Review: ‘The Day I Lost You’ by Fionnuala Kearney (@fionnualatweets) @HQstories

Blurb.

THE DAY I LOST YOU WAS THE DAY I DISCOVERED I NEVER REALLY KNEW YOU

When Jess’s daughter, Anna, is reported lost in an avalanche, everything changes.

Jess’s first instinct is to protect Rose, Anna’s five-year-old daughter. But then she starts to uncover Anna’s other life – unearthing a secret that alters their whole world irrevocably . . .

THE DAY I LOST YOU WAS THE DAY YOU TORE OUR FAMILY APART

What does TWG think?

I would like to start my review by saying congratulations to Fionnuala, as today is paperback publication day for ‘The Day I Lost You’! The picture does not do this cover justice in the slightest, in the flesh it is even more beautiful. The beauty doesn’t stop at the cover though, no way, the beauty continues throughout the whole story.

‘The Day I Lost You’ has been sitting on my desk waiting for me to read it since the moment it came through my door. Now, it wasn’t that I didn’t have time to read this particular book, it was the fact that I didn’t want to lose the ‘first time’ feeling with it. I kept putting off reading it time and time again until I realised that the paperback publication day loomed, so I had to give in. I wanted to savour the story page by page, emotion by emotion, but I couldn’t. Why? Because after reading a mere couple of pages, this book had my emotion on a lead and was in control of it, I wasn’t. I was absolutely transfixed with the entire storyline and the intensity of each and every character.

The fact that of not being able to savour it piece by piece, wasn’t a bad thing, it just meant that my heart belonged to the book for the duration, and I needed to find out what happened. I wanted answers and it wasn’t even me going through it, it was Jess and her family. The raw emotional and pain sliced through the words that Fionnuala wrote, I truly felt as though Jess was talking to me face to face about her devastation. The storyline felt so…real, I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a book.

When the storyline developed even more, the realistic feeling got even more intense. Several circumstances in particular were described with incredible poignancy, I buckled. I had to put the book down as I couldn’t see through my tears. Just, wow. It wasn’t the first and last time that I cried either.

‘The Day I Lost You’ is a book about heartbreak, loss and sheer devastation, most definitely. But, it is also a book about finding the strength within to do what you know is right and never wasting the special moments with your loved ones.

This is definitely a book that, regardless of how many reviews are read, is one that needs to be appreciated with your very own eyes. You need to experience Fionnuala’s incredible writing. You need to experience the powerful and intense storyline in between your very own tears. You need to experience feelings that you have never felt before, and go to a place in your heart that you never knew existed.  An emotional masterpiece.

Thank you to HarperCollins (HQStories) and Fionnuala, for my complimentary copy in return for my honest opinion.

The Day I Lost You by Fionnuala Kearney, published by HarperCollins, is available to buy in paperback format from today, as well as kindle format – Amazon UK