Community Board by Tara Conklin

 

Community Board by Tara Conklin

Submitted by Heather Groom, Branch Manager for Sullivan Gardens Public Library

Tara Conklin brings us a sweet springtime story with her third novel, "Community Board".

A year before her 30th birthday, Darcy's husband of 8 years (two months and nine days, to be exact) leaves her for his sky diving instructor. In a matter of moments the safe, predictable world she has lived in crumbles around her as her soon to be ex speeds out of their driveway in his new girlfriend's Prius.

So begins Darcy's year of "self imposed isolation and canned food consumption". She flees to her childhood home in Massachusetts only to find that her parents have seemingly abandoned her for the dry heat of Arizona....and they've taken Fred the Fern with them. In response to this perceived abandonment, Darcy hunkers down with her computer and an imagined "Fred" and trolls the community board.

In a world where the large majority of us are still adjusting to the "new normal" of existence, Conklin creates a fantastic novel with a main character that one can't help but adore. Darcy is broken and isolated. Yet, through her interactions on the community board she comes to realize that while happiness can (and should) be found within oneself, the opportunity to grow and impact a community grants a reward she wasn't looking for, but so desperately needed. Darcy becomes a shining example of "if you can't help yourself, help others around you."

Warm up to the neurotic Darcy in the first half of this book. Her inner dialogue is at once insightful, hilarious and a tad bit delusional. Celebrate in the second half, when Darcy finds her footing and regains a part of herself that she forgot she once had. 

Readers of Maggie Knox, Melissa Ferguson and Meg Cabot will love Tara Conklin and "Community Board"

"Community Board" by Tara Conklin can be checked out at Sullivan Gardens Public Library. Also look for this title on Libby and Hoopla.