This story will stay with me for a long time. I’ve just finished it and I can still feel the characters around me.

Esme is only 7 when her sister Phoebe dies. The months afterwards are marked by grief as her mother Linda and her father Tom try to move forwards separately but together. When the baby Linda is carrying is born, Bea, the grief tips into something more desolate. The second part of the story takes place many years later and Bea is the focus. Finally, through a series of letters, Esme tells Bea about Phoebe, the sister she never knew.

This book is about love, loss and relationships. The relationship between siblings is a special one and the author does a fantastic job of exploring it. This story felt realistic and parts of it were dreadfully sad. The overwhelming grief was particularly well written yet challenging to read. The characters were relatable and well rounded. The whole book is well paced and I enjoyed reading chapters with different narrators.

This is an excellent book and I will look out for further offerings from this author. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

Edited review as I misnamed a character

Told in two timelines, this is the story of a family torn apart by a terrible accident and loss. This book made me sad to start. There were so many feelings of grief and isolation felt in the first part of the novel. Manfully, the second half represented the growth and love of a reunited family. I was happy that truths were revealed and the characters were able to forgive, reflect and move forward.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This was such an incredible read. I absolutely adore the entire book. The characters were rich and the storyline was so intriguing. This is the best book I have read in years. I just finishing downloading everything else by this author. Highly recommend

Despite being out of my usual reading habits, this book really moved me and kept me turning the pages to find out what happens to this family devastated by the loss of a child. It has strong themes of forgiveness and the destruction that secrets and witheld feelings can cause. Heartbreaking and yet heart-warming in equal measure, Missing Pieces is a beautifully written debut.

From the beginning this story drew me in. Heartbreaking yet ultimately uplifting, I could barely read it in parts it was so emotional. Highly recommend.

A really gripping book from the start. This is about family, love, loss and emotions. The first part is set when Linda gives birth to her daughter Bea and she suffers with the emotions and hormones of pregnancy. The second part is when Bea herself is pregnant. Secrets, guilt, family loss.....a great novel.
Thank you to Net Galley for a review copy

Missing Pieces begins with the aftermath of the death of small child and ends twenty six years later when we learn about the accident that caused it. Part One is the story of a family. Linda and Tom and their daughters Esme and Phoebe are happy, enjoying afternoons at the park and vacations at the beach. Linda is expecting their third child and all is well. Then late in an afternoon, many small and innocent choices lead to heartbreaking tragedy. Phoebe is dead. The three year old is physically gone and Linda leaves her family emotionally. Even the birth of Bea cannot hold Linda, Tom and Esme together. Twenty six years later, as Part Two begins, Bea is pregnant. She wants to keep her baby and she decides she has to learn exactly what happened to Phoebe and why. Esme tells her in a series of letters and Bea finally understands the horror and guilt behind her family’s silence.

If you only read one book this year, let it be Missing Pieces. This exquisitely written novel evokes incredible emotion in every chapter, each one subtitled with the number of days since Phoebe died. Your heart will break for little Esme who tries so hard to make up for Phoebe’s death. It’s a hole no one can fill, not even Bea, born into a very different family than Esme and Phoebe were. Missing Pieces resonates with grief, guilt, anger and passion. It deserves so many more than 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Boldwood Books and Laura Pearson for this ARC.

My first book by this author and what a story.

Linda and Tom are awaiting the arrival of their third baby when a terrible, heartbreaking tragedy engulfed their lives. Their daughter Esme’s life is forever changed following that fateful day and it starts a chain reaction that will only bring further heartbreak to the family, even after the arrival of baby Bea.

The first part of the book deals with the immediate aftermath whilst the second part moves forward in time by 25 years, when Bea is all grown up and has some news of her own to share….

An emotive book and one that brought me to tears more than once. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review.

I knew from the first pages this was going to make me a little emotional.
Pleased to say, I was right!

The whole thing, the grief, the loss, the sibling relationships (all of them), the parents.
The days since, the present day events, everything hit home hard, and even when I was happy for our characters, I still felt I might cry.
Yes, an emotional ride, but also, so very lovely.

I believe this is a reissue of an old book, it's surprising to discover its a debut though. (Apologies if this is not correct)

A lot of books usually either have a super good beginning or an amazing end. It's pretty rare for me to find one that has both but this defiantly had such a great beginning and all the way through pace that kept me wanting to keep reading like crazy and it also had an unforgettable ending.

Missing Pieces is the third book written by Laura Pearson, that I have read in close succession. The opening paragraph sets the tone for this emotional read.

Tom and Linda have two beautiful daughters, with a surprise third baby on the way, they are a happy family; until the unthinkable happens. Their beautiful three year old daughter Phoebe dies, suddenly. None of their lives will ever be the same again.

There are two parts to the book. 1985, the aftermath of Phoebe dying, and 2011, when the long reaching ramifications are still unfolding, still affecting. The timespan the book covers allows the characters to grow, to see their lives and grief evolving. In 2011 we can still feel how that one tragic day, 26 years before, is still shaping who they are, all they do.

The author, Laura Pearson, writes with such emotion. The book is a raw study of grief, in all it’s ugliness. How we cope, or don’t cope with that grief, in those dark days. Do we pull together, as we all hope we would, or do we pull apart?

This is such a complex story of loss, grief, guilt and shame.

This was an emotional family read with an undertone of sadness throughout. The story starts after the tragic death of three year old Phoebe which her seven year old sister Esme can’t fully understand, her mum Linda is devastated from the loss of her beloved daughter and also pregnant but struggling to cope with the thought of another child and dad Tom is trying his best to hold everything together. Told in two parts, the first deals with the aftermath of Phoebe’s death and how the family copes with the arrival of baby Bea, the second part takes place a couple of decades later when the discovery that she’s pregnant leaves Bea keen to better understand her families past. Part one is quite heartbreaking with a family that’s been shattered and each blaming themselves for Phoebe’s death and none of them are coping well which makes for quite painful reading at times. Part two is more uplifting but with sad moments as Esme tries to explain the family history via letters to Phoebe. As the truth of Phoebe’s death is revealed it’s easy to understand why Esme and Tom have been punishing themselves for years but equally no one was to blame. Overall this is a very bittersweet but very thoughtful read about life, death, living and moving on as well as family dynamics and forgiveness, it’s beautifully told.

Missing Pieces is a story about family tragedy and the heartbreak of having to cope with the death of their little girl little Phoebe who was only two years old, without giving too much of the story away, it takes you through to what Linda and Tom, her mum and dad went through, what I loved most about this book was that it kept you guessing as to how she died, it had me totally gripped throughout, I really enjoyed it.

This is a story of unimaginable loss, the loss of a sibling, the loss of a child and how one family deals with it in the moment and the lasting impact it has on the two surviving sisters. This might be a difficult read for parents of young children

This was such an emotional read for me as a parent.

I enjoyed that this was in two parts, right after the incident happened and YEARS later.

I found the MCs to get on my nerves for some reason and I don’t know why LOL

But overall? It was a good story line, written well and kept my attention. All things that make a great book IMO