When you see them, they are so happy, so in love. He’s holding the door open for her, she’s clearly expecting a baby. You think: she has everything I don’t. Everything I ever dreamed of…
There’s room in her house where Shelley has shut away a heartbreakingly-soft, never-used baby blanket. In a box, under a bed, behind a door that she never opens. If it’s there, she can forget about it. Just like she has her memories. Of a marriage that hadn’t been perfect. Of a life that didn’t go the way she had hoped.
Every day she acts like everything is normal. Going to work and following a routine helps her pretend the bad stuff never happened. Until one day, everything changes.
She sees the couple moving in next door, laughing sweetly as they walk up the path to their new home. The woman is pregnant. It’s like she has everything that Shelley has lost. But when Shelley properly meets Lara, she soon discovers Lara is actually carrying a heartache to match her own.
As her friendship with Lara deepens, Shelley starts to wonder what might happen if she opens the box she’s hidden away, with the tiny, beautiful blanket in it. Will the secrets from her past – about what she lost, what she’s hiding from, and what she has been doing her best to forget – destroy her? Or will opening it up finally give her a change to live again?
My Review
Oh wow, this was such an amazing and beautiful book!
It’s often a very sad story but every cloud has a silver lining and that’s why the sad tears will be replaced by happy smiles and maybe some tears as well towards the end. 🙂
When you meet someone new, you know very early on whether you want to become friends or not. And when there is a click, there is a click. You feel like you can open up your heart, but some things are too painful to reveal straight away.
There is a sentence in the book that says ‘You have to feel in order to heal’ and I never thought about it like that before, but it’s most certainly true. If you let people in and you can let it all out, you feel a lot better afterwards.
Usually I am wrongfooted in thrillers or in crime stories about the identity of the culprit, but here I was a few times too about the way the author would lead us. And it left me gasping …
Heartbreaking, heartwarming, wonderful story told by the two main characters Lara and Shelley. Keep your tissues handy. You might need to wipe a few teardrops…
I understood every emotion and the need to build a wall around you when you grieve, but you have to take it down sometime too. 5 stars
Thank you, Emma Robinson and Bookouture
About the author
Emma Robinson is the author of five novels about motherhood and female friendship including The Undercover Mother.
Her fifth novel – The Forgotten Wife – will be out in January 2020.
When she is not writing, Emma is an English teacher and lives in Essex with a patient husband and two children who are an endless source of material.
Author Links
Website: www.motherhoodforslackers.com
Facebook: facebook.com/motherhoodforslackers
Twitter: @emmarobinsonuk
Instagram: emmarobinsonuk
Book Links
Amazon: http://bit.ly/36n0arl
Kobo: http://bit.ly/38v5L0e
Apple Books: https://apple.co/30NEYJU
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2Ro4NNz
