This is the story of Grace whose husband, Archie suddenly disappears on their holiday in the Greek Island of Kronos and trying to find him, leads Grace to secrets and debts. It also gives her an understanding about the relationship about her parents and the fortitude her mother, Fergus showed when her father left the humdrum of their suburban life.
The author Jude Hyland has written well-developed characters seeped in emotions and strength. The descriptions are vivid and they work well with the story.
The story talks about the problems which sometimes appear so big that running away seems to be the only option, but that leaves behind devastation. A good read in the contemporary category depicting today's desperate times in society.

There are no fireworks in this carefully plotted and character driven novel of a family bit it's well worth a read. Grace and Hester and Fergus have long standing issues which seem insurmountable initially but which they work through as they assist Grace with the disappearance of Grace's husband Archie. The switch from the UK to Kronos is well handled; loved the details of the island setting. Archie's not evil but he was surely over his head; hiding things and then running away never solves a problem, it only turns up new ones. This is book in some ways about quiet desperation. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Two thumbs up.

Counting the Ways by Jude Hayland is a book well worth reading. It is skillfully written and thought through and I am glad I continued reading past what felt like a slow beginning with Grace's seemingly unimpassioned engagement to her very "reliable" fiancé and her mother Hester's long and winding, bitter-tinged letters to the husband who had long ago abandoned her. The book, by its completion, though works well on many levels, contains many ironies and presents in a way that, I felt, helps us to see ourselves and the futility, not of our lives, but of many of our lives' goals. Very classic in the sense that it proceeds in a way that enables us to accept our own fallacies and delusions.

It is a story about learning to live in the moment rather than living our lives ever to looking to some grandiose or ever more perfect plan for the future. I think the main character Grace was expertly named. Her mother's name Hester, however, never seemed quite right to me. Her character was well-developed to the point that it felt, given her life's circumstances, was quite resilient, resourceful and full of her own unique grace and deserved a better, less ordinary name. She was far more complex than the ordinary persona that her name indicates.

Each character, in fact, is rather well developed, a big deal in my book. For indeed it is through the amount of caring about the characters that the author is able to garnish that makes the plot even matter. So, each main character: Grace, Archie, Hester and Fergus is drawn in a way that even in their greatest flaws, life's lessons are taught. And so the plot becomes interesting, relatable to us all . . and definitely, unpredictable.

As they say, truth is stranger than fiction, and it is the truths contained here that create the uniqueness and the intrigue. Definitely not a formulaic novel!