No Good Time For Goodbye by Kate Hewitt @katehewitt1 @bookouture #bookreview

Happy Sunday all!

Delighted to share with you today my review for this book that was simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting! A beautiful story, but be sure to have the tissue handy!😢

My Thoughts

Kate Hewitt has written another emotionally draining and heart wrenching story. A tale drenched in grief, guilt, and blame. How does a family survive when the person who held it all together is no longer around? How do you live another day, take another breath, when the worst possible thing has happened? This is the story of Nathan and his three daughters and how they try to pick up the pieces and learn to live again after Laura their wife/mother has been murdered. It was heartbreaking watching Nathan struggle to keep it together while his three daughters all at different ages dealt with their grief in very different ways. In an attempt to come to terms with what had happened to his wife Nathan visits the place where she was volunteering and the people that new of her secret longings. This leads to him meeting Maria. Maria is all too familiar with guilt and grief having gone through her own tragedy. She soon becomes a major source of support for the family and ultimately is hired as the children’s nanny, but Maria has some secrets that could possibly change everything.

This story really tugged at my heartstrings, especially the grief of the daughters. Alexa was so angry, Ella was so timid, and Ruby was just so young. And then there was Nathan, he was just so lost. Not only had he lost his wife, but he didn’t really know his daughters quite as well as he should have. I thought the subject of grief was handled very lovingly and realistically in the story. Maria was a great character and I’d love a story about her that delved more into her life leading up to the events of this book. There is a bit of a mystery in the story, who killed Laura and why? But if I’m being honest it really was so unimportant to the story that I am not even certain it was necessary. An emotional read that should come with a box of Kleenex.

This book in three emojis: 🇧🇦 🙍🏼‍♀️ 👨‍👧‍👧

About the Book

It hit me, the reality of it, in a way it hadn’t before like a sledgehammer straight to the chest. Laura was gone. She was never coming back. I’d never see her again; she’d never hum in the kitchen, she’d never pull Ruby onto her lap and tickle her tummy as she buried her face in the sweet curve of our daughter’s shoulder.

Nathan West loved his wife Laura with all his heart. But now she’s gone, taken from him in a seemingly random act of violence. Laura was the glue that held their family together. And for Nathan, life without her feels almost meaningless.

As he tries to find hope in the darkness, his three young daughters express their grief in different and challenging ways – with one set on a path of self-destruction that could devastate their family all over again. Desperate to understand his own heartbreak better, he reaches out to others who had known Laura. Including her new friend Maria, whose light and warmth are exactly what their grieving family needs, and who is soon helping out and providing emotional support for them all.

But the picture Maria paints of Laura is unfamiliar to Nathan – of a wife who felt ignored, a mother who felt she couldn’t do enough – and he struggles to reconcile it with his own memories of the woman he loved. Is it possible he didn’t know his wife after all? And can he trust Maria? He can’t escape the feeling that she’s keeping something from him.

Maria is hiding a secret with the power to rock Nathan’s family to its core. Because it is about what happened the day that Laura died…

An insightful and powerful novel guaranteed to break your heart, about how the unthinkable can sometimes help us see the world in a powerful new way. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain, and Susan Lewis.  

About the Author

Kate Hewitt is the bestselling author of many novels of women’s fiction, including the Hartley-by-the-Sea series set in the Lake District, the Willoughby Close series set in the Cotswolds, and Tales From Goswell written as Katharine Swartz. Her novel A Mother’s Goodbye has been called ‘unputdownable’ and ‘the most emotional book I have ever read’ by readers. Not My Daughter and her latest novel, No Time to Say Goodbye are both available to buy now. 

An American ex-pat, she lives in a small market town in Wales with her husband and five young(ish) children, along with their two Golden Retrievers. Join her newsletter for monthly updates and giveaways at http://www.kate-hewitt.com, or be part of her Facebook groups Kate’s Reads.  

@katehewitt1  

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Have a Beautiful day!🌻

Berit☀️✨