Ruth Hogan's book is about memory, in a way. Author Anthony Peardew tragically mislaid a relatively cheap memento given to him by his fiancée - the tragedy being that he lost it on the day she died in an accident. In memory of Therese, his fiancée, Anthony goes out of his way to pick up items lost by others. His original intent is to restore them to their owners but, since he is an author of short stories, he instead he creates little vignettes of items and their imagined owners. He also seems to collect slightly lost people - a gardener, a young neighbour and Laura, a young woman brought low by a difficult marriage and subsequent divorce, who becomes his assistant. Laura is starting to rebuild her life when Anthony dies, leaving her his home and a mission to restore all the lost things to their rightful places (and people). She is reluctant to put much effort into this until she realises there is some kind of spirit in the house which will not let her rest with the job undone.

This is a lovely book - it has characters I cared about (but with flaws and foibles), a slightly quirky plot and, as a bonus, lots of the stories Anthony wrote about the Lost Things are included. We often remember people via objects which we connect with them and, just as often, we recall our own pasts in the same way. We are just not always so good at remembering where these objects are - it gave me a warm feeling to read about Laura, and the friends she makes through her connection to Anthony and his collection of lost objects, helping others to regain those mementoes and those memories.

This book is a bit out of my comfort zone, my normal reads having at least one grisly murder in them, but that was exactly the reason I chose to request The Keeper of Lost Things from NetGalley; I do love my murder mysteries but every now and again I get a bit overwhelmed and I want something warm and fuzzy to take the edge off. The Keeper of Lost Things is definitely that, but in places it was a bit too sugary sweet for me.
I'm still in two minds about this book. It took me a while to get into it, the first 30% or so is all over the place; it takes a while to set up the characters and spends a long time in explaining their history, instead of letting it develop throughout.

As with the plot, I found the characters very hit and miss too. Some, like Eunice and Sunshine, were well-developed and interesting, but others, including the lead character of Laura, didn't have much depth and I really struggled to connect with her.

The love story was a bit lack lustre, there was no passion, no suspense and rather a cliched, hunky gardener love interest.

I feel like I'm being really negative about this book which is unfair as it definitely has its merits. After ploughing through the first third of the book the rest was better and the tempo flowed steadily and I became more invested in Anthony and Laura's task.

There were other elements I enjoyed; the weaving in of stories of the lost things' owners was a lovely touch and were like small character studies.
I particularly liked Lilia, who came out with this rather fantastic quote:

"Lilia's own mother had taught her two things: dress for oneself, and marry for love."

I think, to really enjoy this book, you just have to accept that it's soppy and ladles it on in parts, one of the characters is even called Sunshine for God's sake! It also has some rather spectacularly unbelievable coincidences.
But, if you go with the sweetness, The Keeper of Lost Things is an enjoyable read that does leave you with a warm and fuzzy, if a little sickly, feeling.

It's a very good antidote for the January blues. It's best read under a duvet with a dog at your side. A woolly jumper is good too.

My rating: 3/5

I received an ARC of the book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. My thanks to the author and publisher.

Laura has nothing left to lose when she applies for a job as a housekeeper and secretary for writer Anthony Peardew. Her marriage to her cheating childhood sweetheart has collapsed, her burning desire for children was never fulfilled and she has no education to speak of. Anthony’s house is like a balm on her soul, quiet, beautiful and filled with the bitter sweet memories of Anthony’s dead wife. There is only one room, the study, that she is not permitted to enter. When Anthony dies and leaves her everything Laura is shocked, especially when she learns there is a caveat to the will. Inside the study is a lifetime’s worth of lost objects that Anthony has collected and meticulously catalogued. He wants Laura to reunite them with their owners and complete his life’s work.

This novel has a little of everything, mystery, history, magic, ghosts and romance. Some aspects are great and some are not. First, the parts that did not work. The ghost of Anthony’s wife, and the magical ability of Summer, a neighbouring girl with Down Syndrome who becomes firm friends with Laura, seem a little forced. Rather than manifesting themselves slowly they appear as and when the plot needs to develop. The relationship with Freddy the gardener also feels a little flat, and truly the story would have been all the better had Laura built herself into a strong independent woman without him. It is a colour by numbers romance: hot, mysterious, silent man; woman who believes she could never be considered attractive again; lots of misunderstandings...it never really rings true. Finally, there is something a little snobbish about some of the descriptions that pop out like a poke in the eye. In one instance Laura describes the girls her husband has affairs with as ‘the kind of girls that drop their knickers as quickly as they drop their aiches’, there were also some comments about single mothers on benefits all smoking Benson and Hedges that were irksome. Now whether these are Laura’s opinions, a woman who admits she wished to escape her poor upbringing for the kind of life that has tea-tray doilies, or the author’s own, remains to be seen.

Now for the parts that work. The flash back stories linked to each object are fabulous and show Hogan’s incredible skill at creating immediately relatable characters. Each story is an absolute gem, giving sufficient information to peak your interest but leaving enough unsaid to have you wondering what happened next. The descriptions of the house are rich enough for the reader to believe they are there, and Anthony’s character is fascinating. Beyond all else though, it is the concurrent story of Eunice and Bomber, which runs throughout the book that is an absolute joy to read. Eunice is gregarious, colourful and full of life, while Bomber fills the page with his personality making it easy to see why Eunice falls in love with him. The descriptions of their small publishing office, their dogs and their beautiful, platonic relationship throughout the years are exceptional and so believable that you will feel like you are saying goodbye to friends when you finish the last page. Their story will have you laughing and crying in turn, making them the true stars of this novel.

This is a delightful, charming, and comic read set in London and Brighton which I adored. Laura is a divorced and broken woman for whom intimacy has proved to be a disappointment. She finds employment as housekeeper and assistant to writer Anthony Peardew, who experienced heartbreak with the loss of his beloved Therese on his wedding day. That event has coloured and haunted his entire life, with guilt over a broken promise, a lost communion medal, and led to the enormous collection of lost items which he has found with the hope of reuniting them with their owners. He dies, leaving his home, Padua, to Laura for whom it is a sanctuary, with a condition that she makes efforts to restore the lost items to their true owners. Whilst owning Padua brings security and delight to Laura, the real prize turns out to be the task Anthony sets for it offers Laura a path toward resurrecting her life again, tenuously learning to trust people and connect with the world again.

With faltering steps,Laura befriends the extraordinary girl that is Sunshine, a downs syndrome child who has been bullied. Sunshine is special and has the capacity to see and understand things that elude Laura, particularly when it comes to a irascible and troubled ghost and the lost items. Laura, Freddy, the gardener, Sunshine, and Carrot, a rescued dog, begin to connect as a unit slowly developing the strength to overcome obstacles such as the ugly local rumours concerning Laura. There is a parallel story about Eunice and Bomber, and the tragedies and triumphs that litter their lives through time. The storylines do eventually connect. Interspersed throughout we have entrancing and shocking tales of some of the lost items, and the various situations that the owners found themselves in. Laura, with the help of Freddy and Sunshine, sets up a website documenting the lost collection only to find it becomes so much more than she envisaged.

Ruth Hogan has weaved an intelligent, magical and fantastical tale of loss, love, heartbreak, redemption and hope. It is infused with whimsy and laugh out loud humour. It is beautifully written, and wonderfully descriptive. The wide ranging characters are what really makes the book, including the minor ones like the monstrous Portia and her ghastly novels. I cannot recommend this book enough, it is an enchanting contemporary fairytale and a great read. Many thanks to John Murray Press for an ARC.