Published By: The Borough Press
Pages: 400
Released On: 04/06/2026
Margaret thinks her time is up…
Things have been hard since her husband Derek died, and they never really got over the disappearance of their daughter, Jeanie, all those years ago.
Despite everything, they built a lovely life together… it’s just starting to feel impossible for Margaret on her own.
But maybe her time is now?
Then one day, Margaret returns home to an unlikely visitor, and together they set out to discover what really happened to Jeanie.
Perhaps if you knock on enough doors, you might find another end to your story…
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and The Borough Press for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I love Joanna’s books and this may be her best one yet. This is my fifth of her books (fiction and non-fiction) and they just get better with each one. She’s become a go-to author and I just know I’ll love whatever she writes next.
Her description of grief is so beautiful. Grief is hard to write about, even for someone who has experienced a lot of it, and she’s hit the nail on the head. She’s not overdone it or sensationalised it for entertainment purposes, and she hasn’t hidden from the really dark parts. Not to sound like Goldilocks but it was just right I also loved how she showed the quieter parts of grief such as anger. I know that not long after my dad died, if I couldn’t et the cling film out, or if I dropped the foil and it rolled across the floor, I would get so angry at him – like I would never have done it if he had been there. It’s a side of grief that many people forget about.
Margaret is a wonderful protagonist. From the first page, this is her story and I instantly fell in love with her. Joanna has made every character feel very human, which I know sounds weird because of course they are human. But characters can feel very…well, like they’re characters and you’re very aware they’re made up people in a book. But everyone in this book feels so real and familiar that you get even more invested in it.
It took a turn I wasn’t expecting and actually in hindsight, it’s the best turn it could have done. It worked so well, like any other route to tell the story wouldn’t have been as perfect as this. (That’s my clumsy way of explaining something without spoiling it).
It’s got a lot more thrillery, tense bits than I was expecting and it wasn’t out of place. I didn’t expect it but it really worked in context. And the “Unlikely Visitor” was as far away from who I expected as possible but I won’t say more for fear of spoilers.
It’s split into two timelines, the now, when Margaret is a woman in her seventies, and the then when she’d just lost her daughter. I love dual timelines so that was really interesting to read.
Did I cry? Of course I did. I cry at everything. But this wasn’t really a sad cry, more a cry of hope and happiness (it’ll make sense when you read it, I think).
It might be a book about loss and grief and fear, and yes parts of it are sad. But she’s managed to weave in such a sense of hope and love and warmth, so it never feels too overwhelmingly morbid. A perfect book.
Books By Your Bedside 