My thoughts
This is such a good book. It's both lighthearted and intense. It will make you laugh and cry. It's this author's debut novel and she should be very proud. It's so well done.
Filled with likable characters and even a dog. A book that will keep you turning the pages. Lenny Marks was a very shy and awkward woman. A teacher. A friend. A woman with a past that her mind rearranged so she could cope. So she could have a life. Lenny had problems with accepting that people could like her. Or that she was good enough. She tended to stay home, inside, watching tv. Friends was her tv show of choice and playing scrabble with Monica from friends. Of course that was only in her head but still.... Lenny Marks really needed a life.
When Lenny finally comes to terms with what happened all those years ago she has to face her childhood self. She was only thirteen years old when her mother went away. Though she will remember later that things didn't exactly happen the way she remembered. She was abused by her stepdad and he went to prison for murdering her mother. He was a very vile and evil creature.
I loved how Lenny made so many words. One word that contained several. She is what I would call a wordsmith....
This book was well written. It's heartwarming and heartbreaking. It's honest. It has things in it that will make you cringe. Also give a chuckle. It will make you cry and hope that Lenny finally has a good life. I wanted Lenny Marks to get a life. I think she finally did.
Thank you #NetGalley, #StMartinsPress and #MacmillinAudio for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.
Five big stars.
About
Lenny Marks is good at not remembering.
She has spent the last twenty years not thinking about the day her mother left her when she was still a child. Her stepfather’s parting words, however, remain annoyingly unforgettable: 'You did this.'
Now thirty-seven, Lenny prefers contentment and order over the unreliability of happiness and the messiness of relationships. She fills her days teaching at the local primary school, and her nights playing Scrabble with her pretend housemate, watching reruns of Friends and rearranging her thirty-six copies of The Hobbit.
Recently though, if only to appease her beloved foster-mum, Lenny has set herself the goal of ‘getting a life’.
Then, out of the blue, a letter arrives from the Adult Parole Board. And when her desperate attempts to ignore it fail, Lenny starts to unravel.
Worse, she starts to remember . . .
She has spent the last twenty years not thinking about the day her mother left her when she was still a child. Her stepfather’s parting words, however, remain annoyingly unforgettable: 'You did this.'
Now thirty-seven, Lenny prefers contentment and order over the unreliability of happiness and the messiness of relationships. She fills her days teaching at the local primary school, and her nights playing Scrabble with her pretend housemate, watching reruns of Friends and rearranging her thirty-six copies of The Hobbit.
Recently though, if only to appease her beloved foster-mum, Lenny has set herself the goal of ‘getting a life’.
Then, out of the blue, a letter arrives from the Adult Parole Board. And when her desperate attempts to ignore it fail, Lenny starts to unravel.
Worse, she starts to remember . . .
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