I defy you not to feel a tug on your heart strings if you read The Best of Everything by Kit de Waal, it is such a beautiful book about kindness, found family and hope. As always with this author it is the characters that are the heart of this story and I think that Paulette and Nellie in particular will live long in my heart and my memory.
Paulette, the central character of the story is an immigrant from St Kitts in the Caribbean now living in London and working as a health care assistant in a hospital while dreaming of her wedding to Denton, the love of her life. When Denton is tragically killed in a car accident the course of her life is changed completely and she finds herself forming some very unexpected relationships that will bring great joy and great heart ache to her life. The growth of Paulette over the course of the book is its main driving force and I found myself rooting for her even when she made choices that I struggled to understand - I may even have shed a tear or two at the triumphant ending.
This is book is a love letter to the characters, and if you love character driven stories with interesting family dynamics this book is a must read for you.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I read this in a sitting, revelling in every word-perfect sentence and compelled to turn page after page. This is a beautiful, important story about kindness that will almost, almost break your heart, and then make it sing. Reader, I cried. And Sweet Pea, Bird, Shirt and Tie, and Nellie will live on in my heart just as Leon does. Kit de Waal's best work yet.

Every now and then, you read a nocel that sweeps you into the heart of this emotionally charged narrative.
Our protagonist is Paulette, a young woman working as a health care assistant in a London hospital. Originally from Bassaterre on St. Kitts (Christopher) in the Caribbean, Paulette has been living in London since she was eleven years old and dreams of returning to the Caribbean for her honeymoon with her love Denton. Paulette's dreams are cruely destroyed when Denton is killed and she finds herself grieving and alone. As life continues, Paulette struggles to find meaning in her life and it is only with the arrival of her son Bird, that she truly begins to live again. And then, she encounters 'Nellie', a young boy, of similar age to her son, who is badly in need of a mother and Paulette's actions, will impact on all of their lives over the coming decades.
The characters are beautifully and vividly drawn in The Best of Everything. It is so easy to imagine the setting and to find the characters pulling at your heartstrings. Poignant and uplifting.
This is a novel that I'll both buy for myself and as a gift for others.

I've read Kit de Waal's writing before, and this affirmed me to why I love it: there is so much heart in this book (as well as delicious West Indian cooking!). I found myself thinking about Paulette even when I wasn't reading the book, and both boys (Bird and Nellie) and their trajectories in life will stay with me for a long time. No-one writes working class histories like de Waal, and I'll be buying a copy of this when it comes out properly - it's one to savour, and to give to your friends, family and found family.

I haven't read anything by this author before. Perhaps if I had, I would have known what to from the description of the book. I don't think it is well-described. And that tripped me up at the start and I couldn't quite engage with it. I even thought of not reading it all. That would have been a mistake!

Paulette is a superbly drawn character, as are those that orbit her world. This is a story that is at times gentle, surprising and full of forgiveness and redemption.