Published: February 18, 2022
Bookouture
Pages: 385
Genre: Coming of Age Fiction
KKECReads Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.
Sophie Anderson is an author of contemporary women’s fiction. She writes emotional stories about families and their secrets, friendship, forgiveness, and personal growth. Sophie lives in East Sussex with her husband, four children, and several animals. When she is not writing or ferrying her children around the countryside, she enjoys traveling, delicious food, yoga, playing the piano, walking in the South Downs, binging on box sets, and curling up with a good book!
As Flora delves into the story behind her mother’s secret photograph, begging her for details, she is devastated to uncover a hidden teenage love affair, a dark betrayal and two little girls tragically split apart. Flora’s childhood was lonely and quiet, and she is shocked to learn things should have been very different.
As the world Flora knows crumbles around her ears, she is rescued from darkness by Joseph, a man she has never met, who has travelled from his far-away home above a sapphire cove in the Philippines. As they sip tea at Flora’s battered kitchen table Joseph begs Flora for her help. The baby in the picture is someone from Flora’s past, and she is dying.
With the clock ticking, Flora boards a plane, desperate to meet the girl from the photograph. But nobody gets to decide who dies and who stays alive. Will she arrive in time, or is she too late to find out why two innocent little girls were forced to live on opposite sides of the world? And will finding the truth about her real family free her from the pain of her past?
“And the anger that coursed around her body gave way to a little spark of hope.”
Romy has been a free spirit for her e tote life, and she goes where the wind takes her. Flora has spent her life just trying to be happy and feel enough. Lizzie has lived a life filled with secrets and losses that she can share with anyone until fate intervenes.
I enjoyed this book, and how the story was told. It was clever how the alternating storylines were told and how things came together.
The characters were all so deep and beautifully developed. You got the sense that you knew them, and shared in their feelings.
This was such a tragically beautiful story about family, love, forgiveness, second chances, and embracing life. The themes were deep, heavy, but brutally real.
I loved the descriptions of the scenery. They were so vivid and detailed that I felt like I was there. And I loved the contrast between the two main places. Humid heat and bitter cold.
This was a beautifully raw, emotional novel that will make you angry, make you sad, and ultimately make you cry- in the best ways.
Family isn’t always biological, sometimes it’s by choice.