What do readers think of The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley? Write your own review.

This book started out with a college dropout coming to live with an elderly woman as her caretaker.

Tanner (the college dropout) only ever wanted to play soccer. However, her dream was shattered when she fell off a porch and broke her leg in several places. She lost her college scholarship, harbored resentment toward her best friend (for inviting her to the party where the accident happened), and toward herself (for the results of her actions). On top of these issues, her mother kicked her out of the house. While at Louise's, she lays around all day in sweats and plays video games.
Louise (an 84 yr old woman) recovering from a hip fracture, who has a secret which Tanner discovers, and which causes them to take off for California to find George. As they cross the country, they discover themselves and each other. This book has the bones of a fun adventure but I thought that it was a little overdone. There was a lot of extraneous information/background which I didn't feel added to the story. Also, there were too many improbable situations and coincidences in the story which just didn't ring true.

This is a very light read - it could have been a lot of fun, but the multiple improbable situations did me in.

I received an ARC from Bookbrowse and the publisher and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Tanner and Louise has Similar as Thelma and Louise. Both one was younger 21 years different. I like Tanner because she likes crossword puzzles. Not, cool Breaking Law.

This book was okay, but in my opinion could have been better. I did like the characters from the somewhat lost Tanner to the somewhat eccentric Louise to Jules, the daughter that tries to run her mother's life. I felt the pace of the book was slow at times, although if you just want an easy read to fill an afternoon, this book might be for you. I felt the road trip dragged a bit, while the ending seemed kind of rushed and left me wanting more, like the story wasn't quite over.

A cute caper with a young woman and her mysterious charge. Who knew that Louise would prove to be such a handful? It was fun to watch the relationship grow.

I enjoyed this book as a sweet story of an older wiser woman taking a young woman under her wing and on an adventure. Both learn from each other. Pretty predictable, but a good vacation/escape read. Will appeal to young and old readers alike.

My overall takeaway is that this is a sweet story, but not exceptional. I never became attached to the two main characters the way I would have hoped. I think there was an opportunity for more character development, which is why I chose the adjective "sweet". Their "adventure" was what kept me reading. While the ending did throw in a twist, which was fun, the wrap up of the relationship between Tanner and Louise was quite predictable. I think this story would draw an audience from the Hallmark channel. A happy ending tied up in a nice bow.

The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley is full of humor, mystery, danger and coming of age, with a little romance thrown into the mix. The author begins her novel with an epigraph where Louise is asking why Thelma is behaving so sedate. Thelma says, "Well, I've had it up to my ass with sedate." The story open with Louise's daughter Jules' conversation with the police explaining her mother's disappearance. Jules explains her mother's age as seventy-nine, then corrects herself by saying... "that's what she tells everyone." Her mother is actually eighty-four. And that statement immediately reveals Louise's eccentric personality and why the Epigraph. This conversation serves to advise the reader of her mother's unpredictable behavior in a humorous manner. This humor is shown throughout the story and gives the reader a certain relief as the novel becomes more tense.
Oakley then goes back in time explaining how Tanner came to be Louise's unappreciated companion. The pair eventually work their relationship out as she drives Louise across country to California, where the older woman wants to get to her friend Georgia.
The reader sees Tanner's coming of age as a twenty-one-year-old girl who behaves like a twelve-year-old into a mature woman who has purpose in her life.

This novel grabbed me at the beginning - a smart, crotchety senior is pressured to allow a troubled girl into her life as an aide, driving her about and living in her home. For the most part it was a light, easy read, if somewhat predictable. However, the last few chapters took the story in all kinds of "topical" surprising directions, and they all felt forced and jarring to me. The "real story" could have been any one of the secrets revealed but the author threw in so many twists and turns that none of them landed.