Hi guys!
Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.
Today, we’re on tour with Rachel’s Random Resources as we shine the book review spotlight on a Women’s Fiction title available now via Boldwood Books. It’s a story that will take you to the depths of sorry, loss, and emotional darkness...only to show you that the light can still be found. Ready or not, here comes today’s ebook of choice and blog tour guest...
The Life You Left Behind
by
Debbie Howells
Boldwood Books
About the book...
Two strangers.
One missed flight.
It only takes a moment to change a life.
One year ago Casey Cassidy was happy. She had great friends, a wonderful teaching job and a busy life - until with one missed flight, everything changes.
One year later Casey knows what it means to find that once-in-a-lifetime love people dream of. But when Ben leaves, her heart is shattered.
Left facing a year of firsts without him, piecing her life back together seems impossible. But then a friend offers her a home in rural France.
In the solitude and emptiness, Casey needs to comes to terms with what’s happened and find a way to move forward. She has no idea where that will take her one year later...
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Let me preface everything I’m about to say with a few indisputable facts…
...this was a deeply emotional story that draws you in to its very soul…
...you’ll get to know the characters on the page as well as you do those you hold dear off the page…
...the author’s descriptive ability will transport you to every gorgeous environment visited around the world, so much so, you’ll be looking for the stamps in your passport.
Now, with all that said, let me say a few other things that may not be perceived as having a positive experience with the story. First and foremost, for most of the story...about 80% of the ebook to be a bit more precise...I was entirely upset. For those of you that don’t want even a hint at a spoiler, skip this part, but I’ll do my best not to reveal anything either direction with too much clarity...which is almost exactly the problem I was having with the book. For that large chunk of the story, you’re left in a lurch...did Ben DIE or simply LEAVE? I mean, it’s not that I wanted him to be literally gone from this, or rather that, plane, but there were so many passages that were inconclusive, to me at least, that I was having trouble getting behind my feelings for Casey’s plight. I didn’t know if she was literally in mourning, or mourning an emotional loss.
Second item on the list of not-popular-things-to-mention….this is an IMMENSELY SAD story. Don’t get me wrong, I get the “find your way” vibes, and actively followed Casey’s journey out of darkness, and while there were cracks that let in the light, overall I wasn’t left on an emotional high, but rather a low. To me, it was almost to the point of suggesting a trigger warning for those that suffer from depression, or perhaps are empathetic in the extreme. I’ve read sad stories, in fact, I’ve had a recent run of them for some reason or another, but they’re the ones that have me crying between the pages...this one simply left me drained.
So yeah, I enjoyed the story as a whole, appreciating the beauty the author wove into a tale, and the skill with which she takes us back in time, while keeping us grounded in the present. I loved the characters and all the colors they brought to the page, both personality wise and through their own histories. It was great to see a love so all consuming and quick to mature, as well as the downside when together is no longer an option. I still had the issues I had with it, but perhaps some of them were simply my own desires projected on the author’s story. Perhaps those were the very things she wanted to keep “secret” until the right moment, or the emotions she wanted to steep the reader in to truly take on the pain that some people actually go through in life. Give it a read, and let me know what you think!
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About the author...
While working as long-haul cabin crew in her twenties, Debbie trained as a pilot and qualified as a flying instructor. But as the mother of two small children, she wanted a career she could fit around them and started a wedding flower business, Country Flowers. For thirteen years, Debbie created the natural, seasonal designs she became known for to venues throughout the South East.
It was towards the end of this time she started writing, in a notebook in the shade of her garden on her days off, self-publishing three women’s fiction novels, the third of which, Wildflowers, almost but not quite found her a literary agent.
Pursuing her dream of a traditional publishing deal, she went on to write her first psychological thriller, the Sunday Times bestseller, The Bones of You. Four more have followed including the e-book bestseller The Vow, but it’s another long-awaited dream come true that her women’s fiction novels have now found a home with Boldwood.
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Special thanks to Rachel at Rachel's Random Resources for the chance to bring this tour to you. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, the author, this promotion, or those on the horizon, feel free to click through the links provided above. This title is available now, so click on over to your favorite online retailer to snag your copy today and be sure to check out the rest of the tour for more bookish fun!
Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!
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