The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns - Elizabeth Leiknes

And now for something completely different! The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns is Elizabeth Leiknes's debut novel.

Now when they were young, who didn't promise something (to be good forever, to do your homework, to ....) in exchange for something you really really needed or wanted. Young Lucy Burns writes a letter to Whom it May Concern promising she'll never ask for anything ever again if her sister wakes up from her coma. And Ellen does wake up.

Fast forward... Whom it May Concern came collecting. Lucy is now a Facilitator - expediting the passage to hell for certain sinners.

Lucy is growing a little tired of her vocation and wishing for something more than perfect beauty, unlimited funds and everlasting life. She wants to be part of a family again. When she falls for her creative writing instructor, she is determined to resign her post. Can she redeem herself?

Leiknes has a wonderfully warped sense of humour. The Devil's facilitator hosting a kitchen ware party and being recruited for the Klan are some of my favourite scenes. The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns should not be taken as a morality read, but rather as a quick, quirky (167 pages) read.

You can read the first chapter of The Sinful Life of Lucy Burns.

Leiknes has a wonderfully creative mind. I have to include her author bio here as that's what sold me on reading the book.

"Elizabeth Leiknes grew up in rural Iowa and can make thirty-seven different dishes featuring corn. She attended The University of Iowa as an undergrad, and The University of Nevada, Reno for her Masters. Lucy Burns was “born” somewhere between a third and fourth helping of Captain Crunch in Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnancy with her first child, but the majority of Lucy’s story was written during her maternity leave somewhere between debilitating bouts of new-mother panic attacks, and squirting milk in various inappropriate locations about town. Elizabeth has a love/hate relationship with great white sharks, and a slight penchant for speaking in hyperbole, which she says she never does. She now lives and teaches English near Lake Tahoe with her husband, two sons, and mentally ill cat."

Thanks to Bancroft Press for the review copy.