Olivia Green cleans houses and businesses for a living. Her husband owns a not so profitable paper company with his family. They have two boys who will both be in university this year. They can barely make ends meet. They are a family; they share game night together and family meals. Even though Liv has always had her own set of dreams as to what she wanted in life, family has always taken precedence.
Liv especially enjoys working for Essie Starling, the best-selling author of the Georgia Rory adventure series which Essie is in the process of writing the twentieth book. Essie is known to be difficult, but Liv takes her with a grain of salt grateful for the opportunity to be around such a renowned author. Liv is an avid reader. You see, secretly, Liv has always wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember. At 10 years old her late father who was an English professor told her she had talent. But, as you know, sometimes life has a way of putting some dreams on the backburner.
Then, Essie suddenly dies, and Liv discovers to her amazement in her will she chose her to finish the final Georgia Rory adventure. But, there are stipulations such as no one can know Essie has died until the publication date of the book, and absolutely no one can know Liv completed the work. Not understanding what was in Essie’s mind, she reluctantly takes on the responsibility of completing the book. The money could certainly come in handy. Unfortunately, she must lie to everybody including her husband Jake as to what she is doing. But with this opportunity comes way more questions than answers.
As Liv reads what Essie has already written, she just can’t get a feel for who the characters really are and where they are going. So, as she begins her work of figuring out where Essie had been going with the story, she soon has more questions than answers. In order to grasp the characters as they are now, she feels the only way she can do Essie’s work justice is to go back in time and find out what exactly Essie was thinking when she created the first story. What were the mysteries lurking in the background of these developed characters?
This idea takes Liv on her own adventure into Essie’s past, the people she knew, who worked for her, who she married and a mysterious love of her life. Liv discovers Essie had many secrets. As the task and deadline quickly approach, Liv is overwhelmed with fear of not doing Essie or the characters justice. This all begins to take a toll on her marriage as well. She begins to see a different side of herself. One which she never knew was inside her.
Then suddenly, Liv discovers Essie’s secrets. These secrets will pull Liv’s and her family’s lives in a direction she never saw coming. All she thought she wanted to do was make Essie proud of her. but it turned into something so much more.
The Messy Lives of Book People is a heartwarming, uplifting story about, well…books, those who read them, those who write them and those who wish they could. But the lesson learned from the story is this, Love is the glue which holds the writer’s and the readers of books together. No matter who you are.
Thank you #NetGalley #ParkRow #PhaedraPatrick #TheMessyLivesofBookPeople for the advanced copy.
Lisa's Cubby 