This Must Be The Place - Kate Racculia

Summary:  When Arthur Rook learns that his vital, creative wife, Amy, has been killed in an accident, he realizes to his horror that he has no idea what her last wishes would have been.  Blindsided by the sudden loss and delirious with grief, he flees his home and job in Los Angeles, guided only by a pink shoebox full of Amy's keepsakes.  Among the contents, he finds an unmailed postcard written sixteen years earlier, addressed to a woman he's never heard of.  Arthur follows it to the Darby-Jones boardinghouse in the sleepy town of Ruby Falls, New York.

There, he finds more answers than he bargained for in Mona Jones, Amy's best friend from childhood, now the proprietor of the Darby-Jones and a professional baker of wedding cakes.  It turns out that Mona and her daughter, Oneida, two quirky kindred spirits, have a lot to learn from Arthur as well.  As the three gradually unveil one another's secrets, they are forced to choose whether the truth will ruin them or teach them about love: how deeply it runs, how strong it makes us, and, even when all seems lost, how it brings us together and gives our lives meaning.  (Summary from book cover, book given free for review from Holt Publishing, and image from  http://chamberfour.com/)

My Review:  I don't think of myself as a sensitive reader, but after this book I'm going to put myself in that category.  I handled the profanity for a while--I've read books with profanity before that I was able to finish because the content really grabbed me or the message of the book was so redeeming I wanted to know the ending.  About one-third of the way through the book Racculia added a teenage male character obsessed with masturbation and then sex.  Again, I persevered, hoping that this was just a quick side character.  Then she added a relationship that reminisced a lost lesbian summer.  I'm afraid at that point I was done--I just don't want to read about that.  Racculia's writing is well executed.  She is a bit detailed laden, but truly the writing was well done.  I just couldn't finish the story with where it seemed to be leading and I had a strong dislike of the main (dead) character, Amy.  I think there is an audience for this book and that many would probably enjoy the storyline despite the detail heavy, slower pace.  It's just not a book for me.

My Rating: 2 stars--writing was well done, I just didn't like the content. 

For sensitive readers:  Controversial relationships and excessive profanity.

Sum it up: Troubled characters centered around a selfish and irritating woman with healing to be done and secrets to be revealed.