What if loving someone means keeping a secret that will break your heart?
In late 1983, a letter arrives from Italy, containing secrets so unthinkable that it is hidden away, apparently forever. More than three decades later, it is found . . . by the last person who was ever supposed to see it.
When Allie opens an envelope in her grandmother’s house, it changes everything she knows about her family – and herself.
With the truth liable to hurt those she loves most, she hires a private detective to find out what happened to her late mother in the summer before Allie was born. Taking leave from her job as a research scientist, she is led to the sun-drenched shores of Lake Garda, accompanied by her best friend Ed. But the secrets that emerge go far beyond anything they were expecting. Now, Allie must find the courage to confront her family’s tangled past and reshape her own future.
Review: Well I loved this book an inordinate amount. It really does have everything. I laughed, i identified with the characters and what they were all going through, I cried and I was truly left thinking-pure brilliance.
I so enjoyed getting to know Allie over the course of this novel. She is a trouble person and when everything is turned on its head for her she reacts in the ways we all would react. I loved watching her grow and change over the course of the novel and I would love to spend even more time with her. I didn't always agree with the choices that she made but that fact that she has flaws made for an even better rad.
Ed is a great character too. He doesn't seem particularly complex at the start of the novel, just a genuinely nice guy and then, for me, Ed's story arc when on the biggest roller coaster of them all. I loved finding out more about him and spending time with him. In many ways, for me he stuck with me longer than Allie did and I have so much respect for Catherine Isaac for the journey that she took Ed on.
A lot of authors would shy away from some of the subjects that Catherine Isaac explores in this novel but this writer jumps straight in and tackles some very taboo issues head on and does so in an amazingly sensitive and wonderful way. I defy anyone to read this novel and not feel something.
I was left uplifted by this book. I devoured it in one sitting because I just couldn't stop turning the pages and delving deeper and deeper into Ed and Allie's journey. I can't wait to see what is next from this writer but I highly, highly recommend Messy Wonderful Us.
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