I'm on a roll - I really liked this book too. It was part mystery, part family drama, part love story...
When Miranda Brooks is a child she idolizes her uncle Billy who owns a quirky bookshop in LA called Prospero Books. He takes her there often where he creates literary scavenger hunts for her amusement. But, when Miranda is 12 Billy and her mother have a terrible fight, for reasons her mother won't share with her, and Billy disappears from her life.
The next time she hears from him is 16 years later - Miranda is a high school history teacher and has just moved in with her colleague and boyfriend, Jay. As summer break is just beginning, Miranda learns that Billy has passed away. She decides to travel to LA for the funeral and there finds out that Billy has left the near bankrupt bookstore to her and has created one last scavenger hunt. She ends up spending the summer following the clues and trying to figure out how to save the store.
The scavenger hunt, which is all done through various literary works, leads Miranda to people from Billy's past who fill in the blanks about his history. Ultimately she learns secrets about her family that her parents have been keeping from here for her whole life, including what caused the bitter quarrel when she was 12.
While I did figure out the secret fairly early on, I still enjoyed following the clever clues with Miranda and seeing how her relationship with her parents changed, how her relationship with the people in Billy's past grew and ultimately what she learned about herself as a person.
I definitely recommend this one.
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