This is a strange book but if you can suspend your disbelief and accept that two kids spontaneously combust and then go with the flow of the story, you’re home.  It’s a really good book,  fun with a definite point to make.  (Yes.)

*******
Nothing to See Here
By Kevin Wilson 
2019 / 277 pages
Read by Martin Ireland 6h 40m
Rating:  8 / contemporary fiction 
*******

Lillian and Madison are best friends from private school days where Madison’s family pays her whole way and Lillian is a scholarship student.  They’re roommates and both love basketball and are both kind of weird, or so they self-describe. Madison’s father pays  Lillian to covers for Madison when Madison pulls something more than a stunt and is asked to leave the school.  A few years later Madison needs a favor from Lillian and asks her to be nanny to her two stepchildren whose mother has died.  There’s one twist – the kids catch fire and burn, spontaneously.  (Got that?)  

Madison is now the wife of a US Senator who has great potential and the mother of his third child.  It’s the Senator’s first two children who have problems with spontaneous combustion and their mother is deceased.  So the kids come to live with Madison and the Senator in their mansion outside of Nashville.  And Lillian is hired to care for them.   

This book deals with all the relationships; how Lillian manages her charges and how Carl, the Senator’s personal assistant, deals with the the situation,  and how rich-girl Madison deals with life and the Senator in his predicament.  There are more ways of responding/reacting and everyone has a different way.  

I loved the book.  No, it’s not the finest writing but there’s something about the story and characters that’s real.  The plot, with kids catching fire, may seem bizarre but that’s not the point – nor is the reason for their catching fire.  The point is how are the other characters responding and what works? Why? What do people care about?   I’m looking forward to more books by Kevin Wilson.