Liked the level of detail and the 'curious mind' reflections that peppered the chapters throughout. It was also a quirky and 'different' look at a department most of us never really think about. However, while I won't say this was a depressing read, it wasn't exactly uplifting, either. So only read if you're in a mood that doesn't really need lifting - definitely not if you're already feeling down when you pick this up. It's a good story, a lovely tale, but just not exactly hopeful and 'happy' throughout

Thank you Random House and NetGalley.
I wish I'd read this sooner, such a feel good book in these troubled times.
I loved this book and have since bought it for my mum.
I would highly recommend and really hope to read more by Helen this being the first book I've read by her.

Sweetly entertaining and inspiring!
This really is a sweet read, it's not taxing and very easy to lose yourself in but there isn't anything about it that made me go wow, It's the perfect lazy day read., charming characters, especially Dot is like your grandmother/great aunt/elderly neighbour, she comes across as an unassuming woman who gets on with her job, but beneath that there is a complex and lonely lady who really tugged at my heart.

The story’s main character works in London lost property office and tries to reunite property with the owners. There’s some difficult subjects - suicide and dementia. I gave the book three stars. Eva use it was slow in places and could have been edited with narrative further.

The description of the book set a different tone to the book. It wasn’t quite as described. It was good all the same. Lovely romcom to get your teeth into. Well written.

What an endearing story. For all of us who have made compromises in life which turn out to be unexpected blessings.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

To be honest when I started this book I thought it was going nowhere fast. I’m the type that finishes a book once I’ve started Incase it gets better. Well this one did once the bits started clicking into place!! Once the penny started to drop I could finally figure out what was happening and could enjoy it more. It started off with me just thinking what on earth is meant to be happening!!!
I had trouble picturing what Dot would look like as shes kind of two different people. I think I needed to understand her a bit more to truly see what she looks like.
I think the author uses a few too many unusual words when describing things, meaning you have to either just guess or stop reading and look it up which is slightly annoying!!!
Overall a pretty good good read.

LOVED this book. Dot is a wonderful character and I adored her.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I defy anyone not to fall in love with Helen Paris’ magical, uplifting and hopeful new novel, Lost Property.

Overwhelmed with grief and oppressed by guilt, Dot Watson has lost her way. Determined to keep everyone else at bay and not let anyone breach the walls she had built around herself, Dot is perfectly happy tucked away working in the London Transport Property Office where she doesn’t see a soul all day and is surrounded by inanimate objects that are unable to gauge her fragile emotional state. Processing misplaced things brings great comfort to Dot, however, little does she realise that her days of merely existing are about to come to a sudden end in the most unexpected of ways.

Widower Mr Appleby is determined to find his late wife’s purse. Stumbling into the London Transport Property Office brings him into Dot Watson’s orbit and there is an immediate connection between these two lonely souls who have both lost so much recently and who have known their far share of anguish and sorrow in the last couple of years.

Moved by the widower’s story, Dot is determined to do whatever it takes to help Mr Appleby out and find his wife’s purse – even if it means having to come out of her shell and step out from the shadows and into the light. There is nothing Dot will not do to find the missing purse and she sets off on an extraordinary journey that is going to make her feel alive for the first time in a long while.

In her quest to find the missing purse, Dot is going to end up finding something even more important: a place where she belongs.

Lost Property is a book you will want to tell your friends and family about. A feel-good and captivating story about loss, loneliness, healing and friendship that cannot fail to pluck at the heart-strings, Lost Property is a poignant and hopeful tale about moving on, second chances and new beginnings beautifully peppered with humour, warmth and charm that will cast a spell on every single person who reads it.

An outstanding tale ripe for a big screen adaptation, Helen Paris’ Lost Property is simply sensational.

Lost Property is a genuinely delightful book, a story of loss and of self-discovery, the perfect combination of emotional and humorous, with moments that will make you laugh and others that will leave you with a tear in your eye.

Dot Watson works in Lost Property for Transport for London and takes great pride in her role, reuniting lost items with their owners. But she has lost her own way in life – her father has died, her mother has dementia and is in a nursing home and she has a complicated relationship with her sister, and she is haunted by an event from her past. When a man comes into the office looking for his late wife’s purse, Dot makes it her mission to help find it, and along the way she discovers things about herself.

Dot is a wonderfully drawn character, from her quirkiness to her acute and often witty observations, but weighed down by a certain sadness. You can’t help but root for her, hoping she can let go of the guilt that weighs so heavily and live the life she has always wanted. The supporting cast are equally well captured. Serious topics are sensitively handled and the humour sprinkled throughout offers the perfect counterbalance. It is a gem of a book and an impressive debut.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. I really enjoyed it, the characters were well drawn and it had an unusual story line. I would definitely recommend this book.

It took me about five pages to be drawn into Dot Watson quirky world and her love for the lost property office in which she works for London Transport. If anything is lost, be it on a cab, bus or train this is where honest people bring their found items. Dot is like the backbone of the office and the other workers would be lost without her. A lover of proper procedure and organisation, Dot is the ‘go to’ employee for anyone starting work with the team, or just to answer a question about an item. Dot thinks lost things are very important, almost like an extension of that person. Their lost item can tell her a lot about the person they are and she fills the lost luggage tags with as much detail as possible so that they have the greatest chance of locating it. Dot believes that when a person is lost to us, their possessions can take us right back to the moment they were with us. When Mr Appleby arrives at the office to find his lost piece leather hold-all it is what the case contains that moves Dot. Inside is a tiny lavender coloured purse that belonged to his late wife and he carries it everywhere. Something inside Dot breaks for this lonely man and she is determined she will find his hold-all. Her search becomes both the driving force of Dot’s story and the key to unlocking her own memories.

Dot has been working at the lost property office for years, but it isn’t the life she expected to be living. In her early twenties, travel was her main driving force in life and she was living the dream in Paris. Being multi-lingual Dot had exciting plans to travel the world, but all her dreams come to a halt when her father dies suddenly and traumatically, by throwing himself in front of a train. Dot’s relationship with her father was complicated, as he doted on her and they spent a lot of time together. However, as the youngest child by some years and because she hero worshipped her father, she didn’t always see things clearly. There are secrets at the heart of the family, kept for all the right reasons, but causing misunderstanding and resentment. When her father died Dot rushed home, but the trauma of his death affects the whole family deeply and it seems to put Dot’s life on hold. Now her collection of travel guides are her window on the world she once wanted to explore, but she is firmly stuck in her mum’s flat and still working in a job that was once a stop gap. Her only other activity is her regular visit to her mum in the nursing home. While her sister lives further afield, she constantly rings Dot to remind her of things and get updates on their Mum. She is pressuring Dot to get the flat viewed and sold so their lives can start again, but Dot is avoiding her. To add to her family stress, Neil from work is promoted to be their manager and the changes he wants to bring in are also disturbing Dot. He wants to reduce the amount of time they keep items, but what if something goes to auction and they can’t get it back? Dot seems to freeze, staying in the lost property office at night and looking tirelessly for Mr Appleby’s hold-all.

Dot is such a sympathetic character. She’s funny, resourceful and actually quite formidable when at full strength. We go back and see a naïve young girl, for whom Daddy is the centre of the universe. They spend a huge amount of time together which she has always viewed as the result of having a special relationship. As she goes back its interesting to see how others viewed the same events, with totally different conclusions. Their family story is so sad and brings home to us the benefits of living in such a tolerant and open society today. If Dot has been viewing her life through the wrong lens, how will she cope when she finally sees it all? Dot thinks she’s weak, but she’s actually incredibly strong. Some of the things she goes through, not just in the past, but during her time sleeping at the property office are really traumatic. She will take more time to process it all, but I loved the author’s importance in the human power to change, to take stock and move forward with life. I think the writer has been clever in her debut novel to write a like a light, uplifting story, but with so many darker layers underneath. It’s a real accomplishment to imbue a character that could have become a caricature, with life and authenticity. I love her optimism too, leaving us with the knowledge that no matter what the trauma, we have the power to change ourselves and our lives for the better. I heartily recommend this book to other readers, but they must prepare to fall in love with it as I did.

Love this book - set amidst the lost property of London it seeks out many different interesting relationships. It combines loss with love and travel which evoked many memories for me.

Such a beautiful read and one I will reccomend to others.. Its really heartbreaking at times and could be triggering but on the other hand it is heartwarming.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot (there are other reviews like that out there already!)

I absolutely loved this book! I was drawn to it as I've always had a fascination with lost things (and indeed lost people, lost cities etc). I was expecting a light read, but the story had a lot more substance to it than that, dealing not only with lost property, but with losses of many different kinds too - lost memory (dementia), lost family members (death), lost childhood (the realisation that things were not as they seemed), lost dreams and more.

Despite the tale being melancholy at times, the book also had some fabulous laugh-out-loud moments, which lifted the whole mood of the story.

I absolutely loved Dot - many of her childhood dreams chimed with my own (I would have loved to be a librarian!), and the writer captured Dot's character beautifully. The cast of supporting characters was excellent too, the descriptions and dialogues were so vivid that I could imagine them as real people.

A great debut novel, and I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

This book has such a slow start and for me just never picked back up again. I DNF'd it at about 15 per cent.

A sad story about grief and loss, Dot was a lovely character and I really warmed to her. A slow paced story but a lovely ending.
Thanks for letting me have the advanced copy.

Such a lovely story, with a great view on love, loss & grief.
The characters are so colourful and make the story warm and inviting.

This was a brilliant read and is being featured on my blog for my quick star reviews feature, which I have created on my blog so I can catch up with all the books I have read and therefore review.
See www.chellsandbooks.wordpress.com.

I made it to 40% and still feel like I'm waiting for the story to start. I was trying to push through, but after the third consecutive day of Dot's absinthe hallucinations of her father, I had to call it quits.