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This Year, Maybe written by Jenny Gladwell published by Hodder and Stoughton

 


Kate is a successful interior designer bringing up two children but when it comes to Christmas, she feels that her luck has run out. Grieving for her husband and her father she now worries about renovating her flat, paying the bills and trying to maintain the perfect life.  

Her mother, Jean is concerned about Kate but she has her own set of worries to deal with. When sorting through her husband’s things, she discovers a letter informing him that he had inherited a house. A memory from the past comes back to haunt her, but she knows that she now has to face it head on, before she can move on with her own life.

This is a story of grief from two different perspectives and the way that two family members handle  it in their own ways is woven into the story nicely, so it doesn’t feel all doom and gloom.

I have to say that I absolutely loved this book and devoured it very quickly, I could have got RSI in my wrist from flicking the pages over so fast! When I knew I should be sleeping, I would read a few more chapters because I just wanted to know how Kate was, I felt very invested in her story.

I was quite surprised  though when her sister Alice and the playground mums viewed Kate as glamorous because from the descriptions in the book in my mind she was quite slobby who didn’t wash her hair unless necessary and slouched around in her pjs on the sofa!  

A lovely festive story which I hope continues with Mark and Alice!

 

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