Summary: This book tells the story of Laura. Laura suffers from agoraphobia after a terrible incident in her life. She is confined to the walls of her home, watching the world pass her by outside her window. Luckily Laura is married to Jim who supports her and loves her but one day Jim doesn’t come home.

In the quest to find out what happened to Jim, Laura has to challenge herself and call upon the support of her best friend and neighbours to uncover the mystery and in doing so finds hidden strength she never knew she had.

Review:

This was a pacey, delightful read.

There was strong character development and the introduction of the side characters added to the story.

The friendship between Laura and Debbie was lovely to read and whole romance is a theme in the book; it is not at the forefront and the friendships and Laura’s self development took centre stage.

I found the moving between 1st person and 2nd person a bit jarring at first but grew used to it as the book went on.

I would have liked to see Jim really get his comeuppance

Overall this was a great, hopeful and lovely read

Trigger Warnings: sexual assault, controlling relationships, alcohol misuse, mental health

Thanks so much Boldwood Books and NetGalley for an advance read in exchange for this review.

Laura suffers from agoraphobia, as result of a trauma. She hasn't been outside in over a year. Her husband doesn't come home when he is supposed to so Laura must convince herself to leave to figure out what happened to him.

One of the best things about this book is the little community in which Laura lives. They are such a unique group of people, and they come together to help Laura out. This book is told from the past in first person and the present in third person. It's fairly obvious what is happening with Jim, but the real story is Laura's resilency and determination.

This is a lovely easygoing read but about a very difficult mental health condition - acrophobia. A terrifying attack left Laura so afraid and anxious that she found herself unable to leave her home, she thought moving to a different area away from where the attack happened might have helped but she still finds herself unable to step foot out of the door. She was totally reliant on both her husband and best friend but when her husband fails to come home one day she starts to realise the only way to find him, and help herself, is to try to get help from her neighbours but to do so she will have to overcome her fears. For me it was fairly obvious from very early on in the book what answers she would find however I enjoyed reading her personal journey to get there, the dual timelines did a great job of telling the story of her relationship with her husband from the day they met as well as trying to discover where he has gone, the characters are lovely and overall it’s a very warm-hearted read.