case.
The characters are great. I loved Nick and his amazing grandmother. I also liked June and how her and Laurie’s friendship never waivered, even though they don’t live in the same time zone. I thought all of the supporting characters were fabulous. I didn’t always agree with Laurie and I thought she was a little unrelenting in her ways but that’s just my take. The only thing that really bugged me about her was that she kept whining about the fact that she was almost forty.
Overall, this was a nice cozy read.
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