I loved The Lost Art Of Keeping Secrets when I read it years ago so I was excited to read a new book by Eva Rice.

Although this book took me a little while to get into I didn't want it to end by the second half.

The central character is nineteen year old February Kingdom who is struggling to cope with daily life after the loss of both of her parents at a young age and then just recently, the death of her twin sister Diana.
Feb won't leave her bedroom where she lives with her aunt and uncle and spends her time reciting the music charts. Feb's life slowly starts to change when a canary flies into her house one day and she is forced to leave to return the bird to his owner Theo. Slowly Feb starts to form a relationship with Theo and we watch Feb slowly learn to start to piece together her life again.

The book is set in the 90s and I absolutely loved all the nostalgia. I remembered so many of the bands and magazines (Smash Hits and Just Seventeen were two of my favourites!) and just like Feb I remember recording the top 40 on a Sunday on my tape recorder!

This is a character driven story but each person is so vividly written with such great depth. There were so many quirky characters that I grew to love through the story. I was so immersed in Feb's tragic life and the way she coped with her grief was so well portrayed. I was absolutely willing her to find some happiness and love again.

This was an emotional and heart wrenching read at times but it also carried an uplifting message that there is always hope, even in the most tragic and desperate of circumstances. A brilliant coming of age story about loss and love.

Well this was just lovely! Both heartbreaking and hopeful, This Could Be Everything is a gorgeous coming of age heartbreaker of a read. I thoroughly enjoyed this, especially the flashbacks. Loved the ending.
Thank you to the publisher and author for the advanced copy!

I liked it and the nostalgia in it for the 90s but I didn't love it like I thought I might probably because it is fairly sad in places

I loved 'This could be everything' so much,it had everything you could possibly want from a book.The themes of hope resonated strongly with me and the author portrayed the 90s incredibly.

I adore The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets and I couldn't quite believe I was given an ARC for This Could be Everything! Many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley!

I didn't love this book as much as The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, potentially because my expectations were sky high. I have a feeling it's a book I'll come back to and enjoy more on a second or third read (so my rating may change in the future). It covers grief in such a good way and from different perspectives. All the characters were versatile and had their own quirks as expected from Rice plus I really enjoyed the 90s setting. There were also great twists and turns I didn't expect and an awesome playlist that goes along with the book, which is worth checking out! I would recommend this book, it's definitely worth reading and I did like it, I just didn't love it.

I absolutely loved Eva Rice's first novel - The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - so when the chance came to review her newest offering, I jumped at it! This Could Be Everything is set in London in the 1990s, and is the coming of age story of February Kingdom, aged 19 and already beset by more tragedy than should befall one person in their lifetime.

The story is rich with well drawn, complex characters who come to life as the pages turn. A burgeoning pop star, a well meaning aunt who embarks on a dangerous self-discovery, a yellow canary all contribute to Februrary's gradual emerging from the dark space of grief she has inhabited since her family died. The plot does take a little while to find its way but it does reward the patient reader.

It did take me quite a long time to get into this novel and overall I liked it and it had some beautiful passages, but I didn't LOVE it. I would recommend it, however, as I would like to chat to other people who read it and see what they thought!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This Could be Everything by Eva Rice

February Kingdom is nineteen years old and mourning the loss of her twin sister Diana. She lives with her aunt and uncle following the death of her parents years earlier, but hasn't left the house for six months. February finds a canary in the kitchen and this triggers a whole series of events.

Oh wow, what a fantastic book - it has everything! Nostalgia, fantastic characters, humour, emotion, a lovely story... everything. A fabulous five stars from me, I absolutely loved it. Very, VERY highly recommended!

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

I am a huge Eva Rice fan and The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets and Tara Jupp are two of my all time favourite books. This Could be Everything is very different, but it still contains the captivating characters, the fine eye for detail that make her earlier books so compelling.

The writing is fiercely clever - breathless and slightly off-balance, drawing you in absolutely to February’s fractured and turbulent mental state. The whole book reminded me of a less spiky version of Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason - an immersive, sensitive and considered examination of mental health. At times I was overwhelmed by the frenetic energy of the writing, but the result of that was that I felt so close to Feb, she was a fully alive person to me. A beautiful, sensitive novel about loss and hope and all the different ways love can shatter and sustain us.

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is one of my very favourite books, owned, given away, rebought on kindle and in paperback so a new book by Eva Rice is always greeted with joy and trepidation. Joy for obvious reasons, trepidation in case it doesn't live up to my ludicrously high hopes. I was even more excited about This Could be Everything because it's set in 1990, my very own coming of age era (in a boring provincial way that would not make a good book unless you think driving a clapped out mini to Dungeoness to write terrible poetry about how meaningless life is interesting).

Febuary Kingdom is also leading a very dull life and that's how it needs to be. Trauma and loss has left her with severe agoraphobia and so she stays in her bedroom in her aunt and uncle's Notting Hill house, listening to the Top Forty countdown on repeat until one evening, venturing down to the kitchen, she finds a yellow canary. When they find a missing poster, her aunt seizes on the canary's arrival as a way to coax Feb out of the house to let the owner know the bird is safe which is how February meets Theo, pet shop worker and aspiring pop manager with whom she takes her first, tentative steps into the outside world.

Steeped in the music and fashion of the late 80s and early 90s, this is a wonderful, devastating yet hopeful book about love, loss, family, tragedy, ambition, lies , forgiveness and courage - with added Michael Hutchence which can only be a good thing and some real humour and a love for the era which shines through. The end left me in bits with the beauty and clarity of the writing and emotion. Feb is a compelling and very real heroine, doing her best to cope in the most horrific of circumstances, with every character perfectly drawn.

This Could be Everything, just like The Lost Art, is a book I will own in paperback so I can give it away and then rebuy and reread it, a book whichI will discover anew each time I reread it. A beautiful, human book. Highly recommended.

This is the first novel I've read by the author, and I will definitely be reading her back catalogue after this.
It's 1990 and 19 year old February Kingdom is traumatised and grieving. She lives in London with her aunt and uncle and one day an escaped canary flies into their home. The canary represents hope and brings freedom and change to February's life as she begins to venture back into the world and build friendships.
This is a beautifully written and moving coming of age story that I absolutely loved. I was close to February's age in 1990 so the popular culture references really resonated with me. I loved February and was rooting for her throughout. The author portrays her sensitively and empathically and shows a real understanding of trauma and grief. She portrays a great cast of characters brilliantly; she really brings them to life along with London in the 1990s.
A beautiful novel that I highly recommend.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I really enjoyed this book, it was well written with a compelling storyline, set during a great era that I love reading about and well developed characters that I fell in love with, especially February. I felt everything that this book wnated the reader to feel and I still can't get Fenruary out of my head. A fantastic read

This was a very emotive read about nineteen year old February who has struggled with agoraphobia since the death of her twin sister Diana but is encouraged to start moving in by the appearance of a canary in her house. February also tragically lost her parents a few years back so lives with her aunt and uncle however her aunt is going through her own issues as she is having an affair with a work colleague. I didn’t really find myself engaging with this, not sure if I just couldn’t relate to February or because I couldn’t feel my own connection to 1990 however it’s a very intriguing and thoughtful book with fascinating characters, 7/10