From the moment she first learned to read, literary genius Darcy Wells has spent most of her time living in the worlds of her books. There, she can avoid the crushing reality of her mother’s hoarding and pretend her life is simply ordinary. But when a new property manager becomes more active in the upkeep of their apartment complex, the only home Darcy has ever known outside of her books suddenly hangs in the balance.
While Darcy is struggling to survive beneath the weight of her mother’s compulsive shopping, Asher Fleet, a former teen pilot with an unexpectedly shattered future, walks into the bookstore where she works…and straight into her heart. For the first time in her life, Darcy can’t seem to find the right words. Fairy tales are one thing, but real love makes her want to hide inside her carefully constructed ink-and-paper bomb shelter.
Still, after spending her whole life keeping people out, something about Asher makes Darcy want to open up. But securing her own happily-ever-after will mean she’ll need to stop hiding and start living her own truth—even if it’s messy.
This one popped up on my Facebook feed as an ad from Inkyard Press with the description "Fangirl meets Jane Austen" and I immediately glombed onto it for its promise of romance, books, and a quick and easy stand-alone format. I guess two out of three ain't bad.
Let me start off by saying I have no clue where the book's title comes from. Catchy, sure, but not accurate to anything I could see, neither literal nor metaphorical. I suppose you could go super, super deep into it and say that cataloging things the characters had lost is sort of like establishing a library for them. But there's never any scene where the characters go over their losses, or tally them up, or anything like that. So...your guess is as good as mine.
I should probably go into the characters a bit before going too much further, huh? Darcy is your standard bookish protagonist; pretty shy, soft-spoken, and downright invisible when she tries to be, which is often on account of her mother's hoarding habit. Not only is the massive hoard their apartment has become embarrassing, but should Child Protective Services or their landlord find out, she could lose her mother for good. So she's kept her head down for 12 long years, and succeeded at turning invisible to all but her best friend, Marisol. Until a cute guy starts doing handyman jobs next door...and taking his breaks in her bookstore...and forcing her to ask questions of herself and maybe consider opening up to someone new...
Honestly, while Darcy was instantly relatable, I had a hard time not over-analyzing her friends. Marisol is way too perfect to ever exist. She's Darcy's best friend since 4th grade, their birthdays are 12 hours from each other, and they share absolutely everything to each other. Okay, that all checks out, but what about how she always styles Darcy's outfits (I mean every single one), is never, ever too busy to talk, and is only upset for a day-or-so when there's actually a bit of drama between them? She literally does one thing without Darcy in the entire book. Talk about commitment—I nearly expected a Hot Dog Girl twist with the two of them becoming a couple, if it wasn't for the book's cover.
Asher also comes out a bit bland for my taste. I like the bare bones to him, with his tragic backstory and lingering trauma, but none of his problems ever play out in the foreground of the story. He tells us that there's some resentment between him and his father, but none of that is ever played out in front of Darcy, despite him working with other family members regularly. In fact, we never actually meet any of his family, just see them in passing during one scene. I get that it's Darcy's story, and we're supposed to be focused on her journey, but I would have liked the other characters to be a bit more proactive in the plot instead of simply orbiting around Darcy, going at her pace at all times to make it more convenient.
The easiest way to describe this book's romance is cute. Nothing I hadn't seen before, but serviceable for what it was. Like I said, Asher didn't really have any drama going on in his life (at least none on-page), and the only drama that gets picked up in his relationship with Darcy is so she can work out her own things. But then, romance wasn't really what this book strives to be about, not really. Sure, the romance helped kickstart a couple inciting incidents, and it provided a couple tugs on the heartstrings, but if I had to truly nail down what this book was about, lovey-dovey stuff ain't it.
What really hit home in this book was Darcy's journey of self-discovery, coming to terms with one's faults, and striving to better oneself for the future. Yes, a common theme in YA, to be sure, but handled in a way that really felt unique to me, once everything came together. The mother's hoarding and the suggested techniques to combat it come up a lot in the story, much of which centers around identifying the source of stress or guilt or regret. This prompted me to turn to self-reflection, which I assume is part of the aim of the book in general, and which is a helpful concept to share with readers. Unfortunately, I couldn't help but focus on all the circumstances surrounding the hoarding plotline that didn't make sense.
Firstly, Darcy stresses so much about being taken away from her mom because she's not 18, but I can't honestly see this being that big of problem. There is such thing as emancipation, which can be granted earlier than 17. And even if CPS got involved, it's not like she'd be taken to an orphanage or adopted out to a stranger when her grandmother outright wants her to live with her. Though Grandma is another huge problem, one that Darcy even points out but doesn't hold her to account, but that's slightly spoiler-ish so I'll hide that here: Suffice it to say, I may not know a ton about hoarding or therapy to treat the condition, but I doubt it would go down as haphazardly as it did in this book. And that goes for the financial situation as well—if they truly were abandoning all therapeutic paths, then why didn't Grandma or Darcy do something to lock down the finances, establish cut-offs, make joint accounts, ANYTHING?! Considering what problems they were running into, I can't see how the situation would have been any worse.
But all my gripes aren't to say that I wasn't moved by the climax. When the revelations were made and the real talk came out, I was outright bawling for those couple chapters. What can I say, I'm a sucker for some good mother/daughter bonding. And really, the book did make me smile more than not, which is what I was asking for. A little laughter, some tears, not a bad way to spend an evening inside.
Overall, this debut was short, sweet, and easy to move on from. I wouldn't call it forgettable, just that I don't seem to be overly clingy after reading it, which can be nice once in a while. If anything, it left me refreshed and ready to move forward...to my next book! I'd recommend it to YA readers in general who don't mind a little romance but aren't looking for anything too steamy, who maybe are looking for a bit of a palate cleanser, or who want some self-reflection that doesn't ask you to move mountains afterwards. And if you do decide to pick it up for yourself, please do drop back by and let me know how you interpret that title!
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