The Last of the Loudens by Robin Alexander

The Last of the Loudens by Robin Alexander

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A Robin Alexander book – like a breath of fresh air after all these other books I had to struggle through to like (or loath). Mind you, I don’t always love Alexander books, but tend to do so. So it’s like coming to a nice comfortable snug . . . I lost where I was going with this sentence.

This book is more of a slice of life romance than anything else – I say because I know some people love angst and drama and danger and stuff. This one’s fluffy. Humorous. May or may not include ghosts.

Right around the time Taryn Louden’s company that she works for folds, therefore throwing her out of work, one of her few remaining living relatives contacts her. Aunt Juliana – Taryn’s father’s sister. Juliana offers Taryn a paid ‘job’ to come out to the Louden family home in the town named after the family (Louden Point) and help Juliana with stuff (I’m not sure if it was specified what the ‘stuff’ would be prior to Taryn accepting and wandering out there to the small town, but specifically involves being the go-between between Juliana and the contractors working on restoring the family home).

I believe, if I recall correctly, that Taryn is around 34 years of age, and worked in a company that made barges. Her father, the Louden parent, died when he attempted to ride a motorcycle; and the mother, Lucy (Taryn’s mother, not the father’s mother) hates Aunt Juliana, and so Taryn hasn’t had much contact with the other Loudens in a longish while. Not that there’s a lot of them around. There’s, like, Taryn, Aunt Juliana, and supposedly there’s an Uncle Malcolm somewhere out there as well. So the opportunity to ‘go back home’ (to the place that was never her home specifically), to where the Louden’s found their fortune and place in the Americas, draws Taryn when she’s asked to come. Lucy doesn’t want her to go, but then, as noted, she hates Juliana.

And so – Taryn arrives, sees a really run down massive house – the kind where she’s slightly afraid that if she touched it, that it might fall over (and touching it is not recommended, what with the poison ivy growing on the house). If she didn’t know her Aunt lived there, she’d think the place to be abandoned. Then that aunt pops out onto the porch and she looks like crap – really old, badly dressed, and slumped – not at all like Taryn’s memories have of the woman. They go inside; it looks lovely in there . . . etc. etc. Taryn learns that one of the things, or the thing, that Juliana has Taryn down (up?) is to help with the reconstruction of the place – no, not with a hammer, she’s hired contractors for that.

And so, and yes there’s a point for me to be rambling like this . . . and so, the contractors arrive. The Andres. Jack Andre’s the boss-man; he introduces himself and almost immediately flees, after noting that his daughter will be handling things. Daughter Vicky Andre and Taryn Louden meet. Both note the other’s attractiveness. It should be noted that this specific arrangement is fraught with risk – Juliana hates Vicky.

The main characters, Vicky and Taryn, are great lovely people. The side characters? Also great. There’s Cricket the 60 year old woman who comes most days of the week to cook and do stuff like that; there’s Dawn – Vicky’s sister (who is having lustful thoughts about Taryn and is questioning her sexuality), and Levi (Dawn’s youngest son (she has two, the other, Nolan, is here also but barely interacted with; just like husband Evan is barely meet in this story)); and let’s not forget Chris & Lonna – wife and wife friends of Taryn (who, for some reason, have the same haircut (by accident)) – a lovely couple. There’s also mother Lucy, but she only bounces in and out of the story a few times. Hard to get a read on her from that interaction. Oh and then there are/is also the ghost question – a character in their own right. You see – old houses tend to make groaning sounds as they . . . rest on their foundations. But we aren’t talking about groaning – we are talking about distinctive very clearly heard footsteps. So – there’s that aspect as well.

A good light fluffy slice of life with a dash of romance, humor, and ghosts. Quite fun and enjoyable.

Rating: 5.0

December 30 2016




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