Some people might look at Alice and think she has everything, but Alice knows she is not like other women. Her life is complicated, unpredictable, difficult. Alice does not like pity. All she wants to do, has ever wanted to do, is sing.
Alice has been told not to follow her dreams. But when fate has already dealt a tough hand, it’s time to stop listening to everyone else and only follow their hearts.
Review: this is going to be a hard review to write because I loved this book so much and I don't want to give away any spoilers so excuse me if this one gets a little bit gushy! Alice Peterson does an amazing job of writing books which deal with tricky topics, difficulties for her characters, illness and heartbreak and I think she does an amazing job of it. There are many of you out there who will have reservations about picking up one of her novels because of the difficult subjects that she deals with. But the reason you should definitely read any of her novels, especially this one is because she manages to take these difficult subjects and come out with an amazingly heart-warming and uplifting read that will make you want to go out into the world and face your own demons, however small or large they might be face on.
This book deals with Tom and Alice, characters who do have a lot of difficulties in life, but who are determined to live life to the full nonetheless. I loved getting to know these bright young people and I loved watching them bond and grow as the story progresses. This is very much a book about people and Alice is the lynch pin that hold the book together. But there are other people in this book who the reader will definitely fall in love with to. As much as this book is about Alice, it is also about family and I love the way this author wove the concept of a strong family model, be that blood relation or the family you make for yourself in the form of your support network of friends, throughout this difficult story. I loved the values that Alice's family groups had a I loved reading about their journey over the course of this novel too.
I really loved the way this novel was structured, it has chapters written from Alice's point of view, from Tom's point of view and also from Mary's point of view in the form of extracts from her diary. This means we switch between person as well as point of view and we get to see how the things that are being thrown at Alice are affecting Tom and Mary, and vice versa. I'm a big fan of multiple narratives and, although this is a long book, this structure made for a well-paced read.
Yes I did cry more than once during this read, thankfully I didn't listen to any of this in public though, I would definitely keep this one as a home read. Even though I cried though, this book still left me feeling optimistic and filled me with joy. I loved getting to know all these characters and relationships and I loved being back in an Alice Peterson novel once again! If you haven't read anything by Alice Peterson before, or you were wary of picking up one of her novels then this would be a great starting point for you-whilst there may be a few tears, this really is a wonderfully uplifting and fulfilling read which has laughter and sadness in equal measure. I would definitely recommend dropping what you're doing and reading this one immediately!
To get your copy now, click here!
No comments:
Post a Comment