Review: The Messy Lives of Book People

Look at this cover! Is it any wonder I needed to read The Messy Lives of Book People? I hadn’t read any of Phaedra Patrick’s books before, but I was enchanted by the description, title, and, yes, the cover of her latest book. The story itself didn’t quite live up to my expectation but I enjoyed my time reading it.

Here’s the book’s description:

Have you ever wished you were someone else?
Mother of two Liv Green barely scrapes by as a maid to make ends meet, often finding escape in a good book while daydreaming of becoming a writer herself. So she can't believe her luck when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero, megabestselling author Essie Starling, a mysterious and intimidating recluse. The last thing Liv expected was to be the only person Essie talks to, which leads to a tenuous friendship.
But when Essie dies suddenly, a devastated Liv is astonished to learn of her last wish: for Liv to complete Essie's final novel. But to do so Liv will have to step into Essie's shoes, and as Liv begins to write, she uncovers secrets from the past that reveal a surprising connection between the two women--one that will change Liv's own story forever...

The older I get, the more I appreciate reading about characters who aren’t twentysomething women. I’m not a mother, of course, but I’m also not fresh out of school and making my way in the world on my own for the first time. So, I appreciated reading Liv’s story even more because it wasn’t her first rodeo either. She had lived but she still had so many life experiences and changes ahead of her.

The premise of this was really intriguing – a booklover working for her favourite author? Who then tasks her to finish her novel? I couldn’t help but wonder how I would have handled that. Probably not much better than Liv, to be honest. Still, I found myself wondering what the hell Liv was thinking with some of her decisions. There was maybe a little too much reliance on secrets and not fully communicating with other characters that made it hard for me to really get behind some of Liv’s actions. I couldn’t understand the reason for all the secrecy or why she was refusing to talk to those close to her – it’s was like in romances when SO MUCH could have been avoided if the love interests had just TALKED to each other. Conflict for the sake of conflict, you know?

One of the things that kept me reading was, in fact, those secrets. There were a few that were hidden to the reader and revealed at the end and holy man I didn’t see it coming. Was it a bit too convenient? Oh, maybe. But it worked with the rest of the story and how kind of sort of unbelievable it was.

The Messy Lives of Book People didn’t thrill me but I was delighted enough that I’ll be searching out Phaedra Patrick’s backlist and next novel.

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*