3.5 stars

Dot works loves her job reuniting lost objects with their owners at Lost Property, but she is going through a tough time with her mom in her care home and her sister wanting to sell the house she lives in (her parents').
Also she has still not come to term with her dad's death and it all hit her all of a sudden....

I struggled with the first half of the book and contemplated not finishing, but the second half is so much more enticing, the story line picked up pace. I wish it could have been more consistent.

Lost Property by Helen Paris is a contemporary story that follows Dot Watson and her life in the London Transport Lost Property office. Her life at the Lost Property office is eventful and exciting, with each day bringing forward the possibility of reuniting an owner with their lost items. Dot finds purpose in her job and is dedicated to the greatest extent, and takes utmost care in cataloging the items. The clear and detailed descriptions of each item and her thoughts on each of them help us form a precise picture of who Dot is as a person. While Dot is dedicated, detail-oriented and makes sure to reunite people with their lost items, she tries to find ways to be not lost in her life. Some past events have led her down a path that was different from her initial plan, and she makes sure to get the best out of it despite the roadblocks they present. One such lost item leads her down a path that is unexpected and helps her heal from her losses and take back her life.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read with interesting characters, unusual but a singular setting that sets the story apart, and charming moments to fill your heart up. I gave the book 4 stars and highly recommend checking it out. It’s a great book to get lost in and let Dot take us through her life.

Its sweet and gentle and quirky, and gets under your skin. Dot Watson is in her early 30's and should be living her life. Instead, she is tucked away in London's literal lost property office. Its clear that some past trauma has impacted her choices and now she is going through the paces of living, while she closes herself off to the rest of the world. But the world never leaves you alone for long.

The book has a slow start, but unfurls like a flower, showing increasing layers as the story progresses. With its quirky, unusual main character, it feels a bit like Eleanor Oliphant. Dot is well thought-out and complex, making her unusual actions feel plausible, and she is accompanied by an interesting support cast. The book really takes you on the journey and does so in a subtle, comforting and charming way. My only gripe is the need for authors, in general, to include not one but multiple traumatic topics - death, suicide, dementia, breakdowns, depression- in a single book. When the writing is this good, the dramatic "crutches" aren't necessary.

Many thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the chance of an advanced copy.

Unfortunately I did not finish this book. After reading reviews, I realised I would not enjoy this. Thank you to the publisher and author for the opportunity.

What a lovely read. At the start I did think to myself - why did I want to read this again? Dot works in a lost property office for London Transport and I couldn't see where the story was going. However it soon picked up with delving into Dot's family history.
There were times I was sobbing, times I was laughing and times I just didn't want the book to end.
There are the subjects of mental illness and suicide referenced and I thought these were handled impeccably.
I loved all the characters and really invested in them, I find myself thinking about Adison and Dots journey now that the book has ended and wonder where they are. Really good, I'd recommend.

Lost Property by Helen Paris
Dot Watson is a woman, who twelve years previously was on the verge of having a dream life. Studying in Paris, travel, love and on the way to her dream career when tragedy struck back at home.
Now she moves through a predictable and rigid life working at Lost Property for London Transport - reuniting people with their lost belongings - helping in some way to lessen loss for others.
One day an old man comes in who has lost his hold-all containing his late wife’s purse. For personal reasons, this particular loss turns into a bit of an obsession to help the man be reunited with his missing hold-all.
My rather ‘3 stars meh’ score feels slightly mean as this is a ‘nice’ book. But I’m afraid that’s about as effusive as I can get. It took a fair while for me to connect with Dot and her story. And at times, after putting the book down, I didn’t feel hugely enthusiastic to get back to it.
Sadly, this wasn’t a book that had any lasting resonance for me.
* Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for the ARC.

I struggled with this book as I found it quite bitty and the story didn’t flow. The main character Dot was well written however and the overall theme is a heartwarming tale

Thanks to netgalley for the chance to read this book.

My first book by this author and I really struggled to follow what was happening.

Dorothy works in a lost property office in London. Mr Appleby has lost his hold-all and Dot what’s to reunite him with it. When it appears a few weeks later in the lost property office she decides to do some detective work and find Mr Appleby and reunite him and his hold-all.
Her mother is suffering from dementia and is in a care home and she discovers that not all was as it seemed at home when she was younger.

Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this one. It felt a bit too predictable. The writing style is great, however but this just wasn’t one for me and I had to dnf it. Thanks so much to the publisher for letting me read it. It was still very much appreciated.

I really struggled to get into the flow of this, but I’m so glad I persevered. Dot’s simple life is actually overflowing with family secrets that have shaped her as a woman, and the peeling away of her layers makes this a really compelling story.

Wonderful, heartwarming, heartbreaking and yet what a heroine in dot watson. You just want to give her a hug. I loved how we follow her try to make sense of her life, her friends and of course her family (the most complicated of all) just brilliant utterly brilliant.

"All the things I could have done, people I could have met, places I could have gone. I gaze around and see - nod boy. No one. Just me and a pile of lost things. All abandoned, left, forgotten."

This is a quirky, compelling read, both heartbreaking and heartwarming, as many of the books in the "uplit" genre tend to be, holding up a mirror to our society, telling the untold stories of people like Dot Watson, our narrator for this story, who are suffering silently, holding on to pain and trauma from the past, slipping through the cracks, unnoticed.

Things I loved: the London and other UK settings; the characters; the sensitive handling of many thorny topics including dementia, suicide, grief, depression, sibling relationships, workplace ineptitude and getting older; the absorbing and emotional writing; the fact a character was called Philippa, and her name was spelled correctly!

Things I was less keen on: a minor quibble, but the ending felt a little too neat and tied up in a bow for me. I felt Dot, with all her hard-won healing, self-forgiveness and resilience, deserved a bit more independence and adventure, now that she was reclaiming her old self. It just seemed a little cliched compared to the rest of her journey and perhaps did her a slight injustice.

Having said that, I went along for the ride wholeheartedly. This is a Lost Property office filled with relics and treasures! If you liked Eleanor Oliphant, you'll enjoy searching with Dot in Lost Property.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

This book reminded me so much of ‘The Library of Lost and Found‘ by Phaedra Patrick. For me this one missed the mark. It gets 3 stars because the writing is wonderful and Paris has a knack of making the characters feel real. I found the plot unbelievable in places though and the character of Dot frustrating. By the end of the book, it felt like there was no purpose to the journey Dot had undertaken.

I liked the cast of characters and enjoyed reading it for the most part, but it contained too much waffle in places and too much description at times. It made the story stagnate a little because sometimes the author used too many words when they weren’t needed which made sentences overly long and tad dull.

“They . . . objects are time machines, in a way; they can recall . . . the people we have lost.”

Paris seems to be trying to open up conversations around the topic of mental health and suicide and the human feeling of being lost. The plot only seems to hit the surface of these subjects though and unlike Dot, doesn’t dive beneath the water. These topics are hard and messy, and I never really felt that.

A good but not great book, that tries to tackle some hard topics, but doesn’t quite hit the mark.

A lovely uplifting story about Dot and how she deals with the lost property but don’t being Dot she likes to engage with the people who’s lost property is handed in.

unfortunately, I just didn't love this one. As much as I wanted to, it just wasn't it for me unfortunately. I did like the authors writing style though so I will be trying other books from this author.

An emotional rollercoaster of a book, that takes the main character, Dot, to emotional lows and giddy heights. The ending was just perfect. A very sad book at times and then very happy times at others, bit like real life.
Recommended.

A book that made me laugh and cry.

Dot Watson works for Transport for London in the Lost Property office near Baker Street. When I started this book, I began to think about what is so interesting in learning about all the intricacies of working in such a place. Dot is an absolute perfectionist, and everything must be completed in a certain way, the way it has always been done. She describes her day-to-day work in minute detail and how annoying she finds any attempt at changing the way things have always been.

Everything begins to change when, an elderly gentleman, Mr Appleby, comes in looking for his bag which contained a purse of huge sentimental value that belonged to his late wife. His story reawakens something inside of Dot and she is determined to search for this bag and return it to its owner.

Slowly but surely, we learn about Dot’s childhood and previous life. She has an older sister, Phillipa, who is successful, married with two children and who thinks she can run Dot’s life. Dot has always been her father’s favourite and we learn about their secret games and how he always encouraged her to realise her dreams. Dot had done a degree in Modern languages, was living in France and was in love with Emile. Suddenly her whole life is shattered when her father commits suicide, she returns to London, severs connections with her previous life and becomes the Dot we meet at the beginning of this book.

What is so amazing about this book is the way the author deals with subjects that are so difficult to write about in a realistic but empathetic way. Dot’s mother is suffering from severe dementia and does not know who her children are. My mother is also in a care home with the same dreadful disease, and I know from personal experience exactly what the author is describing.

Dot’s boss wants a relationship with her and when she rebuffs him attacks her. Again, a very difficult area to write about but Ms Paris is so good at making us see how such events can affect someone’s life.

What started as a humdrum description of a supposedly boring job has been developed into an amazing story concerning so many areas that many authors would not try to write about.

I recommend this book; it will remain long in my memory. There are probably many ‘Dots’ out there working hard for little pay but everyone has a story to tell, and this was one I found completely absorbing.

Dexter
Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review

I received an ARC of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I really struggled with the book, feeling that the author had loads of ideas but had been unable to decide which one to settle on as a theme for her book. We start with a sentimental story of a woman trying to bring together lost property and it's owners. In the lost property office the author throws in a bit of sexual predatory and a glimpse of melancholy due to the end of relationships. From here we jump to the strain that dementia puts on family and its relationships complicated by suicide and guilt. The main character seems to descend into mental instability, depression and isolation compounded by her dalliance with ghosts and memory including a bit of Holmes and Watson Mystery. There were just too many threads. In my view the author lost sight of her property which should have been a complete narrative but ended up being filed under a multitude of categories in the lost property office.

Surprisingly it has accrued a much higher rating than i think it deserves, there must therefore bean audience for the book out there it just is not me

This was quite an entertaining and inspiring tale of Dot who had lost her family and yet helped in finding the right owners of the lost property. the book had a lot of emotions with humor, laughter, and tears, and almost had me feeling too much. Romance brought its own hope This was a sweet read.

‘... I slip the stem of the pipe between my lips (...). My teeth settle into the ridge made by his and, anchored, I inhale. I try to breathe him back.’

A story of guilt and family secrets and how both shape the people we become. A story of loss - of loved ones, of job, of hope and happiness, and, fundamentally, of loss of self.

Dot, our main protagonist, is a quirky, likeable, old-before-her-time woman of indeterminate age doing a job neither she nor her family ever imagined she’d find herself in. Abandoned are her hopes of travel, of embarking on an MA in Paris, working as an interpreter. Instead, her purpose is to reunite items lost on the London transport network with their owners. She is the office lynch pin but what happened to her lynch pin, her adored father? The details of that day, the event that would change lives forever is revealed in all its heart-piercing, searing emotion in Chapter 9.

The story was moving in one direction, towards a conclusion, towards what I thought would be a ‘happy ending’ before veering abruptly, violently into unexpected territory. After such a ‘climax’, I felt that the story became weaker, more tangential with elements and viewpoints that hadn’t even been hinted at becoming centre stage. And I’m not convinced I like the ending given to Dot. I wanted her to be adventurous, to be independent, to find that self she lost in her 20s. Instead, she was afforded a cliche of happiness and I think that’s a disservice to her.

The prose is lyrical and the imagery superb. The author conveys emotion expertly and delicately. We feel Dot’s heartache, her despair, her loss as if it is our own. Despite what I see as flaws, I would have no hesitation in recommending this novel.