Very enjoyable story, with a few surprises that I didn't see coming!

Allie is a research scientist and is living a happy, normal life, until one day she finds an old letter in her grandma's drawer that reveals a secret that her grandma doesn't want to talk about, so without telling any family she sets off to Italy to find out the truth.

Along for the ride is her best friend, Ed, who has marriage issues of his own to try and sort out and needs a break so accompanies Allie. There has never been any romance between Allie and Ed, but they have been the best of friends forever.

The book started out fairly light, with a mystery to be solved, but there were a couple of curveballs I didn't see coming, every time I thought I'd figured things out something else happened (right to the very end of the book). It really kept me on my toes and had me glued to the story.

I don't want to ruin the story, but this was an unexpected gem of a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and would highly recommend.

I really wanted to like this book but struggled to care for any of the characters and their troubles. The only saving grace and made me continue reading was the Italian holiday and all the descriptions of Lake Como, the food and the hotels.

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to try it out.

Deliciously Satisfying.....
A life quest, a deep history, a love story and an impossibly beautiful setting. Perfect ingredients combine to make a rather beautiful novel. A pleasure to delve into and a shame to end. Deliciously satisfying.

Messy, Wonderful Us is the first book I’ve read by Catherine Isaac and what a first book to begin with. I started this book on my train journey to London and couldn’t put it down. I loved the strong characters and the back stories that wove through each turn of the page. It’s a beautiful story that will enthrall with each chapter and I can highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster UK and the author for the chance to review.

Brilliant, brilliant read. Not my normal choice but so glad that I read this one. A real summer read, full of everything that a good novel should include Must add it's not all sunshine and roses and Catherine Isaac deals with tricky issues with sensitivity. Lots to keep the interest going and well.written. My first novel by this author and I shall be looking to read more.

This is the first book that I’ve read by this author and I will definitely be searching out more. A lovely summertime read, making me want to visit Italy again, in particular Portofino. Plenty of twists to maintain interest, touching on domestic abuse, adoption and keeps you turning the pages. A great holiday read, would recommend.

Messy, Wonderful Us.. what a delightful story. It is not all sunshine and roses, this one is an emotional roller coaster for the characters and the reader. Mostly set in beautiful parts of Italy with 2 main characters that are likeable and easy to care about. I was hoping it was all going to work out for both of them.

Allie is the sensible, research assistant do a letter in her grandmothers room that rocks her world. Suddenly there is a secret from her mother’s past that she needs to know more about. Her mother passed away when she was young and her grandmother refuses to talk about it. Her best friend is Ed and he has suddenly left his wife of 2 years, seemingly out of the blue. Together they travel to Italy in search of answers. Allie wants to know more about this man from her mother’s past and Ed needs to sort his head out and decide where his life is going. They both get a lot more than they bargain for.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

I was sent this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Catherine Isaac (she has also written as Jane Costello) writes about Allie, who lost her mother thirty years ago but is very close to her Grandma Peggy. Just before Peggy’s birthday Allie finds an envelope holding an old newspaper page from 1983, which has a picture of her mother and a man she has never seen or heard of before, nine months before she was born.

Allie decides to hire a private detective to investigate the man in the photo and when he suggests that the only way to find out the truth is to travel to Italy, she decides to take a trip, and her best friend Ed decides to join her.
There follows a story of friendship and family and relationships that moves through 3 generations in England and Italy. I liked Allie and found myself rooting for her as I moved through the story - a book is completely made by it’s characters and it’s hard to finish a book if you feel no empathy for them.

At the start of this book I wasn’t convinced that I would finish it and thought it would end up being another vacuous ‘he was my best friend and I never realised I loved him’ type of story - but as it went on, I realised that there was so much more, and I was sad to reach the end of the book. Definitely an author that I will seek out again.

Allies life changes when she finds a letter and photo in her Grandmas drawers, confronting Grandma Peggy and not finding any answers she decides to go to Italy and look for answers. Her lifelong best friend Ed is having some problems in his marriage and decides to accompany Allie to Italy. A wonderful book. I really enjoyed reading it.

I love diving into what’s often brushed off as ‘chick-lit’. Catherine Isaac’s Messy, Wonderful Us fits perfectly into this world, but it’s nothing new. The narrative is wildly predictable and a little overdramatic. As a result, it was difficult to be emotionally invested in Allie’s pursuit of the truth. I would have much rather had fewer plots and been able to further delve into them.

The book explores themes of adoption, domestic violence and loss. They’re respectfully handled to a degree, but some readers may find the scenes of domestic violence difficult to read. Personally, I think that the way the scenes are presented and the dynamics of the relationship could be a good launchpad for discussion. It was definitely the most compelling element of the narrative.

Another superb book from Catherine Isaac, this story gives you all of the feels and takes you to the gorgeous sights of Italy in the process.

Allie is a determined character, taught at an early age to shut her emotions away when she discovers that there might be secrets hidden in her past she has to learn to also deal with her emotions she is used to burying.

I loved this book as I didn't expect the path that Allie took and the last few pages left me with goosebumps.

Catherine has a way of pulling your heartstrings as you read so that you become so invested you just have to keep turning the pages. A definite must read that I will be recommending to friends and family!

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
First time reading this Author and what a lovely wholesome book throughly enjoy this book

Having loved her previous book and giving it five stars I was very much looking forward to reading this one. I did enjoy it however I was a little underwhelmed when comparing it to her last book.

I liked the main characters, the story had a good plot and had a few twists and turns which I guessed. It was a nice enough story but it wasn’t anything unique and I found it very predictable.

Loved Catherine’s first book. And loved this one. Jetting off to Italy to unravel her past. With a beautiful warm scenic setting and adorable characters. Adorable

This is the story of Allie, a research scientist, who by chance discovers an old letter in her grandmother's house. The letter seems to reveal an old family secret which could change a lot of what Allie thinks she knows about her family. When her grandmother is adamant that it isn't what Allie thinks and that she should forget about it, then of course she is determined to find out the truth. To do this, she will need to travel to Italy and is accompanied by her best friend Ed. Ed is having his own difficulties and the opportunity to get away for a while is just what he needs to take stock and decide the way forward for him.

There are quite a few messy relationships in this book, but it's one of those books where it is difficult to say much about any of them without giving away the plot, so I won't. One thing I will say is that Catherine Isaac has created some wonderful characters you will really care about, across all the generations. Apart from one character who you will most definitely not like! She is equally able to convey the angst of school days and young love as she is able to show that love and relationships can still be complicated in later years.

The book is so beautifully written and not just the relationships that Catherine Isaac writes about with great insight. The scenes set in Italy are wonderful to read about with beautiful lakes, vineyards and fabulous sounding little food shops.

Many times the story took a direction I didn't expect at all. I was reading on the bus when one particular part took me so much by surprise that I gasped audibly, no doubt to the amusement of my fellow bus travellers! Messy, Wonderful Us is a story of family secrets and coming to terms with the past and indeed the present. The relationships may be messy but they are certainly also wonderful in this captivating book.

I love Catherine's writing so much. I get completely lost in her characters, they are always so raw and real. I loved You, Me, Everything, and I love Messy, Wonderful Us. It actually makes me want to go and read all the Jane Costellos just so I can get more of this. Amazing!

Although I enjoyed this book, I was underwhelmed by it. Its strength lies in the story surrounding Allie's grandmother, rather than Allie's own story. I didn't get much in the way of emotion from Allie. I liked hearing from Ed and Allie's grandmother. The ending wrapped things up realistically I think.

With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Loved it. Absorbing, interesting, romantic, readable, it is a great story told well. Loved the twists and turns and loved the gorgeous Italian setting for most of it. Escapism at its best.

Absolutely loved this book. Beautifully written with an engaging storyline. Not a particularly fast paced book but it would spoil it if it was. I almost felt as though I was there in the story especially when in beautiful Italy!

This was my first read from Catherine Isaac and I've already downloaded another of her books. Loved the style of writing and the feeling it gave me when reading it.

Would definitely recommend this to others and am looking forward to reading her other titles.

Thank you Simon and Schuster UK and NetGalley.

One morning in early summer, a man and woman wait to board a flight to Italy.
Allie has lived a careful, focused existence. But now she has unexpectedly taken leave from her job as an academic research scientist to fly to a place she only recently heard about in a letter. Her father, Joe, doesn’t know the reason for her trip, and Allie can’t bring herself to tell him that she’s flying to Italy to unpick the truth about what her mother did all those years ago.
Beside her is her best friend since schooldays, Ed. He has just shocked everyone with a sudden separation from his wife, Julia. Allie hopes that a break will help him open up.
But the secrets that emerge as the sun beats down on Lake Garda and Liguria don’t merely concern her family’s tangled past. And the two friends are forced to confront questions about their own life-long relationship that are impossible to resolve.
The dazzling new novel from Richard & Judy book club author Catherine Isaac, Messy, Wonderful Us is a story about the transforming power of love, as one woman journeys to uncover the past and reshape her future.”
I saw this on Netgalley and it sounded interesting, so when the publisher emailed to ask if I wanted to read it, I said ‘yes please!’
Whilst I’ve not read anything by Catherine Isaac before – I had read and enjoyed books in her previous life as Jane Costello (not sure why she’s changed her writing name – I may have to Google it and find out!)
Early on in the book Allie discovers a family secret – which threatens her whole existence – and the book is basically the fall out from this, and her uncovering the truth.
It twists and turns – and the chunk in Italy is just beautiful. I’ve never been to Lake Garda (although have been to nearby Lake Como) but it really evokes the feeling of being there.
I liked Allie – and Ed – and their relationship is really interesting. The age old ‘can men and women really be platonic friends’ is looked at from a new angle. Their relationships with others were also explored in depth.
Some big juicy topics are covered throughout the book – which are really thought provoking and written about very well.
My only slight niggle with the whole book was the sections about Allie’s work in medical research. I am sure they were really well sourced and completely factually correct (in fact the acknowledgements at the end would back that up) but I felt they were too detailed and broke up the flow of the book. I am a total geek and love learning new and scientific stuff – but probably not in the context of a novel.
But I am sure I’m being over picky – and it didn’t ruin the book as a whole, which was a really good read. I romped through it at pace as I was so keen to see how it all played out.
It’s out next month, and I would definitely recommend it.