Welcome to Litsy!

My immediate reaction to this book was quit now - a mother paying a dude to act as her daughter‘s father for one afternoon a week for 8 years - nah. Those thoughts were so immediate that I kept reading to consider my visceral reaction. Almost just as quickly I came to like and sympathize with this MC and his logic as a man hired (non-sexually) to act the part of whatever his client needed. I believe it ended as it should have.

I still have acute vertigo, like yesterday, so all I can do is sit in bed with my head stationary. (I have a PT appointment later and I really hope that helps). I just read this in one sitting, and I‘m not sure if my lukewarm feeling is on the book‘s merits or the circumstances. The main character is a cypher, so I didn‘t connect to him. But I don‘t think you‘re supposed to. At 227 pages there wasn‘t a lot of room for character development.🤷🏻‍♀️

There‘s an app for everything and our narrator is on Rent-A-Stranger with a five-star rating. His days are filled with gigs but he‘s only truly happy when he‘s hired once a week by a single mother with a little girl. He‘s very attached to this child but how long can he keep up being “dad” to her? And who is he really?

Stranger is a damaged character seeking redemption for himself by making the clients who rent his time happy. When a client threatens to upend his carefully constructed set of rental identities, he is forced onto a collision course with…himself. Well-written but a bit soulless, this is a book that has something to say about relationships and the risk and value of love. This is not the fluffy book the cover would lead you to expect. Soft pick.

I have never added an extra book to my #botm box, but I was really excited about the choices and decided to go for it! The tagged book was my main pick, and then I added the latest thriller by Pekkanen (I always love her books alone and in her writing pair). Also, lately I‘ve seen such rave reviews for All the Colors of the Dark that I had to see what the fuss was about! So excited for all 3!!

Thanks for the rec @marleed @NikkiKey94 @Breanne1 !

How many of us would rent a stranger 2 fill a void (a parent, a friend, a partner) that would make us appear 2 the world as whole or complete?

Stranger believes he is meeting this need while staying unattached until his carefully plotted out world begins 2 crumble when 1 renter threatens to expose him to another (a child). He must reconcile his past w/ this present & come to terms with the reality of why he chose to take on the role of Stranger.

This is a well plotted social commentary filled with insight, emotion and quite a few "a-ha" moments for myself as I was reading it. It really got me thinking about how relationships play out in this modern age. Do we put more effort into our online relationships, or should we be focusing most on our face to face interactions? This would be an excellent read for a book club discussion to really dive into these topics.