I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
How to Mend a Broken Heart by Anna Mansell Published by Bookouture on 1st March 2017
Genres: Chicklit, Love & Romance, Women's Literary Fiction
Pages: 400
Source: from Netgalley
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Amazon Kindle, Audible
Hello? Rhys Woods? I have a patient here I think you know. Yours is the only number in her diary…
When Rhys is called to the hospital to meet Susan, a woman he barely knows, he is compelled to help her. Still grieving the loss of his brother months earlier, Rhys knows all too well the feeling of loneliness.
There are years between them, but Rhys is the only person Susan will respond to, and when she asks him to bring her her most treasured possession, a book of fairytales, he is intrigued.
Hidden in the book is a clue to Susan’s past, and the painful regrets she carries with her. And as Rhys starts to unearth Susan’s secrets, he finds that his own grief begins to heal too…
Together, Susan and Rhys must learn to live again. Can they help each other to find happiness and finally mend their broken hearts?
Firstly I would like to thank Bookouture for providing me with a copy of this book via Netgalley. This is the first book by Anna but the premise and cover intrigued me. This book is written from 3 perspectives Rhys, Susan and Kat.
I have to be honest, I found the pace of this book very slow and I found it quite difficult to connect with Rhys at the beginning. I found him to be quite selfish. I wanted him to be happy for his mum and think about her feelings and not just his own. However I think at the beginning of this book he is still grieving and that can change people’s behaviour quite significantly.
Susan has lived her whole adult life alive but not living. Since she was in her late teens Susan has felt like there was something missing in her life. She feels like she is only half a person. She goes through the day to day routine of going to work, coming home, eating, sleeping but while she has been breathing she hasn’t been enjoying life. She hasn’t been truly living.
Kat has recently been dumped and is still struggling to come to terms with her newly single life. Kat has low self-esteem. She doesn’t realise how amazing she really is. At times I wanted to scream at Kat to be a bit more assertive and ballsy but I don’t think she is that kind of person.
All three of these people are broken but in different ways. i enjoyed the altering perspectives. I like seeing things from lots of different mindsets so this is always something I enjoy. As I said I found the pace to be slow but I did race through the ending of this book.
Like a lot of people this book was not what I expected. It was a lot deeper and more heartfelt than the story I was anticipating. That said the ending was very uplifting and the last few chapters were some of the best in this book. I look forward to seeing Anna’s work grow in future books as is evidenced through the progression of this book.
About Anna Mansell
Anna spent almost twenty years trying to shoehorn writing in to her career as a marketing manager for dance and theatre companies. Eventually, she did what you are not remotely supposed to do and walked away from an excellent job in order to try and become a published author. Three years, lots of tears and some slightly hairy bank balances later, she met Kirsty Greenwood and the rest, as they say, is history. Anna lives in Cornwall with her husband and two kids. She feels very fortunate!
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- Goodreads Challenge (2017)
- Netgalley Challenge (2017)
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