Published By: HarperCollins
Pages: 384
Released On: 29/08/2024
One year on from the death of her husband, Emma feels no closer to moving forward with her life. Seeking distraction, she quits her job and begins working at the local garden centre.
Here, Emma begins to open up and finds herself attending boss Les’ talk on the Titanic. Intrigued, Emma sets out to research who would have arranged the flowers on-board.
Alongside her story unfolds the tale of a stewardess on the Titanic, who Emma can’t help but feel connected to…
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Any day that comes with a new Sally Page book is a good day. Her books are perfection, particularly her last one, The Book of Beginnings.
You can feel Sally’s passion for flowers planted deeply (pun very much intended) within this book. The heart and soul if it lies in flowers and how they are so linked with our lives and emotions.
She has a way of facing difficult topics such as grief head on, but in a familiar, heartwarming, and gentle way.
We have the main story following Emma’s journey, but every other chapter is a story from the point of view of Violet, who at first we don’t know how she relates to Emma’s scene but all will be revealed.
There is a subplot regarding the florists on the Titanic, and if I’m honest, no matter how interesting the Titanic is, I’ve never once thought that there would be a florist. It’s almost a given that the flowers are there, so that was an interesting side to the story and one that I ended up in a Google black hole about.
There was something about Emma at first I didn’t gel with. I can’t say why, but she grated a bit. But once we learn about her background, and especially when she gets other characters to spar with, then I started to really like her. She’s stuck, she’s grieving, and she’s scared. And for some reason, this made her even more likeable. And then Betty who works for the garden centre, she’s lovely and bubbly and very motherly and I liked her especially.
I’ve said before how much I loved Sally’s previous book, The Book of Beginnings, and if I had to compare I’d say I liked that one marginally better but that’s only because it was about pens nd writing and things like that which mean a lot to me, whereas I don’t know much about flowers. But looking at them neutrally, they’re all as great as each other. Her books are so comforting and easy to read but powerful, you know you’re never going to be disappointed by what you read.
It’s not a particularly short book, nor is it overly long, but at 384-ish pages, I expected it would take me a couple of days to read. But I read it in one day, in a matter of hours in fact. I mean, I know that I’m lucky in a way because I am self-employed, and because of my illness, I am at home most of the time, often in bed, and so I do have more free time than the average person which I do appreciate, but it is so easy to read and so comforting to read that is will be gone in a matter of hours, no matter your circumstances.
There’s a touch of romance, adventure, and history. Sally creates these worlds that, whilst contain heartbreak, are full of friendships, love, joy, hope, promise, comfort, cosyness, and just pure beauty.
Books By Your Bedside 