The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick (Epub)

Description

Perfect for fans of A Man Called Ove, this curiously charming debut follows a lovable widower and his life-changing adventure of love and self-discovery.

Sixty-nine-year-old Arthur Pepper lives a simple life. He gets out of bed at precisely 7:30 a.m., just as he did when his wife, Miriam, was alive. He dresses in the same gray slacks and mustard sweater vest, waters his fern, Frederica, and heads out to his garden.

But on the one-year anniversary of Miriam’s death, something changes. Sorting through Miriam’s possessions, Arthur finds an exquisite gold charm bracelet he’s never seen before. What follows is a surprising and unforgettable odyssey that takes Arthur from London to Paris and as far as India in an epic quest to find out the truth about his wife’s secret life before they met—a journey that leads him to find hope and healing in the most unexpected places.

Featuring an unforgettable cast of characters with big hearts and irresistible flaws, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is a joyous reminder of life’s infinite possibilities.

Don’t miss Phaedra Patrick’s winning new novel, The Messy Lives of Book People!

Check out these other heartwarming stories from Phaedra Patrick:
Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone
The Library of Lost and Found
The Secrets of Love Story Bridge

User’s Reviews

Review “Phaedra Patrick understands the soul. Eccentric, charming, and wise, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is about finding courage, generosity, and compassion, even when all seems lost. With clear-eyed prose and a moving story, Patrick reminds us how selfless people can be she reminds us to be brave. The Curious Charms is not just for those who are mourning over love or the past. This book will illuminate your heart.” -Nina George, New York Times bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop”Tender, insightful, and surprising…. [Arthur Pepper] will instantly capture the hearts of readers who loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Little Paris Bookshop, and The Red Notebook.” -Library Journal, starred review”Pierces the heart. You root for [Arthur] every step of the way.” -BookPage”Patrick’s debut novel tells a sweet and poignant story about marriage, grief, and memory. Readers will find bumbling, earnest Arthur utterly endearing.” -Booklist”As cozy and fortifying as a hot cup of tea on a cold afternoon.” -Kirkus Reviews”Once in a great while, a character like Arthur Pepper comes along and quietly steals your heart. Arthur might make you cry – but he’ll also make you laugh, think, and feel grateful that you came along on his fantastical journey. I won’t just be recommending this book to everyone I know, I’ll be buying them copies.” Sarah Pekkanen, bestselling author of Things You Won’t Say””Charming by name, charming by nature, this book is a balm for the soul and the heart.” -The Sun, 5 stars”It’s a sweet quest and a thoughtful reminder that sometimes the person who loves us most knows us better than we know ourselves.” -Marthastewartweddings.com”Patrick’s debut evokes whimsy and poignancy…. This is a sweet story.” -Publishers Weekly”An endearing celebration of life.” -RealSimple.com

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ This is a lovely book that makes you smile. The blurb reminded me of novels like The Man Called Ove, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and even The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry. I loved all of them and so I had high hopes for this book, too. I am pleased to say that I was not disappointed. This is a heartwarming story with a gentle pace. It describes the main character’s inner journey just as well as his real trips to different places as he is trying to unravel the story behind each charm. At the beginning of the novel Arthur was like a tortoise in his shell with only his head sticking out. It was interesting and amusing to watch how he gradually came out of his shell and found his place in the outer world. When he first comes across the bracelet and starts to learn about some of the charms he is shaken. It is heartwrenching to see how he questions his whole life together with his wife. But later comes an understanding when everything gets into a new perspective. Not only does Arthur find his inner peace in the end, but also a strong bond with his children and a meaningful relationship with his new friends, which gives a new meaning to his life. The book is full of colourful characters and surprising twists even at the end. I am pleased that I had the opportunity to read this novel and I higly recommend it to everyone.

⭐ I misinterpreted the meaning of the book’s title. ‘The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper’ is not about Arthur Pepper having quirky charming qualities. I thought the book was going to be about a character somewhat in the vein of the ole curmudgeon in Fredrik Backman’s wonderful novel ‘A Man Called Ove.’ I did not read the back cover for its brief explanation about the premise of the story before buying the thing. I had, however, looked at the number of positive review excerpts printed on and inside the book. It was an impulse buy on my part. The “Curious Charms” are about charms on a bracelet. On the first anniversary of the death of his beloved wife, Miriam, Arthur finds the hidden charm bracelet. The mourning sixty-nine-year-old introvert reluctantly sets out to find out about this item his wife of forty years kept hidden from him.The book seems ready-made as a Hallmark Channel movie. Words used in professional reviews say it’s tender, cozy, charming, and sweet. I agree but it was too gooey for my tastes. The attempts at humor were predictable and ho-hum. Arthur Pepper has his struggles in the story but serendipity always comes to the rescue. It would’ve been more realistic if Arthur was not able to find out the origins of at least one or two of the charms. The story takes place in the United Kingdom and some of the informal regional terms used such as chippy, took the hup, had a couple of shandies, and a numpty had me heading to the dictionary. I could pretty much guess by the middle of the book that everything would be wrapped up in a happy red bow. Life does not work out so neatly. It felt farfetched.There’s nothing wrong with such overly-sentimental works. Heck, I picked it up specifically because I was looking for more of an upbeat story. The problem is the writer’s style just did not work for me. If you like Hallmark-like stories, then you’ll probably enjoy ‘The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper.’ Ms. Patrick mentions that the book’s film rights have been optioned in the U.S. Unless the thing gets great reviews and has some mighty fine acting in it, I’ll not be one of its viewers.

⭐ Such bad grammar, I couldn’t focus on the story line. How could such a popular book constantly use “me” instead of “I” throughout the book ? The editor should be fired. Basic English rules are ignored throughout. Nothing interesting ever happens. Prose could make up for that but doesn’t. Waste of precious time.

⭐ After finishing a very scary psychological thriller, I was in the mood for something charming and The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick sounded like a good choice.It was. It was absolutely just what I was in the mood for.The story opens with Arthur Pepper in his lonely house. After his wife of 40 years, Miriam dies, Arthur doesn’t really have much to live for anymore. He is somewhat estranged from his children, and even helpful neighbors aren’t enough to pull him out if his slump.Finally deciding to clean our some of his wife’s things, he finds a strange small jewelry box stuffed into one of her shoes. Opening it, he finds a beautiful, old charm bracelet. Something that he never saw Miriam wear ever. It was not the kind of bracelet he would ever guess that she owned, she seemed so simple to him. Looking closely at one of the charms, an elephant, he sees a phone number. Curiosity gets the better of him and he decides to call it.It turns out to be a number in India. When he stumbles through an introduction, he mentions his wife’s name and is surprised to learn that they know of Miriam. With nothing else to do in his life, he makes plans to travel to India.Totally out of his comfort zone, he proceeds to track down the meaning of the charms. While learning more about the past of his wife, he also begins to learn a thing or two about himself.This book was totally charming. I loved watching Arthur grow as he learned more and more about what his wife was like before he met her and what his life can be like now that she is gone.

⭐ After reading this amazing story, I felt that I had actually BEEN to all the exotic places Arthur visited, actually KNEW him personally, his late wife, his kids. I loved watching him emerge and then blossom from a one dimensional, rather flat personality, to a seeker of adventure with rich feelings. He found bravery in himself that surprised him as well as the reader.The other characters in the novel were all interesting and well rounded, so that I was invested in them as well as the leading character.I laughed, I cried, I hated for the book to end. This is a must read if ever there was one!

⭐ You will fall in love with Arthur Pepper. He felt such sadness after the loss of his wife. Then, a year later, while cleaning out her clothes, he comes across a beautifully crafted charm bracelet he has never seen his wife wear. Where did she get it and what does it mean? The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is full of questions…did he really know his wife? Who gave this to her? What is the meaning behind each charm? Arthur Pepper is fill ed with longing, wanting to know who the woman he married really was.As you read this book, you experience all the emotions that would have befallen Arthur Pepper as he begins to unravel the story of who his wife was before she met Arthur. And you understand Arthur’s angst. If his wife had led such an interesting, varied and exciting before she met Arthur, then how could she have been satisfied with him? Arthur questions the basic premise of his marriage to Miriam. He feels as though he was never an adequate husband, and then he even has doubts about the kind of father he was to their son and daughter.Following Arthur on his quest for the truth you are never bored, and always rooting for Arthur to learn who Miriam really was. But like Arthur, you wonder if he really was the right kind of person for Miriam, or if she had been dissatisfied. How could a woman who had lived such an exciting life be happy with a man whose only trips were upstairs to the bathroom? His neighbor, Bernadette, who seems to be an annoyance to Arthur, unknowingly shakes him out of his depression, and boosts him on the journey of a lifetime. Go along with Arthur as he discovers not only Miriam’s interesting past, but his own curious charms. You will be delighted!

⭐ What does Phaedra Patrick’s first novel, THE CURIOUS CHARMS OF ARTHUR PEPPER, offer to readers? I’ve come up with eight answers — one for each charm.(1) When I’m screening the many literary choices available to modern day readers for a book that I might read from cover to cover, the first go-no-go decider is the quality of writing. THE CURIOUS CHARMS OF ARTHUR PEPPER passed this test with well-designed and skillfully executed prose. Patrick’s writing is professional quality.(2) From the outset, main character Arthur Pepper is portrayed as likable. Later, we see his imperfections, but overall, the author presents a family man, workingman, and gentleman that we are motivated to care about.(3) Gradually we are introduced to a wide variety of interesting minor characters. By “interesting,” I do not mean outrageous (with the exception, of course, of the couple whose tiger roams the grounds of their estate). They are interesting because we identify with their ideals… and their flaws.(4) THE CURIOUS CHARMS OF ARTHUR PEPPER has a complex and mysterious plot; it embodies the concept of an imaginative tale. The litmus test of this? You can’t predict how it will end.(5) The novel’s prose is not vulgar, as so many new literary offerings seem to be. This is not to say that the book steers completely away from unpleasant people, situations, and language — it’s just not saturated with those elements.(6) The plot includes the sort of unexpected twists that are indicative of real life. It’s not just in books and movies that even the mildest of people occasionally make illogical and seemingly unlikely choices that put them at risk. (The stories I could tell. The stories YOU could tell…)(7) The ending, like many other parts of THE CURIOUS CHARMS OF ARTHUR PEPPER, causes us to wonder about our own life choices, those that we are required to make each day, and the attitudes that we bring to those decisions.(8) Perhaps most importantly, Phaedra Patrick’s novel reminds us that people can change no matter how old they are — if they are open-minded and adventurous to the end.“He didn’t want to feel like this, be treated like this. An urge swelled in his chest. He needed to say something so she wouldn’t think him helpless, hopeless and useless, like Mrs. Monton, who hadn’t left her house in five years and who smoked twenty Woodbines a day, or Mr. Flowers, who thought there was a unicorn living in his greenhouse. Arthur had some pride left. He used to have meaning as a father and husband. He used to have thoughts and dreams and plans.”This review was written by Kevin Polman, author of THE EXTRA KEY. The Extra Key

⭐ This book is the story of a man who on the first anniversary of the death of his wife finds a charm bracelet in a boot in her closest. It is new to him. It is expensive and each charm is different. The charms have clues written on them that lead this ultra conservative widow out of his obedient daily routine to investigate each charm, each person associated with the history of the time represented by the charm. He is introduced to a wife that he had never met. He doubts that he was loved as he thought he had been. Was their life together for all those years a compromise for his wife who had unknown to him lived in India, stayed on an exotic English Estate that had lions roaming free and meet a famous written who wrote a poem about her be in love for a life time with a man so dedicated to his daily simple routine? Why did she keep this previous life a secret? Over the course of his seeking out people associated with each charm he finds a life and truths that change his viewpoint and those he meets. The journey rewards him with the unblinking knowledge that love takes as many pathways as there are people who provide it. It is there but interaction with others is the key to a life that validates the many types of love offered to him in a lifetime. A thought provoking story that is well written and presented to the reader in a clear presentation of how we often actually miss the clues of how to enhance the love offered to each one of us during our life time.

⭐ What an absolute treasure this story is. It’s a bouquet to us all. Exquisite. I have a little charm bracelet that my parents started for me when I was a young girl. I can tell you what each and every one of the charms signifies. In later years, I dismantled the bracelet and incorporated some of the charms into other bracelets/necklaces. I can never get rid of a single charm. Now, imagine a 69 year old heartbroken man, after losing his wife of 40 years a year ago, discovering her gold charm bracelet among her things – when he finally starts going through her possessions. He never saw her wear the bracelet, never knew it existed. This is a story of a lovely man’s quest to find out about each charm on that bracelet. His journey takes him beyond his little house in a hamlet in England to India, to France, to other parts of England. Oh the people he meets…the stories they tell about his wife (all before he ever met her)…the wonderment that is behind each and every charm. But this is also a story of how this man’s ‘investigation’ reveals far more than his deceased wife’s former lives – it’s about him coming to terms with so many things, including himself. How he can reach beyond the ‘safe’ little life he’s built for himself. Please give yourself a bouquet and read this story.Passages that made me stop and close my eyes and smile:His encounter with Madame Bourdin, the owner of the boutique in Paris which explains the back story for the thimble charm.The paragraph in a letter to Arthur: “Sometimes you hold on to things, not because you want to keep them, but because they are difficult to let go.”

⭐ “When you got to his age, it was unlikely that there would be more wonderful days to come. Ones where you stopped and thought, ‘I will remember this day forever.’” —Phaedra Patrick, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper“Sometimes when you’ve lived a chapter of your life, you don’t want to look back. … [But] everyone has a good story to tell.” —Phaedra Patrick, The Curious Charms of Arthur PepperThe Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper,By Phaedra Patrick, is delightfully charming! It’s a story about self-discovery, grief, and finding healing in the most unexpected places, complete with all the collective charms of England. It’s a book about a mysterious charm bracelet that leads a grieving, grumpy old widower, set in his ways and rigid routine, back to what’s most important in life. His unexpected journey uncovers a past he knew nothing about, causing him to question his entire married life. Ultimately, even though all hope had seemingly been lost, his quest helps him find purpose and the courage to go on with generosity and compassion for others. This novel will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will steal your heart away!“When he’d imagined his death, … his preferred method was to fall asleep and not wake up. … It would be awful if he began to create a stink. And he wanted to look serene, not have his face screwed up in pain or anything. … It would be most useful if he could have a premonition about his death and be prepared for it. … [Then] he could tip [his neighbor] off the day before. … What he hadn’t ever pictured with being eaten by a tiger. … This was not how he wanted to go.” —Phaedra Patrick, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

Keywords

Free Download The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper in Epub format
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper Epub Free Download
Download The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper 2017 Epub Free
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper 2017 Epub Free Download
Download The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper Epub
Free Download Ebook The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper