The Treasure House

Amy Matthews

SINGLE mum Zoe Copeland wants a fresh start and somewhere to call home far away from her ‘monochrome’ existence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania… what she didn’t expect was to fall in love with a ramshackle ‘treasure house’ in a rundown town on America's Maine coast.

Lured by its position on the edge of a cliff, this dilapidated wood-shingled cottage comes with ‘a glimpse of the ocean’ and the many remnants of the previous owner’s life… a life that may well be the key to Zoe’s heartfelt desire to come to terms with her past.

Inspired by the viral ‘treasure’ houses on TikTik – hoarder homes that are sold full of unclaimed junk and unwanted belongings – Amy Matthews (pictured below), award-winning American author of Someone Else's Bucket List, brings readers a deeply emotional and beautifully romantic tale of broken lives, new beginnings and the search for love, happiness and a sense of permanence. After years in foster care, moving from place to place, and coping with the mood swings and frequent jail terms of her drug addict mother, Zoe and her eleven-year-old daughter Florence face eviction from their cramped, one-bedroom, and increasingly expensive, apartment in Pittsburgh.

Zoe is determined not to let Florence grow up in the same deprived and chaotic way as herself so when she stumbles across a listing for what appears to be a charming cottage, in their price range, in the seaside town of Oxeye in Maine, she seizes the opportunity. 

The catch is that it’s a treasure house, filled to the brim with junk and being sold just as it is.

On arrival, Florence, who has always longed for a room of her own, loves the old house full of cat figurines and other people’s memories, but Zoe is daunted by the mess and the cost of repairs and her grumpy new neighbour, Jake Abernethy, thinks she’s crazy for taking it on. But that doesn’t stop him from lending a hand, and it’s not long before Zoe starts daydreaming about the handsome owner of the hardware store.

By the time autumn sets in, Zoe is becoming increasingly intrigued by the woman who lived there before them. Who was Marly and how did her beloved home end up in such disrepair? As she digs for more information, Zoe can’t help but draw parallels between herself and Marly. As Zoe uncovers Marly’s secrets, and her own past comes crashing into the present, her life quickly becomes even messier than the coastal house she’s renovating. With her heart, and now her home, on the line, can Zoe put all of the broken pieces of her life back together and finally find the love that she longs for?

Smiles and tears won’t be far away as Matthews tugs at our heartstrings with a tender, engaging and often hard-hitting story that moves between the 1950s and 1960s and the present day, and puts family, and all its many trials, tests and tribulations, at centre stage.

Each character comes perfectly fleshed out… a disparate group of interwoven players from two timelines, caught up in the storm of life’s fortunes and misfortunes, whether that’s the cruel hardships and uncertainties of child neglect, poverty, addiction and debilitating illness, or the joys and comforts to be found in kindness, genuine caring, and the security of family love.

For Zoe, her journey’s end is discovering that the new beginnings and the happiness she so needed are not to be found in material goods and ownership, but in finally opening up herself to love and accepting that the power of warm relationships, community and belonging are what home really means. The perfect ‘book hug’ for world-weary readers!
(Simon & Schuster, paperback, £9.99)