The concept is very charming and some parts of the story are quite enriching (Beatles-relevant content, Mel Evens story and all facts and stories concerning Liverpool), yet I was also often disturbed. Mostly about mis/education of Martha (which also concerns the story of her mother) and all things Max (and people allowing Max into Martha's life). Why any memorabilia are worth more than young girl's wellbeing and well-lived life?

Such a clever story, well told and convincingly written. Really loved this book and have highly recommended it to several friends

I thought I would enjoy this book based on my love for historical fiction and magical realism, but sadly I couldn't connect with the main character. She was sixteen but behaved like she was ten years old and that wasn't really believable for me. I think there was potential for a great story but I think I would've liked this one better had I read it some years ago. A bit too "sweet" for my taste.

The Finding of Martha Lost is a charming coming of age novel containing magic and humour with some wonderful characters.

I really enjoyed this book, I can't believe it hasn't been more popular! All the characters were so likeable, I found myself getting really attached and caring for all of them.

I thought it was really well written and actually really quite funny in parts, I loved George Harris and his random Roman soldier costume! It was also really informative and I ended up learning a lot about the Beatles and Mal Evans, the latter whom I had no idea who he was until this book. It was really interesting learning about his life through this book and I could tell the author had definitely done her research.

Overall I loved this book and feel quite sad it hasn't received a lot more attention!

This novel had such potential but I struggled with it. I am not sure why. I loved the idea that Martha could read people through touching the objects that were found but in between this lovely idea I got bored. Nothing really seemed to happen. I have still given three stars as I feel this is my problem as the author shows talent and I am sure the book will be a great success.

Caroline Wallace (writing as Caroline Smailes) wrote one of my favourite books of recent years 'The Drowning of Arthur Braxton' (so good it's being made into a film!) so when I got my hands on a copy of her latest novel "The Finding of Martha Lost' I was both excited and nervous. Excited because I had the opportunity to escape into another of Caroline's magical, whimsical worlds and nervous because – what if I didn't like it?

Thankfully, I needn't have worried.

Caroline takes us back to 1960's Liverpool - Lime St Station to be precise, where we are introduced to Martha, a sweet, naïve sixteen year old girl who was left at the Lost Property office when she was a babe in arms.

Having grown up with the uber-religious woman she called "Mother" who decided to keep her when her 90 days were up, the foundling has been in the station her whole life and pretty much runs the office while "Mother" grows fat off the wage. "Mother" told Martha that she is a Liver Bird, and so if she ever left the station, it would crumble. As a result, poor, trusting Martha has never set foot outside the station. She loves cake, spinning around (often instead of walking), her friends in the station, her little corner of the world, and books, but lives in fear of "Mother" and her infamous moods and bullying. When "Mother" comes to an untimely, yet natural end, Martha's home is threatened, and with it everything she knows and loves. This takes the teenager on a voyage of discovery to find out who her birth family is so she can protect only life she has ever known. Along the way she finds help and distraction in some unusual corners, such as William, living in the Williamson tunnels beneath the station with his bowler hat and his mismatched shoes, Elisabeth, the perfectly coiffed coffee and cake shop owner, George the Roman soldier & Max – well, I'll let you find out about Max yourself. A sprinkling of Beatles legend and you've got yourself a cracking little novel.

If you have ever read any of Caroline's work before, then you'll know what to expect. Whimsical, yet beautifully intelligent, emotional, magical and all of it shrouded with an almost heartbreaking sense of innocence. Think of movies like Amelie and Hugo, bright colourful films surrounding bright, colourful characters that just shine with love & goodness. But despite the fairytale feel to this book, you can't help but fear for her characters, in some ways they just don't seem equipped to cope with what life is going to throw at them and it's hard to watch them heading into situations you know aren't going to go well for them. But watching Martha grow and follow her path to her own personal truth is like watching a bird you've hand reared fly away, up into the skies for the first time. Heartbreaking, funny & uplifting, an absolute gem of a book.

The first thing I want to say about The Finding of Martha Lost is this; this book is special. Like, really special.

 I always struggle to find words to express how beautiful Caroline's books are. I always say she's magic and I really believe that. There is something haunting and tragic yet hopeful and joyous within the words of Martha's story and I urge you to read it.

 Martha herself is a beautiful character. She's young and naive, sweet, endearing, hopeful, innocent and kind. I wanted nothing but good things for her. I truly feel like we could have been friends.

Elizabeth is another main character and her relationship with Martha is special and sweet. Elizabeth is older and very protective of Martha. She brings her favourite lemon drizzle cake everyday and looks out for her young friend.

 There are a handful of other people who all help shape Martha's world, most of whom were lovely. Caroline is brilliant at building rich, likeable characters.

 The setting of Liverpool Lime Street Station is fun and different. I had never been there before but felt like I knew it well. I loved the rich history of the station and the city. I have visited since, when I went to the launch party for the hardback edition of the book, and felt like I'd been before.

 I loved the Beatles element of Martha's story too. You can't not like them and relate to them in some way.

 The Finding of Martha Lost is a one-of-a-kind tale of friendship, love, hope and courage.

The Finding of Martha Lost is an enchanting and innocent tale of a young girl who was found in Lime Street Station as a baby, and has never set foot outside of it to date. Martha grew up in the station, with its commuters and staff as her family. She runs the lost property office with the woman who found her, she calls Mother.

A sweet tale, with sparkles of beauty and warmth, with some interesting historical facts thrown in to bring Station life to life.

5 Words: Lost, family, love, truth, loss.

This book was full of wonder and whimsy, and I found it only too easy to suspend disbelief and plunge head first into Martha'a magical world.

Martha is a bit of a weird one, but from her story it's easy to see why. She has a bit of an old soul, a way of looking at the world that goes past the surface. At times she seems so worldly. Then something happens and you remember that she isn't, she's just this scared little girl who has never even left Lime Street Station, never felt the sun direct on her skin.

I did like that I was never quite sure of Martha. I was never sure what was in her head and what was real, what she saw in her visions or with her eyes. When she first described George Harris I wasn't sure what she truly meant, and it was only when properly introduced that I started to trust Martha more.

As insular as Martha's world is, the author has put so much into the setting. Sights and smells and colours and people. The descriptions were sometimes so vivid that I even felt a bit sick at times - sorry, William! I loved the music and dance and the passion of the characters. Except Mal. No one likes Mal.

There are lots of small mysteries, but there is also huge a thread of mystery throughout the story, and I have to admit that I hadn't worked it out until just a few paragraphs before the reveal! It was a great feeling, coming to the same conclusion at the same time as the character.

But what about that suitcase in the basement??

This was a wonderful, wistful, whimsical read, an enchanting story.

I have to admit that the cover is one of the reasons that I was drawn to the book and of course the description of the book about a young girl that grows up in a train station after being abandoned in a suitcase. 16-year-old Martha has been raised by an over religious "mother", and she is told she can't leave the train station because it would collapse if she did that. But, when her mother dies everything changes and she needs to find her birth mother to be able to run the lost property place in the train station. Then, there is the lost suitcase that is said to belong to Mel Evans, roadie to the Beatles...

The Finding of Martha Lost is an interesting and special book about a young girl coming of age. Martha has grown up in a train station, this is her world and she has never put her foot outside. However, everything is changing for her. I loved the whole train station world with its odd characters, from the old man with the bowler hat living below in the sewers to the young man in a roman costume. And Martha is a special girl, she can see everything she touches history from keys to hockey sticks.

The Beatles part of the story was something that I did not completely fall for. I was way more interested in the train world than what happened with the suitcase, and it didn't help that Max Cole, the man that found the suitcase, is an unpleasant person that Martha seems to fall for. He's POV in this book didn't feel interesting. I didn't mind the story about Mel Evens, but I could not really find myself that interested in the storyline with Max and the second half of the story when Max shows up at the trains station just felt a little bit less interesting because if that. Still, it a charming book, I just wish I had been a bit more taken with the story and perhaps that it would have been a bit more magical realism in the story than Martha ability to touch and know things about objects past.

Review as part of blog tour:

Martha Lost is lost. Supposedly abandoned on a train from Paris as a baby she was taken in by a lady she calls 'mother'. A very strict, almost cruel lady she controls Martha and makes her life miserable. When tragedy strikes, and facing eviction, Martha sets off to find out who she is. Helped by the enigmatic Elizabeth, her new friends and an anonymous person who communicates via a poster, Martha must discover her real identity before she loses everything she's ever known.

The Finding of Martha Lost is a beautiful, magical book that somehow manages to be both heart warming and heart breaking. The setting of Lime Street station was brilliant and I loved learning about all the secret, hidden places that the public don't normally get to see. It was lovely to see the sense of community that existed at the station and how everyone ralliued around and stood up for Martha. The fact that her friends were all outsiders/ misfits from the station too was very heart warming to read about and I really enjoyed reading about Martha's interactions with them.

Martha is a great, highly likeable character, who goes on a huge journey throughout the book as she tries to figure out who she is. It's not an easy journey for her and parts of it might make you cry but I so wanted her to succeed and have the love she wanted. Her love of books was a particularly nice touch and it was nice to read about her thoughts on the books she's read. I used to put books I really enjoyed under my pillow too so that part made me smile! There were times that she did frustrate me though particularly when she still believed mother's lies but overall I found her a very likeable character that I was sorry to leave at the end of the book. I also really liked Elizabeth who was such a strong, kind, sunny character who was always willing to stick up for other people. Her kindness towards Martha and her friends and her efforts to help them find themselves was beautiful to read about.

The author cleverly includes some of Liverpool's history into the story which I found fascinating to read about, particularly the Williamson tunnels which I had never heard about. I'm a huge Beatle fan so I loved reading about them and their mysterious roadie Mal Evans. I will definitely be finding out more about him!

The ending was lovely and I must confess too having a tear in my eye at the end. A great way to end a truly fabulous book!

This is the author's second book but the first I have read and I look forward to reading more by her.

Thank you very much to Hannah Bright, Transworld Publishers and netgalley for my proof copy. If you like magical, coming of age stories you'll love this book!

We need to talk about how I found myself feeling about The Finding of Martha Lost. Cause I for sure am not lost about how I feel about this book.

You could say I am finding myself with quite a strong opinion.

Enough of the puns! Let’s talk straight here.

This book had me hyped up about it ever since I got approved for it on NetGalley. It offered a wonderful premise: Martha was found in an abandoned suitcase in a train station, grew up there, and needs to find out who she is, as time is pressing. Secrets, trains and unicorns.

Okay, maybe not the unicorns so much.

This book had so much potential! Books, secret underground libraries, lost and found items, trains. And when I say secret underground libraries, I mean rainbow sorted libraries of lost books with dedications, spiral staircases and forgotten histories in a train station. God!

And yet. I just didn’t like it.

And it makes me sad I didn’t like it!
I super duper guilt tripped myself for not liking it SO MANY TIMES!!

I mean. Being a book worm, HOW can you not like the thought of secret libraries? TRAINS? I do feel like a failed bookworm now…

However, I have to say. Martha, the main character, was just… too daft. Too crazy. Too silly. There is a big difference between being cute and naive, and just being… unrealistic. And it’s not just the main character. The choices everyone makes in this book… I struggle to find words for it. Let me present you with some examples.

Throughout the book, the main problem Martha has is that if she doesn’t procure certain documents concerning herself, she will be evicted.

So, the normal course of action here would be, probably, to go to a certain government office and apply for them.

Now, I do understand that Martha is 16, a little bit naive and constantly abused by her insane fanatically religious mother, but.

Writing posters and leaving them on the walls of the train station for a mysterious stranger to find does not seem like a solution?? You do not hope strangers who send you books will come up with your National Insurance number? You also do not just do nothing for 30 days or so and hope it will somehow resolve?? More than that! If it was just Martha… But it really wasn’t. Gonna just spoiler-tag this. All the others just stare at her when she makes the worst decisions ever? Sort of even when thugs show up in her office with weapons? Or even when she nearly gets in trouble with a total douche who’s 20 years older??

There are other things. I can get behind unicorns and fairytales, gosh, I read Ben Aaronovitch, but this… Martha can apparently close her eyes and see how the things she finds got lost? There are all these other things about her, like how she needs to drag a rock with herself when she leaves the station, cause at 16 years old she still thinks the station will crumble if she leaves, cause her mother told her a story when she was a kid?

That, and then there’s the guy who’s dressed like a Roman soldier. Okay, so later there is an explanation, but I’m all just like:

[Doctor Who Rory GIF]

Now if you don’t get that GIF, it’s totally your fault.

So all this, coming from the person who LIKES stories about fairies and unicorns. But the problem with this was that it was… neither reality, NOR fairies and unicorns. It should have just gone one way or the other.

So, I feel like a super old and boring person right now, but it’s just a NO. And believe me, I’m the one who’s most disappointed by this, this was supposed to be an awesome book! I am still going to give it 3 stars, cause I think it’s mostly me, and also because the ending was kind of sweet. But my bullshit meter is just beeping too loud.

Thank you to Transworld and Caroline Wallace for providing a copy for review in exchange to my honest opinion. Too bad the opinion wasn’t too good, huh 🙁

The Finding of Martha Lost is an enchanting novel about a sixteen-year-old girl who was found in Liverpool Lime Street station as a baby and has been wondering who she is ever since. Martha runs the lost property office at the station, but when a series of mysteries start popping up—is there somebody lurking in the tunnels under the station? why is there a Roman soldier in the station every day? could a suitcase hold the fortunes of an Australian man?—and her position in the station becomes under threat, it is time for her to really become found.

Wallace creates a vivid picture of the station in the 1970s which is the backdrop for a moving and charming story about a girl who is both wise and innocent and who believes she is the liver bird of Lime Street station. Neither Martha or her friends in the station have had easy lives, and their found family dynamic forms the real heart of the novel, making it clear that Martha is not lost around them. Wallace touches on a number of problems whilst keeping the narrative an uplifting and enjoyable read, one perfect for anybody who is looking for a heartwarming book set in the later half of the 20th century and infused with the music and culture of Liverpool at the time.