The very first thing that strikes you is the bleakness of Crewe’s landscape. The coldness of the north sea, the waves that crash on the rocky, pebbly beach, the caravans that sway on the headland.

In one of those caravans is Keely or Keg, substitute mother to younger brother Welty, daughter to a father that cannot shake off the grief of his dead wife. Theirs is a hard life, and Crewe’s depictions of the sheer physicality of digging coal from the shoreline, selling from door to door, living hand to mouth made you wonder how they did it. For Keely it was the only option, the only way to keep the family together until tragedy, father and daughter plunged into a deeper grief one which Crewe used as a catalyst for what was to come next.

You couldn’t help but feel empathy and sorrow for this young vulnerable woman, a father unable to cope moving them into the town, leaving Keely to grapple with a new alien life. A new job on the road took Keely’s father, his abscences grew longer until he was gone, Keely alone, adrift, bereft, slowly sinking into alcohol and one night stands for company.

In another town Crewe gave us Finn, another lost soul, fostered by an older couple. Life is difficult when you don’t fit in, when being alone is the only way to be. Again Crewe pushed our empathy buttons, as Finn grappled with growing older, getting a job until an old school friend sparks the creativity within him. A band is formed, and finally we see the real Finn the one that revels in being part of something, of being able to stand in front of a crowd and perform. For the first time there is happiness until the band goes on the road, nights in a cold van, uninterested crowds in scummy London pubs.

Defeated, the return home is subdued but a stop off in a north eastern town sees a meeting of two lost souls. Keely and Finn are meant to be, Crewe igniting the passion, the ability for each to find comfort and solace in the other. Was this it, two soulmates destined to live happily ever after?

Maybe the weight of grief, mental anguish was too much for each to bear and this was where Crewe excelled. The closeness that became a chasm, the self destructive path each took, the potential disintegration of love. Each sought their own happiness, their own path and I suppose success in some small way. Yet for both it was grief and feelings so long subdued that Crewe drew to the surface, that had to be confronted, rationalised and overcome.

The future hung in the balance but Crewe infused glimmers of hope that the reader clung to, unsure of the ending.

Whatever the ending, True Love was brilliant and emotive with characters steeped in reality that this reader loved.

3.5★
“They just walk, up into the dunes where they can see the sea stretch out, and both of them pause to look at it, just as every seacoaler does before heading down to work. Calm, says her da.”

PART ONE: SEACOALER

Not only have I never heard of a seacoaler, it never occurred to me that there would be so much spilled coal and chips washing up on a northern English beach that people could make a meagre living out of shovelling it into bags and selling it.

The first third of this book is about Keely and her father, a seacoaler, and the tragic circumstances in which they live in a small community of workers in caravans above the beach. The people are all struggling but do what they can to help. This is told from her viewpoint.

“Befallen. She’d heard Miss Collins use that word, and in that moment she’d known that she would always remember it. A tragedy had befallen them. It made the whole thing sound unreal, as if it had happened years and years before, in a time when she wasn’t alive, in a time that had had nothing to do with her.”

Perhaps other people don't comprehend how badly she has been affected, but Keely knows. She tries her best to keep her da from sinking into despair while trying to keep her own spirits up.

She tells Miss Collins, the teacher, that she won’t go back to school. Instead, she will work with her father and the others with the coal. One day, she sees Miss Collins leave a bag of books for her, and Keely discovers what reading can do for the soul.

“For the first time . . . she abandoned the contents of her own mind and entered someone else’s. Page after page went by, and she was surprised by how much she could understand, by how much these different lives she was reading about – lives lived long ago, in circumstances utterly divorced from her own – could so precisely skewer her own feelings, were capable of offering truths that thrust greenly up through the scorched landscape of her own mind, and were hers to keep and wield as she pleased.”

MIss Collins continues to leave books, and Keely grows up, reaching adulthood before we move on.

“PART TWO: SPURDOG”

The second third of the book is given over to Finn, a lonely young lad, whose story is told from his viewpoint.

“He’s never lived anywhere else. He has no memory of either of his parents and knows almost nothing about them. He’s been told that they’re still alive, but that’s about the measure of it. Both went their separate ways when he was too small to remember them, but neither, apparently, had deemed him worthy of bringing with them.

He lives with his mam’s parents, his nan and grandad. They’ve made it clear that they don’t like to talk about their daughter.”

He speaks as little as possible, becoming almost mute, and avoids school bullies as best he can. He finds solace at the river, collecting bits and pieces that he keeps in a box under his bed – things he can handle that soothe him when he’s anxious.

Sometimes, when he thinks about his mother having lived in the same house, it makes him glad, but sometimes it disturbs him.

“He wonders why feelings must always be like this: never one, definite entity, but forever branching and splintering into rivalrous factions, all of them forced to bunk with one another in the cluttered dark of his mind.”

Finn also reaches adulthood as part of a band (unlikely as that sounds), before we move on to their shared third of the novel.

”PART THREE: SNOW”

The last third of the book (the part that I imagine people compare to Sally Rooney novels) is about their destined meeting, and whether or how they can rely on each other for support and comfort and a future together, or whether they will burn out and implode.

“Both, in their own way, consider themselves to have undergone a radical change. Adulthood – previously a distant and unwelcome prospect – has arrived to claim them; but rather than feel the grief they’ve so often heard accompanies the abandoning of youth, they feel euphoric, liberated, gifted a sense of command over their own lives that it seems suddenly absurd they were ever without. It’s an addictive rush, this new-found control, and both of them feel high on it,…”

I’ve quoted a lot so you can see a good chunk of the writing. I particularly liked Crewe’s first book, My Name Is Yip, which was unusual in so many ways. With this book, in spite of the writing, I became one of those terrible readers who keeps criticising the pace and the progression of the story/stories. If I'm loving a book, those things don't even cross my mind.

I admire Crewe’s facility with words, his expressions and phrases and his insight into these people. He knows what makes them tick and how they hurt. I understood them, but I didn't particularly care what happened to them.

If you are a fan of Sally Rooney, you may well love this one, I think.

NQW: No quotes warning, a courtesy for those who won’t read without that punctuation.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Penguin/Transworld for a copy of #TrueLove for review.

The novel will open and then break your heart. Stories about struggling children are my kryptonite, and Keely and Finn are protaginists you can't help but want to scoop up out of the book and take home. The presence and absence of love are equally present here, and the story is lyrical, emotional, and beautiful; it will stay with you long after reading.

This heartfelt tale of a couple who, largely due to circumstances, are unable to fully experience their lives how they thought they would, also develops into a fascinating story of a band, and an exploration of missed chances. I found the central relationship a beautiful one, lovingly rendered with moments of real power and heart.

It keeps you hooked and intrigued, whilst dazzling with its language.

An emotive portrait of grief, belonging, class, trauma and learning how to… love, when life’s given you every reason not to. My copy is more than slightly dog-eared for all the musings Crewe expresses through Keely and Finn, from their loneliness to their anger to their capacity for love to their coping mechanisms to their joy – just so beautiful. I thought it would be a five-star but I couldn’t get on board with the conflict and complete lack of reasoning behind it. That said, the ending had me on the edge of my seat holding my breath; the anxiety was palpable and I couldn’t believe that after all that, Crewe was capable of even more tugging at the heartstrings.

This book was tragically heartbreaking, filled with lots of engaging characters and very emotional in parts.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

What does it mean to love and be loved? This experience of connection and vulnerability is complex indeed; of course, there are many types of love. In this searingly raw read, Paddy Crewe explores love with compelling and affectingly profound empathy.

Somewhere in the North East of England, near the sea, our main protagonists, Keely and Finn, are living troubled lives.

When we first meet her, Keely is twelve, living with her caring but grief-stricken father and her little brother, William. It’s a hard life, eking out a meagre living picking sea coal, and the caravan where they live is functional but only just. After tragedy strikes, she desperately searches for a means of escape, for some small comfort in the harsh world, one that doesn’t seem to care very much about her.

Finn is an introspective child brought up by his grandparents. He is always on the outside looking in, barely speaking, unable to find the words to articulate how he feels about the world. He’s an easy target for bullies and made fun of by those who see him as a misfit.

When Keely and Finn meet, their connection is instant and young love blooms. They only want to find a safe haven, a place where they can be their true selves, but is this enough to save them?

I read True Love way back in June, and these wonderfully constructed, vibrant, complex characters still live rent-free in my head, which is a sure sign of a great book.

Get the tissues ready, as this heart-on-sleeve storytelling is bound to have you sobbing. 4.5⭐

Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance copy. As always, this is an honest review.

Well, this little beauty has left me feeling quite untethered; by its sparkling prose, by its unforgettable characters, and by a structure as clever as it is unique. As for that ending! It takes my breath away every time I think of it.

As the title suggests, True Love is indeed a love story, but to describe it as such is as reductive as calling Pride and Prejudice a Regency romance. Yes, it’s about romantic love, but it’s also about sibling love and love between a parent and child. Paddy Crewe explores all of these versions with a raw, searing empathy that’s both compelling and profoundly affecting.

Our two protagonists, Keeley and Finn, are superbly crafted, bringing to mind many a tragic literary hero and heroine. We get to know them separately; the first quarter of the book devoted to Keeley, and the second to Finn. By the time their paths cross, we know them intimately and ache for the tough hand life has dealt them. As two lost souls, with deeply troubled pasts, it comes as no surprise that they are drawn to one another. More than soulmates, they are each other’s salvation.

But, in the words of Shakespeare: “The course of true love never did run smooth.” And this is an aphorism that Crewe scrutinizes with devastating precision.

At its heart, True Love is a study on loss, grief and abandonment, about being “different,” and on the power of love to soothe and mend even the deepest, bloodiest of wounds. It’s the story of experiences that bring people together and keep them together, proving that the truest love is that which survives, even when tested to its limits.

I cannot express just how much I loved the structure of this narrative. It has a unique kind of rhythm, a gently modulated seesawing that builds to an unexpectedly wild crescendo, where words, voices crash together in a spine-tingling union that made my heart race.

This is only Paddy Crewe’s second novel, but what an extraordinary talent! I’m beyond excited to see what he delivers next.

Keely is twelve when we first meet her, she lives with her caring, but remote father, and her little brother, William. They eke out a meagre living picking sea coal and the caravan where they live is functional, but basic. When tragedy strikes, Keely must try and hold everything together but she doesn't know how to shoulder the unbearable burden of grief which hangs about her shoulders like a cloud. She searches for a means of escape, desperately seeking comfort in a world which doesn't seem to care very much about her.

Finn is an introspective child, brought up by his grandparents, he is always on the outside looking in, and although perfectly content with his own company, he remains a lonely child, an easy target for bullies and made fun of by those who see him as some kind of misfit. On the surface these two lost and lonely souls would never have met but as this hauntingly beautiful story unfolds we start to discover that sometimes the stars align and what will be, will inevitably, be.

True Love wrapped itself around me like a blanket and even when I wasn't reading it my thoughts returned to Keely and Finn, two of the most memorable literary characters I have met in a long time. Whilst the story is a complex study into the fragility of relationships it is also desperately sad and deeply moving. It’s the story of two people searching for something only to have life get in the way and though desperate for a happy ever after ending, I knew that life isn’t always kind enough to give us what we want. Strong and beautiful the essence of True Love lingers long after the book is closed and Keely and Finn’s story is finally told.

This one punched me straight in the stomach. The family that live by the sea in Ireland - their lives are not as simple as it sounds. It's full of heartbreak and hardship. This is a book in the same category as Shuggie Bain, and just as emotive.

Somewhere in the North East of England, Finn and Keely are struggling to find connection in their lives, dealing with grief and loneliness, as we follow them from their childhoods into adulthood, in this honest and empathetic book by Paddy Crewe.

‘True love’ has such a strong opening, with Keely frantically searching for her brother amongst the sand dunes, who she lives with in a caravan in a camp along with her dad, who collects coal from the beach to sell locally.

Finn is quiet and sensitive, and lives with his grandparents. He cuts a lonely figure, playing by the river by himself as a child, content in his own company. He struggles with life as he moves into adulthood, adrift from his peers and seen as a bit odd.

From the title you can probably guess that Finn and Keely eventually meet, and by that time I found myself really hoping the characters would find happiness together. I suppose that depends on whether or not you believe another person can complete you, but Finn and Keely are so lonely and unhappy that I just wanted them to wash up together on a shore and cling together.

The writing itself is lyrical yet understated, the two lead characters both deft creations. They lived in my heart for the duration of this book, and I often found myself thinking about them when I sat the book down. The ending reaches a crescendo, with a poignancy and elegiac quality. There’s also a grittiness to story, that keeps it grounded.

What is true love?

It’s a book not just about the romantic love between two people, but the love we seek from the people around us. Many of us simply want to feel a connection, and the book made me think of ‘The lonely century - How to restore connection in a world that's pulling apart by Noreena Hertz’ and ‘Lost connections’ by Johann Hari. There’s also the love between siblings, paternal or maternal love (or lack thereof). What sustains us?

I found this to be a moving read, with fleshed out characters that I cared about. It’s a book about the importance of family and belonging, about loneliness, about grief and love - in all it’s forms.

beautifully written novel about two people who have been propelled together by their own personal circumstances.

Told from both perspectives Keely and Finn are two young people who don't really fit in and feel like outcasts in society. This book spans across their younger years and the years spent together.

Will definitely recommend this book!

"This, she is realising, is one of the things men are best at: turning their backs on the things they're meant to love and walking in the other direction."

Keely grows up lonely but loved. Her mother died when she was young. Her father spends his days doing backbreaking work dredging for coal in the sea off Ireland. But tragedy drives a wedge between her and her da and grief follows them both, reaching a breaking point.

Finn is being brought up by his grandparents. He too is lonely. He barely speaks, unable to find the words to articulate how he feels about the world. As a young man, he finds this ability in music, but this is short-lived.

When Keely and Finn meet, the connection is instant. Love blooms. But is it enough to save them both?

This story about love, grief and loneliness is rendered in heart-wrenchingly beautiful prose to the point where I wiped away tears. These themes are etched into the plot, and explored with deftness and aplomb.

Keely and Finn jump off the page, three-dimensional characters who feel real enough to touch. They're full of depth and I felt so protective of them. Keely, especially, stole my heart.

My only real criticism of the book is that the relationship between the characters develops too quickly. I've never been a fan of insta-love and I feel like the tensions between Keely and Finn would have been more pronounced and their heartache more profound if there had been more of a build-up.

Otherwise, I cannot recommend this stunning, lyrical novel enough.

True Love by Paddy Crewe is an extraordinary novel that explores the many facets of love through its deeply compelling characters.

The story follows Keely, a young girl who, after a tragic loss, becomes reclusive and finds solace in books, and Fin, who grows up with his grandparents and discovers his voice through music. Their eventual meeting is intense and transformative, highlighting their struggles and the redemptive power of love.

Crewe's writing is both beautiful and poignant, capturing the complexity of love and its impact on our lives. This book is a profound exploration of how love can both heal and hurt, and it left a lasting impression on me.

http://thesecretbookreview.co.uk

✨True Love by Paddy Crewe✨

"𝑫𝒊𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆? 𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅.
𝑬𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕?
𝑻𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆, 𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅. 𝑫𝒊𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑫𝒂?"

Keely and Finn have both been left shattered by heartache as they grew up. Dealing with grief and crushing loneliness, they both long for the relief and comfort of love. True Love builds both Keely and Finn’s stories, and paves the path for them to meet - could they be the answer to what the other so desperately seeks?

True Love is a quietly devastating story written in the most beautiful prose. The author shapes and moulds two unforgettable characters in Keely and Finn, almost like an artist sculpting two intricate, exquisite forms from stone. They lifted off the page and gently took up residence in my heart, as I let myself drift along with them. Of course, letting yourself get involved with characters like this (which cannot be avoided in this book), means when tragedy or tribulations happen to them, it can feel like a punch in the gut.

The book is about love, of course, but not only romantic love. It’s about the love we all seek as a basic human need, and the love we are often missing because of tragedy, or even just the imperfect people who surround us in our families. While there is much to be bereft about throughout this novel, there is a sense of hope at the end, something to twitch my mouth into a smile amidst a flood of tears. A profound and memorable book, its core beauty in the authenticity of the characters, I defy you not to fall in love.

Astonishingly engrossing story that makes you want to read everything Crewe has already written and writes in the future.

It’s a coming of age story for Keely and Finn, who have various childhood traumas and brings us into their early years of parenthood in their early twenties.

I was completely hooked and loved the way the story was told, with a big back story for each of the characters, then individual pieces interwoven on the same page as the years progressed.

Completely raw.

Gifted. I read an Arc from Random House UK.

What is true love? This book asks the question and tries to answer it, all while breaking your heart. Keely and Finn are two young people, both from difficult and impoverished backgrounds. Both are loved in a way but not enough.
In the first 2 sections of the book we meet them separately and watch them grow up, dealing with tragedy, extreme isolation and bullying, abandonment and more. Yet there are points of warmth and hope in both their lives. As we get the point that they meet, both have been let down again and are desperate need of something good in the lives.
The final third covers their relationship - how love to transform a person and a life - yet how an inbuilt tendency for self destruction can ruin something wonderful.
This is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve read. The descriptions of their lives and surroundings are astonishingly detailed and vivid. Keely and Finn are brought utterly to life so you read their coming together with so much hope for their future. Desperately sad yet giving you the hope that love can drive people to a better place.

The power of love, the good, the bad and the tragic

With such a high concept title, you would be forgiven for thinking that this was a romance. There IS a romance, but that's not really what this book's about. It's about the power of love, what love can make you do, both the good things and the not so good.

The first third of the book is narrated in third person present tense about Keely, a daughter without a mother, who faces tragedy after tragedy until she is left alone with only drink to succour her. Then the next third of the book shifts to a boy-then-man, Finn, a lonely child with only his maternal grandparents who grows into a lonely young man who storms the local rock scene with a Svengali-like best friend. And then they met, and it was... love?

Really, this novel is about love in all its forms: paternal and maternal, fraternal, platonic, personal, adulation, love at first sight, lust, sacrificial, selfish love. Keely and Finn are both fairy tale abandoned children, looking for the one to be their other, and too late they realise what's exactly in front of their eyes in a conclusion that takes up barely a chapter.

A technically interesting novel, but emotionally opaque, with language that belies both the child characters and the adults they become, the floridity in parts breaking the spell of suspended disbelief. I see what Crewe is trying to do here, perching tight on the shoulders of his two main characters, but the structure relies on the reader investing in each protagonist to the end,; meanwhile the book focuses wholly on one, and then the other, so that by the time they come together the reader is just expected to believe that one form of true love can spark up between these two broken characters. And it just doesn't ring true.

Three stars.

A poignant, descriptive and heartbreaking book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy

Keely has grown up with her Dad and young brother at a caravan camp by the coast, mining coal from the sea and delivering it to locals. When tragedy strikes, Keely’s life is upended. Finn has grown up with his grandparents, never having known his parents. Shy, uncomfortable in his skin and awkward with those around him, he can’t seem to find his place in the world. When Keely and Finn’s paths cross, they are two broken, lonely souls, at odds with the world around them and yearning for connection, affection. They find it in each other, consumed by a love at times beyond their understanding; but is love enough to move on from past traumas, to leave old versions of themselves behind, and to keep them living in the present, looking to their shared future.

This one broke my heart; such beautiful, lyrical writing that balances both a quiet stillness and intensity with an absolute depth of feeling and visceral emotion. Set mostly in 1980s Northern England around the colder months, Crewe deftly and atmospherically conjures the bleakness, the seeping chill, the harshness of the landscape and climate. The first warmth we see is at the peak of Keely and Finn’s love, before dipping back into winter’s chill. Keely’s relationship with her father is beautifully explored; a man who has lived a hard existence and who loves his daughter in his own awkward way but is drowning in grief. Finn’s grandparents try to do their best for him but a wall remains between them.

This is a novel about grief, loss, abandonment, and the ways we handle them; about trauma and the ways we carry forward; about our pasts that haunt us and come calling, no matter how much we try to push on. It’s about knowing ourselves, who we are; the people and places we have come from. It’s about the unclosable distances between people, the things that hang heavy but remain unspoken. It’s about the need to be understood; to be listened to without interjection, to be stood by silently and solidly. It’s about love in all its unfathomable complexity. Keely and Finn, and their story, will get under your skin, and stay with you long after.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the DRC.