3.75 out of 4 stars.

A unique crime novel who had a great cast of characters

The Bright Ideas bookstore is a normal place with a peculiar cast of characters, nicknamed “BookFrogs” One of them being Lydia, a book seller there that has a dark past. She feels she is all alone in her secrets but soon comes to find out that no one around her hasn’t their own share. One person she does know is troubled is Joey, a patron that is always sulking around the store and not much for conversation. You can imagine Lydia’s horror when she finds that same young adult hanging from the book stacks. Joey had taken his own life. To make matters more concerning, in his pocket Lydia finds a picture of herself as a child. Everyone figured it was due to Joey being in love with her. It isn’t until Joey’s landlord calls Lydia to come pick up his belongings at his apartment so another tenant can move in that she learns he may of planted the picture to lead her on a goose hunt for “her”, another woman that is not Lydia. As she goes down the rabbit hole, it is as if she learns just as much about her past as she does Joey. The readers will be quite shocked by the ending.

This book would of been given a straight 4 if it wasn’t on the violent side. The suicide of Joey and the details of Lydia’s past do make it difficult at points to get a chuckle out of some of the other character’s great moments (I was always laughing at Plath, Lydia’s co-worker), especially because both incidences of darkness had to do with children and young adults.  If you are into darkness than this is a great indie novel. If you are a bit squirmy at that topic than I would STILL suggest picking this book up and just skipping over those parts, that is how good the plot is.

As some of my readers know, I just finished “Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Book Store” and this is semi similar because it is a book about books but also the great cast of characters. This is just not as wacky but more suspenseful adult.