London, in a time before streaming services changed TV, Guitar Hero was at the peak of popularity, and bootleg DVDs were sold on street corners.
Abbey's not a bad writer, but she's a terrible journalist. Forced to work at a small bookstore after losing her job, she decides to work on a personal project: recreating a story about 1920s Chicago told by her late grandfather—a story that may or may not be true.
Only her co-worker Finn is frustratingly directionless (even if he is attractive), strangers are running pub quizzes in her store, her roommate is going on tour with her band, and one of her customers might be a psychopath.
Oh, and the bookstore is located above a sex shop. Perfect.
People tell Abbey she needs to lighten up, but how can she when the world is so darn annoying? Can't a girl just write in peace?
Read an excerpt here
My review of Last Dance at the Kitten Club.
Once again Noah took me on a journey through different cultures, much as he did in The Professional Tourist, only this time, the cultures were London, behind the scenes of a reality show, and 1920s Chicago. London was different enough to be fascinating as a backdrop to the unique romcom/mystery, with just a touch of noir fiction in the embedded narrative about the 1920s Kitten Club, and the added weirdness of the music business reality show.
Abbey and I have a lot in common. I was intending on a career in journalism, but I ended up, ultimately, writing technical documentation and training manuals then managing writers. On the way to THAT job, I managed a bookstore for a few enjoyable and actually entertaining years. Noah portrays the wide array of people you encounter and situations that you have to deal with being a bookseller very well. Of course, the only thing close to pornography in my store was in the sex education section (some of my “church lady” customers would call it pornography), but the whole situation with dealing with adolescent boys constantly doing “book reviews” in that section mirrored Noah’s depiction of how creative those kids can get trying to get to the “porn”.
The reality show subplot really cracked me up. I have never been interested in reality shows, but now, I am even LESS interested…in watching them. I was glad to get a closeup view of that whole culture though. Although I just really don’t get why anyone would want to be used and abused like that, I was intrigued by how really screwy and weird that whole genre of TV show can really get. I mean the concepts are screwy and weird anyway, but what goes on behind the scenes must REALLY be screwy and weird.
As always, Noah’s characters are brilliantly drawn, three-dimensional human beings with flaws and foibles. And we get to watch Abbey in particular, grow a lot in the story, and find her way, eventually, to the guy who was right in front of her all along.
Five star fun for sure!