Book Review: Fee Simple Conditional by H.C. Helfand

Genre(s): Contemporary fiction

Abigail (Abby) Fischer seemed to drift through life, often alone. She had no family, few friends, no real home. Nothing and no one seemed to last. Everyone she came to rely on or trust left her in one manner or another. She had little but her work at the title office, and even that began to grow old and routine. And then one day everything changed in the most unexpected way.

Fee Simple Conditional reads like a series of flashbacks from Abby’s perspective and tells the story of her life. How she’d lost her mother to illness during the early part of her college years, how she met her husband, Ted, who she subsequently split with later on, though they remained friends. It tells of her work in the title office, her mentor, Jack, his cantankerous personality, and the various characters she met while working there (by characters I mean they were an interesting and eclectic bunch). And it tells of a particular record that changed her life forever and led her to meet David.

I really enjoyed this read, even though it’s not my usual genre. It was both heartbreaking and heartwarming in parts, inspirational at times, and left me with a sense of hope and happiness. It was written well and flowed wonderfully. I finished reading it in a couple of days.

And the ending… I think that was my favorite part. Not only did Abby finally find the happiness she’d sought, but she realized it had never really been that far away all along. She just had to find it.

Author website: hchelfand.com