Brooke Harris (1)

I often tell the girls at school that it's good to read a book that makes you cry as it cleans out the tear ducts. Well, my tear ducts have certainly had a cleansing since finishing "The Forever Gift". This is a novel that will break your heart and leave you a sobbing mess.

Told from various perspectives, the reader is able to empathise with the pain and struggle each character is going through and I grieved for each one - Kayla, Heather, Gavin, Charlotte and four-year-old Molly. The relationships between the various characters were beautiful, especially the bond Kayla and her mother, Heather, shared and the wonderful friendship between Kayla and Aiden.

This novel will urge you to go and give your children an extra hug and tell them how much you love them. It will leave you with tears streaming down your face and it will remind you to always enjoy and appreciate each day as it comes. "The Forever Gift" is an emotional, heartbreaking story about motherhood, family and loss.… (mehr)

It was when reading this line, I just want my mam, that I just knew I was in for a heavy book. Why? Well, when most 15-year-old girls manage to score the winning shot in a basketball game they might want the adoration and cheering of their friends. This young lady wanted her mother. This is when I sensed that something was going to be very different about this read.

This story is about Kayla. But is also about her parents, stepmother and little sister. Kayla is the captain of her school basketball team. What's more is she is an amazing teenager and she has a marvelous relationship with her mother, Heather. She is also quite close to her father and even has a very good bond with her stepfather. One day, immediately after a basketball game she collapses and is agony.

Kayla's life forever changes once her mother takes her to the doctor. The news is devastating and there is very little hope. At some point, and with serious thought and planning, Kayla decides to leave her mother a gift, something that will come as a complete surprise to Heather.

I cannot say enough about the characters in this book. As mentioned, there is Heather, Kayla's mother. her father Gavin and stepmother Charlotte. There is the adorable Molly, Kayla's four-year-old sister. I was also drawn to Aiden, Kayla's best friend. One will never forget Jack, Kayla's doctor. What a marvelous cast indeed! Every single one of them played a major role when it came to Kayla's trials.

I am sure readers of the blurb, and this review thus far, can imagine the outcome. So, yes, this is a devastating read. As a mother and a grandmother, many sad thoughts went through my head and my tears flowed freely and often. Despite the heavy impact this book left, it was just incredible. I am glad that I read it actually. It speaks so well of the author, Brooke Harris, to write such an effective book. This story well teaches us to make every moment in our lives count.

On a very personal note, I just lost a very young nephew to the very disease Kayla had and really thought I would not be able to get past the first chapter of this book. Instead, I found this read to be cathartic and thus would like to thank the author for writing such a sensitive story, and one that managed to leave me with hope, especially as the direction of the story changed when Kayla decided to leave her mother a gift.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion.… (mehr)

2.5 stars

Doctor Lucas Callaghan is back in Dublin after eight years. His job as an undercover cop has led him back to the place where his life changed forever, the night he lost his fiance. He's set on getting his revenge, but when student Aoife Brennan catches his eye, it tests his drive for revenge and all he thought he knew. Aoife is going to medical school for her father, but what she really wants to be is an artist. Straddling the thin line between the two, Dr. Callaghan shakes up everything she thinks she knows. However, she doesn't know his secret yet, no one does.

I went into this book knowing it was a novella series, I read all the warnings about it from the author in advance, but I was really looking forward to it. Come on, a book about a (handsome) undercover cop going back to his old stomping grounds as a doctor to exact his revenge? Oh yea, that's my kind of book. Unfortunately, there's just no personality to this book. The characters fell flat for me and the chemistry was just bland. I really wanted to like Sean/Lucas, I enjoyed his role of cop playing arrogant doctor, especially with the hidden past. Aoife was just a conundrum of personalities all tied together, I couldn't explain her if I tried. Their chemistry was nothing for me, and although their coming together was written really well, I felt like it just happened out of no where. On top of that, the book moves at an extremely slow pace. For a novella, I felt like we jumped around a lot and covered almost too much ground, but not enough to actually proceed forward in the book. The eight days we covered sure felt a lot like three.

The revenge plot of this book is the saving grace, I don't fully understand what's going on here considering we have a cop exacting the revenge, but hey, I was hooked to it. If we had been given a bit more of the revenge plot line, I might have bumped this to 3 stars. That said, the cliffhanger is a good one, I know I can't believe I'm saying that, but it totally puts a twist in what little we do know. I'm not sure I will hang around for the future books, but I think this book could easily be something that just wasn't my cup of tea and would be perfect for another reader.… (mehr)