What a wonderful book! I love the concept of stories within a story, and the convergence of multiple seemingly unrelated plot lines.

Anthony Peardew is an aging author with a tragic past. In an attempt to atone, he becomes the keeper of lost things, hoping to one day reunite the lost objects with their owners. As his life comes to an end, he wills his beloved collection to his faithful housekeeper Laura, in hopes that she will continue his work. But Laura’s past traumas prevent her from knowing where to begin. With help from her new neighbor Sunshine and Anthony’s gardener Freddy, the trio set off to finish what Anthony started all those years ago.

Ruth Hogan’s writing just grabs you and pulls you in. I can’t wait to read more of her work!

This is a book that I just wrapped myself up in after reading a book that I really did not enjoy. This book saved my life, which of course is an exaggeration but you get it. It is a warm, cozy, easy-going story of huge things. In other words it was exactly what I needed to read to regain my desire to pickup a book and just enjoy the read.

There are two separate stories here on two different timelines and at first I didn’t see how in the world the author was going to get these two together. Of course, the author had a solution in mind

We start with Eunice losing Bomber on a train to Brighton and then we travel back to Eunice answering Bomber’s advertisement for an assistant. He is a small publisher with a companion named Douglas and a rather nasty sister.

Now, Laura answers an ad for an assistant/cleaner and is hired by Anthony. Laura’s life has fallen apart along with her marriage and she needs a way to leave it all behind, so she begins to slowly fall in love with Anthony’s home, Padua which needs to be lovingly polished and cared for until it shines again. Anthony has lost someone he loved and has created a world around that lose.

It is a sweet story and within it are little vignettes of other peoples lives, some of which end happily and others that end very sad. This was very clever on the author’s part to write little stories within the story and definitely contributed to my enjoyment of this book.

Thank you to The Book club Girls, William Morrow, HarperCollins Publishers and the author Ruth Hogan.

The Keeper of Lost Things was such a beautiful book. The characters and relationships were written well and showed growth throughout the book. This book did start off to a very slow start, but it picked up about a fourth of the way into the book. I would definitely recommend this book to others

Anthony Peardew is an aging author who has collected lost items for decades, after losing a keepsake from his fiancé the same day she died. After finding the courage to leave a bad marriage, Laura finds peace working as Anthony’s personal assistant and housekeeper. When he dies, he leaves Laura his home. One thing he asks of Laura is to return the lost items to their rightful owners.

Charming is the word that went through my mind as I read this book. It was an absolutely delightful read. While the story includes pain and loss, it also focuses on the beauty of love and friendship, and parts of it were laugh out loud funny to me.

This book includes a parallel story that comes together with this one at the end of the book. For me, these two stories, illustrated the interconnection of others and how one small action can make an impact.

This brief review cannot do this book justice without revealing too much of the story. I will simply say that I found this to be a fascinating book. It’s a fun read with a powerful message.

I actually read this book a number of years ago, but lent my copy out and never got it back. When I saw Book Club Girls were giving us a chance to win a copy, I entered and won. Even though I have other books in the queue, this one jumped to the top of the pile. The book was better than I remembered because I knew the different timeline and stories would come together in the end. And it was done so well - I know the multiple dates/stories are really popular these days, but this book does it better than most books. Everything made perfect sense. The characters felt so real, and had real emotions.

Admittedly I rushed through this book and did a very quick read to get the gist of things since I didn't realize just how close I was to butting up against the archive date for this ARC. All that considered I really liked this book and will likely be purchasing it to do a more through read through. I also think it would be a great one to pass along to friends. Full of heart and very well written this book is definitely one to read.