Julie's Review: The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise

Author: Colleen Oakley
Series: None
Publication Date:  March 28, 2023
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 352
Obtained: publisher via NetGalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Delightful story about friendship and life
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Twenty-one-year-old Tanner Quimby needs a place to live. Preferably one where she can continue sitting around in sweatpants and playing video games nineteen hours a day. Since she has no credit or money to speak of, her options are limited, so when an opportunity to work as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman falls into her lap, she takes it. One slip on the rug. That’s all it took for Louise Wilt’s daughter to demand that Louise have a full-time nanny living with her. Never mind that she can still walk fine, finish her daily crossword puzzle, and pour the two fingers of vodka she drinks every afternoon. Bottom line: Louise wants a caretaker even less than Tanner wants to be one. The two start off their living arrangement happily ignoring each other until Tanner starts to notice things—weird things. Like, why does Louise keep her garden shed locked up tighter than a prison? And why is the local news fixated on the suspect of one of the biggest jewelry heists in American history who looks eerily like Louise? And why does Louise suddenly appear in her room, with a packed bag at 1 a.m.  insisting that they leave town immediately? Thus begins the story of a not-to-be-underestimated elderly woman and an aimless young woman who—if they can outrun the mistakes of their past—might just have the greatest adventure of their lives. ~amazon.com

Review: You know how some books and characters just bring you joy? Well this is definitely one of those books for me. From the moment I started reading the first page, I knew I was in for an adventure. Tanner has been kicked out of her house by her mom because "it's time". Luckily she can move in with a friend of the family, Louise Wilt, to be her caretaker which pretty much means being her driver to appointments and her weekly bridge game. Tanner doesn't have the first clue about caregiving but she can handle driving. 

Louise is set in her ways since her husband died a few years prior and breaking her hip put a cramp in her style. She likes to be independent and do her own thing so when her daughter insists she get a live-in caretaker, she's none to happy. Plus she's a little on edge since getting a letter from someone in her past. 

Tanner isn't there long before Louise is telling her to pack up her stuff and head out. Tanner really doesn't have a choice because Louise can't drive and really she doesn't have much else going on. 

These 2 cracked me up. Louise has some great one-liners while making points with Tanner. Tanner is still trying to figure out her life after her accident. She's so uptight and serious which is why Louise loves to rib her so much. 

This novel is full of heart, joy and laughter. It is not without some poignaint moments as well. I loved this book and it will definitely be one of my favorites for 2023. If you haven't read Colleen Oakley yet, this is a great place to start. 

Julie's Review: You Were There Too

Author: Colleen Oakley
Series: None
Publication Date: January 7, 2020
Publisher: Berkley Books
Pages: 352
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Emotional novel about fate and finding your place
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Mia Graydon's life looks picket-fence perfect; she has the house, her loving husband, and dreams of starting a family. But she has other dreams too—unexplained, recurring ones starring the same man. Still, she doesn’t think much of it, until a relocation to small-town Pennsylvania brings her face to face with the stranger she has been dreaming about for years. And this man harbors a jaw-dropping secret of his own—he's been dreaming of her too. Determined to understand, Mia and this not-so-stranger search for answers. But when diving into their pasts begins to unravel her life in the present, Mia emerges with a single question—what if? ~amazon.com



Review: You know how when you pick a book up that it's going to be something special and you aren't going to want to put it down? That's how You Were There Too was for me. Sometimes it is the books that hit you in the heart that are the hardest to write reviews on.

Mia is a struggling artist but she's got a loving husband and a wonderful house to decorate but yet she doesn't feel settled. For years she's been having dreams of a man that isn't her husband but when she happens upon him in the new town they moved to, she starts to question everything. It doesn't help that her and Harrison seem to have drifted apart more recently after her 3rd miscarriage. Mia desperately wants a baby while Harrison is now questioning if it's the right path for them.

As Mia and Harrison find themselves adrift, Mia finds herself drawn to Oliver because she feels like she knows him since he's been in her dreams for years. Even more stunning is the fact that she's been in his dreams as well but they've been very different from hers. Mia and Oliver are on a quest to find out the meaning of why they are connected in their dreams and what they mean. This journey makes her step back and examine her life, what if her life was meant to be different.

Now I will say the ending gutted me but not in the typical fashion. Ms. Oakley does a fantastic job of staying away from the wife leaves the husband for the other guy trope. Let's face it while Mia might feel that she knows Oliver, the fact is she doesn't know anything about him.  Even as they spend time with each other they begin to know each other but who are they really? Does it mean you are "fated" to be together because you dream of each other or is it just coincidence?

Do you believe in fate? Do you believe in soul mates? Is fate really a series of coincidences put together to make it feel like something more than it is? These are some of the questions that Ms. Oakley poses throughout her book to make you think about through the eyes of Harrison, Mia and Oliver.

The writing is beautiful and eloquent in how she sets the scenes, the characters and their journeys. Even though this is my first read of 2020, I know these characters will not leave me anytime soon.

Julie's Review: Close Enough to Touch

Author: Colleen Oakly
Series: None
Publication Date: March 7, 2017
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages: 336
Obtained: publisher
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5
Bottom Line: Just a wonderful read
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Love has no boundaries...Jubilee Jenkins has a rare condition: she’s allergic to human touch. After a nearly fatal accident, she became reclusive, living in the confines of her home for nine years. But after her mother dies, Jubilee is forced to face the world—and the people in it—that she’s been hiding from. Jubilee finds safe haven at her local library where she gets a job. It’s there she meets Eric Keegan, a divorced man who recently moved to town with his brilliant, troubled, adopted son. Eric is struggling to figure out how to be the dad—and man—he wants so desperately to be. Jubilee is unlike anyone he has ever met, yet he can't understand why she keeps him at arm's length. So Eric sets out to convince Jubilee to open herself and her heart to everything life can offer, setting into motion the most unlikely love story of the year. ~amazon.com  

Review: Close Enough to Touch is a book that will have you cheering for Jubilee from page one. What would you do if you couldn't have human touch? How would you survive? This is what Jubilee faces everyday and yet somehow she has to find a way to live after 9 years of being a recluse. You can say that she might not have literally died when a boy kissed her when she was 17 but something in her did die because after that she didn't leave her house for 9 years. When she's forced to because her cash flow has dried up, it takes her a while to get the hang of being around people or even just leaving her house.

She gets a job at the library and things are going well until Eric walks into her life. This is when her life starts to go Topsy-turvy. She's dealing with feelings that she hasn't experienced in 9 years and she has no clue how to deal with them.  You want her to live her life even with her condition and to be brace and decide what is best for her.

Eric is a divorced dad of two whose teenage daughter refuses to speak to him but when he finds her journal he reads it in order to connect with her. It turns out to be a literary journal and he decides to read all the books she's noted in it. He sends her texts as he reads hoping for some response, some way to connect. He's also trying to find a way to help his adopted son, Aja, deal with the death of his parents and his obsession with telekinesis.

As much as Close Enough to Touch can be seen as a love story it is so much more than just that. It is about being brave enough to fight for the life that you want. It is about taking risks when to get to the next phase in your life, risks needs to be taken. It's about trusting yourself and trusting those closest to you but to also let go of the past. I think we all can learn from those themes. 

I laughed a lot throughout this book. There are very poignant moments as well but mainly I found myself smiling. I haven't read Ms. Oakley's first book Before I Go but it has moved up a few notches in my TBR pile.

 
 Google+