melissariggs 's review for:

Be Frank with Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
4.0

I'm not sure how to rate this book. It kept me on a roller-coaster ride-I loved Frank, but was heart-broken by things that happened to him over the course of the book. I wanted to stop reading, but then things started falling into place and I began thinking what a fun, quirky movie this could be. The ending felt like an opening to write a sequel.

"Reclusive literary legend M. M. “Mimi” Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years, but now she’s writing her first book in decades and to ensure timely completion her publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. Mimi reluctantly complies—with a few stipulations: No Ivy Leaguers or English majors. Must drive, cook, tidy. Computer whiz. Good with kids. Quiet, discreet, sane. When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she’s put to work right away—as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noël Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth graders. As she gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who his father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model” Xander fits into the Banning family equation—and whether Mimi will ever finish that book."