I never start reading a Beth Miller novel without making sure that I have a supply of tissues close at hand, and I’m really glad I took that precaution on this occasion as I needed them. This author has a real knack of getting to the heart of human emotions and displaying them vividly on the page in a way that will pierce even the stoniest of hearts. Since I am basically an emotionally susceptible ball of mush at the best of times, her writing always reduces me to a sobbing puddle.

In this book we meet Pearl, a woman in the middle of her life who is forced against her will to confront the problems that have been stalking her dysfunctional family for the past forty years when they are drawn back together by the death of her estranged father. Gradually, over the course of the novel, all of the families long buried secrets are exposed, faces and events from the past come back to haunt Pearl, and everyone is forced to deal with issues they were hoping could stay buried but which, now they are in the open, could provide opportunities for everyone to move on.

The exploration of human relationships, be those romantic, familial or between friends, are the foundations of all Beth Miller’s writing and she has a really acute eye for what makes people tick and how these bonds are forged, broken and what effect this has on people. Her characters are strong, rounded and always authentic and anyone who picks up one of her books will recognise themselves, other people they know, relationship dynamics they have experienced or life events they have gone through in her writing. This book in particular resonated very deeply with me because one of the events affecting Pearl is something that has also impacted greatly on my life and the reactions of herself and those around her were so familiar to me that it brought all the emotion relating to that event rushing back. In this way, reading can be a cathartic experience and is one of the things I most appreciate about authors writing authentically about difficult issues.

I love the fact that the protagonist in this book is a woman of a similar age to myself. As I get older, I love to see books featuring more mature characters and exploring all the wealth of life experience we have amassed by this age. When you are young, you think adults have everything sussed out and nothing exciting ever happens because life is sorted out. Once you get here, you know that this isn’t the case and all that has happened is that we have accrued a lot more baggage to sort through, which makes for fascinating reading.

This is the most fantastic, emotional, moving and mature novel and it really touched me. It is a beautiful illustration of how life and families work, it feels very real and honest without being maudlin and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys this type of novel.

BLOG TOUR REVIEW

Review for 'The Woman Who Came Back To Life' by Beth Miller.

Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Beth Miller, Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous

Publication date 5th January 2022.

This is the first book I have read by this author.

I was originally drawn to this book by its interesting cover and intriguing sounding synopsis and title. The synopsis stated that 'Fans of Matt Haig, Mike Gayle and Camille Pagán will fall in love with this beautiful, feel-good story.' I am a fan of Matt Haig so am looking forward to seeing if this lives up to this statement. I must admit I was also biased due to the publisher being Bookouture. I have yet to read a book published by Bookouture that I haven't enjoyed. Hopefully this won't be the first... Watch this space! (Written before I started reading the book).

This novel consists of a prologue, 23 chapters and 16 "extracts". The chapters are medium in length so possible to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

This book is based in France 🇫🇷 and England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, UK 🇬🇧. The bonus for me of books that are partly or fully based in the UK is that I live in the UK and have sometimes visited places mentioned in the book which makes it easier to picture.

This book is written in first person perspective and the main protagonists are Carrie and Pearl. The benefits of books written in first person perspective are as long as they are well written it makes you feel that you are being spoken to by the protagonist and it can create more of a bond between yourselves and them. If there are several protagonists you also get to see more of what is going on.

What an absolutely gorgeous yet heartbreaking coming-of-age story. Well done Beth this may be the first book I've read of yours but it most definitely won't be the last.

The writing in this book is absolutely beautiful with descriptions that really put you in the storyline leaving you tasting French croissants and feeling the French air. The cover and synopsis suit the book perfectly.

The storyline is just beautiful!! It is a coming-of-age story and is absolutely filled with love, secrets, family, lies, friendship, heartbreak and so, so much more. Each page leaves you wanting more and I couldn't sleep until I had finished it late last night. It is obvious that Beth did her research on places in France and that fact shines through. One of my bugs about books is when an author sets their book in a place or about certain subjects yet doesn't put any research in and it is obvious and can spoil the storyline. This book is filled with family dynamics and it really makes you contemplate what you would have done if you were in each of the characters shoes. If you are going to read this keep some tissues ready and clear your diary as not only will you be unable to put it down but it will leave you in tears. I can't talk too much about the storyline as I don't want to give anything away but there isn't just one plot going on but so many different things happening which are all tied up beautifully at the end. This book is a truly emotional page turner. The atmosphere of France was absolutely perfect especially Paris, being the city of romance and I enjoyed my holiday there without leaving my seat. I was absolutely devastated coming to the end realising I would have to "unpack my bags" and return to drizzle Wales.

The characters were all strong and realistic and each one had their own unique personality. I enjoyed getting to know not only Pearl and Carrie but also Francis through his memoirs. I was absolutely intrigued by the diary entries and it slowly gave us a clear insight into what was going on in Francis' life. I adored Benjy who made me laugh several times and actually reminded me of my own brother. Gregg is the typical older protective big brother who I thought was quite sweet and I absolutely adores his wife Eleanor who was extremely supportive. I could not stand Jeanie and wasn't a fan of Andrea (An-Dray-ah) but did have some sympathy towards her by the end. Coming back to Pearl and Carrie though, I really connected with them both and found them to be very strong female leads, each suffering with their own dilemmas, pasts and tragedies and there were several points I wish I had been physically there to hug them both. Oh, I cannot forget Denby or 'the ranger' (I won't name him as I don't want to spoil anything again). I thought Denby was really sweet and although, at times, overbearing I genuinely think that he was just worried about Pearl and cared for her so much he couldn't bear seeing anything happen to her. I really 3njiyed meeting 'the ranger' and I would love to see what went on after the end with him and the other person, he was a gruff man but also struggled with his past and I hope it all went well for him. Overall, a great mix of characters who worked perfectly with the storyline.

Another HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Beth on an absolutely gorgeous book and here's to many more successes 🥂 I am off to add all your books to my Amazon wishlist and I would like to welcome you to my favourite author club ♥


Overall a heartbreaking yet heartwarming page turner about family, love, friendships, growing up and what ifs?



Genres covered in this book include Coming-Of-Age story and Humorous Fiction amongst others.


I would recommend this book to the fans of the above as well as fans of Matt Haig, Mike Gayle, Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain and Camille Pagán.


338 pages.

This book is just £1.99 to purchase on kindle via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 5 /5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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I'm not crying,you're crying! Aw what a beauty. When a book can make you laugh and tear up in equal measure you're onto a cracker. Worth your time for sure!

The woman who came back to life is a poignant read about love, loss, estrangement,family dynamics and second chances!
Pearl hadn’t spoken to or seen her father for thirty years but on getting told of his death by her elder brother she rushes from her woodland hideaway in France to get to his bedside but it too late to see him alive!
The funeral unleashed a surprising bequest for Pearl causing angst amongst his second family, Francis her father had bequeathed her his journals which revealed that he had been fully informed of Pearls life and his writings offered an explanation of his abscence and his actions led Pearl to a much needed reunion!
A family breakdown three siblings all affected differently and coping in varying ways, teenage pregnancy, still birth, panic attacks, breakdowns, death and illness all feature heavily but the overall feeling is one of hope,resilience,forgiveness and having a second chance.
Thank you netgalley for this early read.

This book is my first read of 2022 and I’m glad that i pick this one. The book is the very well written and an heart warming story. I liked the characters special the main character Pearl, the family drama and the emotions the book had. Some parts of the book left me with tears in my eyes.

A big shoutout to the author Beth Miller for such an amazing read.

Thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture and the author for this ARC

Families can be strange things and often when upsets occur, everyone has their own feelings on who is right, and who is in the wrong, that ricochet through the generations. Pearl is about to discover that even when it’s too late to talk in person, and even after decades of hurt, things can change, if you are open to those changes.

The raw emotions that Pearl experiences as she relives past traumas through her late father’s diaries, felt very real as I read it. It took bravery to open these old wounds, but with it came a different understanding of the hurt and pain she’d carried with her for her adult life.

This is a book that is packed full of difficult family situations, for so many of the characters, from divorce, loss and adoption, to forgiveness, reconciliation and love. My emotions were all over the place. With the sadness and upsetting situations, this wasn’t a book that raised my spirits, but it was one that made me think about relationships and how we treat those around us. It is also a cleverly crafted journey of recovery, where understanding and forgiveness lead the characters on to new beginnings.

Like Pearl, I’m happy to shut myself away in my French hideaway, but this book has highlighted the importance of extended family and the sad fact that since Covid-19, we’ve missed out on seeing our families in the UK. I found it a complex and compelling read, and once I’d started it, I had to know how it would end. It was also one of those unusual books where I couldn’t second guess where it was going to take me, and it was certainly different from many of the books I usually read.

Families are fascinating to me. I am intrigued mostly by the intricate relationships and dynamics, and what makes them even better is to read about them in a novel of fiction. The Woman Who Came Back to Life encompasses so many different facets of family and I gobbled it all up. I could spend hours and days studying and dissecting the psychological elements involved with the characters in this family. The author provided the readers with a plethora of personas and roles, drama and dialogue, emotion and suppression. Communication is key and when that breaks, havoc reigns. I was captivated by the characters and their unique personalities and I love the variety of impacts made by the diaries. It saddens me whenever families fight and fall apart when there is a death in the family. I find that so much that has been bottled up tends to explode during this already turbulent time, causing more strife than necessary. As time and sorrow pass, sometimes resent and anger do as well, bringing family members closer. Watching the dynamics change between Pearl and her family was somewhat expected yet was still emotional to read. I found this to be an enjoyable and heartwarming novel.

A wonderful, heart-warming, thought-provoking story that drew me in from the first page. This is such a unique story, and the characters and situations were very relatable. I loved Pearl, and the way her father’s journals were used to explain why he had little contact with his first family, and how they set the ball rolling for Pearl to have the strength to accept her past and walk towards her future. There were so many layers to this story. I loved the dynamics with Pearl's brothers, and her sister-in-law, and how Carrie came back into her life. The ending was uplifting and very realistic. A recommended read.

This is a must-read-encouraging book that can not be missed or taken for granted. It definitely made me glad I pick books by genre and cover and I try to not read spoilers. I am so thankful for that, this book needs that surprising fact. My mind was inevitably working on every little detail that provided a bit of hint to reckon how things will turn, I LOVED IT! My heart pounding to every turn this story took made me a Beth Miller follower.

Thought about the experience of the main character all night, I contemplated all the options I would've had and the time and society I lived in when I was that age, and I realized that I wouldn't be able to have choices, only God's will.


📑This ARC was granted to me through NetGalley and approved by Bookouture in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

EXCERPT: Unexpectedly my eyes filled with tears. Dad loved and encouraged my early interest in words. He conversed in French with me, discussed the fundamental principles of Esperanto, showed me how to interpret cryptic crosswords and, when I was pretty young, no more than seven, he taught me shorthand. Not the old fashioned Pitman kind he'd learned as a young clerk, which required fountain pens to make the all-important thick and thin line distinctions, but a more modern type called Teeline. He'd picked this up during the early 1970s at journalism evening classes. I had a vague idea that he'd planned to retrain as a journalist. But other than writing articles for the parish magazine, I don't think this ever came to fruition. At some point in the late 1970s he became a headteacher, which I suppose made teaching seem interesting again.

For a while he and I would communicate in Teeline's secret code. I remember the thrill of it, of reading something neither of my brothers could understand. As late as my fifteenth birthday, the year he gave me the field glasses - a few weeks before he left us - Dad put a shorthand message in my card. I didn't remember, now, what it said, but I remembered reading it. The card that came for my sixteenth birthday, the first to come through the post rather than waiting for me on the kitchen table, didn't contain any secret message.

'What does it say?' Jeanie said, craning over to try to look at the page.

'I'm not sure,' I lied. 'I'd have to refresh my memory about how to read it, it's been such a long time.'

'This is ridiculous,' she snapped. 'She can't even read them. There's no reason for Pearl to have these. I can easily get someone to translate them.'

Pointing at the page, Benjy said, 'Doesn't this line say, "Wow, my second wife is such a cow"?' And with that the gloves were finally off.

'Mr Claymore, do you see what we are up against?' Jeanie's face was red with fury. 'I demand you intervene. These notebooks may contain material that my husband's former children will exploit.'

'Former children?' Benjy said, laughing.

I glanced down at the page again, and read: It would be necessary to keep this . . . then there were several symbols I couldn't read, followed by I have hidden so much. What the heck was in these diaries?

ABOUT 'THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK TO LIFE': Pearl Flowers lives in a fairytale cottage in the woods in France. Her life is small, strict and safe. Every day is planned: Mondays she takes the middle path through the trees, on Wednesday the right and on Fridays, her special day, she takes the long way into the village. If she makes sure to follow her routine, she can avoid thinking about the past.

But then an unexpected phone call throws everything into chaos: Francis, Pearl’s estranged father, has died and left her a bequest. One she can only claim if she agrees to come to his funeral and see the family she’s been hiding from for so long. But when Pearl begins to read Francis’s diaries, his last gift, she realizes that the truth about her father couldn’t be further from what she expected. That each page is addressed to her, the daughter he loved, causes her to question everything she thought she knew about her past.

Now Pearl must face the world for the first time in many years. Her father was the only person who knew her deepest secret. Is she ready to finally confront the truth of what happened, and take a second chance at happiness now that it is finally within reach?

MY THOUGHTS: You have to love families. They must be the most complex social and interpersonal structure ever. We take umbrage at things said and done by family that we would brush off coming from anyone else. We keep secrets from family, either under the guise of 'protecting' them, or because it might change the way they see us. We are probably less truthful with family than with anyone. Well, that's how this family works.

Pearl's family is a family shattered by abandonment and secret relationships. After one heartbreak too many, Pearl and husband Denny have taken refuge in their remote holiday home in France, shutting themselves off from the world in general and her family in particular. But her attendance at her father's funeral in order to collect a mystery bequest opens a whole new can of worms . . . one that is either going to make or break Pearl.

This is a complex but entertaining story. My heart broke for Pearl with each new revelation. But Pearl also has a wicked sense of humor, as does brother Benjy, which shines through occasionally causing me to burst into laughter. There's a lot of loss and grief in The Woman Who Came Back to Life, but there are also funny moments, and scenes of redemption and hope. My favourite character was Ellie, Pearl's once best friend who is married to her oldest brother Greg.

The characters, like the relationships between them, are complex. All have baggage, all are aggrieved, hurting in one way or another, and some are angry. The story is told from the points of view of Pearl, and another initially unknown character named Carrie. It takes some time for the connection between these two characters to be revealed, but it's worth the wait. We also get to read extracts from Francis' diaries, which puts a whole new slant on things. The story covers the period from 1981 to 2018, but not chronologically. Despite this it is easy to follow, and entertaining, but have a box of tissues handy - it's heartbreaking in parts.

I love the way that Beth Miller takes situations that any one of us may face at any time and gives them an empathetic and realistic airing.

⭐⭐⭐.7

#TheWomanWhoCameBacktoLife #NetGalley

I: @beth_miller_author @bookouture

T: @drbethmiller @Bookouture

#contemporaryfiction #familydrama #mentalhealth #sliceoflife

THE AUTHOR: Beth Miller has been a sex educator, alcohol counsellor, university lecturer and inept audio-typist. She has a PhD in Psychology, which is yet to come in handy.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Bookouture via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Woman Who Came Back to Life by Beth Miller for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

Who doesn’t love a life-affirming, perspective-altering contemporary novel? Other than those kinds of vibes, I had no idea what to expect from this book.

Pearl is now in her early 50s and living a quiet, idyllic life in rural France with her husband Denny. She hasn’t been back to her English hometown for decades but when her estranged father dies, she learns that there is an inheritance she can only claim if she goes home for his funeral -her father’s diaries spanning almost 40 years, written in shorthand that only Pearl can decipher. Amidst warding off a furious stepmother and meddling stepsister, Pearl slowly begins to build a different picture of her father. It seems that his true feelings were only for the eyes of his beloved daughter and now it’s her turn to face up to the past and rediscover true happiness.

The relationship between Pearl’s brothers Greg and Benjy really made me smile. Despite the fact that they aren’t young men, they both easily slip into playful, boisterous brotherliness when they’re together and it’s so fun to watch. Pearl also slides smoothly into being the sensible mediator between them. There’s something comforting about family dynamics never changing, no matter how much time is spent apart.

Pearl’s husband Denny really unsettled me for most of the book. He is controlling and possessive and I wanted Pearl to get as far away from him as she could. However, she didn’t seem to see it and as the book went on, she still didn’t seem to see it. I was waiting for her to realise how much more freedom and happiness she would have without the metaphorical shackles that Denny had on her but the pages were running out.

Due to my dislike of Denny, which didn’t really improve, I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. I can tell that I am supposed to feel happy and assured that all is well but Pearl could definitely do with some time alone. She has a lot more on her plate by the end and I really didn’t think that Denny would add anything positive to it.

There is another strand of the novel that I won’t talk too much about because I think it’s best to slowly watch it unravel for yourself. Readers should be aware of trigger warnings for coercive control, infant loss and infant illness.

The Woman Who Came Back To Life is a unique, emotional book with a heroine who I wanted nothing but the best for. There are some really lovely side characters too and an interesting story at its heart.

I absolutely loved this beautifully written, emotional, heartbreaking and uplifting book. Told from the three perspectives of Pearl who has moved to France to escape her old life; Pearl's estranged father Francis; and Carrie. We see the different families from the various perspectives, with the father's additions slowly revealed through his diaries. There is a lovely sense of compassion woven through the story. Pearl goes through such a lot but is a wonderful caring person.

Pearl Flowers lives with husband Denny in a fairytale cottage in rural France. She gets a phone call from older brother Greg in the UK to inform her their father Francis is dying. This presents Pearl with a major dilemma, what to do? Pearl, Greg and Benjy have been estranged from Francis for over 30 years. Against expectation Pearl travels to Sussex but it’s too late. Francis leaves an unexpected and odd legacy for Pearl, a set of diaries written in shorthand. What secrets lie within?

This is a very enjoyable read as several characters are complex and carrying baggage, not least Pearl. The characterisation is good and there’s an excellent mix of characters. This is not your usual women’s fiction as it has much more meat (and two veg!) to it than the norm. It has multiple layers from complicated family dynamics and a host of suppressed secrets and emotions. It’s principally about inertia due to hardship, heartbreak, heartache and loss and times it’s an emotional tale. However, what makes it stand out for me is that it’s a good blend of sad, perplexing, poignant and funny. The humour mostly comes from Benjy whose is frank exchanges and self-delusion makes you chuckle. It’s all told at a good pace and there is plenty to keep you interested throughout.

Overall, there are some sweet tender moments in the storytelling, parts of which makes you reflect on lost opportunities. I like the note it ends on which feels real.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Bookouture for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This is a very different. moving story of family, secrets, grief and so much more,
One that spans their family history not for one decade but four!
Pearl Flowers hasn't seen or spoken to her Dad for thirty years
When her older brother calls to share his fears.

Her parents split when she was a teen
Her Dad married again but for his first family he didn't seem keen.
He pushed them away but didn't say why
Maybe he'll explain now he's about to die?

Though she rushed, she arrives too late
And thinks that's the end, a final twist of fate.
However her Dad has left his diaries, just for her
Written in a code script the two used to share.

As Pearl reconnects with her brothers
There are secrets hiding from her and others.
Will the secrets the diaries start to reveal
Enable her and her family to heal?

However there are secrets in her past, too
And reading the diaries brings a revelation through
It is only by facing up to what is in the past
That they can move on to happiness at last.

This is such an emotional read
Keep tissues by your side in case of need.
It is one full of heartbreak, regrets and more
That divided the family that was before.

It keeps you turning the pages as the secrets come to light
Giving new outlooks on the participants plight
Making it easy to relate to each other
Healing wounds they have yet to uncover.

For my complementary copy of this book, I say thank you,
I throughly enjoyed reading it and this is my honest review.

Talented British author, Beth Miller wrote "The Woman Who Came Back to Life". I was very fortunate to read the e-book on my Kindle while listening to audio book, beautifully narrated by Sarah Durham.


Pearl lives in the London area with her husband Denny. They own a picturesque cabin in their woods and enjoy a secluded life together. Pearl has two brother's (Greg and Benjy). Their dad left them over thirty years ago and the family struggled to stay close. Suddenly, their dad Francis passes away, and the family is called together for the funeral/reading of the will. Pearl is mysterious bequeathed something private by her father that could drive the family further apart. This creates drama and chaos among the family members.


The story involves three POV's. This leads to some very interesting family secrets coming to light. I enjoyed the story, but thought it was a little lackluster in the middle. The ending was interesting and left me wondering if there is going to sequel. I sure hope so. I would love to read it..
The book will be published January 5, 2022.


Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture, and Bookouture Audio for the e-book and audiobook in exchange for my honest review. I really appreciate it!

The Woman Who Came Back to Life by Beth Miller

Pearl's estranged father dies and leaves her the diaries he wrote from when he left the family home to his death. This sets off a chain of events for Pearl, her family and friends, and her partner Denny, with many revelations along the way.

This is such a heartbreaking and heartwarming book - I really enjoyed it. It's such an original take on the theme of secrets from beyond the grave and filled with such heart and wisdom. I love this author and will look up her other books now. Very highly recommended.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I should have known just from the cover that this was going to be a multiple-Kleenex kind of book.

"An utterly heartbreaking, feel-good novel about life, loss and second chances"

I also should have known not to venture into such a thing when I'm already more than a bit on the feeble side emotionally .... but I'm doing it anyway .... and I'm almost finished with it, so we'll see if it completely breaks me before I can move on to something light and refreshing like murder.

It's very much a story of what and who to let go of -- or hold on to with all your might.

It's a tricky conundrum at times -- especially when family is involved.

It's told by three characters: Pearl, the daughter she gave up for adoption, and the father she was estranged from for thirty years. Pearl's father, Francis, has passed and his bits are all done via journals he had left for Pearl. As it turns out, he wasn't necessarily as estranged as she had thought. They spanned from 1981 to 2018 and were probably my favorite part of the entire book.

It feels like a slow read. Sometimes dreadfully so. Somehow, though, it's also a deceptively quick read. It can feel like it's dragging and going nowhere but then, before you know it, you're almost finished. Maybe it's just me.



28% : I had no idea what to do with these thoughts, so I employed my usual strategy for dealing with difficult things, and pushed them to the back of my mind, pending a later, unspecified time in which I would have the mental capacity to deal with it.

“He’d long been a complete blank, his behaviour inexplicable, his motives unknown. To find out, after all this time, what he was really thinking might be unbearable.”

The Woman Who Came Back To Life is the fifth novel by British author, Beth Miller. A phone call in the middle of a private French wood turns the ordered life that Pearl Flowers had been leading upside down. Her older brother Greg rings with the news that the father from whom she and her brothers have been estranged for some thirty years, is dying.

No one, not her brother, not her ever-protective husband Denny, is more surprised than Pearl that she feels an urgent need to be there. Too late for last words with her father, she and Denny reluctantly hang around for the hastily-arranged funeral of Francis Nichols, partly because this is a requirement for the mysterious legacy he has left Pearl.

After the expected bequests of property and cash are dealt with, the solicitor tries to hand over a bag of notebooks to Pearl amid vociferous objections from Jeanie and Andrea Nichols, her father’s second wife and step-daughter. It seems Francis has written private journals for the previous thirty-seven years, and several of the family want to have first sight of what could be sensitive material.

“‘They cover the period from 1981 to 2018. I believe the final entry was made only a few weeks before his death.’ A chill ran down my spine. My dad’s life, laid out, for the entire period that I didn’t know him.”

The catch is that they are written in a shorthand that Francis taught Pearl. She returns to France in possession of her father’s legacy to her, not at all sure she wants to read the words of a man who ignored or rejected her attempts at communication after he abandoned her mother and his children. “I stopped writing to Dad then, and eventually, after some rough years of grieving the father I’d loved, I more or less stopped thinking about him, too.”

Those journals sitting in her study are unsettling enough; contact with the family she left behind after a traumatic event is unnerving; the trespasser apparently living in the woods around their secluded little refuge from the world adds to her unease; harassment from her step-sister Andrea about the diaries increases her stress levels; and then there’s a phone call from a young woman…

One of her dying mother’s last requests is that Caroline Haskett attends the funeral and take her measure of the family. The other is that she contact Pearl, something Carrie has no real desire to do. She has managed well for thirty-five years without, and is quite busy enough being the single mother of baby Emmie. But she has made a promise.

The story is carried by three separate narratives: Pearl and Carrie relate in the present day while entries from the journals Francis kept describe past events, giving an alternative, if not always reliable, perspective. The novel’s back-cover blurb is a little misleading, giving the impression that Pearl is more dysfunctional or obsessive than she really is. Some aspects of the story may be predictable, but there are also surprises in the journey to a rather satisfying ending.

Miller’s protagonists are much more than one-dimensional and reward the reader’s time investment with their emotional development. Pearl’s younger brother Benjamin provides some much-needed light relief with his comments and insults during the tenser moments (eg Jeanie’s nasty outburst over the diaries): “Pointing at the page, Benjy said, ‘Doesn’t this line say, “wow my second wife is such a cow”?’”, while Francis is responsible for quite a few, but not all, eyes-welling-up-lump-in-the-throat moments. Funny, moving and uplifting.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Bookouture

Pearl hasn't had contact with her father in 30 years or more, but when her brother calls to say the father is on his deathbed, she goes back to meet up with the family she hasn't visited since moving to France 5 years earlier. At the same time, Caroline is urged by her adoptive mother, who is dying, to reach out to her birth mother and does so reluctantly. This was a really good story, and I liked it a lot. I would be interested in reading more from this author. 4 stars.

Pearl has been estranged from her father for 35 years but now, at his death, he's given her a gift. She's the one- not his wife, not his step kids- who has his diaries, which are more letters to her, written in shorthand, than anything else. There have been secrets and lies in this family, not the least of which is the trauma that she suffered. Then there's Carrie, who also narrates the story. Who is she exactly? The connection won't be clear immediately but when it's revealed, well......This is a lovely story of a woman who has tucked herself away in the forest coming out again. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's well written and thoughtful- a good read.