The House Guests
USA Today bestselling author Emilie Richards returns with a fan-favorite story.
Teenage Savannah's father passed away recently
and she has been rebelling against her stepmother, Cassie, since. When she
happens upon a pouch filled with cash in a parking lot with some new friends
she's trying to impress, she decides to keep it in an act of defiance. When
Cassie learns of her crime after Savannah has already spent the money, and
learns that the money belonged to a woman, Amber, who has since been evicted
along with her teenage son Will because they couldn't pay the rent after losing
the pouch of money, she invites Amber and Will to move in with them. As they
become involved in each other's lives, the teenagers develop a friendship while
the mothers do the same. But while Cassie is trying to figure out what happened
to her husband in the months before he passed away - why he was becoming
distant and draining the funds in their bank accounts, leaving them destitute
upon his death - Amber is clearly trying to outrun something dark in her own
past.
USA Today bestselling author Emilie Richards has written more than seventy novels. She has appeared on national television and been quoted in Reader’s Digest, right between Oprah and Thomas Jefferson.
Born in Bethesda, Maryland, and raised in St.
Petersburg, Florida, Richards has been married for more than forty years to her
college sweetheart. She splits her time between Florida and Western New York,
where she is currently plotting her next novel.
Author website: https://emilierichards.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoremilierichards
Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilierichards
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilierichards/
My Thoughts
The House Guests by Emilie Richards has Savannah Westmore unhappy in Tarpon Springs, Florida with her stepmother, Cassie Costas. After the death of her father, Cassie moved Savannah and herself to Tarpon Springs for a fresh start. Savannah lashes out at Cassie and makes bad choices. She ends up making a decision that will have long-term effects. I thought The House Guests was well-written and engaging. The characters are developed and realistic especially Savannah (the rebellious, troubled teen). I liked the secrecy surrounding Amber Blair. It added an air of mystery to the story and wonder. I was curious about how the secret would affect all of them. The author captured the area and Greek American community that inhabits Tarpons Springs, especially the delectable food. I like how everything came together and I appreciated the epilogue that nicely wrapped up the story. There are some good life lessons in this book. The House Guests is a story about friendship, grief, hope, trust, love, and, most importantly, family. One of the phrases I wanted to share from The House Guests is, “My daddy always said you can’t keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair.” The House Guests is an eventful story with a tormented teen, a purloined purse, money mayhem, a problematic party, a shocking secret, delectable epicurean delights, and a gregarious Greek family.
Excerpt
Amber Blair had spent most of her thirty-four years trying
not to think about luck. Her daddy had told her there were only two kinds.
Either you came into the world with the luck of the early bird or the early
worm. The kind he’d been born with was obvious. Nothing that had gone wrong in
all his years had to do with simply hanging around the edges of life, waiting
for something good to fall in his lap. It was all about luck.
Her mother, tight-lipped and
seething, had rarely voiced opinions. As a receptionist at the Halfway to
Paradise motel, she had been too busy checking people in, and giving out room
keys—and probably a little extra—to worry about luck.
Like most people, Amber had
acquired something from both parents. She had inherited her father’s early worm
luck, oddly coupled with her mother’s work ethic. Against tremendous odds she
had scrambled to support herself and her son on her feet in restaurants,
instead of on her back in cheap motels. Her mother had been remote and
disinterested, but years of watching her determination to survive had helped.
“Haven’t seen you for a while.” The
manager at the cash register of Things From the Springs greeted Amber with a
wide smile. She was middle-aged and overweight, refreshingly unaware that
spandex and sequins weren’t good choices for minimizing either. Her plastic
nameplate read Ida, but Amber had never told Ida her own name, a habit she’d
developed after leaving home at sixteen. Still, Ida never forgot a face.
“It has been a while,” Amber said.
“You feeling better?”
Amber wasn’t surprised that Ida
remembered the day two months before when she had fainted facedown in the
women’s clothing aisle, strawberry blond hair spread wide on a table stacked
with shorts and T-shirts. The manager had insisted Amber go right to the
hospital. Amber had thanked her, then headed to work instead. Three days later,
though, she had seen a doctor after Will, her son, gazed at her in horror and
announced that her green eyes were rimmed by an ominous yellow.
Of course, the news hadn’t been
good. Hepatitis A had arrived with a flourish, and she had been so dehydrated
that, despite all her protests, she’d been hospitalized for a day, a bill that
had nearly sunk them.
Health insurance was a luxury she
had never indulged in.
“Yes. Definitely better,” she said
now. She didn’t add that she still tired easily or that she was struggling to
regain the weight she’d lost. Jaundice, the colorful bonus, was finally gone,
and she was back at work.
“You were caught up in that
hepatitis thing, weren’t you? The one at that restaurant…” The manager snapped
her fingers. “Electric something?”
“Dine Eclectic.”
“You closed for a while, right?”
Because two of the kitchen staff
had also been infected, Dine Eclectic, the much promoted addition to restaurants
in Tarpon Springs, Florida, had closed until health inspectors had given
permission to reopen. Amber had been forbidden to go back to work until the
jaundice and other symptoms disappeared. During most of the weeks of illness,
she had been far too sick to work even if she’d wanted to. She certainly had
needed to, because from an armchair in the apartment she shared with
sixteen-year-old Will, she’d watched the savings she had so carefully hoarded
dwindle to nothing.
“We’ve been open again for a while
now,” she said. “We’ve passed all the inspections. The problem was an infected
line cook. Luckily hepatitis A is almost never fatal.”
“I imagine the publicity wasn’t
good for business.”
More customers arrived, and Amber
headed for the rear of the store and the men’s section.
Things From the Springs was smaller
than many thrift stores she’d frequented. They were loosely affiliated with a
local children’s charity, and volunteers did much of the sorting and pricing.
She liked visiting Things because
she could be in and out in less than an hour, often with vintage clothing she
could cut and use for crafts to sell in her Etsy shop. An example was tucked
securely in her purse today, a zipper pouch created from a brocade jacket and
embroidered with the name of her landlord’s wife. It had turned out so well she
posted a photo on her shop’s page, hoping to get orders for more.
The pouch bulged with money, mostly
tips she had carefully collected to pay one of the two months of back rent she
owed. Even after she’d showed her suspicious landlord a letter from the health
department, he had begun eviction proceedings. She had managed to stave him
off, promising to pay the first month today and the second in two weeks. She
hoped the additional gift for his wife might make him feel better about his
decision.
Her son had been more than patient
during her months of unemployment. Will was a straight A student at the local
high school and held down a part-time job stocking shelves at a local grocery
store. He had taken on additional hours during her illness and brought home
expired or damaged food that was destined for salvage stores or landfills. He
had treated his quest like a treasure hunt and never wished out loud that his
life was more like the easier ones of the other teens in his advanced placement
classes.
Will wasn’t perfect. He was
sometimes messy, sometimes oblivious, often determined his way was best, but
they’d been a team, just the two of them, from the very beginning of his life.
And Amber knew her son would do anything for her, just as she had done
everything for him. Much more than Will knew.
Today if she had early bird luck,
she was going to buy him a surprise. Things From the Springs had a special rack
dedicated to sports teams, and there was always a good selection. She was
hoping to find one with the pirate flag of Will’s favorite professional
football team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. For the first time, her tips from the
night before had been nearly as large as pre-hepatitis days, and she was
hopeful she might be digging her way out of trouble. She would be happy just to
pay rent on time, put a full tank of gas in the car and buy fresh food at the
grocery store now and then.
Fifteen minutes later she was on her way back to the front of the now-empty store, a paper-thin but appropriately logoed T-shirt clutched under her arm. The size and price were right, and while Will wouldn’t get much wear before it fell apart, he would be delighted.
She was starting to feel lucky. Her
landlord had begrudgingly given her a little time to settle their account.
After everything she still had her job, and restaurant traffic showed signs of
improving. Today she had just enough extra to buy the shirt.
“You found something,” Ida said. “I
saw you heading to the back.”
“It’s for my son.” Amber laid the
shirt on the long counter. “He’s a Bucs fan.”
“These have been going fast.
Apparently, he’s not alone.” She rang up the amount as Amber reached down to
unzip her purse.
Only the purse wasn’t zipped.
She spread it wide and peered
inside. Without ceremony and with more than a touch of panic, she dumped the
contents on the counter. Keys fell out. A pack of tissues. Her tiny coin purse,
which held the extra money she hadn’t put into the zip purse destined for the
landlord and his wife. Nothing else.
“Run into a problem?”
Amber gazed at the concerned
woman’s face. “I had a zipper pouch in here, dark green silk, a name
embroidered across it.”
Ida read her expression correctly.
“Did you open your purse here in the store? Could the pouch have fallen out?”
Amber knew she’d had the zipper
pouch when she left her apartment. She’d so carefully slipped it inside the
purse. Surely she’d zipped it closed. She always did. She had lived in cities
with pickpockets. But by now panic had obliterated all memories of the past
hour.
“I had it when I left my house.”
“We’ll look together.” As Amber
scraped her belongings back into her purse, the manager walked to the door,
turned the lock and flipped the Closed sign. “That will buy us some time. We’ll
find it.”
Half an hour later, though, they
were still empty-handed. They’d looked under tables, sorted through all the
shirts in the back, followed Amber’s route through the store four separate
times peering at the ground.
“I’m so sorry,” Ida said. “But I
have to unlock the front door. The high school lets out about now. They’ll
start banging on the glass. I just know you’re going to find it somewhere. Your
house or car maybe?”
Amber knew she wasn’t. The truth
was a tight knot in her stomach, all too familiar. She’d been slapped down
again. The landlord wouldn’t believe her, and who could blame him? He probably
didn’t need the money right away, but he would be furious she’d lied to him.
She and Will would see that
eviction notice after all.
“Thank you for helping me look.”
Amber cleared her throat. “I don’t think I’ll buy the shirt.
“Why don’t I just let you have it?”
“No.” Amber took a breath and
softened her tone. “But thank you.”
She followed the manager to the
front door as she unlocked it. “You’ll let me know when you find it?” Ida
asked.
Amber managed the tiniest of
smiles. But in her mind she saw the early worm being swallowed, inch by
wiggling inch. And somewhere, after the meal, a fat, happy robin was looking
for more just like it.
The House Guests is available from Amazon, Bookshop.org, Amazon (Print), Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Books-A-Million, Apple Books, Google Play, Kobo, and Audible. You can find Emilie Richards other novels here. Thank you for visiting today. I hope you enjoyed the images of Tarpon Springs. It is a unique town with the sponge docks and the Greek community. That's it for June! For July 1, I am reviewing Finding Hope by Janice Kay Johnson. It is the 3rd A Tompkin's Mill Novel. I hope that you have a calming day. Take care, be kind, and Happy Reading!
Kris
The Avid Reader
*This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
