Charlotte thought she was fine. After a childhood spent traveling around the world with her eccentric artist mother, she is content to have a quiet life, make herbal remedies, and play video games.

But when her mother dies in a bizarre sculpture accident, Charlotte's life is turned upside down. Before she even has time to grasp the reality of her mother's death, her supposedly dead father appears and they are forced to live together to satisfy the terms of her mother's will.

Reluctantly living in Soho with a father she has never met before, Charlotte begins to change in unexpected ways, even pursing her hidden desire to take acting class.

Will Charlotte survive her mother's legacy, let alone a year with this stranger? Are there enough herbal remedies in the world to save her?

In The Essential Charlotte, author Libby Schmais displays the same warmth, wit, and honesty that created so many fans of The Perfect Elizabeth. At its core, The Essential Charlotte is a novel about family and the strange and marvelous ways that it makes you who you are.