It’s release day for Phaedra Patrick’s latest novel. The author of The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper now brings us The Secrets of Love Story Bridge. It’s the heartwarming story of a broken man who has been struggling with guilt and grief for three years.
When Mitchell Fisher’s partner, Anita, died in a car accident, he blamed himself for not being with her that day. He quit his job as an architect, and moved their daughter, Poppy, to Upchester to an apartment he could afford. Now, he works for the city, cutting locks off bridges. After a local band, Word Up, had a hit with their song and video, “Lock Me Up with Your Love”, thousands of people flock to the small city to attach locks to the city’s five bridges. Mitchell is just doing his job when he sees a woman in a yellow dress add her padlock to a bridge. She appears to drop something in the water, reach for it, and then she falls in the river.
Mitchell doesn’t really think. He dives in, and struggles to find her in the raging waters. But, he never finds out more about her. A doctor steps in to help her, and he is rushed to the hospital. That’s when he panics. He was supposed to pick Poppy up and take her to her music lesson. Mitchell’s workmate took care of picking her up, and Poppy ended up at her music teacher’s house. Liza Bradford is everything Anita wasn’t, colorful and loud and brash. But, she’s kind.
She’s also nervous when she calls Mitchell, now called “The Hero of the Bridge” because reporters don’t know his name. Liza thinks she recognizes the woman Mitchell rescued. She believes the woman in the yellow dress is her sister, Yvette, who walked away from her life as an accountant one year earlier. Now, Liza wants Mitchell to help her find her missing sister.
Mitchell is struggling with his new-found recognition. People are sending the newspapers letters addressed to “The Hero of the Bridge”, and a reporter is ambitious enough to track him down and turn over the letters. Mitchell, who is still struggling to write letters to his dead partner, doesn’t want to read other people’s letters. However, something about Liza and the story of her sister compels him to help her in her search.
Mitchell Fisher might be guilt-ridden, lonely, and still dealing with his own grief, but he’s trying so hard for his daughter, Poppy. And, now he wants to help the Bradfords find answers. As a doctor says to him, “Maybe you’re a nice guy who cares about others.”
It takes Mitchell a while to see that in himself, but the reader sees it early on in this charming book. It’s a story of loss and love, of struggling and letting go of the past. Those are all lessons Mitchell has to learn. And, letters and locks make him realize what he’s been missing, and what his rigidity and attempt to make a life for Poppy has taken from his daughter. The Secrets of Love Story Bridge is not a story about keeping love locked up. Instead, it’s a story of celebrating and being present for life.
Phaedra Patrick’s website is http://www.phaedra-patrick.com/
The Secrets of Love Story Bridge by Phaedra Patrick. Park Row Books, 2020. ISBN 9780778309789 (hardcover), 336p.
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FTC Full Disclosure – I received the book fro the publisher, in hopes I would review it.
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Note: The Secrets of Love Story Bridge will be available through bookstores, and, in print form from public libraries when they reopen. It might be available online as an ebook or eaudio if your public library ordered it through Overdrive. A reminder that public libraries do pay for the rights for these books.
That sounds like a good read Lesa. This locks thing has really taken off, hasn't it? I used only to see it in France but now it happens in Scotland as well. I don't mind it but the local councils do.
I will look up Phaedra Patrick – though unfortunately our libraries so often don't seem to have anything by the authors you talk about. I don't know why as they do have plenty of American writers' books. (Eg I am still taking occasional respite with a Debbie Macomber, and she is as popular here as she is in the USA. I mentioned her to a lovely and also rather well-read friend the other day and to my horror, she borrowed one of the ebooks from the library – I KNEW she wouldn't like it, it's far too downmarket for her (she has already read the new Hilary Mantel, the final part of the Wolf Hall trilogy, which I just could not face at the moment). She very politely said she'd sent it back as she has 'a lot on her TBR pile just now', but I bet her private view of my reading has plummeted! Not that I ever pretend to be a highbrow reader, I hate book snobbery (as does she) – and I was surprised when I told the same friend I was watching Monarch of the Glen and she said she'd watched it all the first time round! She also really loves the Agatha Raisin books, so i guess it's just horses for courses.
Still walking past the local village library and feeling a bit sad to see all the books locked up in there! I don't have any shortage of things to read, and I totally support the closure of course, but you know how it is when the one book you can't have – ie the one in the library window – is the one you suddenly want to read!
Have a good day Lesa,
Rosemary
Well, darn. They need to take that book out of the library window. I know, Rosemary. You might be able to get Phaedra Patrick, t hough. She's actually a British author. You're right. Debbie Macomber just wasn't her taste. Anyone who likes Agatha Raisin has no cause to be book snobbish.
I'm going to start my day by having to call roadside assistance for my car. That's what happens when you don't think to start it for two weeks. I do have roadside assistance, so that's okay. But, it's the time that it takes.
Oh NO! Good luck with that Lesa. At the moment my car has a crack in the fuel filler pipe and my husband accidentally overfilled his with oil, so we are just having to use mine and hope for the best. The garage was all ready to fix it, then the management decided to close down – I can understand why (even though they are classed as an 'essential service') but I am looking forward to their re-opening!
I didn't want to imply that my friend is a book snob, she really isn't – I do have another colleague who very much is, so I don't even mention my reading to her! It's like the time, many years ago now, when libraries banned Enid Blyton – I thought that was appalling. I grew up with her books, and they didn't stop me reading plenty of other things. Yes, some of them are sexist, not that well written, etc, but they are of their time, and still good page turners, and the girls in the school stories are really independent and ambitious. And if they encourage a child to read, what harm is there in that?
Hope that car soon starts!
Rosemary
Thanks, Rosemary. All set. Battery jumped. Drove it for a half an hour, as I was supposed to, then took it to the garage where they checked the battery & did an oil change and tires rotated as long as I was there. So, I'm okay, as long as I go out and drive it once in a while. (sigh)
In this country, it was Nancy Drew. Libraries didn't want to carry Nancy Drew mysteries. Do you know how many American mystery writers now say they grew up on Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy books? It didn't stop them from reading other books, or writing mysteries, as you said. Ah, librarians. We can be the worst kind of snobs.
I have this book on hold at the library, but it looks like I will have moved by the time the library re-opens! I haven't seen the e-book yet, but I'll keep trying.
Margie! I didn't even think about your libraries! I know you've had access to several where you are now. How is the library situation in your new location?
Two of her other books are on Overdrive, so I put them on my list. This one will have to wait until the library is open. Thanks, this is a new to me author.
Gram, I didn't read the Arthur book, but I heard very good things about it. You'll have to let us know some Thursday when you get the chance to read them. Sending hugs.
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