ensemble cast | Book Girl & Little Bear

Every Tom, Dick & Harry by Elinor Lipman

Humorous and witty, this contemporary novel has the zaniest plot of any book I’ve read since The Husbands by Holly Gramazio. Every Tom, Dick & Harry is set in small-town Harrow, Massachusetts, with a large ensemble cast like Amy Poeppel’s novel The Sweet Spot.

Emma Lewis has been involved with her parents’ estate sale visit for years, but is startled to have their business, and her childhood home, left to her when they retire to Cape Cod. Also, Emma gets a boarder to help with expenses, her dad’s recently widowed friend, Frank. Frank was also Emma’s algebra teacher.

Frank and Emma both start dating, but not each other. Emma is quietly seeing the new chief of police, Luke, while Frank is dating Luke’s widowed mother, Connie. Frank also adopts a cute dog, Ivy, and helps out with the estate sales. Emma is trying to get a contract to hold an estate sale at Quail’s Nest, a mansion and former B and B in town. The house is chock full of classic estate sale items, from an espresso machine to Persian rugs to bikes, a lawn mower, and lots of silver. Then she learns that an escort service was run out of the mansion’s attic, and the family is not at all shy about their former business.

Emma’s parents come back to help with the sale, which definitely does not go as planned. Emma and Luke, meanwhile, are helping plan their 15^th high school reunion, while still pretending they’re not dating. Add in some stolen art, a very ugly statue, and Frank’s stepdaughters to round out the wild plot. I’ve read Lipman’s books On Turpentine Lane and Ms. Demeanor, and there are many more titles for those looking for quirky, upbeat, and witty reads.

Brenda

Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman

I have read Abbi’s five other novels, beginning with The Garden of Small Beginnings, and loved most of them. They tend to have an ensemble cast with quirky, big-hearted main characters. This novel has an outrageous plot, complete with twists and turns, and is occasionally laugh-out-loud funny.

Christa Barnet is the youngest daughter of Denise and the late Jasper Liddle. As a child, she sometimes appeared on television with one of her parents, usually holding a cute animal. Now she is a marine biologist on a remote island in the Indian Ocean, studying sea snails. Summoned back to Los Angeles along with her older sisters, Christa learns that her father has reappeared in Alaska, where his plane crashed when she was 2. Before rejoining his family, Jasper first appears on a popular talk show.

Christa hasn’t spent much time recently with her mom and sisters and doesn’t remember her dad. She does remember the trials of being a slightly famous teen, and is haunted by memories of a Hollywood party at which she was handed a drugged drink. Family friend Nate Donovan comes to the rescue, then and now. He is very handsome and doesn’t mind that Christa is prickly, short, and has many tattoos of marine life.

An over-the-top storyline with appealing main characters and cool settings in scenes set on the fictional island of Violetta, and on a merry-go-round, add to the book’s appeal. Also, there’s Marcel, the cute family dog, a bear cub named Dorothy, plus a gorgeous book cover. You don’t need an interest in snails or tide pools to enjoy this engaging novel, which is sure to be popular. I also enjoyed the illustrations by Julia Waxman. Readalikes include books by Emily Henry.

Brenda