Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a review.

This is a really lovely book. The captivating story of Dot who works in the Lost Property office at Baker Street and takes pride in her work and has, herself, lost her way in the world. Can she return the lost property and can she find herself in the process.

Lost Property is a touching emotional book. I got engaged with the story from the beginning and loved the main character Dot Watson.

Dot works in the lost property office a job she enjoys, as the story progresses we learn more about Dots life. She has been affected by many things in the past, but when Mr Appleby arrives to report his bag missing which contains his late wife’s purse it stirs something in Dot and she decides she will find it for him. His loss is something Dot can relate to and this brings to the surface some of her own pain and loss.

Each chapter begins with a lost property label which described something which had been lost and opened up a fascinating story about the item, it’s owner or a memory.

I’ve never really thought about items in a lost property office but I can relate to how memories can be sparked by things we possess. Times gone by and people who are no longer in our lives can be triggered by touching or seeing a particular object.

This novel took me on a rollercoaster of emotions . Loss , hope, forgiveness and kindness are all explored beautifully in this book. The importance of the people who have shaped us and the memories we have shared are so much more important than the material objects we acquire along the way.

I simply adored the wonderful Dot she reminded me that to feel loss you must have experienced love first.

Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for my chance to read this wonderful book.

The setting of the lost property department of transport for London is very unusual. Meet Dot, her work colleagues, family and her history. They intermingle giving depth and relevance to Dot.
Life has not turned out as Dot planned and the strain begins to show. I felt very protective of Dot and cheered at the end as perspectives change.
Enjoy I did.

Lost Property is just lovely and absolutely splendid from the start, as it tells the story of Dot, Phillipa and their parents. Most of us at some point has either seen a Lost Property box or department or lost something before and this book immerses readers into this curious world of other people's belongings. I just love the attention to detail and creativity with the luggage tags at the beginning of each chapter, stating what was lost and where. The places and items (sometimes human), is diverse from an Oyster Card to briefcases to a purchase at Selfridges. It is heartwarming when owner and lost item are reunited. It is fun meeting the items, the members of the public and the employees of the Lost Property department. There are times when it isn't an item as such that is missing, which brings a different slant to the story at times. Sometimes it is something very human that is lost.

There is intrigue and mystery surrounding the Mr Appleby as suddenly he doesn't seem to exist on the system anymore and yet his missing holdall has turned up. It isn't just a holdall, it has particular significance, which is tender and of sentimental value.

There is also the shake-up of new policies from a new boss and all proves quite unpopular and as a reader, makes me more onside with the employees under her.

There is terrific lightness and humour mixed with intrigue about the lost property items and who they belong to, as well as  poignancy and sadness as Dot and Phillipa's mum has dementia. It is heartwarming that their mum has a routine and can attend a specialised excursion club, but it is Dot and Phillippa, with the help of some nurses and carers take care of her. 

This is a book with a lot of heart and soul to it, that captures certain parts of life, just beautifully, even the parts of dementia and pretty accurately.
I wholeheartedly recommend it and it will fill your heart with warmth.

This book was the perfect story to bring me out of my reading slump! It was such a unique setting and interesting backdrop.

I absolutely adored Dot’s character and loved following her on her journey. There was some tough subject matter with strong reference to suicide but I believe this was handled well!

A wonderful and ultimately uplifting story of self-discovery.

A lovely read that I raced through. Light hearted passages mix a deep story touching suicide and dementia, it still left me feeling upbeat at the end. Fully recommend

Another @netgalley read

Dot works at the TFL Lost Property Office & takes great pride in her job. Dot is hiding great guilt over an event in her past but when an elderly gentleman arrives in search of his late wife's purse she sets on a mission to help that in turn starts to heal her own loss.....

This was a lovely read, the descriptions really made the book. Dot is an extremely likeable character & I felt connected to her throughout the story.

A great mix of both witty & heart warming scenes.

4🌟

Loss can come in many forms, it’s something we all experience. Big or small, loss is a part of life. Dot understands that more than anyone. She deals with it everyday working in the Baker Street Lost Property office. Not living quite the life she expected, she finds solace in reuniting the lost with their rightful owners. Spending her days working with ‘objects’ which, to the people who have lost them, are simply irreplaceable.
This is such a beautifully written and constructed story. I can feel the love and passion that has gone into to it. I really cared for Dot. She is this warm, kind and, in some ways, deeply troubled lady. I don’t think she realises quite how much past events have affected her. Then one day Mr Appleby arrives to report a lost bag and Dot understands his loss is so much more than the contents of that bag. The bag contains his late wife’s purse and she knows why he wants to find it again, what it means to him. She becomes determined to reunite him with his lost bag, wanting to help ease his pain a little, little does she know it will open the floodgates to her own pain and suffering.

As we get to know Dot we can see she is reaching crisis point in her life. She carries so much grief, guilt and sadness with her. The story unfolds before us as we read and I couldn’t help but adore Dot, I wanted to see her come through the difficulties, to find happiness again. To find herself again. She is such a wonderfully unusual character, and reminds us that it’s okay to not fit the mould but to break it and be your won person. She is just wonderful, smart and oh so funny. I would so love to have seen her dancing in that outfit! (you’ll just have to read the book to find out what I’m referring to.)

This was a wonderful debut. It made me laugh, it made me cry. At times it is heartbreakingly sad, at others filled with joy. There are a host of wonderful characters, each with stories of their own. Helen is incredibly observant and she captures the complexities of what goes on in our own heads brilliantly; how something that can be seen as catastrophic to one person can be forgotten in a instant by another. However, what I felt most in the pages of this story was the love – many types of love that comes into our lives. Possibly most poignant where the references to a mother’s love, a father’s love – often taken for granted until they are no longer by our side. We learn so much from them, about life, about love – without even realising it. And of course what also takes centre stage – the ‘things’ that we pick up along the way, so many easily replaced, discarded or lost but there are always some that could never be replaced simply for the memories they invoke.

I simply adored it!

This book wasn't what I was expecting. It is so much more. Wonderful writing and use of words and imagery. A tale of loss and grief and how to cope, or not, as the case may be. Great characters - I loved Dot and could empathise with her dealings with her older mum - and her chldhood memories of listening to her mum sing opera in the kitchen.. Mine did the same. Highly recommended and five solid stars. With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review an -ARC of this title.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

It took me a while, to get into this, but once I did, I started to enjoy.

I felt that Dot was annoying, but gradually, I came to start liking her and wanted to know about her more.

Other characters were I also found interesting, the setting was really good.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this book.
The author is very eloquent and intelligent in her prose, however it took me a while to get into this novel. It was actually really sad overall, and I wouldn't class it as a romance.
I hope Dot's boss gets his comeuppance.

I really enjoyed this book which was very different and a very inventive story. It had a great mix of humour, pathos, misunderstandings and emotional issues. At times it made me laugh out loud and at others it moved me to tears. I thoroughly recommend this book

This was a lovely easy read. I loved Dot and her awkwardness. It is a witty story with some heart breaking stories along the way. This isn't my usual genre but I will definitely look into more by this author because the style of writing is beautiful. The setting was a bit drab and the book wasn't what I thought it would it be, but I'm far from disappointed. It's a roller coaster of Dot's emotions, and I didn't car for her sister much until the last few chapters. I will definitely recommend for a summer read.
Thank you to NetGalley, Helen Paris, Random House UK and Transworld Publishers for this ARC in exchange for a honest review

“Lost Property” is a work of fiction but it could almost be a work of fact. Helen Paris has written a book which, while unrealistic in some of the settings, feels so accurate in terms of the language, thoughts and emotions of the main character - it rang so true with me.

The book is the story of Dot, a woman dedicated to her job working at the Transport For London lost property office. She really cares about the items that are left behind and the people that come searching for their missing belongings. She sees the value in these items and how they can be windows to the past. But what she is unwilling to see is the impact of the past on her own life and how grief has caused her to lose her way. Dot’s eventual quest to help one elderly gentleman find the purse of his late wife starts a chain of events which forces Dot to come to terms with the past.

This may sound like a fairly familiar tale...woman with upsetting past finds herself on a journey etc. However, as I mentioned before, it’s the observations and thoughts that Dot has that I found funny, true and moving. I also found the last few chapters inspiring and I hope to remember some of Dot’s realisations in my own life.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to others. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Reading this while going through grief gave me some comfort. What an amazing read. Will definitely recommend it to others.

A beautiful and thought provoking book, that deals with grief and loss, the hopes and dashed expectations, that can affect us all. It was a lovely heart wrenching and emotional read, I fell in love with Dot, and was rooting for her to find some happiness all the way through this book, and that doesn’t always happen to me!!
Dot works at a lost property office , diligently filling in Dijon coloured labels and fixing them to lost objects, in the hope they will find their way back to owners, who may be mourning and grieving over that lost items or memory. She finds solace in this , her life is humdrum, her mother is in a Nursing Home, her father is dead, her sister is more successful than she is, and likes to remind Dot of this fact very frequently, and Dot had dreams that were never fulfilled. . She went to France to study languages, she wanted to become a translator for the UN, but death called her home and she never returned. She comforted herself with collecting abandoned travel guides and dreamt about her friends and a special boy, she had to leave behind in France.
Follow your dreams is the message here, and probably avoid Absinthe, unless you want Sherlock Holmes to help you to make sense of your life and help you to discover family secrets about grief and loss.
I loved Dot, her determination to do what she felt was right, her commitment to her job and her unfulfilled longings to be loved and valued.
It was a very thought provoking book, there was some light humour, but the overriding message is, follow your dreams and have confidence in yourself, as life is way too short for regrets, when the solution is in your hands.
I gave this five stars, it very nearly made me cry. Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin UK / Transworld Publishers for my ARC. I will leave a review to Goodreads and other outlets.

Enjoyable portrayal of the constrained life of the Lost Property mistress. I liked the book but it won't stick with me.

This was one of the best books I have read so far this year and was such a beautiful and intriguing story. This was an amazing debut novel and one that everyone should put on their reading lists.

This book was life affirming in so many ways and reading it evoked a whole host of emotions from laughter to heartbreak to tears of happiness and sadness.

The story covered a lot of sensitive topics in a beautiful and well written way and was also an inspirational read of how to carry on no matter what life throws at you can be re found and put yourself back together again.

This was sweet and actually had quite a lot of sensitive topics that were covered really well. The plot sounded great and i loved the idea that lost property found its way back to its owner. I wish there was more of it, especially more stories like Mr Appleby's. I thought the main character's story was sad but well written.

A story about grief, love and finding yourself. I found this to be an ok read, It was slow going in parts but it seemed to pick up a bit half way. I liked the lost and found tags at the begging game of each chapter which had details of an item lost and found. Some of these items are not physical ones which I found to be a nice added touch.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.