Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale by Lynda Rutledge

On the last day of the millennium, sassy Faith Bass Darling decides to have a garage sale. Why is the richest lady in Bass, Texas, a recluse for twenty years, suddenly selling off her worldly possessions?As the townspeople grab up the heirlooms, and the antiques reveal their own secret stories,a cast of characters appears to witness the sale or try to stop it. Before the day is over, they’ll all examine their roles in the Bass family saga, as well as some of life’s most imponderable questions: Do our possessions possess us? What are we without our memories? Is there life after death or second chances here on earth? And is Faith really selling that Tiffany lamp for $1?

There are many things going for this book. One, the plot sounds really interesting and wholly unique. Two, the cover is fantastic. Three, it’s a debut and that’s always exciting. For me, though, it held a lot of unfulfilled promise.

The main issue that I found with it is that it is rather dull. Slow-paced and convoluted, the narrative is not nearly interesting enough to keep the reader fully focused on the page. Many times I found myself skimming, which is horrible both for the reader and for the writer. No one wants her words ignored. None of the characters are likeable in a manner that will keep you looking to see what happens next, and there seemed to be a lot of “filler” scenes that didn’t do much for the story or for character advancement.

There were a few moments which were well written, with wit and managing to avoid the pathos that permeate the rest of the book. I’m not saying it’s an easy topic to write about. It’s very tough to avoid melodrama when dealing with Alzheimer’s as a plot point, but it can be done. Just, for me, not like this.

I can’t really recommend this, although I’m sure there are many people out there who’ll say the complete opposite. It’s just wasn’t as deep and lovely as I thought it’d be.