Review: Messy, Wonderful Us by Catherine Isaac @CatherineIsaac #bookreview #bookblog @SimonSchusterAU

Blurb

You never know what life will throw at you. 
You just need to know who to turn to for help.

One morning in early summer, a man and woman wait to board a flight to Italy. 

Allie has lived a careful, focused existence. But now she has unexpectedly taken leave from her job as an academic research scientist to fly to a place she only recently heard about in a letter. Her father, Joe, doesn’t know the reason for her trip, and Allie can’t bring herself to tell him that she’s flying to Italy to unpick the truth about what her mother did all those years ago.

Beside her is her best friend since schooldays, Ed. He has just shocked everyone with a sudden separation from his wife, Julia. Allie hopes that a break will help him open up.

But the secrets that emerge as the sun beats down on Lake Garda and Liguria don’t merely concern her family’s tangled past. And the two friends are forced to confront questions about their own life-long relationship that are impossible to resolve.

My Thoughts

This was a lovely book to get to after reading a couple of thrillers in a row! And you know what, It wasn’t until the last three chapters that I decided to give it 5 stars because if you can make cry at least three times, then I think you deserve it.  I loved the journey that Allie took, I loved her as a person. She was not only intelligent, caring, and honest, but also so authentic.  She was likeable from the very first page, and I continued to love being her, taking the plunge and traveling across the continent in search of answers. Ed… You know I think he’s the first guy that I’ve liked since maybe 6 or 7 books ago.  We didn’t know too much about him in the first quarter of the book, but I loved learning about he and his wife and their folding marriage.  You never hope that a marriage ends, but it was certainly an emotional ride for me (anyway maybe not you), that by the end of the book, and the last page in particular, I was wistful crying. It was a story that took me on a worldly ride, both descriptively and emotionally.  You can’t ask for a better story than one that leaves you wanting more when you finally close the pages.

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster Australia for my copy and for introducing me to this fantastic author who I look forward to reading again very soon.

I rate Messy, Wonderful Us: 5/5 stars

Happy Reading

Nat

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