Review by Booklist Review
Leah lives across the street from a ramshackle Victorian mansion called the Peacock House, and the only thing odder than the house itself is the people who live in it. For years she's been curious about her neighbors but too polite to do anything but watch them come and go. When an accident happens right on their doorstep, however, Leah is finally introduced to the members of Peacock House, including Toby, the landlord. Toby took on his curious tenants out of empathy, but now that he's nearly 40 he realizes he's stagnated and needs a change starting with his house. As Leah slowly becomes involved with Toby and the house, Toby takes it on himself to learn more about his tenants, why they're there, and where they're going, and this inquiry includes himself. Leah and Toby's quiet relationship is touching and believable; the tenants are eccentric, but behind their quirks stand very real characters with emotional depth. A truly satisfying read that's sincere without being sugary.--Hatton, Hilary Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Jewell's boisterous sixth novel is a compulsively readable jaunt through the lives of a handful of suburban London misfits. Leah, a shopgirl whose live-in boyfriend flees when she mentions marriage, lives across the street from Toby, a struggling poet who lets out rooms in his bedraggled Victorian house to ragtag tenants who pay rent when they remember and clutter up his otherwise solitary life. There's a cabaret singer who depends on sugar daddies to keep afloat; a mailroom clerk who shares a room with his mother; and a stylish recluse. And then there's longtime tenant Gus, whom Leah finds dead on the front walk one day. When Toby discovers that Gus has willed him a sickly cat and a pile of pounds with the provision that Toby use the money to make his life "everything it could be," it provides the impetus for a shakeup at Toby's that sends the cast in different directions as they each find ways to grow up. Jewell (Vince and Joy) has a sure hand with the lightly humorous and romantic, and she delivers the goods: an eccentric cast, lively banter and plenty of warmhearted cheer. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Jewell (Vince and Joy) weaves together the oddball lives of London misfits in this well-crafted and entertaining seventh novel, published in Britain as 31 Dream Street. An eccentric poet, Toby has established a rooming house for anyone needing refuge from the real world. There's rocker Ruby, on her own since age 16; mysterious actress Joanne, who won't speak to anyone in the house; earnest mailroom clerk Con and his freewheeling mum, Melinda; and recluse Gus, who's been there since before Toby inherited the sprawling house. When Gus dies, he leaves Toby money and instructions that Toby must use it to improve his life and not die alone as he did. With the help of the cute, friendly young woman across the street, Toby not only takes on a massive remodeling of the house, but decides to help his flatmates overhaul their lives. The characters are very appealing in their own quirky ways, and Jewell does a marvelous job tying their stories together. A little less like chick lit than some of her previous novels, this would also appeal to male readers who enjoy Nick Hornby. For most fiction collections.-Rebecca Vnuk, Glen Ellyn P.L., IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Romance and real estate combine in the latest from British novelist Jewell (Vince and Joy, 2006, etc.). On one side of a North London suburban street lives 35-year-old Leah, who is having boyfriend trouble. On the other side of the street, in an ornate but neglected Victorian curiosity, lives socially uncertain poet Toby, whose father gave him the house as his legacy 15 years ago, and who has filled it with lame duck and oddball tenants. As the book opens, Leah finally meets Toby--whom she's observed for ages--while standing over the corpse of his oldest tenant, found dead outside. When Toby learns the tenant has left him a lot of money, he realizes he is now free to sell and move to Cornwall. But first he must evict his collection of waifs-and-strays tenants and remodel his house, and for that he seeks neighbor Leah's help. Hand-in-hand with the domestic renovation, Toby himself is transformed from grungy dweeb into insightful partner who actively helps sort out the lives of those renting his rooms: young Con, in love with Daisy from the office; mysterious Joanne, who must move beyond her tragic past; and slutty, unscrupulous musician Ruby, who finally gets with the program. Leah and Toby eventually reach a fairy-tale conclusion too, in a junk shop overlooking the sea. A skillfully written, cheerful book. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
