I was looking for something light and frothy to read when I saw the cover of Annie England Noblin's latest novel, St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets (#889) with the adorable Boston terrier on the cover. I didn't heed the old adage "Never judge a book by its cover." Although it was a decent read, it dealt with much darker issues such as domestic abuse, loss, grief and abandonment. Oh, and there wasn't a Boston terrier anywhere in the book!
Maeve Stephens' life hasn't been going well lately, so when someone calls to tell her that her birth mother's funeral is coming up in the small town of Timber Creek, Washington, why not go and see if some of her life-long questions can finally be answered? What she finds instead is that she has inherited a small house, a mint-condition old VW Beetle and her mother's place in a small town society with plenty of secrets and eccentric characters. Torn between the desire to find out more about her biological parents and a feeling she is being disloyal to her adoptive family in Seattle, Maeve nonetheless decides to stay in Timber Creek for the time being. What has she got to return to in Seattle with no job, no apartment and a viral video of her former Seattle Mariners' boyfriend making out publicly with someone who is not Maeve? Besides, there is the handsome neighbor down the street, a well-known but reclusive best-selling author...
Everything does turn out well in the end for almost everybody, but there sure is a lot of emotional debris to wade through in the meantime. Next time I'm looking for light and frothy, I'll look for a Sophie Kinsella novel!
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