The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg

The Story of Arthur Truluv is a novel that tells the story of how three lonely people come together to create a family. Arthur, a recently widowed octogenarian, meets Maddy, an isolated teenager and together they become entwined in the world of Lucille, Arthur's neighbor who happens to be a champion baker and gossip.

It's a remarkably sappy, emotionally compelling story and I loved it. I found myself laughing at how much my own actions resemble Arthur's, I thought the scenes with Arthur's cat were true to life, and Lucille's over the top cheerfulness is exactly how several people I know actually ARE, so this one was definitely a book will be recommending to people who want a light, uplifting read.

I feel like getting a good fluffy book that isn't a rom-com is actually pretty challenging, but Berg manages to do just that.  Things seem so grim a lot of the time in the real world, but this book made me forget about all of that for a brief period of time.  There are some reviews on Goodreads that call the book "improbable" and refer to the fact that the writing is full of italics and exclamation points and I can't disagree with those critiques, but I say that none of that bothered me when I was reading it.

Five out of five stars from me! Exclamation point absolutely necessary!