How To Save a Life - Eva Carter

Release Date: Expected 27th May 2021

Genre: Adult Fiction | Contemporary

Trigger Warnings: Death, References to Y2K + 9-11, Sex, Self-Harm, Drugs, Alcohol.

What do you do when someone saves your life? Do you hate them? Feel grateful? Fall in love with them? Maybe all of them?

New Years Day - 2000. A New millenium and a new start (As long as Y2K doesn't end the world of course!) Kerry thought the worst of her worries would be finding a midnight kiss or her best friend Tim getting too drunk - until Joel drops dead with no warning right in the middle of the Brighton Lawns. Desperately trying to get him breathing, fireworks and celebration continue around them - unaware that the worst is happening.

Joel woke up eventually - a miracle. He was going to be pro footballer. A star. But his heart stopped - and now he's a bar man.

Kerry was going to be a Doctor, but now she's working in 999 dispatch. Things are looking good for Tim, finally dating Kerry and a fairly sucessful Doctor.

Years later, the trio find themselves pulled back together under strange circumstances - have they all grown up and grown apart too much?

Told between the distinct voices of our three characters, this story spans eighteen years of their lives as they grow from teenagers to adults and all the challenges and changes they have to overcome. Their lives intertwined in the most wonderful and heartbreaking ways and they always end up coming back to each other whether they want to or not.

This was a real heart-wrencher from the first pages, and I was automatically invested in Kerry from the moment I met her. She wanted to change the world, she wanted to help people, she wanted to fall in love - and I so wanted her to be happy despite the hardship thrown her way. However, I found myself flicking quickly through the chapters when Joel and Tim were narrating, I'm aware they're not intended to be particularly likeable characters but I found them impossible to connect with. But the serindipity of the trio together was definitely something special.

Also - Learn basic first aid guys, you'll never know when you need it.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Eva Carter & Pan MacMillan for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Comments

REVIEW: This Could Be Us by Clare McGowan

Genre: Fiction | Literary Fiction Release Date: Expected 1st June 2023 Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group | Corsair Kate has done the unthinkable. She'd worked hard to build a perfect life for herself, while ignoring her growing unhappiness. But when her second child was born profoundly disabled, reality hit. Unable to cope, Kate left - disappearing without a trace. She ends up in LA, with a glittering career and a new family of sorts, but the guilt is still suffocating. Husband Andrew was left to pick up the pieces and care for their disabled daughter and angry, confused son. Bereft and broken, he leaned on Olivia, Kate's best friend. She's been by his side ever since, ignoring her own needs to meet his. Years later, Andrew has written a memoir about his daughter learning to communicate against all odds. But when Kate's new producer husband decides he wants to make a film of it, their worlds collide once again. Now, Kate must return to the life she abandoned and reck...

REVIEW: Live, Laugh, Lesbian by Helen Scott

Genre: Non-Fiction | Memoir | LGTBQ+ Release Date: 19th October 2023 Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Part memoir, part guide, part conversation and all queer joy — Live, Laugh, Lesbian is a brilliantly warm and friendly journey into the queer experience, not only from the author but from plenty of other lesbian, queer, bisexual and pansexual contributors who bring a unique viewpoint and voice and also show a beautiful diverse, intersectional scope of the queer spectrum and welcomes in queer people and allies of any kind to come feel the love. The book is very conversational, talking to the reader in a fun, friendly way — at times I rolled my eyes as the use of “famalam” but as a previous patron of Colours and Chicagos I’m not in a position to judge the Essex-isms. It’s full of anecdotes and observations that were witty and relatable as well as talking is through the more difficult side of queerness like dealing with workplace discrimination, religious trauma and coming out to family...

BOOK TOUR STOP x RANDOM THINGS TOURS: Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen

" This town has secrets that are best left alone." Author Hannah is a success, on paper at least. She's receiving critical acclaim and praise worldwide and her work is regarded as some of the best. She writes literature, not just books. But the reality is, outside of the literary circles nobody actually reads her work. But when she finally snaps at a book event and publicly criticises the genre fiction books that outsell hers, claiming they're easy and mindless she's challenged to write her own crime fiction novel in just thirty days by an author she loathes. Desperate not to lose to him, her editor arranges for her to spend a month in a quiet, cold village in Iceland hoping that the solitude will spark inspiration. But instead of writing a murder story - she's in one . Just before she arrives, the body of a young man is pulled from the icy waters and her search for ideas soon becomes a search for a killer. And if she's not careful, she might end up the...

On Bee's Bookshelf

Search This Blog