Countdown to Christmas Top Blog post from September @fionnualatweets

We are getting closer to Christmas now with my top blog post for September 2016 and its another of my top reads of the year The Day I Lost You by Fionnuala Kearney!

 

The Day I Lost You by Fionnuala Kearney

About this book…

THE DAY I LOST YOU WAS THE DAY I DISCOVERED I NEVER REALLY KNEW YOU

When Jess’s daughter, Anna, is reported lost in an avalanche, everything changes.

Jess’s first instinct is to protect Rose, Anna’s five-year-old daughter. But then she starts to uncover Anna’s other life – unearthing a secret that alters their whole world irrevocably . . .

THE DAY I LOST YOU WAS THE DAY YOU TORE OUR FAMILY APART

My review…

This was my status update that I wrote on Good read as soon as I finished The Day I Lost You. I’ve kept it in as Kaisha Holloway at The Writing Garner thought it summed up a lot of how I felt.

“Ok so review will follow tomorrow for this one as I need some time to gather my thoughts so that I can do it justice (which I know already I won’t be able to!!) And also because I’ve sobbed so much my eyes are sore and I’ve had to remove my glasses and I can’t read a thing without them…..till tomorrow!!”

So that was how I felt the moment I put down The Day I Lost You which is DEFINITELY in my top 10 books of 2016. It is utterly heartbreaking and totally compelling and I couldn’t bear to put it down until I had devoured every single word written. In fact even when I had finished it I couldn’t part with it-it is still sitting beside me awaiting the bookcase. I loved this book so much I want to shrink it and wear it in a locket around my neck! Yes, I know I sound emotional but right from the very first few pages this book touched me very deeply. The author has such a way with words that it’s like she’s is slowly hypnotising you with her story, she’s such a natural storyteller. The images she created for me were so vivid, the themes of loss, grief, family and friendship running through it were totally on point and she handled the tragic circumstances perfectly. I am pretty much unable to convey in words the emotions that ran through me as I read.

I think it helped (or hindered!!) me that I felt a very strong connection to Jess. Her reactions to situations were very similar to the way I react to things so her journey made perfect sense to me. Her way of seeing the world in black and white with no shades in between meant that her actions were very much inevitable from the start. And I also loved her reaction to ginger, as it is something that I have in common with her and made me smile, a lighter moment to relieve some of the building tension.

I cried intermittently throughout and sobbed for the last few pages. No apologies, no excuses about menopausal emotions from a grandmother-I embraced the feelings that it gave me. This book surprised me constantly throughout, it didn’t follow the path I was expecting and I loved it even more for that.

Highly recommended by me but please have tissues ready! You have been warned!

Thanks to Book Connectors and the author for organising my paperback review copy.

The Day I Lost You: A heartfelt, emotion-packed, twist-filled read is available in e-book now from Amazon UK and is released in paperback on 22nd September 2016

About the author…

Fionnuala Kearney lives in Ascot with her husband. They have two grown-up daughters (both with deliberately simple monosyllabic names). One of seven children, Fionnuala likes to write about the nuances and subtle layers of human relationships, peeling them away to see what’s really going on beneath. This her second novel, her first was the Top Ten Irish Times bestselling You, Me and Other People.