3/5 stars
The blurb: Once a celebrated author of short stories now in his twilight years, Anthony Peardew has spent half his life lovingly collecting lost objects, trying to atone for a promise broken many years before. Realising he is running out of time, he leaves his house and all its lost treasures to his assistant Laura, the one person he can trust to fulfil his legacy and reunite the thousands of objects with their rightful owners. But the final wishes of the Keeper of Lost Things have unforeseen repercussions which trigger a most serendipitous series of encounters…
With an unforgettable cast of characters that includes young girls with special powers, handsome gardeners, irritable ghosts and an array of irresistible four-legged friends, The Keeper of Lost Things is a debut novel of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that will leave you bereft once you’ve finished reading.
My take:
I want to stress that I’ve given this book 3 stars – which for me is a “good” rating – because overall it was enjoyable. What follows may sound like I’ve listed everything I didn’t like about it, so I want to start by saying I’m not trying to put you off and I’m sure there will be many readers who will love this story!
The best thing about the book is the premise: the idea of someone whose mission is to recover abandoned items, catalogue and care for them with the eventual purpose of returning them to their owners. In fact, I’d be interested in reading a book that was all about these lost objects, how they were lost and how they are reunited with their owners.
However, while I thought the two plot strands the book juggles were interwoven and balanced well, I didn’t care so much for the occasional interjection of the short stories about one of the recovered items. I could see how these stories were supposed to tie in with the main plots, but I thought they were a distraction. I don’t think this was helped by reading on an e-reader. I can imagine that these stories are better separated out from the main plots in the printed edition of this book, but I didn’t feel the use of cursive as the only thing differentiating them when reading on the screen was enough.
And perhaps that distraction is what prevented me from connecting with any of the characters enough to really care what happened to any of them.
That said, hats off the to author for keeping the plots running in parallel and bringing everything together in a neat bow at the end. I can imagine the effort that went in to keeping it all straight.
Finally, I could have done without the supernatural elements of the plot, which became increasingly important as the story went on and made me start to lose patience. Putting all ghostly influences to one side, the story asks us to suspend out disbelief and accept a pretty incredible string of coincidences to tie the two main plots together, so to then ask us to factor in spiritual interference and a character with apparent clairvoyant abilities… I felt it was all too much.
Overall: A pleasant read, but I felt less focus on complex plotting and ghostly shenanigans and more on the characters would have helped this terrific idea to have greater impact.
Claire Huston / Art and Soul
Art and Soul 
I recently bought a copy of this one as it sounds right up my street. After reading your review I’m even more curious to read it now! 🙂
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It is entertaining, I hope I haven’t put anyone off! I suppose I just found bits of the story more interesting than others and didn’t want to be distracted from them 🙂 And it’s a brilliant idea!
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Not at all! If anything the bits you weren’t too keen on are ones I think I’ll love, so it’s all good! Besides, it was only 99p so I can’t say I’ve ‘lost’ anything (excuse the pun) 🙂
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Great review – I don’t know why some people think 3 stars is a negative rating, but they do. As a writer, I’m always happy with 3 stars 😉 Also, this is one of those occasions where the things you might not have warmed to, actually make me want to read this book!
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Oh that’s great 🙂 I certainly don’t want to put anyone off because it’s a good book! And I’m sure many readers will love it.
I’ve always used 3 stars to mean a book is good. But some people seem to feel anything less than 4 is negative!
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Nice review! I could see how those short stories would be distracting since it sounds like there was already a lot going on. Glad you enjoyed this one.
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Thank you!
A lot going on and I think I was more invested in on of the main plots and didn’t want to be distracted from it! 🙂
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Great review Claire! I wondered about this book and debated on if I’d like it but based on the points you made I don’t think it’s for me. I appreciate you discussing your pros and cons!
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Thank you!
It’s not a bad book at all, it just failed to grip me as much as the concept behind it.
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I think this is a fab review, and like you I consider 3* a good rating. I always give this to books I enjoyed but wasn’t completely in love with. I know we all do the rating slightly differently but it should always be seen as a bit of a guide anyway. I tend to rely on what people write as opposed to the stars.
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Thank you!
I just didn’t want to put anyone off 🙂 I’m sure there will be lots of people who won’t have the same issues with the story I did!
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Ahh I’ve done this with reviews before- where I’ve seemingly listed everything bad, even if I enjoyed it. But this came across as very fair. Great review!
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Thank you!
I didn’t think about it until I’d finished the review and read it back – then I realised it could come across as really negative and that wasn’t my overall impression of the book!
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I totally agree with you that 3 stars shouldn’t be seen as a bad rating. Sometimes it’s just the little things that make the rating go down and I enjoyed reading your review and explanation of what didn’t work.
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Thank you! 🙂
I just felt I should mention it because when I read my review back it sounded far more negative than my overall feeling about the book!
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Great review! I wrote a review of Outback steakhouse. Sadly I had to give it 1 star. Anyway, your review was way better than mine!
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Thank you – I’m sure that’s not true. It’s such a shame when you read a 1 star book 😦 I hope your next book is much better!
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I’m reading this book now! This is so useful. Thank you x
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I hope you like it. I was worried my review came off very negative, but overall it was fine! Sweet and well-written, just not very surprising… and sometimes that can be exactly what we’re looking for 🙂 I hope you enjoy it! x
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I’ll let you know. No your review is very clear and helpful! To be honest, I’m reading it but it’s not really going in! The book I mean, not your review x
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