3.5 stars

Elinor Lipman is always a spirit lifter. Her daily life comedic novels have unforgettable characters dealing with quirky situations. This story features Emma, who has taken over her parents' estate sale business. It's not what she expected doing and she's not really sure how she feels about it.

The first life-altering event is that she takes in a boarder -- an older retired teacher who worked with her folks. Frank is recently widowed under strange circumstances -- his wife was killed by a lightning strike and he wants to get out of the house where they lived together. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Many more odd and fascinating details emerge about their situation.

Meanwhile, Emma finds out about a house full of stuff that is coming on the market -- and then discovers it was actually part b&b, part bordello. While reeling from the idea that her community had its own house of ill repute, she also wants to capitalize on the opportunity to make some money.

Frank and she both have love interests, and Frank's new lady friend happens to be the mother of Emma's new boyfriend, the chief of police. It's entertainment with occasional poignancy and quite an enjoyable ride. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Elinor Lipman is one. of my favorite writers and much needed right now when I need to turn off the news cycle and enjoy a book. This was not my favorite of hers, but still enjoyable to read. Please write more books!

I am a big fan of Elinor Lipman and have read all her novels. I found this book a bit thin. The plot was stretched to make it book length, but there wasn’t enough! Lots of characters, gravitating around Emma and her estate sale business. Far too many subplots and definitely some just silly.

I usually stay up night’s reading a Lipman opus, but this one dragged. I think her first book, THEN SHE FOUND ME, is still one of my favorites! I even liked the film version.

Always looking forward to reading more Lipman novels.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of a novel by one of my favorite authors.