Oh My! This book The Things We Need to Say is the perfect title for this book. Rachel Burton allows the reader to follow the story of Fran and Will’s supposed “perfect” marriage. Unfortunately, they do not truly talk to each other. I cried several times as I read this endearing story of surviving their marital problems.

4.5

It was a wonderful read. I was deeply moved by the story and how it felt so real and raw from the story and the characters itself. My heartache for the situation that Fran has to stand in with the loss of her baby and her mother. I feel I need to give her a hug. Tightly one. The hardship struggles that both characters need to face are something that seriously felt so real which we do know that it does happen around us in a real life without us realizing it. Overall, I really loved this story so much.

Rating: 5 Stars

Review to follow soon on my blog

Huge apologies for the delay

Many thanks for letting me read this novel

This is the first book I’ve read by Rachel Burton and I have to say it’s written beautifully.

Will and Fran have been through more than most couples during their married life. Will does something that is discovered by Fran just before she plans to leave to teach at a yoga retreat. She can’t face talking to him and asks to be allowed to have some time away to get her head around how she wants to proceed with her life.

The story flicks from the past to the present but is easily followed due to how well written this story is.

I couldn’t put this book down I needed to know what happened next and read this book in a day. I will definitely be looking to buy more of Rachel Burton’s novels.

Fran and Will need to talk to each other and yet they can't. Both are feeling hurt and Fran feels betrayed by her husband. Instead of talking and facing up to their problems, Fran,a yoga teacher decides to take her class on a yoga retreat to Spain, hoping that time apart will help.

In Spain Fran is joined by members of her class all with their own problems.
We see a different relationship forming between everyone who are now seeing each other every day and not just once a week.
As Fran meets different people during her staying including someone from her past she wonders whether it's too late for her and Will and can she find it in her heart to forgive him?

I enjoyed this book and delving into the lives of Fran and Will and the members at the retreat. The sights of Spain and Catilonia made me want to join them.
Another absorbing story from Rachel Burton.

This book will take you on a emotional rollercoaster, for sure. This book is not typical lovey-dovey romance but it is emotional, raw and grown-up book that will take your heart and squeeze it. It will make you cry, but it will give you hope as well.
You can almost feel the love that couple shares but also, can feel their heartache and pain that they have been through and are going through. The story progressed and developed in a nice pace that you didn’t feel like anything was rushed. You also get a glimpse in their history which explains a lot of how they are acting right now and why they acted like they did. The story is said from both Will’s and Fran’s POV which gives you a good understanding of what they’re both going through at the given moment and doesn’t leave you wondering or blaming the other side.

- Read more on my blog -

The Things We Need to Say is the first book that I have read by Rachel Burton and I found the writing to be striking and beautiful. This moving and beautiful story will stay with me for some time.

An exploration of how life can affect love, how change can cause problems and whether there really is any way back when things begin to seem desolate. There is always hope.

This story centres on Fran and Will and a crumbled marriage. A story that is told from both perspectives which I found very interesting. Fran is teaching yoga at a retreat in Spain leaving Will behind. I particularly enjoyed the scenes at the retreat and the characters that we meet there. Can Fran find herself and gain peace and learn to move forward with life?

The Things We Need to Say is poignant and touching and incredibly well written. A story of loss and fertility and an examination of what happens when we forget to talk.

Rachel Burton writes beautifully, eloquently and sensitively. I very much enjoyed reading this story of love, loss and hope and will be reading more from this author in the future.

The Things We Need To Say was a fab book that I could not put down.
The book alternated between the past and the present and from different characters perspectives.
Well written and a great rollercoaster of a ride, although it was my first book by the author it certainly won’t be my last.

High expectations can sometimes prove difficult, and I’ll admit I did struggle a little at the beginning of this book – I often do when the writing’s in the present tense, but I also failed to connect with the characters and found it all a tad unrelenting in its sadness. But by quarter of the way, the book had totally hooked me. I loved the Catalan setting of the yoga retreat, the stories of the other characters that entered the story (particularly Elizabeth), and as I found out more about Fran and Will – their love story, their marriage, and the reasons for their problems – they slowly won my heart.

I liked very much the way the back story unfolded – and its a heartbreaking one, beautifully and sensitively handled – and really yearned for a happy ending for this sad and damaged couple. Far from the misery I feared, the story was immensely uplifting, rewarding to read, emotions beautifully captured and shared, my heart aching for significant parts of the story but really inspiring by its end.

This tore my heartstrings apart. One moment of infidelity leads to infinite moments of grief. When Fran finds out the truth about her husband Will, she heads off to the Yoga retreat.
Narrated in both their POVs, I still read most of it with a film of tears..
A beautiful book on faltering relationships

**3.5 stars**
On the eve of Fran’s trip to Spain where as a yoga teacher, she is taking a group of students on a retreat , she finds out of her husband’s infidelity. Their marriage has been going through some troubling times but Fran thought they were coming into the phase of acceptance, when she’s hit with the news.
Fran see’s this retreat as a space to reflect and through the chapters we are taken back to understand what has brought them to this position. As readers, we also come to realise that everyone in Fran’s group on the retreat has issues they are trying to work through.
With many themes running through this novel including infertility and miscarriage, the message I took from this novel is that communication is so important. I don’t agree with what Will did but I do understand that Fran was shutting him out and when I realised that this was a common reaction of Fran’s, I did start to get frustrated with her.
I do feel I have done this book a bit of an injustice though as my head space was with another book that I had just finished that had a theme of domestic violence, so I feel it wasn’t the right book to read at the time. That aside, I did enjoy it but maybe not as much as I may have at another time.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for an ARC to read.

In The Things We Need to Say, Rachel Burton returns to the subject of family and explores ideas of parenthood and marriage. It is quite an intensive read, told through two of the characters, mainly Fran but also her husband, Will. Rachel picks apart their relationship until we have got to its bare bones in this affecting and emotional story. I stayed with them all the way through, willing them to just sort a few things out and speak to each other. Of course, it is not that easy.

Through Fran's yoga class and hotel workers, we are given an interesting bunch of people who are all on the retreat for their own personal reasons. They add a touch of humanity to what is an otherwise emotional read and you see another facet of Fran's character as their yoga teacher and friend. You realise that she is intensely loyal and caring, offering a protective shoulder or a sympathetic ear at times.

Just as in The Many Colours of Us, Rachel has created a well-paced story with likeable, rounded characters and some deeply felt issues. Recommended.

In short: A marriage in crisis makes for an emotional and affecting read you can't help get involved in.

Will and Fran seem to have a really happy marriage but under the surface there are big problems....their lack of children. At the start of the story Fran is about to take her yoga class to Spain for a week's retreat, but the night before she goes she receives a massive shock and although Will begs her to stay behind she still goes - can she come to terms with her life and will the distance help her?

An emotional roller coaster of a book, a lot of the story is told in flashbacks and we learn the progress of their relationship this way - they are a lovely couple and you find yourself rooting for both of them to sort things out.....but can some things ever be sorted!

Fran and Will are dealing with tragedies in their lives so when Fran goes away to teach a yoga class, they don't realize it is just what they both need. Rachel Burton makes them and her other characters come to life in The Things We Need to Say.

Got completely absorbed in this book! In fact, it can go up there in my top 5 reads of the year so far. Beautifully written, touching and a complete hook of a story with just enough unexplained to make you need to read on and on. I couldn’t wait to pick this up again when I had to put it down. A well deserved 5 stars from me. Thank you, NetGalley and HQ Digital for the opportunity to review in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful story that feels like real life. Will and Fran have been through a lot. This story is about their feelings and the pain they have been through. Everything is written about beautifully and with a lot of feeling and understanding. I got totally caught up in this book. I was close to tears by the end. That is the sign of a good book to me. I would definitely recommend this book.

The Things We Need to Say was a little out of my reading wheelhouse of late, but something about it caught my attention. The book is wonderfully written and such a compelling story that I finished it in one day. The story moves back and forth in time to give some insight into what made Fran and Will the people they are today. I was a bit worried that those jumps in time would get confusing, but it's quite well done and those parts do help shape the reader's opinions of this couple. I did spend a considerable amount of time waffling on whether they should try to make their marriage work or move on separately from one another, but with everything they've been through, it was hard not to root for their happy ending. The story is emotional as Fran and Will go through their ups and downs - some more serious than others - but the book is about so much more than working through problems in a marriage. It's about love, loss, and picking up the pieces to find a way back to happiness and hope.

I consider Rachel Burton to be an online friend and mentor, so when the opportunity arose for me get an advance copy of “The Things We Needs To Say” I jumped at the chance and I was blown away. I also cried lots and lots at the story of Fran, Will and the minor characters who pop up in order to carry to story forward, so be warned you will need tissues and lots of them and maybe hugs to.
The story is told in two main sections, we learn the story of Fran and Will’s relationship and how they have got to the point they are at in their relationship. Rachel uses these revelations help us understand what is going on now in their lives and what has made them live the way they are.
At the beginning of the story we learn that Fran is going to Spain to lead a Yoga retret for her current students and friends. Fran and Will have planned everything out to the last detail of her stay as she travels abroad alone for the first time. The night before Fran is due to leave we are hit with the first plot twist that leaves Will begging Fran not to go to Spain and for her to stay at home. They are both now alone in two different countries needing each other but at the same time wondering if the love they feel for each other is enough.
Yoga features quite heavily in this story with every character being on a journey and Rachel uses her passion and enthusiasm for yoga to show us that by having the time to reflect and relax almost everything can be worked through and out.
As the story progresses Rachel’s attention to detail makes you wish that you were either there with the characters or remembering the last time you rode down the hill on a bike or past holidays in the area.
As we learn about what Fran and Will’s story, you’ll want to be there to comfort the character’s, I personally cried enough tears for two fictional characters and the circumstances they found themselves in. Though at times I also wanted to be there to smack them round the face and tell them to pull themselves together.
Rachel cleverly puts other characters into the story that makes the decisions that Fran and Will are making even harder. The Ex who appears out of the blue, making you remember how things used to be or the person that stands and listens to you when you thought no one else would.
I can honestly say that I haven’t cried this much at a book since “I Let You Go” by Clare Mackintosh and I having never read in this genre I am glad that I gave it ago.
Go out buy this book, have a good cry and then go back and read more.
Five stars
I would like to thank Rachel, Netgally and Rachel from random resources for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

The breakdown of a marriage is a painful thing to watch, especially when it could have been avoided with open, honest conversation.

Francesca Sullivan gets the romance-novel happily-ever-after.

After losing her beloved mother, she walks away from all she knew and starts over. A few years later Fran meets William Browne, a new attorney at the firm she works for… and her new boss.

The relationship is a slow build for obvious reasons, but love wins in the end. Fran takes a position at another firm… when she claims the title of Mrs. William Browne. Add a home in the country and frequent travel to exotic locales, and life is perfect.

Except it wasn’t.

I do not doubt Fran and Will’s love for each other. But I found it confusing that two people in a loving marriage who spent so much time together never had a truly honest conversation.

Will, at eight years Fran’s senior, is in a rush to fill their home with children.

Fran isn’t sure when or IF she wants children. But she wants to make Will happy, so, yes, let’s have children!

The attempts are many and the results depressing, until the last one where devastation quickly steals the Browne’s joy, and their marriage topples from its shaky foundation.

A yoga retreat (in SPAIN) Fran volunteered to teach to help her get back into life becomes the opportunity for her to get away from Will and clear her head. (Honestly, I don’t believe she had to ‘go’ anywhere. They were doing a bang-up job of 'ignoring' each other while living in the same house which, of course, was the problem.)

Fran and Will each endure their own personal hell while they’re apart.

Will deserved every bit of misery he suffered in the aftermath—he doesn’t get a pass--but to his credit, he makes no excuses—doesn’t try to build a defense or place blame.

Fran doesn’t indulge in playing the victim, but she could. To her credit, she forces herself to admit the role she played in 'what came before.'

The Brownes show such strength of character after they separate, I wanted to scream, “Where was this attitude a hundred pages ago?” HA!

So, while Will spirals into a depressed shadow of himself, Fran is in Spain instructing students in the nuances of yoga and fighting off a wicked case of ‘food poisoning.’

My knowledge of yoga principles is limited—emphasis on limited—so I did not understand what made people travel to another country just to do what they did back home.

In the end, it didn’t matter because I don’t believe it was about the yoga, but the human interaction.

An eclectic cast of supporting characters give 'The Things We Need to Say' the room it needs to breathe. Without realizing it, Fran was able to glean insight and wisdom from David, Constance, Joy, Elizabeth, Katrin, and Molly. Even Amado and Jake were great sources of inspiration.

Fran shares her troubles and has conversations… with everyone but Will.

Will wants to talk to Fran but doesn’t trust himself not to fall back into his pattern of hearing what he wants to hear.

This is where this engrossing read lost a star with me.

Except for the devastating conversation before Fran left, all that is known of Fran and Will is told through internal thoughts and flashbacks.

We see the budding romance blossom and new paths taken. We also get to see the conversations that didn’t go far enough, and the admissions not made.

As Fran works through her demons while in Spain, she’s gifted with tiny epiphanies which lighten her emotional burden and allow her to give voice to her guilt, doubt, and frustrations.

And boy, does she… to Elizabeth, Amado, Katrin, and even Jake. Discussing one’s problems with third parties isn’t necessarily a bad thing and can provide much-needed insight the way it did for Fran Browne. (Special mention here to Mia, who didn’t allow a language barrier to keep her from supplying support Fran didn’t even know she needed.)

Will leans on his younger brother, Jaime, who’s dealing with similar issues, but never misses a chance to give his honest and sometimes brutal (and humorous) opinion.

But while this journey makes the Brownes see where the mistakes were made, and where problems took root which were never dealt with, when it is at last time for 'the things we need to say'… the scene fades to black.

And I felt cheated.

The one conversation in the story I’d waited for and it’s not shown.

The telling (or assumptions) took a bit of the shine off this read for me.

Meh.

Technically, editing and grammar are sound. Formatting was an issue and gave me pause, but as I received my ARC from Netgalley, I’m giving them a wink and a nod that this isn’t the finished product.

Regardless, this intimate look at the dynamics of a marriage built on sand and dreams is not one to be missed. The writing is strong, evoking the gamut of emotions which make a read so enjoyable. Clear your schedule and spend some time with Fran and Will—two people who finally stop struggling to get back to what they were when they realize who they need to be… themselves.

This is a beautifully written novel covering a difficult situation. Tender and emotional but not overly sentimental, it is one in which I have been completely immersed.

I have a real fondness for stories told from alternating points of view, and I really enjoyed how we find out all about Fran and Will’s relationship retrospectively. There is no doubt that they are a perfect pairing, each still very much in love with their spouse. But it’s also obvious that there is some sort of crisis in their marriage; somewhere, something has gone wrong and they have both retreated into themselves to deal with it. Hence the very fitting title for this book.

Rachel Burton has avoided the mistake easily made by some authors of overdoing the sweetness and ending up with a sickly tale. To the contrary, this is a fresh, clean and very honest account of a couple struggling with their feelings. When you are hurting, it’s not always the person closest to you who is easiest to discuss things with. Sometimes it’s just simpler to just batten down the hatches and freeze everyone else out.

I took pleasure from learning more about yoga and discovering it’s not all about keeping fit physically, but also caring for yourself emotionally. I can imagine many readers looking for their nearest beginners class after reading this! It’s been gratifying to bury myself in this one – the characters are from all walks of life and all equally well-drawn; the settings are fabulous (travel agents, stand by with requests for the areas mentioned) and the writing draws you in until you find yourself slowly sinking into this book. I love the cover too, it sums up the atmosphere perfectly. It’ll be no surprise to discover I fully recommend this novel and give it five fat, juicy, sparkling stars!

My grateful thanks to publishers HQ Digital for approving my copy via NetGalley. This is my honest, original and unbiased review.