Friday 13 March 2020

If Only I Could Tell You
by
Hannah Beckerman




I took this book away with me on a city break to Barcelona and what a fabulous choice it was! It has taken me over a year to be in the "right frame of mind" to  read this book as I heartbreakingly lost my beautiful Mum a year ago and just couldn't bring myself to read what I know would be a very powerful, moving book.


Review
Audrey is seriously ill, but if it's the last thing she does, she wants to bring her two daughters, Lily and Jess, back together. They have been estranged for many years since a family tragedy tore all of their lives apart.

Lily, on the outside has it all. The handsome husband, daughter Phoebe and lovely home, but things are not as they appear and Lily will need her family to fall back on, only she doesn't know it yet.

Jess is Audrey's youngest daughter and has a daughter herself called Mia. She is a single parent since Mia's dad walked out when she was a mere baby and is forever trying to make ends meet, but one thing Jess knows is that she never forgive her sister Lily for the truly awful thing she did on that fateful day.

This is a wonderful book full of raw emotion and drama and I loved it. It just goes to prove that you really should talk to each other, even if it's to get things out in the open. Do not fester things up. Family relationships can be so fragile and broken, but if you can, kiss and make up, because life is too short. That is exactly what Audrey wanted for her girls, but did she achieve it? There's only one way to find out!

I received this book as a Christmas present when I asked for it as part of a "Secret Santa" parcel and I loved it. The author knows only too well how much I loved her first novel, The Dead Wife's Handbook, so I was itching to read this, but as I said earlier, I just couldn't bring myself to read it any earlier. Yes it made me cry, but it also made me smile, something I haven't done enough of lately.

I will thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who will listen! Please don't leave it as long to write your next one!