Close Enough to Touch

LoveReading Says

This truly uplifting, life-affirming treat is at once a whimsical love story, and a funny, thought-provoking meditation on the nature of closeness.

Jubilee Jenkins suffers from an excruciating condition. She's allergic to the touch of other humans and has lived alone since her mom remarried. But her hermit's life ends when her mom dies and her stepdad stops the cheques that have been sustaining her. Now forced to earn her own crust, agoraphobic Jubilee faces the outside world for the first time in nine years when she gets a job in a library.

It's there she meets Eric, a man with a whole lot of baggage of his own - failed marriage, a daughter who's not speaking to him, and a reclusive adopted son, Aja, who's convinced he has telekinetic powers.

Jubilee, Eric and Aja are among my favourite kinds of characters - they're funny, flawed, full of longing, and their  respective conditions and quirks (eventually) propel them to experience the fullness of life. Eric and Jubilee's initial encounters are both hilariously awkward and epically life-changing and, in Jubilee, hug-phobic Aja might have met the one person he'll allow to cuddle him.

Neatly plotted, and full of heart and humour, this comes highly recommended for fans of "The Rosie Project", Mark Haddon and Matt Haig. ~ Joanne Owen

Click here to see Before I Go by the same author.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About Close Enough to Touch

One time a boy kissed me and I almost died...And so begins the story of Jubilee Jenkins, a 28-year-old woman with a unique and debilitating medical condition - she's allergic to other humans. After a humiliating, near-death experience in high school, Jubilee has become reclusive in her adulthood, living the past nine years in the confines of the Victorian house her unaffectionate mother deeded to her when she ran off with a wealthy businessman.

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