Truly, Madly ~ Heather Webber review

Truly, Madly: Lucy Valentine: Book 1
St Martin's Paperbacks
305 pages
February 2, 2010
Amazon

Along with Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers, I got a second book from Library Thing's Early Reviewer's: Truly, Madly by Heather Webber, the first Lucy Valentine book. I am so thankful for mixups that get me two great books!

Lucy's Valentine family appropriately runs Valentine, Inc a matchmaking service active (and well-known) for generations in Boston. As the legend goes, her family has been blessed by Cupid with the ability to help others find their true love...but since an accident in her teens, Lucy has only been able to help people find lost objects. Lost objects meaning not people or animals, of course.

And what good is that in matchmaking?

Lucy had better find out quick, though. After a scandal that makes the papers, her father temporarily eaves her in charge of the company. Throw in a murder mystery and a little possible romance of her own and Lucy's got her work cut out for her.

I selected this book because it sounded like a cute, fun book (and the summary somehow--prior to reading--reminded me of True Colors by Sue Haasler). In fact, the start of the book actually reminded me of Sleeping with the Fishes (Fred the Mermaid #1) by Maryjanice Davidson, I can't pinpoint why, but I think it was the mood and the sort of characters.

Lucy, her grandmother Dovie, her friends, Sean, even her parents were all really enticing, interesting, funny characters. The characters, the dialogue, the 'matchmaking' and Lucy's ability to find objects made this a really unique twist on both a mystery and a romance.

I didn't love, love, love the way the 'mystery' aspect fully played out but because it wasn't just a straight mystery and there were the slight supernatural aspects built in (and the characters), I didn't really mind.

Truly, Madly was a really great start to a series. It didn't leave things open ended at the end of the book like a lot of 'first in a series' books do but it also left things interesting enough to keep you (or at least me) wanting to read more from the characters.

Since I think the characters, the quirkyness and the entire story's overall uniqueness override any faults with the ending, etc 8/10

Deeply, Desperately the second Lucy Valentine book is out August 3