I can't remember anymore where or who this was recommended by, but thank god they did. Florey's quirky writing played particularly well to my own reading sensibilities. She really loves the strange oddities that make up our lives and what at first may sound like a confused, over-wrought plot turns to pure simplicity in her capable hands.

This basic premise here is that Marcus has been asked by his father to kill his ex-wife, Emily Lime. However, there's a bit more to it then that, which I won't give away, but for such a dastardly plot, the book is filled with lovely characters and a cozy setting that made me want to walk right in and grab a cookie (they eat cookies a lot). And just when I thought the plot was the point, alas! It was a message book in disguise!

Emily Lime doesn't like change and neither do I. The author does an admirable job of showing that it isn't all bad though. She also makes unlikely situations seem particularly normal. Women in love was a man 15 years younger than her? Why not? Man happens to secretly be the son of her ex-husband? Of course!

A fun, sweet story about unrequited love, artistic personalities, and the love of a pet, this could have cheered up Sylvia Plath. Definitely recommended, although I have trouble trying to define to who, other than anyone who likes to read. Oh! The cute chapter titles are worth the read alone; they're all palindromes!

(#30 in the 2004 Book Challenge)

This was one of those excellent book finds, where I picked this up completely at random at the store, and ended up loving it. It's about a woman living in Brooklyn who is in love with her dog walker, and they are both obsessed with Victorian novels and word and number games, anagrams, palindromes, crosswords, that sort of thing. It's very Victorian itself in tone, it's sweet and engaging and all the characters seem like people one would want to hang around with, even though it's not very realistic to think that one would know so many people who like to sit around and discuss Trollope.

Grade: A-
Recommended: to people looking for light, clever fiction as well as people who like Brooklyn. It's brainy but not taxing.