‘I don’t want you to panic, but things are about to get a bit … weird.’
It’s been almost two years since I wandered into The Stranger Times office, which is an absurd amount of time between visits. To be completely honest, I hadn’t read this book earlier because of the potential for all things lovey dovey. Hannah reconciling with her no good, dirty rotten scoundrel ex and Banecroft reconciling with his deceased wife made the deepest recesses of my brain shout “Ptooey!”, a word I’ve never uttered in my life and likely still don’t know how to pronounce.
You have to help me. I’m in so much trouble.
My triumphant return has taught me a valuable lesson: if I enjoy a series as much as this one, I need to trust the author. I actively avoided this book because the ‘love’ in the title appeared to be referencing the romantic kind and I don’t do romance. If I’d given two seconds of thought to the content of the previous books in the series I would have devoured this one sooner. This is love Stranger Times style, which even a romantiphobe can get on board with.
‘Trust the process.’
My time away also renewed my appreciation for the series. It seems that no matter how much time has passed, I will feel like I never left before I finish the first chapter. Which brings me to the staff of The Stranger Times. These are my people!
And you know what? Curmudgeon Banecroft has a heart after all. It turns out it was mangled and squished under the weight of his grief. I won’t tell you that at one point he made me a little teary eyed because that would imply I also am in possession of a heart.
Be on the lookout for an unidentified frying object, cherubs up to no good and a suitcase that gives Mary Poppins’ carpet bag a run for its money. Make sure to join us for Loon Day, a spot of grave robbing and the hope that we get to spend much more time with Stella in the next book.
Once Upon a Blurb
Love can be a truly terrible thing.
Marriages are tricky at the best of times, especially when one of you is dead.
Vincent Banecroft, the irascible editor of The Stranger Times, has never believed his wife died despite emphatic evidence to the contrary. Now, against all odds, it seems he may actually be proved right; but what lengths will he go to in an attempt to rescue her?
With Banecroft distracted, the shock resignation of assistant editor, Hannah Willis, couldn’t have come at a worse time. It speaks volumes that her decision to reconcile with her philandering ex-husband is only marginally less surprising than Banecroft and his wife getting back together. In this time of crisis, is her decision to swan off to a fancy new-age retreat run by a celebrity cult really the best thing for anyone?
As if that wasn’t enough, one of the paper’s ex-columnists has disappeared, a particularly impressive trick seeing as he never existed in the first place.
Floating statues, hijacked ghosts, homicidal cherubs, irate starlings, Reliant Robins and quite possibly several deeply sinister conspiracies; all-in-all, a typical week for the staff of The Stranger Times.
Schizanthus Nerd 