Didn't think this was going to be my cup of tea when I started it. But as the story unfolded it drew me in. This was a quirky story following the very likeable Andrew. He works for a local authority (I'm thinking in Environmental Health) - when people die with no family or estate the burial falls to the responsibility of the local council. Before it goes ahead they need to investigate the persons background and this means going through their possessions. A new member of staff Peggy assists him and an attraction is there. Both have troubled backgrounds and issues to resolve. Andrew's is a white lie that he told that grew and grew. I don't want to spoil anything. Lovely characters and I wanted to keep reading to find out more. Recommend it to anyone.

Enjoyable and fast paced. Inspiring in places, running through a range of different emotions. Very entertaining and will keep you hooked to the end.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Really enjoyed this book and Andrew's unusual job. I loved his character and was rooting for a happy ending while also wondering how he'd extract himself from the mess he'd accidentally created!

Emotive, heartfelt and unexpectedly relatable, this book was a pleasant surprise.

We first meet Andrew at a funeral, and are entered into the sad but very real environment of a council worker who must sift through the belongs of others to notify someone of their passing. Little do we know just how much grief has touched Andrew's own life, and the lives of the other characters he interacts with.

Loneliness emanates from every area of Andrew's life, and a simple moment where he doesn't quite catch a question, leads him to tie himself up in a series of knots that we work through as the story progresses. Eventually they get him on the right track to be able to begin to heal and try and move forward in life, following a series of terrible events.

In Peggy he meets someone else also struggling with life, but together in the midst of helping others, they are able to help each other to heal..

This book is uplifting, real and very thought provoking with warm characters, and some surprisingly funny moments mixed in with those sadder and more poignant ones.

If you loved Elanor Oliphant Is Just Fine, and The Rosie Project, you're sure to be touched by this story too.

What a fantastic story, I was completely invested in seeing how Andrew's character would develop and seeing just how and why he is lying about about having a wife and two kids.

It's a book that could be rather depressing on the face of it, after all Andrew works for the council, trying to find out of people who died alone have any friends or family to organise a funeral, or the money to pay for it themselves, or whether they need a paupers funeral organised by the council.

Andrew needs to sift through the houses of the recently deceased and although the states of the places is upsetting, there are moments of humour that shine through too.

Andrew is on the whole a loner, he lives alone (regardless of the fake family his colleagues believe he has), is a model train enthusiast, and prefers doing the house inspections alone too. He is rather socially awkward and then he meets Peggy.

Peggy is the new girl at work, and is made to shadow Andrew initially, and a fledgling friendship strikes up, there is just the small matter of the fake family!

This is a story that looks at a lot of different topics, and written in a way you can't help but wanting to read on and find out more.

It's astonishing to me that this is a debut novel, as it is that brilliant. Although it took me a few chapters to warm completely to Andrew, once I did this was a delight to read, and I really loved how it all concluded.

Thank you to Orion and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Engaging & surprisingly emotional read, style feels a little flat to start but this all seems in keeping with our character and his situation & the style and his language seems to open up along with our hero. Cracking realistic descriptions of the tedium & nuances of office politics, with gratingly realistic colleagues, although you do warm to his boss by the end! A rosy ending perhaps with the internet friends especially being an unexpected source of assistance and a few convenient plot elements/stereotypical ‘bad’ characters but actually you are rooting for it all to turn out well for him it’s a lovely payoff.

This book doesn't fall into a genre which I usually gravitate to, however this didn't stop me from enjoying this read. It is such an original concept and despite the heavy nature of the theme it had surprises around every corner.

Funny and heartbreaking - I didn't expect this book to hit both sides so well but it did. Warm and endearing, I would recommend for a summer read.

I so enjoyed this fabulous book! I seem to be on a bit of a role with so called ‘quirky’ books so the blurb for this one instantly appealed.

This is wonderful story with a fantastic main character that you can’t help but fall in love with. I found myself feeling very sympathise towards him and wished I could reach into the book to give him a hug. I wanted to keep reading to find out what happens to him and wished furtively that it would be a happy ending for him!

I found myself immediately drawn into the story and into Andrew’s lonely life. The reader has an intimate look into the story, feeling every emotion alongside the characters. I found myself laughing out loud one moment and then crying the next which I always think is a sign of a well written book. The story felt quite realistic which further drew me in as I felt like I was reading about real people so I was more invested in what happens.

This is the author’s debut novel and I look forward to reading more from him in the future. If you like stories that manage to be funny, sad and completely charming then you’ll love this book.

Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Orion for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

I’ve lost count of the number of novels that feature a female protagonist emerging from their shell like life into a new world. It was a refreshing change to read a novel where the protagonist was male and your thoughts immediately leapt to if their emotions, their emergence would be the same as their female counterparts.

There were similarities but somehow it felt different, mainly I think because our natural thoughts are that men are the strong ones, the ones that don’t often have those sensitive and needy tendencies. Roper gave us Andrew, a man in his early forties, a council worker with a job that I found utterly fascinating, but essentially a loner, a man more interested in model railways than connecting with other humans.

His job, that of organising and, in his case attending funerals for those who died alone, was perfect for him, almost mirroring his own life. You could see his mind whirl as he looked to the future, would that be him, is that what he wanted? Yet Andrew couldn’t change, trapped, reasons hidden deep down, that refused to surface, that Andrew refused to deal with. Roper gave us fleeting glimpses of a past life, little clues, a sister, a love for Ella Fitzgerald, but hate for the song Blue Moon. It pulled you deeper and deeper into Andrew’s innermost thoughts, his demons, and all I wanted to do was hug him, tell him it would be ok, that he could recover, live a full fun filled life.

I have to admit that Andrew’s unwillingness or even inability to change, to do something about it, made me feel a little frustrated but that frustration slowly dissipated as his story unfolded and as in all things it took something or someone to trigger that want and need to change. Peggy was the perfect foil, the polar opposite, outgoing, funny and such a wonderful character and my imagination as to what she wore, what she looked like went into serious overdrive.

I loved that she didn’t care what others thought and that she ‘got’ Andrew, knew how to tap into his subconscious, to rattle him so much that he couldn’t not change. It helped that she had her own issues, but I loved her selflessness, her willingness to help Andrew.

Their relationship was brilliantly portrayed by Roper, its ups and downs both serious and full of humour, but what really made this novel was his ability to understand his characters, to go deep beyond the surface. They all hid sorrow, difficulties, it was all part of normal life but it was how they navigated their issues, how they found solutions or accepted compromise that Roper excelled.

You felt yourself smiling as Andrew slowly found his voice, began to stand up for himself, relax and enjoy everyday life as his confidence slowly soared to new heights. It was the background to the loneliness that got me, that Roper captured beautifully, his narrative emotional and poignant, there were things that I could identify with, could imagine myself in Andrew’s shoes, could feel his pain and distress.

For all it’s poignancy and emotion Something To Live For for wasn’t without humour, moments that made you laugh and grin and perfectly counterbalanced what could have been a dark and sorrowful sorry.

Roper wrote of issues that we could all identify with, the everyday things, the more traumatic aspects that assault our lives at any time. He didn’t feel the need to inject some madcap ideals or sensationalise, it was a novel that was very much grounded in ordinary lives and that is what was so endearing about Andrew and Peggy, their colleagues and friends.

It gave me hope that we don’t have to be lonely, that there is something or someone out there for everyone, that we don’t have to be afraid to take those first steps, and emerge into a brand new world.

First holiday read done. 🌞
Something to Live For by @richardroper . Published by @orbitbooks_uk .
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Heartwarming yet Heartbreaking at times. Humourous but also sad. Loneliness in search of companionship. Self control- not to let anyone into your life. The need to feel normal- to afraid to be known as different. 🌞
Andrew is very much a loner, someone who lies, makes up stories, awkward, stubborn and a bit of lost soul who really does not like people nor likes to make friends. He has very little time for his sister Sally who contacts him every 3months .
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But behind it all there is something very deep and very sad that has happened to Andrew in the past that appears to prevent him from moving forward and to make progress in his life.
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He has a set daily routine and works for the council looking for information on people who have dead with no family or friends.
Andrew doesnt really get on with his work colleagues Keith and Meredith. He merely tolerates them. Then you have his manager Cameron who interviewed Andrew for his job and it was during that interview and crossed wires that his lie first manifested.
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Andrew has done the unthinkable and created a fantasy family of a wife and 2 children. He has an impending dinner party with work (Cameron's idea of team bonding) but Andrew hasn't got the fancy house nor the 2.4 children either. Will he get found out???
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Peggy has just started working within Andrew's department and she is paired up with him so that he can show her the ropes within the job. 🌞
Little by little Peggy starts to bring Andrew out of his shell. An unlikely friendship starts to form. Peggy hasn't got the easiest life with her husband Steve with is a ragging drunk 99% of the time. So for Peggy this friendship with Andrew is much needed- a little distraction from the reality of her home life.
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For Andrew this lie about being a husband and a father is just snowballing and getting out of hand. But for Andrew it's too late to go back now.
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Is there a reason for his lies ????
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What has happened in the past that has made Andrew into a loner?
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I enjoyed this book for both writing and fluidity.
Thank you to @charlie_moons_bookclub

Does make me think of Eleanor (Oliphant), warm and moving male-centred drama.

I was very impressed with this. It is one of those stories that you know straight away you'll be swept up by, carried along in a tide of emotion and familiar elements, but with a protagonist you desperately want to 'come good'.

When I say 'familiar elements' - some are decidedly uncommon. Andrew works for the council, entering the houses of the recently deceased in search of contact details for next of kin, attending funerals on their behalf when none are found. Seeing his own future in the homes of these lonely and isolated people, he hides the truth of his life from colleagues.

Also not conventionally, Andrew has kept up a facade for years at work, his colleagues all convinced he has a wife and two children. Until a new worker is put under his wing and he finds himself wishing he was 'unattached'.

Andrew lives in an online world outside of work, an all-encompassing one that may seem slightly bizarre to most, but in reality is his hobby, his obsession and his passion, just as everyone possesses. His model railway world, chat room, friends, is well-built into a realistic framework of conversations and brings a lot of warmth to his character. It also shows that trainspotting-types are just as tech-savvy (and potentially cool) as anyone else!

The story takes us through some morally grey and questionable areas - attraction between two people at work both 'attached', the long-term lies and deception Andrew has constructed and maintained. But the good humour and warmth of the story as Andrew and Peggy becomes friends and deal with both professional and personal issues together can't help but be relished. He's not a bad person, though he has made some poor decisions.

Just loved reading this, and have recommended it to others. Just the right sort of book for a bit of a lift, and it is very easy to picture it making a success on the screen as well, there are some lovely characters in the office staff (including a Come Dine with Me nightmare scenario) and the trainspotting friends who get a good moment or two in the spotlight.

With thanks to Netgalley for the sample reading copy.

Something to Live For* sounds like it could be a depressing read but it's not. Andrew works with death for a living. Searching for people's next of kin and attending the funerals if they don't have anyone. Life is perfect or so his colleagues think but it turns out the life he has with his wife and children in a lovely house is all fake and he actually lives in a flat with his railway collection dreading the fact that he could end up like the people whose homes he must search for a next of kin. To escape the fate he thinks he will have will mean taking a risk, potentially losing his 'fake' life to find something he really wants. This is a lovely heart warming story about changing your life. This book definitely deserves a better front cover though!

Not the sort of book I would usually read. The main character is male and is told from his viewpoint.
It is the story of a man with an unenviable job dealing with deceased people, who have died alone, whose job is to arrange funerals for them. He encounters a new workmates who changes his outlook on life.
A really lovely read and I would recommend it to other

42 year old Andrew works for the local council arranging paupers funerals and spends his spare time indulging in his model railway obsession. As a loner who has lost contact with his only living relative, his sister, he has spent the past 5 years living the lie of having the perfect wife and 2 children.

Quirky, fun and original. A great read.

Romantic comedy featuring a middle-aged loner whose interest is toy trains.

An easy read where the main character visits the homes of the lonely and now-deceased. This is an unusual occupation for protagonists - or anyone who works for the council. His job is to try to find friends or family to inform them of the passing of someone who appears to have lost contact with other people. He also looks for money under the mattress to help pay for the funeral, which he arranges.

As a loner himself, this is what will happen to him when his time comes. He has lost contact with his sister and lives alone, the only company being the online model railway forums he is part of. However, he has created a wife and children in his head who he uses to excuse himself from being more social and to fit in with the norm.

The tragic figure stumbles his awkward way through life with a narrative that strains to be witty in the choice of similes. This eases off about half way through as the story takes hold proper. An unhappily married woman joins the department and has to shadow the protagonist. She is, of course, the exact opposite of the leading loner and he is immediately smitten.

The book looks at how feuds and snubs can lead to a lonely life and death, how isolation can cause disconnection with reality, and how simple lies can grow exponentially. These are the interesting parts. The thing that holds them together is a bumbling romance.

#NetGalley #SomethingToLiveFor #FindYourSomething

I’ve seen people compare the main character of this book, Andrew, to Eleanor Oliphant and I could not agree more. This is a story that is quirky, witty, likeable, thoughtful, gentle and provoking. Truly a book that pulls at the heartstrings while still allowing you to giggle out loud at the pitch-perfect dead pan British humor. If I could package up a very ideal summer read, it would look exactly like this book.

Genuinely - this book is unlike most anything else I’ve read this year, and that alone marks it high in books I am going to devour and enjoy page after page. But it is the story, the absolute heart of the story, that will capture you and hold your attention tightly from the first to last page.

For me, it was Andrew as a character; flawed, broken, flailing and perfectly human, as he tries to navigate the professional world he faces day after day and the reflection of how closely that world mirrors his own. Taking the perspective of a character who attends the deaths and funerals of people who are utterly alone in this world is a fascinating place to start a story. This was just a wonderfully unique and empathetic job that I fell a little in love with - that and Andrew’s desire to ensure these people were given the dignity and respect of his attention in their passings. Despite Andrew’s many flaws and missteps, I was truly rooting for him from start to finish - I wanted him to find his place in the world of the living, and to land with a happy ending.

I think there is something really wonderful in bringing darker topics to as main plot points in stories - there is beauty in life and death and grief and human connection, and it isn’t until we examine the dark that we can appreciate the light fully. Richard does such wonderful work in bringing this idea to life, and sharing the light that seeps in around the darkest of topics - living a life that ends alone.

I, of course, will spoil nothing for you readers, but to say that this is absolutely a book for every summer TBR - a book that so joyously celebrates life by investigating death. A book that celebrates love and connection in understanding loneliness. A book that will break your heart wide open. Do yourselves a favor and be sure to collect your own copy to wile away a beautiful summer afternoon, you will not be regretting that decision, I can promise you that.

Andrew works for the council investigating deaths where there is no traceable family. I didn't know such a job existed but if it does I'd like to think of someone like Andrew doing it an caring about the people who die alone. He's been trundling along for years living in his flat, with his model railway for company, while maintaining the lie at work that he lives with his wife and children. There has obviously been a trauma in his past which is alluded to, especially when he speaks quarterly to his sister or when he thinks back to younger days. His routine is upset by the arrival of new staff member, Peggy, who joins him on house inspections. As they become friends we learn more of Andrew's life and wonder how he will dig himself out of his lie. It's a pleasure to watch his transformation and a lesson in how circumstances can change our lives and see us living a life we didn't plan.

This was advertised as compelling, and it certainly is! I thoroughly enjoyed this and it’s gone into my “reread and recommend” pile. Definitely one to read.