The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster - Scott Wilbanks

After Annie buys an old door she finds out it's more than just a door, it also transports her to late 19th century Kansas.

 

In the beginning of the story is mainly a mail conversation between the two residents of the houses in the different eras. It reminded me of the movie The Lake House. However, soon this strategy is left behind after a somewhat strange letter from Annie;

 

Hey, I just met you,

And this is crazy,

But I just learned about a murder that's about to get committed,

So prevent that maybe?

 

It's no surprise I found the story jumped to this part without any good explanation. The story is filled with a lot of side stories as well, which made the book feel too full at times. Besides Annie's own problems and everything that's going on in the past, there's also her gay best friend who has a lot of problems of his own. 

 

And although I mostly really liked to read the book, there were quite a few moments where I couldn't stop myself from eye rolling. The coincidences in this book were cringe worthy. Everything comes together neatly (far too perfect) and although I like it when a book has a certain measure of closure at the end, this book's ending was gift-wrapped and under neon letters just screaming how wonderfully well everything fits together. Needless to say, I didn't like that. At the end, when I thought there couldn't possibly be any more of this type of coincidences I even laughed when there was yet another big coincidence. People on the train looked weird at me.

 

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!