To Love and Be Loved

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My experience of Amanda Prowse's novels, gained over the past few years, had me eagerly anticipating this book. It's replete with family drama and romantic disappointments, but the basic underpinning is a deep-seated love for the small seaside town with its natural beauty and tight community where lead character Merrin finds her strength and soul satisfaction. In the end, life does go on with some happy resolution for a number of key characters, including Merrin. As usual, Amanda Prowse has created a story so intense in emotion that invokes feelings so deep and visceral you can't help but shed a tear or laugh out loud. The setting, nestled in a remote part of Cornwall, was beautifully crafted so it's easy for the reader to imagine clearly exactly where everything is happening and set the scene brilliantly. I loved this family, and Bella, Merrin’s best friend, is one of my favorite characters - a peacekeeper, yet she tells it like it is. This story has humor, heartbreak, warmth, and a family secret too. A story of family, love, loss, scandals and a wedding day that didn’t go to plan. It’s also about letting go and forgiving people. This is such a beautiful story! This is my second book written by Prowse and I love how she writes genuine stories with well-developed characters. This one explored many themes of family, friendship, love and happiness. It was bittersweet; at times heart wrenching but also filled with so much love and hope.

Merrin led a simple, quiet life that made her very happy. She needed nothing more than to be near her family, to walk barefoot in the grass and to have the sea breeze tousle her long hair. From a trusted advisor and devoted friend of Mother Teresa comes a "powerful" ( The Washington Free Beacon) firsthand account of the miraculous woman behind the saint and a book that is "rich in reflection on contemporary sanctity" (George Weigel). I also enjoyed the characters in this book. These felt like authentic people with real problems. I also loved the concept of strength from family but also realistic family dynamics like sibling rivalry.

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Merrin is the main character in this book. She goes through so much and you will feel for her. She is so much stronger than she thinks though. After the heartaches and losses she still runs barefoot on the beach. She still loves deeply the people that she holds close and dear. She's a survivor. I really liked her so much. Merrin is eagerly looking forward to her wedding and marrying Digby. But, on the day, she’s left jilted as he doesn’t show. Not wanting to be in the town where everyone is talking about her, she moves away, from the lovely village she grew up in and her family to start a new life. She’s thriving in the job she’s doing, and meets someone, but she feels it’s not the same as what she had before. I highly recommend all Amanda's books they are superb reads and she has become one of my favourite authors. I loved this book with its strong themes around humanity, unexpected champions, life-affirming grace, and family love.

I had a hard time empathizing with Merrin, not because I didn't understand her, but on the contrary. She has a cheerful, sweet and even a little wild character. She has a great capacity to forgive and give second chances to others. But she is incapable of forgiving or loving herself. She is a complex and unpredictable character who leaves us unforgettable moments of reading. The wisdom imparted in this book is something I never want to forget. All of us have been quoted little sayings and quips from our parents and Grandparents. With this family being from Cornwall, they have some unique words of wisdom. Initially, I loved this book, and I still do, but with some reservations. It is intense, emotionally. But, in places it is just too much. Was there ever a family as perfect as the Kellows? I would like to hope so, but probably not. (view spoiler) And the ending is very sudden, and for me was, considering Merrin's past, far too fast and unlikely. It hasn’t been easy, but six years later Merrin has forged a new life for herself. But when tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to return to the village she swore she’d never set foot in again. And she is forced to relook at the questions that she has been avoiding for all those years. I enjoyed the rich coastal setting and the captivating characters in this story but felt Merrin overreacted to an admittedly horrible event. It cost her dearly in the end. I also couldn’t accept the last-minute addition of a love interest who becomes the love of her life- all in the last chapter or two of the book. I think it would have read better if she woke to the realization of how much the chef meant to her.

Other novels by Amanda Prowse include A Mother’s Story, which won the coveted Sainsbury’s eBook of the Year Award. Perfect Daughter was selected as a World Book Night title in 2016. She has been described by the Daily Mail as ‘the queen of family drama’. Amanda is a huge supporter of libraries and having become a proud ambassador for The Reading Agency, works tirelessly to promote reading, especially in disadvantaged areas. Amanda's ambition is to create stories that keep people from turning the bedside lamp off at night, great characters that ensure you take every step with them and tales that fill your head so you can't possibly read another book until the memory fades...

The happy ending was good, but bringing a new love interest in the last chapter somehow didn’t work for me. Given what Merrin repeats throughout the book, it felt surreal. Amanda Prowse sets this novel in a fishing village in Cornwall, and a market town close to Bristol. The fishing families are close knit, with the novel concentrating on two of these families, the Kellows and the Cardys who live in fishing cottages, and the Mortimers who are a wealthy biscuit factory family who live in a Palladian Clifton home. With its size, gardens, employment of staff and education of the son of the house, the Mortimers are established as different from the village people who are largely fishers, and shopkeepers. Falling in love with Digby and being reciprocated was the most beautiful thing that had happened to her so far. Their worlds were very different but they understood each other perfectly. With him, Merrin could be herself without fear of being judged, she felt free, loved and respected for who she was.I find the character development so well done. This is one of those stories that would make the reader think about their lives and make them want to leave the toxic things, including toxic people and relationship, out of their lives and start living again amidst heartbreak and fears. Amanda Prowse's books are like a comforting mug of hot chocolate. Having read several now, she never fails to stir the emotions and challenge perceptions. I loved the authentic characters, the immersive storyline, the family drama, the multiple POVs and the beautiful writing and pace of the story. Beautiful descriptions of Cornwall. Something different from the city/ small town descriptions I usually read.

Reading the book from when she moved to Bristol (my home town) and worked at a castle, in my head I pictured a local castle hotel near me called Thornbury Castle (where I have treated myself to a birthday afternoon tea), imagine my surprise when I was right!! I was so pleased Merry met Miguel and found someone to love her again. Will Merrin get the answers for : what does she want from her life? Who is important to her? Who is to blame for everything that went wrong? And can she forgive them, let old wounds heal and finally be her true self again? And then came what would be one of the most important moments of her life: the wedding day. She would remember every detail, no matter how insignificant. Moments that would forever mark her life, but for very different reasons than she thought. Merrin believed she had found her happily-ever-after in Digby, that is, until he abandoned her on their wedding day.

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Amanda Prowse is an international bestselling author of twenty-eight novels published in dozens of languages. Her chart-topping titles What Have I Done?, Perfect Daughter, My Husband’s Wife, The Coordinates of Loss, The Girl in the Corner and The Things I Know have sold millions of copies around the world. I enjoyed seeing how the various storylines came together and resolved. The characters are relatable and human, and Amanda allows us to see their flaws as much as their strengths.