Missing Pieces is the debut novel written by Laura Pearson, published by ipso books, and will be published on 21st June 2018, but is already available to pre-order for just 99p on Amazon Kindle 🙂
Blurb:
What if the one thing that kept you together was breaking you apart?
All Linda wants to do is sleep. She won’t look at her husband. She can’t stand her daughter. And she doesn’t want to have this baby. Having this baby means moving on, and she just wants to go back to before. Before their family was torn apart, before the blame was placed.
Alienated by their own guilt and struggling to cope, the Sadler family unravels. They grow up, grow apart, never talking about their terrible secret.
That is until Linda’s daughter finds out she’s pregnant. Before she brings another Sadler into the world, Bea needs to know what happened twenty-five years ago. What did they keep from her? What happened that couldn’t be fixed?
A devastating mistake, a lifetime of consequences. How can you repair something broken if pieces are missing?
My Review:
I’ve been really looking forward to reading this for a while, but I’ve lost my motivation for reading in recent weeks, due to so much going on in my life, which has resulted in me feeling distracted and not connecting with the books I’m reading. I was a little nervous the same would happen with this book, but I’m really pleased to say that was not the case. This was exactly what I needed. A book with such raw and real emotions, it was impossible not to connect with the characters. I loved it!
This is not a happy story, as it focuses on how tragedy impacts on a family. It isn’t all sad though. Despite being heart-breaking, it is also heart-warming. I actually liked all of the characters, despite their flaws, and even though there was one character I didn’t trust for a long time. Being one of three sisters myself (I’m the sensible firstborn, lol), I loved witnessing the relationships between the sisters. I also have a niece who is seven years old, so this really helped me to connect with what Esme faced, through a child’s eyes, as I imagined how Daisy would have coped.
It’s hard to place Missing Pieces into just one genre. I would say it’s a combination of contemporary, women’s fiction, family saga and mystery. Covering death, grief, depression, suicide, jealousy, guilt and regret, this is far from a light read, but is definitely a very emotionally satisfying experience.
I had tissues near me each time I picked this book up to read, and the first time it made me cry I was in the bath, and my special pack of tissues were the other side of the bathroom door, argh! I cried with sadness and I cried with relief. This is definitely a book I recommend if you love emotional character led stories.
Missing Pieces is my favourite book read this month, and I highly recommend it. Now, where’s that chocolate?!
5 Stars
Where to find this book:
LittleMissNoSleep Daydreams of Books 