I truly wanted to fall in love with this book, however I struggled to find myself engrossed within it.
I found myself unable to truly picture the characters or the storyline itself unfortunately.

Unfortunately I cannot rate higher than a 3 as I struggled to connect with this book and therefore had to put as dnf.

I really thought that I would love this book as I really enjoy Esther Freud’s writing and the blurb sounded right up my alley. I found it a little trickier than I had expected though, like maybe I just didn’t quite gel with it. Like the book itself was trying for depth and my mind refused to delve in properly. I read it during a very busy time of my life though and perhaps this didn’t allow me to be as thoughtful as I would prefer to. I will try to read it again one day, I’m sure.

This is a truly wonderful story about being a mother and the things that you will do to navigate your life when you feel you are starting to fall apart. It is truly saddening and heartbreaking in many ways.

I was slightly confused at the start of the book. I felt as though the characters and timelines were jumping back and forth without any sort of warning and I had to think about who/what i was reading about. However, the writing style was beautiful., I must say. The way the author described certain points, sceneries, and emotions really had you feeling as though you were there, witnessing the storyline first hand.

The three women in this novel are evidently all at different stages in their life. The one thing they have in common is the love they have for their child and the journey they are encompassing on of self-discovery. It was definitely a heavy and at times, difficult book to read. One that will stay with the reader for a very long time.

As tropes go, an intergenerational narrative will always tick the box for me. In Esther Freud's novel I Couldn't Love You More we meet three women who are inextricably linked and whose life cannot go forward without the other.

What is lovely about I Couldn't Love You More is that you see the three main characters Rosaleen, Kate and Aoife grow up. Not necessarily through their age but through their personal growth. You see heartbreaking moments of naivety but then the strength of these women quietly screams off the page.

Besides being the story of these three women we are also transported to different eras with different cultures and expectations and placing these women in these settings and seeing how they manage, how they cope and how they survive is beautiful.

Whilst there are parts of I Couldn't Love You More that are heartbreaking and hard to read it also gives you the warm hug feeling that a book like this should.

Absolutely wonderful.

I Couldn't Love You More by Esther Freud is available now.

For more information regarding Bloomsbury Publishing (@BloomsburyBooks) please visit www.bloomsbury.com.

I was really excited to read this book as the description sounded very intriguing. However I found it very difficult to get into the story and overall didn’t enjoy the story as the writing was so difficult to follow.

A book telling the story of three women, Aoife ...her daughter Rosaleen and her illegitimate daughter Kate.

A lovely story of their three lives, how Aoife never stops loving her daughter who 'disappeared' after find out she was pregnant.

Rosaleen gave birth to her daughter in a convent in Cork..where in the eyes of the nuns she had committed the ultimate sin.

Kate a young mother who lives with her alcoholic husband Matt decides it's time to find her real mother.

Interesting read, a bit slow to start with but gets the reader hooked by about 60% of the book.

This is a three generational story surrounding women tied together by the church.

It concerns the Kelly family, Aoefe and Cash as the parents of Rosaleen, and Rosaleen as the mother of Kate. The story is mostly concerning Rosaleen, who becomes the lover of an older sculptor and becomes impregnated by him at the age of 18. She finds herself alone in carrying this baby, and ends up at an institution run by Catholic Nuns where she is forced to give up the baby soon after birth.

Aoife has lost touch with her daughter Rosaleen and the family are forbidden to speak about her as they feel she brought shame on the family by becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Rosaleen thought she would be helped by the nuns at the Convent in Ireland but nothing could have been further from the truth. Kate is adopted and keen to trace her birth mother and sometimes even thinks she has seen her in various places.

I'd forgotten how much I love the beautiful writing of Esther Freud. This is the first novel by her that I've read for years and I found this multi generational story to be so moving, it really grabbed me emotionally and I found myself completely caught up in the lives of the characters. Recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review a digital ARC.

Three generations of women bound by secrets. A pity that I didn't really engage with any of the characters as Freud can be an interesting writer. Unfortunately this story seemed to be like so many in its genre, aimed at a different audience to myself.

I really tried to persevere with this book but I hated the characters & found the storyline boring and a bit confusing

Sadly did not finish

A haunting story of family tragedy through three generations. The history of an upbringing in a strictly religious Ireland and the fight for survival when every choice spelt poverty. The escape to England where opportunities were plentiful but a sheltered life created little awareness of the dangers in friendly overtures from those recognising innocence and homesickness. And finally the greatest scandal, when young girls trusted the church, the nuns and their family to protect them from the torment and disgrace of unmarried pregnancies to no avail. The author takes a well known subject, giving us three women , all damaged by circumstances , outlining their fight to repair a fractured family when authorities closed every door in their search for their true identity. The author develops this storyline in an agonising detail of lost hopes, lost chances and finally the long road to redemption and truth. Many thanks to author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

I read this book in short stints, that is probably why I found it somewhat confusing, usually I take notes of names and places to refer back to.
I found a few unanswered questions about the characters and their backgrounds.
Interesting read, always sad about nuns care of pregnant women and the cruelty it involves, I still ask myself how did this happen?

I Couldn’t Love You More is a complex novel telling the story of Rosaleen in the 1960’s, Kate in the 1990’s and Aoife. The book covers sensitive and difficult subjects, especially with Rosaleen’s story as she becomes an unmarried mother and suffers the consequences in Ireland in the ‘60’s. The narrative moves between all three women, linking their stories and highlighting the differences and struggles they have all faced.
I did find the book quite challenging to get into initially, but persevered and I’m glad I did.

This book tells the story of three generations of women, each plagued by secrets and emotional scars.

Aoife misses her daughter Rosaleen who has seemingly vanished.

Rosaleen is 19, in love with a man she discovers is married, and now, pregnant and scared. It is the 1960 and she has nobody to turn to. In desperation she returns to Ireland, to a convent where she will stay until she has given birth. Cruel and brutal, it cannot be said any care is given to the frightened women who reside there.

Kate is in an increasingly toxic relationship. Matt is an alcoholic and is having an affair. Finally, she asks him to leave. She is also haunted by thoughts of her biological Mum, forced to give her up at birth.

These women are all wonderful characters. Flawed, derermined, vulnerable, strong. A story of regrets, of missed chances, of resolution and forgiveness.

I couldn’t get into this at all. I’m sorry. I just didn’t seem to be interested enough. I’m disappointed in myself as I usually love Esther Freud’s books.

A story of family. A story of three generations of women whose lives intertwine between London during WW2, the 60s in Ireland and present day.
This is a book of emotion. There is raw and honest sadness as you are brought into the lives of the Kelly family but there is also hope achieved through glimpses of happiness in their lives.
There is also an examination on motherhood; the relationship between mother and daughter, Melancholic and flawed.
I requested this book because of my love for 'Hideous Kinky' and Esther Freud did not disappoint with this beautiful prose.

This is an emotional and complex story of three different generations of women in 20th Century U.K. and Ireland. I found it a difficult read at first, because the structure was confusing. This wasn’t helped by the layout of my advanced copy which seemed choppy in its layout and often had sections running into each other. As a result I didn’t always know who was speaking in mid-conversation or whose narration I was hearing. I would like to get a completed version of the book to see if my experience improves, because I think there was a powerful story underneath these structural issues that was missed a little, due to frustration.

There were parts that were so emotional and really drew me into the story, totally immersed in the lives of these women. There are three women -Alfie, Rosaleen and Kate - and I found that I was reading about aspects of their lives, most particularly how rigid Catholicism affected each of their lives so deeply. This is a subject I seem to have read a lot about lately and being a lapsed Catholic I don’t always recognise how judgemental, misogynistic and abusive it has been, even in its recent past and especially in countries where it has an iron grip on both the politics and the people. Young, idealistic Rosaleen is a teenager in the 1960s when she meets Felix, a much older and incredibly charming, sculptor. The feelings she has for Felix and the pull of his bohemian lifestyle are everything she imagined might happen to her when she was dreaming late at night in her Catholic boarding school. It is her headstrong and romantic nature that takes her from drinking in Soho, to hedonistic trips to Marseilles, until the inevitable happens. Felix is nowhere to be seen and the young, pregnant teenager is directed to Ireland. Kate lives in 1990s London and in a desperately unhappy marriage. She has an urge to take flight, but this is a long held desire to simply disappear in search of something, but she never really knows what she’s looking for. Finally, there’s Alfie. While sitting with her dying husband she relates the story of her life and their marriage to him. However, there’s one part of her life Aoife has kept from her husband and now she simply has to find out what happened to Rosaleen.

I’ve read two or three different novels based in the notorious mother and baby homes in Ireland, where many girls ended up - without consenting or understanding what they would experience. These sections were harrowing to read, but they should be. It’s the only way that the truths of these institutions will come out and women can call for some justice. Few girls ever agreed to give their baby up for adoption and didn’t always know where their baby would be placed, The pain of having your baby wrenched away from you must have been agony. The girls were treated as sinners and often had to continue working for the nuns to ‘pay’ for their care. If there was no one to buy you out it could be years. I found myself longing for something warm and uplifting to happen but that didn’t come till the end of the novel. So it was a tough read. I did like that the author showed the inter - generational trauma caused by the Catholic Church from mothers of pregnant girls to several generations afterwards; the author was clearly astute psychologically and the characters became more vivid and real through these troubles. I really identified with them and felt their pain. These characterisations were masterful and showed Freud’s incredible writing. Even though this was a tough subject, I appreciated the author’s approach to it. It wasn’t an overblown and sentimental account, it was intelligent and empathetic.

This novel follows the fate of three generations of Irish women, mothers and daughters, set between London and Ireland in the 1960's. Aoife, married to the loud and brutish Cash, once publicans in London now farming back in Ireland. Aoife has a voice but isn't allowed to use it.

Rosaleen, working in Fleet St, begins an affair with the brooding and married sculptor, Felix. She falls pregnant, is abandoned, subsequently loses her job and her flat and being unmarried, ends up in a Magdalene laundry, forced to give up her daughter.

Kate lives in London with a young daughter and her alcoholic husband. She is forever searching for her mother, having been adopted, and sees her everywhere.

This is a beautifully written novel but I found it difficult to follow at first. I kept having to remind myself which character I was reading about, and eventually wrote it down to make it less confusing. As the story progressed, I found it easier to follow but more difficult to read. The men in their lives have so much impact but in such a negative way that it makes for depressing reading. They each find their way of navigating their situations, but their lives are harsh and sometimes unforgiving, especially for Rosaleen.
Having read about the Magdalene laundries before, the behaviour of the nuns was inevitable but no less shocking. Sisterhood, indeed. This part of the novel was poignant and full of sorrow.

Touching and beautifully written, I was glad to have read this novel.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

A fantastic read by a new author for me. I am converted as a fan and absolutely cannot wait to read more. This is unique and original. I have been pulled in and unable to put this one down.
I cannot say anything negative about this gorgeous book. it has been a fantastic read.