This book is amazing.
Backstory: Librarian Samantha Casey has epilepsy, which literally made her father decide to ditch her forever. She basically lost her family over this.. Later, she worked at a school in California and fell madly in love with Duncan Carpenter, a totally wacky, happy, enthusiastic guy who was always wearing crazy outfits and doing amazing things in the classroom. (He sounds like great fun, I gotta say.) But she never got up the nerve to really interact with him, someone else asked him out. The one time they had any interaction, he asked her to cat-sit and when she found herself reading through a notebook of his, she was all, "This is Too Much," and she got another job in Galveston, Texas.
The new job in Galveston has been heavenly. It's a little patch of hippies in the middle of Texas, and Sam lives in the carriage house of the school founders, Max and Babette Kempner. She adores Max and Babette and feels like she's a second daughter/found a new family with them--even if their actual daughter Tina hates her for this. (I note that Tina is married to Kent, a complete jerk who runs the school board, and has a sweet kid named Clay who thankfully takes after his grandfather.) Everything there is really great.
And then Max drops dead while dancing at his party. Everyone is devastated. And it's even worse when Kent takes over and hires a new principal.... which turns out to be Duncan. At first Sam is delighted--he'd be a new Max all over again!--except Duncan HAS CHANGED. He's now a boring suit guy. He's no fun at all. He's completely obsessed with safety above all else. And he pulls out a painted squirt gun in the middle of a meeting to scare the shit out of everybody. THE FUCK?!? AT A SCHOOL?!?!
Soon everyone hates him and his memos about firing the security guard, canceling all field trips forever, canceling the playground, and painting all walls gray. On the one hand, this sure helps Sam get over that crush she had. On the other hand, this guy has turned hella awful and she openly declares him her enemy and the rest of the school feels the same way.
So what happened to Duncan? You the reader will have long since figured it out before Sam does as to what happened to him to make him suddenly change into a guy who's literally all about nothing but school security--I can only assume that's Idiot Ball sort of logic to put off a big reveal. That said, I did really enjoy HOW it came about, i.e. Duncan needs someone to give him a ride/watch him after surgery that gets him high and amnesiac about everything he blabs about liking Sam, as well as what happened to him.
After finding that information out, that changes the plans, and Sam and Babette and company come up with a plan to improve Duncan/get him to have fun again/get him into therapy, not get his ass fired, and it's all very sweet.
The relationship between Sam and Duncan is pretty damn adorable, even if the whole "you shouldn't be dating your boss" thing is utterly ignored in this one. (I guess private schools...don't care?) You definitely feel they are Meant To Be, even if it took some time. And I love how Sam came out of her shell after being a boring dresser when she originally worked with Duncan--after her epilepsy came back, Max encouraged her to do things that made her happy, like dressing colorfully and having pink bangs. (I don't have pink bangs, but did have pink hair for awhile.) Though even though Sam seems like she mostly is over her own stuff, she does get triggered about her epilepsy and whether or not it will drive someone away like it did in the past.
Anyway, I found this sweet and adorable and inspirational and four and a half stars. I got it as a library book, I may need to purchase it to keep.
Quotes:
- "One flower hat can't fix all my problems." "No, but it can sure help." -Sam and Max
- "The point is to be happy anyway. As often as you can." -Max
- "I might never drive, but dammit--I had a fun wardrobe." -Sam
- "Fuck lunch duty." -Sam
- "I bite and scratch and claw my way toward happiness every day." -Sam
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