Oh, what joy there is to be had from reading this little book! Set over a period of a few days, Maureen Fry goes on a significant journey, both physically and metaphorically.

The reader travels with Maureen through scenes which encompass a range of emotions that we all experience during the regular ups and downs of life. This tale puts them all into perspective, both for Maureen Fry and us!

An engrossing, moving, uplifting and enjoyable read. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy of this book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The is the third book in the series and Harold, Queenie and now Maureen. It’s a beautiful read and having read all 3 of the books, it was good to get Maureen’s story. It’s happy, it’s sad, but a wonderful short read.

Maureen wants to make the journey north to see Queenie’s garden which has a statue of her son David, along the journey she has time to reflect on life and the hardships she had in it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy for an honest review. 4.5 stars

For fans of The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry!
If you wondered what Harold Fry's wife thought of his trip and the people he met this book is for you. To get the full Benefit of the book then you really need to have read the 1st book at least to get to know the characters. Doesn't live up to Harold Fry but still enjoyable and can feel the pain the characters are feeling. Well written and would recommend to those who loved The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

A beautifully written tale about grief and coming to terms with loss. I've read the first book in this trilogy and this story completes the series. Maureen is a complex, repressed character - she's almost unlikeable - and there's little plot to this. But, we get a to see her inner turmoil and struggles in social situations. It's a short book (novella) and by the end you are willing her to succeed. I'm pleased I read this as she's talked about and talked to in the first book. This was an opportunity for her to be in the spotlight and for us, the reader, to gain insight into the depth of her character.

in this final and third book in Joyce's series, she returns to the characters readers will know well and turns the focus on Maureen, the least visible and perhaps most misunderstood character of all.
When we last saw Maureen and her husband Harold, there was hope that they might go back to their married life on a different footing. That 'they might dare to have conversations about David and all the things they had got wrong.' But now, Maureen tells us, those conversations didn't get started. As is the way with so many well-meant resolutions, they dissolved as the couple slipped back into their old, silent, non-communicative ways.
But now it's Maureen's time to take a journey. It's less poetic than her husband's was: think motorway service stations and rubbery-egg breakfasts rather than Harold's slow paced communing with nature and people. Yet, slowly but surely, Maureen comes to know herself and her grief and so do we, as we discover what made her the closed-off person we met in the two previous books. Her fear of getting things wrong, of exposing herself to people and being seen as a misfit, is deep rooted and, by the end, we understand her far better. This book is a satisfying end to the tale of Harold, Queenie, David and Maureen.

Having read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Songs of Miss Queenie Hennessy, I was excited & delighted to receive an ARC copy of Maureen Fry & The Angel of the North from @Netgalley in association with Random House UK/Transworld - thank you so much.
A big fan of Rachel Joyce's writing, the ways she colourfully brings her characters to life is outstanding.
We are now post-covid and 10 years after Harold's Pilgrimage, & at the beginning of Maureen's own journey to visit the NE to find David, their son.
It's only a short story but wow, it is packed with emotion, love & the value of friendships.
I have bought the first two books many times as gifts as not only are the stories beautiful and moving, the hardback books have lovely illustrations along the way.
I could have read Maureen's account in one sitting, but I had to stop myself so that I could extend our journey.

Really sweet follow on book about Harold Fry but this time about Maureen. Just a great read that I really enjoyed

I read the first book in the series some years ago. Not realising there was a 2nd book and that this is actually the 3rd and final one.
It was a gentle story and perfectly enjoyable even having missed book 2.
Thanks to Netgalley.

A small book but it packs a punch. Maureen is a woman who has lost her way. She never says the right things or makes connections with people or feels happy. She is grieving and we feel her pain so acutely that I felt raw and exposed with her. Marvellous writing, a wonderful book full of pain and heartbreak and ultimately hope and the end of a journey. Worthy follow on to Harold Fry and Queenie.

"She knew something had happened that made the world different...she had driven to Embleton Bay to find David in Queenie's Garden and ease something inside her, like taking out a splinter, yet what she had found had only filled her with hundreds more spikes."

Ten years after Harold's Pilgrimage and his wife Maureen, still grieving the tragic death of their son, David who took his own life,is struggling. Maureen has always begrudged Queenie, who worked with Harold and loved him and also spent time with David. After David's death Queenie moved to Northumberland and created a unique and beautiful garden she allowed public access to, near Embleton Bay. From her hospice bed, Maureen write to Harold, which promoted his pilgrimage, which Maureen never understood. Now, one winter, Maureen is to go on her own journey to visit Queenie's garden and see her tribute to David and to Harold.

Having read the first two books in this trilogy, I was keen to read Maureen's side of the story and was not disappointed. Critical and rather negative, Maureen has had a tough time of it, struggling to get on with people and losing David made her isolate herself further, not understanding the world. She hopes visiting Queenie's garden will. Help her make sense of the world and it does, because through her pain she finds and see others', forgiveness. You may well shed a tear for Maureen, David, Queenie and Harold, reading this affectionate tale of loss, kindness, hope and forgiveness.

"It was about forgiveness, the whole story. Hare's pilgrimage and Queenie's letter, and now Maureen's winter journey too. The chimes and necklaces of stones moved in the wind and so did the seed heads. Yes, they said. Yes, Maureen!"

Everyone should read Rachel's books. This is a beautiful story with touches of laughter. I am sad its ending but I look forward to reading more

A beautiful finale to the Harold, Queenie and Maureen saga. Maureen Fry has never come to terms with the death of her son by suicide 30 years ago. Her dad always told her she was special and she grew up believing it and that therefore nothing bad would ever happen to her. She thought she was better than everyone else - until she embarks on a journey of discovery where she finds that she isn't any more special than anyone else she meets along the way - but that's what makes us all special - our own unique ways. Beautifully written story of a person coming to terms with their loss and realising they have so much to live for. Highly recommended.

This is just a wee book and didn't take me long to read but i found it delightful. This time is Maureen's turn to go on a journey after Harold set off 10 years ago now, but she decides to drive.

Maureen has built a wall up around herself, but she slowly takes the bricks down one by one the more that she connects with people along her trip

It’s very hard to warm to Maureen at first, but I believe that’s the whole point of the book. As her travels take her northwards you see her gradually thaw into a different woman; one who finally comes to terms with her son’s death. Beautifully written with heartbreaking detail. This will be a book club favourite I’m sure. It’s not necessary to have read the first two books, although, don’t miss out on them.

This was a short book to complete the trilogy and that was absolutely fitting as most of the ground has been covered in the previous two books.

Maureen didn’t exactly come across as the most engaging in those books and she’s a hard woman to warm to in this book too.

We do get to hear about her life from her perspective and it’s clear a lot of it has not been easy - not least the loss of her son. In some ways we have all felt that we are outsiders at least at some point in our life and it was this feeling that I most connected with.

This was an easy and in places touching read but not as engaging for me as Harold Fry & Queenie Hennessey

Thanks to Netgalley & RandomHouse UK for the chance to read an early copy

This is the third story in the triangular relationship between Harold, Maureen and Queenie. It focuses on Maureen who is dealing with all the emotions around her grief at the loss of her son to suicide.

To me, it deals well with these emotions - the anger and despair. The whole concept is immensely sad, but this story offers some hope of some kind of peace and reconciliation.

As a novella, I found its short length very apt for the story that was told. And, as Rachel Joyce herself says, a shorter story can deliver a punch.

Thanks to NetGalley and Transword for early access.

Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North by Rachel Joyce.
I give this book 4.5 stars

Ten years after Harold Fry’s pilgrimage an unexpected message from the North arrives and this time it is Maureen's turn to make her own journey.

But Maureen is not like Harold. She struggles to bond with strangers, and the landscape she crosses has changed radically. She has little sense of what she'll find at the end of the road. All she knows is that she must get there.

I love the way this author draws you into the world of Harold Queenie and Maureen.She intricately captures and creates such solid human characters and then leads you on an emotional journey with each book told from an individual perspective of a central story.
Although this is a novella it successfully manages to still be a poignant,moving and totally compelling read about Maureen coming to terms with life’s tribulations and finding peace within herself again. If you haven’t read the other two l implore you to do so,how they weave together gives such a sense of fulfilment once completed.
I sighed with sadness that this has reached its conclusion.
With thanks to Netgalley,Rachel Joyce and
Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Doubleday for my chance to read and review this book.

Contrary to what others say about this novel, it isn't a novella. It's a short novel. The definition of a Novella is that it contains only a couple of characters and is set in a very limited setting. In this case, the shortness of this novel is counter to the journey taken by the protagonist, Maureen Fry, who drives from the south of the UK to the North to visit Queenie's memorial garden in an attempt to assuage her feelings of guilt about the death of her son, David. It is, effectively, a quest narrative. Maureen is compelled to take the journey and becomes a better person at the end, overcoming several crises and incidents in between. Joyce has a clear, simple narrative style, and this reflects Maureen's way of looking at life: functional, practical and efficient, but there are also some excellent turns-of-phrase which deepen the understanding of what's going on in Maureen's head. The novel also contains illustrations, so there is a sense of fairy-tale-ness about it so as a reader, you know that whatever dilemmas Maureen faces on her journey, it'll sort itself out in the end. It's a 'feel good' read, for sure. My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

A beautifully written and touching book that will make you both laugh and cry. All about humans connections and relationships and the people we meet along the way. Wonderful.

I didn't really enjoy this book. Maureen is a difficult character and not one that I could warm to. Poor Harold! If the book had been any longer than it's very slim 140 odd pages I doubt that I would have finished it. It seemed an unnecessary ending to what had been a couple of good stories. With thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for a e-ARC of this title to read and review.