The Book Share by Phaedra Patrick is an entertaining and interesting story about a woman, who has always worked as a cleaner but who always secretly wanted to write. One of her clients asks her to work full time for her and help her finish off her 20th novel. Then she sadly dies and Olivia (Liv) has the Herculean task of trying to finish the novel. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Highly recommended

Liv Green loves losing herself in a good book. But her everyday reality is less romantic, cleaning houses for people who barely give her the time of day. So when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero and mega-bestselling author Essie Starling, she can't believe her luck. When Essie dies unexpectedly, Liv is left with a life-changing last wish: to complete Essie’s final novel. To do so, change-averse Liv will have to step away from the fictitious worlds in her head, and into Essie’s shoes. As she begins to write, she uncovers a surprising connection between the two women – and a secret that will change Liv’s life forever… Having just read Tiffany McDaniel's Betty, I felt the need for something light and uplifting; something that would be an antidote to the sadness, tension and trauma of my previous read. The Book Share was the perfect choice: it is a light and entertaining read that you can escape into, with a generous amount of humour, a little sadness, a few plot twists, a touch of the unbelievable, and that overall feel-good feeling that "Up-lit" can be relied on to provide for its readers. It has a cast of sympathetically created characters - some you love, some you love to hate, and some ultimately redeem themselves. The main character, Liv, is far from perfect, and she doesn't always get things right, which makes her more endearing to the reader, especially when she is plunged into territory and situations way beyond what is normal and comfortable to her. But, as she takes her first tentative steps, and then grows in confidence, we see her blossom into someone who is not afraid to follow her dreams and who learns to proactively shape a better future for herself and her family, whilst learning to appreciate what she actually has. Yes, this novel is quietly empowering on the topic of life goals, but, equally so on other topics too. It shows the importance of learning to be yourself, to be happy in your own skin, and to create your own happiness rather than relying on others. It also shows how you can choose to be a better person, by taking a more honourable and decent path, and that the rewards are just as good, but a lot more fulfilling. It offers wisdom on relationships too. Liv and Jake's marriage was once happy but the novel shows how love and romance can drown under a tide of bills, debts and dirty washing; it shows how you need to work at things and take care to keep the sparkle from being dulled by the detail and mundanity of the everyday. Happily, for Liv and Jake, with a little work on both sides, it is still possible to press the reset button, and their relationship is much stronger as the novel closes, so that they can enjoy the brighter future that they have created jointly for themselves. So if you want a lighter, feel-good read, with an up-lifting happy ending, Phaedra Patrick's The Book Share will give you just that.

I did not finish this one. I managed to read up to 30% and I had to stop due to the number of stereotypes about people in humble jobs such as cleaning. There is nothing wrong with that line of work but the way is expressed in this book it comes across as if people like the main character are some kind of losers that need to get a different job in order to be more respected. As someone who has a degree but works in something similar, I was offended. I guess is the way of the writer to make the main character somehow successful in an unrealistic way.