What do readers think of Fin & Lady by Cathleen Schine? Write your own review.

Oh, I loved this book! Tender and sweet, but also bold and brash. And parts of it are hilarious.

It's the spring of 1964. Fin Hadley is a happy 11-year-old boy who lives on a farm in Connecticut until his widowed mother dies, and he is suddenly an orphan. His only living relative is a 24-year-old half-sister named Lady Hadley, a rich woman living in a posh apartment in New York City with a full-time maid/cook named Mabel. Lady is stunningly beautiful, sometimes cruel, completely unpredictable, and often inattentive, but also kind, tender, and charming. She quickly drives to rural Connecticut in her turquoise-colored convertible Karmann Ghia to retrieve her new charge. Fin moves into Lady's posh high-rise apartment with his dog, Gus, and the two adapt amazingly well. Since there are only two months left in the school year, Lady declines to enroll him, spending their days instead exploring the city, eating ice cream for lunch, and having a wonderful time.

And then the honeymoon is over. Lady resents living in a gilded cage, so they move to the bohemian Greenwich Village, along with the wonderful Mabel, into a half-furnished townhouse and set up housekeeping there. Lady charges Fin with finding her a husband. Three suitors, only one of whom is acceptable to Fin, parade through Lady's life as this free spirit is determined to be married by the time she is 25. Lady may be Fin's legal guardian, but it is Fin who slowly begins to take care of Lady as much as she takes care of him. True to her capricious nature, Lady secretly runs away on her 28th birthday, April 1, 1968, and she takes with her the love and security of Fin's life.

This is also a salute to the turbulent 1960s—from the beatniks to the Vietnam draft. Try as she might, Lady is out of touch with the times, being more a debutante at heart than a hippie.

Written by Cathleen Schine, this heartwarming novel has its surprises, beginning with the mysterious narrator. (Don't waste time trying to figure out who it is…all will be revealed in due time, and when it is, well, it's perfect.) This is a smart, sassy, and delightful story about what it means to be a family even if it doesn't fit the traditional definition. As characters, Fin and Lady are each exquisitely described, so much so that they seem like real people with their little quirks and habits. Adding to the magic, the dialogue is pitch-perfect.

And, oh, the ending…it is the happiest saddest ending I have ever read.

Insightful and perceptive, this novel is not only a pleasure to read, but also brilliantly captures an unconventional meaning of family that filled my heart with love.

This latest from Schine has all the qualities
Of her best work; humor, some deftly written, great characters, wonderful period detail. But this novel also pulls at the heart throughout. It's a cliche, but I laughed, AND I cried.