The Good Stranger
by
Dete Meserve
Kindness----
"It's also selfish because it makes you feel good when you help others. I've been helped by acts of kindness from strangers. That's why we're here, after all, to help others."
Carol Burnett
I love that quote. It fits so well with this book.

Dete Meserve's books make me feel good. They are about kindness and doing good things. They are about how there are more "good" people in the world than "bad". The Good Stranger is a book that takes all these elements and are written into a story that just made me smile reading it. This is the third book in the Kate Bradley Mystery series but it's easily picked up to be read as a stand-alone.

Kate Bradley has landed the job of her dreams. She's moving up from being a local news correspondent to a national news correspondent. Along with that, tho, she has to say goodbye to friends and all the things she's comfortable with. She has to move from L.A. to Manhattan where everyone seems wrapped into themselves and oblivious to anyone around them. No one seems to notice or care about anyone around them. The change is difficult but Kate is up for the challenge. Then an unexpected event happens when there's a city wide power outage. Mysteriously after the power is restored, a stranger is leaving gifts for random people around the city. This intrigues Kate and with her investigative skills, she's determined to find out who the person/people behind the unconditional giving and the reason why. This "stranger" is changing the lives of a whole city with random acts of kindness. How and why? What if those random kindnesses are passed on from one person to the next? "This isn't just about giving. They're connecting strangers."

I love the character of Kate Bradley. She's so likable and easy to want to search for clues and answers as to who the mysterious "good stranger" is with her. I turned the pages seeking those answers, too. She also has a personal life that I connected with and felt the things she was going through. She's compassionate, determined, and not afraid to go after what she wants and believes in. She finds out things about herself as she discovers more and more about the goodness and kindness behind this stranger. The supporting cast of characters are all touched by the events and that causes changes of hearts. "Could it be that the biggest problems could be solved by the smallest gestures, person to person?"

Reading this book brought these thoughts into my mind....smiles are contagious. Even a smile can change someone's day.
Kindness is the gift that keeps on giving. Like the ripples from a pebble in a body of water, kindness can ripple out from one little act of being kind and touch many more people than we know if we just be nice and pass it on.

I want to thank Dete Meserve for the ARC copy and great honor of reading The Good Stranger. I have read her previous books and each one of them have made my heart happy. I joyfully and gratefully thank her. I recommend this book for an uplifting read that gives us hope in all good things. All opinions and thoughts in this review are my heartfelt own.