Blogging Through the Book: The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise

The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise

 About the Book:

Twenty-one-year-old Tanner Quimby needs a place to live. Preferably one where she can continue sitting around in sweatpants and playing video games nineteen hours a day. Since she has no credit or money to speak of, her options are limited, so when an opportunity to work as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman falls into her lap, she takes it.
 
One slip on the rug. That’s all it took for Louise Wilt’s daughter to demand that Louise have a full-time nanny living with her. Never mind that she can still walk fine, finish her daily crossword puzzle, and pour the two fingers of vodka she drinks every afternoon.Bottom line: Louise wants a caretaker even less than Tanner wants to be one.
 
The two start off their living arrangement happily ignoring each other until Tanner starts to notice things—weird things. Like, why does Louise keep her garden shed locked up tighter than a prison? And why is the local news fixated on the suspect of one of the biggest jewelry heists in American history who looks eerily like Louise? And why does Louise suddenly appear in her room, with a packed bag at 1 a.m.  insisting that they leave town immediately?
 
Thus begins the story of a not-to-be-underestimated elderly woman and an aimless young woman who—if they can outrun the mistakes of their past—might just have the greatest adventure of their lives.

First Two Chapters

So, in Chapter 1 a woman calls the police, stating that her eighty-four year old mother has vanished--none of her usual cronies have seen her, and she lives several hours away.   She wonders if her mother was abducted but the chapter ends with "Though she knew deep down that Louise Constance Wilt had never done anything against her will in her entire life."

In Chapter 2 we meet Louise, whose will is being thwarted by the one thing none of us can avoid (except by dying) namely, age.  We also meet the new housemate her children have forced on her.  Finally this chapter introduces a letter and while we don't know what it says, the chapter ends with Louise realizing "she was going to have to run".  Ok, I'm hooked, but its time to go back to work, more later.  

Zooming Through the Rest

This book was a fun read and I devoured it in one evening--so much for blogging through the book.  

There were so many things that made me smile/laugh:  The mother of a college student asking a police detective who thought a phone had been accidently left behind, if she knows any 20 year olds, pointing out that their phones are practically appendages.  The old lady telling the college student that life rarely goes as planned and we can either mourn the life we had or live the life we have.  Louise wanting to be called Mrs. Wilt because it reminded her of her late husband.  

On the other hand the whole resolution part of the plot was so....unbelievable.  By the end of the story we know Louise's secrets, and no I don't really think real life goes down that way.  But Tanner's ending was also hard to believe.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley. Grade:  B