finished reading

I'm glad this new-to-me author has a backlog because I enjoy her unique storylines and quirky characters.  The premise is fascinating--the main character, Jubilee Jenkins has a life-threatening allergy to human touch.  This sounds farcical but it isn't.  The story is about how we connect with each other without literally touching.  It deals with the grief several characters experience through death, divorce, and estrangement, in sensitive and thoughtful ways.  I was particularly taken with the precocious 10-year-old Aja.  He's a real boy.  And his dad, Eric, is emotionally out of touch but bumbling along the best he can. 

I LOVED the books and library. 

It's a quirky, feel-good story.  The ending is rushed but it makes sense.

From the publisher:

One time a boy kissed me and I almost died...

And so begins the story of Jubilee Jenkins, a young woman with a rare and debilitating medical condition: she’s allergic to other humans. After a humiliating near-death experience in high school, Jubilee has become a recluse, living the past nine years in the confines of the small town New Jersey house her unaffectionate mother left to her when she ran off with a Long Island businessman. But now, her mother is dead, and without her financial support, Jubilee is forced to leave home and face the world—and the people in it—that she’s been hiding from.

One of those people is Eric Keegan, a man who just moved into town for work. With a daughter from his failed marriage who is no longer speaking to him, and a brilliant, if psychologically troubled, adopted son, Eric’s struggling to figure out how his life got so off-course, and how to be the dad—and man—he wants so desperately to be. Then, one day, he meets a mysterious woman named Jubilee, with a unique condition...

An evocative, poignant, and heartrending exploration of the power and possibilities of the human heart, Close Enough to Touch is perfect for fans of the emotional novels of Jodi Picoult and Jojo Moyes.