The Library of Lost and Found

Author Phaedra Patrick has written a sweet and entertaining novel in The Library of Lost and Found.
This is her second novel after writing The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, which was also a wonderful novel.

In this novel we meet Martha Storm, a spinster in her thirties, who was the sister designated to stay home and care for the aging parents.  She gave up her ambitions and dreams of marriage to take of her elderly parents until they died.  Her sister Lillian, though she lives nearby, had her husband and two small children to take care of and did not help out too much.

Now Martha is a bit lost.  She feels she must keep taking care of others to feel needed.  She has taken on everyone else's projects to feel connected and accepted.  She begins to wonder what would happen if she said no to people.  Would they still like her?  Would she still be accepted by them?  She is a volunteer in the town library, though she keeps applying for a paid position and keeps getting passed by. 

When a book of fairy tales comes into her possession, quite by accident, she begins to question many of the truths she has been living with.  Memories of her childhood begin to come back to her.  Her parents had told her her favorite grandmother had died many years before, but an inscription from her grandmother, in this book of fairy tales, is dated more recently .  Martha goes on a quest to find out the truth and uncovers some very interesting family secrets. 

Here is her chance to change the course of her life and get a second chance at the happiness she thought she lost.