“The day Heather, Niamh and Lauren met, they promised to be best friends for life, and that instant connection only grew stronger with their weekly sunrise swims in their stunning local lake. When they left school, they agreed that, no matter where life took them, every year on midsummer’s dawn, they would meet at their old spot and swim together.

Now, fifteen years later, the tradition has disappeared in the face of life’s realities. In fact, they don’t speak any more – not since that night . . .”

This was a really great, feel good read. It’s about the power of female friendship and the love of family. The three friends have fallen out but they are all back and they believe that they are different but slowly and spurred on by a terrifying event they realise that in their hearts they are still 16 and nothing has changed as much as they think it has.

Wild swimming continues to not only be a trend in the books that are coming out but also in my reading list.

This is slightly different from others I've read recently since this focuses more on the people than what gets them swimming in the first place. Swimming is more like a shared emotion than a focal point in the story.

Three friends who were extremely different but friends all the same had a terrible fight and never spoke again. There is a shared elder figure who introduced them to the concept of swimming on a particular day to refresh themselves to fight for themselves. Even she gets a voice in a few chapters. With four narrators we see multiple different lives and the main take away is that as external observers one tends to make assumptions about others, and how wrong most of it can be.

The fight itself did not seem strong enough to drive the wedge we see, but other than that it is a pretty solid book on friendships and finding different ways in life to move ahead.

I would recommend this book to fans of the genre.

I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

A beautiful story of friendship told through different generations and timelines. So much variety that you cannot help but find something relateable in this book. Set in Ireland, it's a story about friendship and open water swimming - and what happens in the intervening years to a group of friends who were the closest of girlfriends in their younger years. It highlights the importance of these close relationships whether formed in early or later life, for both grounding and mental wellbeing. A truthful drama focusing on the fierceness of female friendships, flawed but wonderful women, and chapters full of reflective moments.

Loved the story line. Only challenge I found was flitting from one era to another. The characters were very real and loved the way they gelled together only to fall apart. Real life issues which come around in real life.

Lauren, Heather and Niamh met at secondary school and formed a friendship. They used to meet at Laurens grandmothers, Rosemary, to go swimming in the lake. 15 years later, they don't speak and are living their own lives after what happened one night that changed everything.

I loved Rosemarys character. She was just how my own grandmother was and would do anything to make sure her family was happy.

Lauren, Heather and Niamh were hard to get a connection with as they all felt so closed off and cold, until the end. Finding out what happened that night was a bit of a let down as I thought it was going to be something bigger than it was.

I did feel a little emotional towards the end and it was a nice story.

I loved the dual timing in this book, by going back to the past into the present. I absolutely loved this friendship story! This was my first book by this author.

A beautifully written story of friendship and love. I feel in love with this book within the first few pages. I wish the book didn't need to end

Heart Warming, Heart Breaking, engaging, in some parts relatable, well written and easy to follow. Its a good book.

The Sunrise Swimming Society is the latest book from Irish author Rosie Hannigan. I haven’t gotten round to reading her debut yet but it is edging ever closer to the top of my TBR pile. This is a story of friends and family. How we can be so close but then pulled apart but we can always be reunited if we are willing for this to be the case. It’s a relaxing and gentle read, perhaps a little too slow in places and maybe a little over long also but as this is only the author’s second book there was a sense of her settling into her writing pattern and rhythm and making things a bit tighter can come in future books. I think the author has great potential and we definitely need more Irish women authors on the writing scene as there doesn’t seem to be as many as there was in the heyday of Maeve Binchy and Emma Hannigan for example. The setting throughout is fabulous and there is a real sense of time and place and how important one’s home and family are. I liked the fact it was told in a duel timeline format dipping back and forth between the past and present. Although, I would say I preferred the present day setting but fully understood the need to explore the past. It afforded a means of understanding how the three women had come to know each other and how their friendship had developed and then subsequently splintered.

Lough Caragh means the lake of beloved friendship and once for Niamh, Heather and Lauren this was certainly true as it was the lake and of course Rosemary (Lauren’s grandmother) that united them at the beginning of their secondary school journey. Learning to swim and then spending hours in the lake afforded the girls an opportunity to get to know one another deeply. They became everything to each other and specifically at every solstice both summer and winter they would gather in the early morning sunrise and swim in the lake. This became a sacred ritual to them and Rosemary. Any negativity was washed away, and their intentions were set for the rest of the year. But something caused the friendship to shatter and splinter and for many years the girls now women have not laid eyes on each other nor spoken one word. Considering how close they had been, telling each other their problems, experiencing the ups and downs of being a teenager and sharing the good times and the bad what could possibly have caused their estrangement? I had high hopes that it would be something exciting, juicy and thrilling.

In the present day, Niamh has always remained in Lough Caragh and is married to Evan. She had gotten pregnant at 18 and now has three children. She really could do with something in her life changing as she feels she is in a rut of looking after the children, even though they are now teenagers, with days where everything is just repetition of the same old same old. She thinks it’s impossible for herself and Evan to get back to where they once where and he underappreciates her and everything she does. They have drifted far apart but as she swims in Lough Caragh on the winter solstice she receives a sense of hope and renewal as the lake provides her with a sanctuary and time to think. She really wants to take a new step in her life as the children have some independence now but that’s not to say the home can run itself and Evan wants another baby and this is certainly not in Niamh’s plans.

Niamh came across as being fed up and at a cross roads in her life. Having had her children so young she didn’t perhaps get to travel and gain the life experiences that she may have wished for. Were her wings curtailed a little bit and now was she regretting it? Given the pressure from Evan to commit to another child would she only be stuck to the house once again? This leaves her feeling, sad, heartbroken and alone and all I wanted her to do was be brave and say what she felt as she did have great plans of her own. I doubted had she the inner strength to do this as she was fragile and vulnerable. Niamh notices that Lauren and Heather seemed to have returned to the village. But is their return permeant or fleeting and what has brought them back considering their fallout all those years ago? All the easy laughter, crazy jokes and sharing and kindness they had, meant so much to her and as so much water has passed under the bridge can there be a chance for forgiveness? Or will continue to keep away from each other?

Out of the three women that feature, in my mind, Lauren was the best formed character and she was very well written. He returns to Lough Caragh to try and sort out Rosemary’s house now that she has recently passed away. Rosemary’s absence is keenly felt and Lauren recollects all the wonderful times she shared with her and her best friends on the lake. All that is gone now but is there a chance for a reconciliation with Niamh and Heather? Lauren is a teacher, living in Dublin and married to Shane but she is taking time out to rest and recover from trauma. The details of which I will not go into suffice to say it forms a strong part of her storyline and many women will find her really relatable and most definitely feel for her.

She is shattered and vulnerable and is considering a major decision that would wrench her world in two even further. I thought the portrayal of Niamh and her state of mind was very well done. She was pushing so many people away and I could see why she was doing this but I didn’t think she was in the right headspace to make such a monumental decision. As we learn more about her I believed if she went ahead with what she was planning she would deeply regret it. She is in a dark place with things disintegrating around her and if Niamh and Heather had been by her side and the fracturing of their friendship hadn’t occurred maybe she would have dealt with things better.

As for Heather, I thought she was the most stand offish of the three. She had made a life for herself outside of Lake Caragh and had never wanted to return. She is a social media influencer with her own travel blog and is back to review a local hotel. We slowly start to learn of her childhood and how difficult it was growing up with the parents she had. How this in turn affected the way she was viewed in the village. She was made to feel small and insignificant and all she ever wished for was a normal life with order and consistency. Her parents made her feel as if she didn’t matter so meeting Niamh, Lauren and Rosemary gave her a form of escape from her unsettled child and from being a parent to parents.

Heather was forced to take on responsibilities that no one of her age should have had to and now in the present day she is eaten up by anger, bitterness and resentment. She didn’t come across as being a happy person at all. Someone who had broken free of the shackles and was now happy and comfortable in their own skin having put the past behind them. Instead, it was the exact opposite. I felt she was prickly and unapproachable and the chip on her shoulder would take time to wear down and as her head was in such a state this was starting to affect her relationships. Until she could truly let go of the past both in relation to her parents and the reason for the fallout out between herself, Niamh and Lauren there was no way Heather was moving forward any time soon.

Overall, I did enjoy The Sunrise Swimming Society and as previously mentioned the author has great potential but for me it was just missing that little something to turn it into an excellent read rather than a very good one. For me, the reveal fell flat given thee had been so much mystery surrounding the estrangement of the three women. It felt anti-climatic given they had feuded for so long. I wanted the cause of their friendship separation to be something big and dramatic but it was a bit of a let down and their reunion too needed more passion and tumult. Saying all this makes it sound like this wasn’t a book for me but really I did enjoy it and these are just a few observations. I think it would make the ideal holiday read as it is a book that you can dip in and out of and never feel lost as to what is happening in the plot. I’ll certainly make sure to read book one, The Moonlight Gardening Club and whatever Rosie Hannigan may write in the future because I feel she is only on the cusp of what she can achieve with her stories.

Such a great read.
The story is about 3 girls, they meet at school on their first day, together they become best friends. One of the friends’ grandmother is always there for them to help and offer advice.
But, when they are 18, they go their separate ways after having huge arguments.
Then after 15 years, their individual issues bring them back in the village they grew up in. The story is told from all three girls’ perspectives in the present and the past.

The Sunrise Swimming Society by Rosie Hannigan

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

The day Heather, Niamh and Lauren met, they promised to be best friends for life, and that instant connection only grew stronger with their weekly sunrise swims in their stunning local lake. When they left school, they agreed that, no matter where life took them, every year on midsummer’s dawn, they would meet at their old spot and swim together.

Now, fifteen years later, the tradition has disappeared in the face of life’s realities. In fact, they don’t speak any more – not since that night . . .

But this summer, they find themselves back in their Irish hometown and realise this could be their last chance to recapture what they have lost. Will their return to sunrise swimming heal each of them, and help them rekindle the friendships they once treasured?

My Opinion

This story is told in dual timelines. This was a great story of friendship and each character was relatable. I was pulled into this story and enjoyed it far more than I would have anticipated. Reading this will allow you to see the close bond that the friends have, even after 15 years.

Rating 4/5

This is an exceptional novel of friends and family. This made me look back om my life with friends and family that I grew up with. It also opened my eyes and realise that there is normally a good reason why we upset our friends and family too and how differently we all show our love.

The story is written in the past and present. Three girls become firm friends from the day that they meet. The solstice became very important to them. They went to the lake as the sun came up and swam. They all made their own intentions and tried to carry them out. Lauren, one of the girls had a marvellous grandmother. She also went swimming at solstice.

After fifteen years, where they had not seen or spoken to one another, they come together for a very important solstice. Are they able to put the past behind them and carry on where it had gone wrong?

The characters were so true to life. Images of Ireland floated throughout the book and brought it to life.
Congratulations to Rosie Hannigan for a superb read. I have not read this authors books before, however I am hooked.

I did enjoy this and liked the story more than the writing style, the setting and characters were both warm and engaging and I did feel caught up in the story.

I'm a fan of a book trope of friendships from high school and this one really doesn't disappoint. I loved the setting and adored the characters.

A good book about relationships, friendships, and life choices. A heart warming and compelling story, well plotted and compelling.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thanks to netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Heather, Niamh and Lauren meet at school and promise to be best friends for life. They have a strong connection that gets stronger as they take part in their weekly swims at the local lake. They agree that wherever life takes them they will meet every year on midsummer’s dawn and swim together.

Fifteen years have passed and the tradition disappeared because of the reality of life’s ups and downs. If fact, they haven’t spoken to each other for the past fifteen years since the night that they all want to forget.

This summer they find themselves back in their hometown, they realise that this may be the last chance to be friends again. Can they rekindle their friendship they once treasured with the help of sunrise swimming?

A lovely book that is all about how to forgive, however it also brings up the trials and tribulations of what life can throw at us. Well written and I enjoyed it!

The Sunrise Swimming Society

Three friends, Niamh, Lauren and Heather, promise to be friends forever and their connection grows stronger with their weekly sunrise swims. A single night, however, changes everything and their friendship and bond is broken. Fifteen years later they find themselves back in the same village, can they reunite and salvage the love and connection they once had?

This book captures the complexities of female friendships and it also examines different family units. The three teenagers come from very different backgrounds but despite this, they connect in a very special away. As they navigate their way into adulthood each has their own personal challenges and stories to tell, while the descriptions of the village and the lake are just gorgeous.

Swimming groups, having grown in popularity in recent years, are a great vehicle for bringing people together, this book is certainly of its time. These groups (very often women) meet daily or weekly to wash their problems away in the seas, lakes and rivers around the country. I have been lucky enough to make wonderful connections through swimming in the sea.

Many thanks to @harpercollinsire for including me in their Blog Tour of this wonderful book 🌅 🏊🏼‍♀️

#giftedbook #irishbookstagram #bookstagram #seaswimmingireland #lakeswimming #thesunriseswimmingsociety

This is a great cosy book about forgiveness but also the trials that life throws upon us. It got me thinking while also providing a way to escape from reality. It was really well written. I just loved It!

Lauren, Heather and Niamh are best friends, all with very different families but brought together by Lauren's gran, Rosemary. For them, she is ki d and provides guidance and refuge from other parts of their lives.
But on the night of the girls finishing their exams, they had a huge row and as a result they haven't spoken to each other again.
The characters in this book pull you I to the story. You want to know what happens along with how their past affects their present.