Published By: Lake Union
Pages: 320
Released On: 01/07/2024
She’s waiting to become a mother—but first she has to find her own.
Weeks away from the birth of her first child, Georgie should be enjoying the peace of her new life in the country, but boredom has settled in and nerves are running high. A viral news story about the rescue of a missing child warms her heart until she sees the photo: the woman who found the child is her own mother, Nancy, who disappeared twenty years ago.
How could Nancy have abandoned her own children? Georgie needs to know before becoming a mother herself, even if it means calling on her estranged brother Dan for support. As the siblings set off on a road trip towards the Scottish island where Nancy was last seen, they don’t yet know that her side of the story has just as much heartache as their own.
Caught between her new life and old secrets, Georgie must make peace with the past. Can she and Dan unite to uncover the truth? And can piecing together Nancy’s story fix their broken family—or are some wounds too deep to heal?
*****
Thanks to Jo, NetGalley, and Lake Union for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I cannot fully explain just how much I loved Jo’s previous book, Tell Me How This Ends. It was heart-breaking and beautiful and tender and sympathetic and just gorgeous. And so when she got in touch asking if I wanted to read her new book, I practically screamed at the chance! I knew that if it was anything like the first one, it would be sublime.
Each chapter is from the point-of-view of either Nancy (the Mum) or Georgie (the daughter), covering from 1984 to 2015. I blow hot and cold with multiple POVs, as they can get too complicated, but she’s done well to just use the two main players. It gives us different views to the events but makes the reading seamless.
I liked Georgie. She is heavily pregnant when we meet her, and she’s often thinking about whether it was becoming mother that made her mum walk out, so she’s worried she will be the same. But I liked her. She felt very normal, just trying to get through life whilst battling a lot of problematic memories. We also meet her brother Dan in her chapters, and he was also a problematic soul, and I really felt sorry for him, almost as if he was my younger brother.
Nancy…what did I think of Nancy? At first I wanted to dislike her. I mean, what mother walks out on her young children? What reason could she possibly have that makes that the only decision? But the more I read about her and her upbringing and whatnot, the more layered she became and the more I started to see things from her sie. She was endlessly fascinating, and so was the comparison made between her and Georgie, especially now Georgie was about the become a mother.
There are 55 chapters, which might seem like a lot but for me who likes a shorter chapter, I liked it. 320 pages in 55 chapters makes for quick reading.
Much like Jo’s first book, this had me hooked instantly. She has such a talent for writing very real and vulnerable people. I devoured it in a matter of ours. I sat down to start it and didn’t move until I’d finished.
It’s so moving, in a variety of ways. In sad ways, yes, but in angry ways, despair, wonderful, happy, joyful, hopeful, and loving ways too.
It’s so heart-breaking but heart-warming. It’s about family, blood and otherwise. It’s about making your own family and letting go. But it’s also about the importance of forgiveness and moving forward.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to say it does deal with some difficult topics, including relationship problems, emotional abuse, stalking, drinking problems, coercive control, manipulation, abandonment, separation, loneliness, death, grief etc.
I don’t think Jo realises the hold she has over me with these books. Every sentence is exquisite. This is just Jo’s second book and it, and she, is exceptional. One of the most talented writers of raw emotion, and I would implore everyone to red at least one because she is an absolute master storyteller.
Books By Your Bedside 