I found the story really detailed and intricate - the main characters felt quite real (the friends less so) but I just couldn't engage, there was no warmth. I think if there has been a little more 'back story' from the start I might have been drawn in, but I spent the first few chapters wondering what was going on, and the planes flying through the sky foxed me as there had been no 'why' beforehand.
I can appreciate the skill and the writing but the story just wasnt for me.

David’s wife, Mary Rose, has died suddenly and left him alone in their middle aged life. Surrounded by well meaning friends who take him on inappropriately located holidays, and keep him grounded in his grief, he just wants to go back to Aiguaclara. They holidayed there every year for twenty years, and he feels closer to Mary Rose there than in Ireland. 

I really enjoyed this - the writing is understated but well controlled and joyful, even. David is a man who spent a lot of time following his dreams and believing Mary Rose to be following hers. Her death, so unexpected, makes him examine their life and his actions in a way which I can believe we all do when faced with such a change in our lives.

The narrative is not a big drama, or crime novel or mystery to solve - it’s David’s internal narrative as he goes about his daily business and adjusts to life without Mary Rose. I did have trouble with her name - I’m not sure it’s supposed to sound like the prawn cocktail sauce/ship or like two names said together? Definitely minor but somehow, I wanted to make sure I got her name right. Her absence is a character in itself - a selfless nurse with a big heart and plenty of love to give, it’s clear from the writing that she completed David in a way he’d never understood until her death. 

I also thought David’s internal monologue was really authentic - I actually forgot that the book was written by a woman momentarily, and was surprised when I checked and it’s Kathleen MacMahon. I know that sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, but David’s character was so clear I thought he could only have been written by a man.

I’d recommend this not for summer holidays, actually, but this time of year - cosy nights in by the fire as you dream of sunshine and sangria. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books for the ARC, as always.

I revelled in ‘Nothing But Blue Sky’ by Kathleen MacMahon. What a lovely book! Despite the premise of a widower returning to a familiar holiday haunt the novel was full of joy as he reminisces about his life with his wife. There is a little twist at the end which endeared me even more to the story.

This book takes a wander through the mind of David, who has been widowed unexpectedly and who has a lot of time on his hands to go over their married life and his earlier life and reframe his experiences in light of where he finds himself in her absence.

I found David very self-indulgent and a difficult character to like as he rambled though the book obsessed with his own existence. Some of the other characters such as Claire and Deborah added light to his character, but in the end were very externally drawn. The concluding chapters I felt gave David too easy a solution for his grief.

When I was reading the book it's a tough story to read and well-told, but I didn't really connect with it in any meaningful way. This would be a good holiday read and is not too challenging, the prose is good but ultimately I felt unsatisfied by where this book was going and where it tried to take the reader.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read it in advance.

An exceptional, beautiful book. In the wake of his wife’s death, David returns to Aiguaclara where they went on holiday every year. Without her, he revisits his cold, loveless childhood and makes connections with some new people in his life. Beautifully written - I can’t wait for it to be published so I can recommend it to everybody!

This book focuses on David’s grief after his wife of twenty years dies tragically. While spending time in their favourite Spanish holiday location, he analyses their life together and while Mary Rose appears to be the perfect wife, he finds himself wanting. David looks at his childhood and how he feels it shaped the man he became, as well as comparing this to Mary Rose’s loving family home. David and Mary never had children and after reflecting on their marriage, David realised how he lacked a real understanding of Mary Rose’s journey through childlessness. Towards the end of the book, David is thrown a second chance at happiness and also finds a realisation that there are different types of grief and different ways of dealing with it.
This is a well written, gently novel with subtle humour. I also suspect it’s the type that stays with you long after the final page has been read.

Marriage, death, grief and bereavement is what this book is all about, it is raw in places. A good book. Thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review

I started reading this and couldn't quite get into it at first. I found David, the narrator, rather difficult to like at first, but then, at one point I suddenly 'got' him and it unlocked the book for me. David and Mary Rose have been married for twenty years when suddenly, she dies. David thought they had the perfect marriage, but in his grief for her he has to re-assess everything he thought he was sure of. David no longer has Mary Rose to navigate life for him or to shield him from himself. This is an intense study of grief and how it strips away the layers of the people left behind. It's beautifully written and I found myself absolutely fascinated by a man I was initially repelled by, which is so damn clever. I didn't want it to end.

Kathleen writes beautifully and inhabits each character. The secondary characters are given as much care as the main, which lends the book realism

I really found this book quite depressing. Its well written and hangs together but it wasn't for me. Struggled to finish it. However some of the themes were very personal to me and I imagine for otehr readers this might prove more entertaining and thought provoking.

Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon is a novel about marriage, bereavement, what it means not to have children.