Walking on Sunshine - Giovanna Fletcher

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph UK | Penguin UK

Release Date: Expected 28th December 2021

In the darkness we all need a little light . . .

After Mike loses Pia, his partner of seventeen years, their best friends Vicky and Zaza try to help pick up the pieces.

But though Pia's gone, she left a plan. A list of loving instructions to help Mike and her friends come to terms with their loss.

And they're each going to need it.

Just-engaged Zaza fears committing any further.

Vicky has lost sight of herself, overwhelmed by the demands of marriage and motherhood.

While Mike just feels all the colour has gone from his life.

But when the list sends them trekking to Peru, where high mountains and sweltering rainforests push them to the brink, all they have to guide them is their faith in Pia and in themselves.

Soon they learn anything is possible when you're walking on sunshine.

Walking on Sunshine is a heartbreakingly beautiful story about hardship and friendship - full of sadness and loss but brimming with hope and light at the same time. Our three friends have their own grief, their own anxieties but rather than the story magically curing them, we go on a journey as they learn to live with their sadness and own it rather than run away.

The characters were so relatable and easy to love - each of them with questions that I'm sure any reader has asked themselves at one point. Jumping between the perspectives of Mike, Vicky and Zaza we learn about each of them slowly as they grow and they become self-aware, fully rounded characters who are a pleasure to read.

I've read some of Giovanna's work before, mostly in the sci-fi and fantasy genre so I was very interested to see how this turned out - and I'm very happy I did.

Heart-wrenching and tender, but compassionate and funny - I can't wait to see where Giovanna goes next.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

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