You know a book is going to be a favourite of the year when you're chilling out listening to the audiobook and suddenly sit up and gasp at something that has just happened. This book has some of my favourite features of a novel, multiple timelines, multiple narratives and revelations you never saw coming!



One of the other things I truly and deeply loved about this book was that it deals with the immigrant experience. I know a lot of books deal with people who have been through the immigration experience and have a language barrier or a cultural barrier but it can be just as tough and experience when you move from one English speaking Western country to another. There are still cultural hurdles to tackle and still immigration worries to face and so I was so pleased to find those written about in such an in depth and sensitive way as they were as part of this story.



I really loved reading both Bea and Lucy's stories. I loved that we got to switch between the two of them and yet we always got to keep in tough with the location and family that unites them. I was pleasantly surprised that we don't just get to hear about Bea in present day Brooklyn but also past Bea whether that was one year ago or many years ago. I felt like we got to know a lot more about Bea as a fully formed character than we did Lucy but that was for some VERY good reasons. We get to meet Lucy when she first boards the ship to Ellis Island and the experience of being a young Irish Girl in The Big Apple for the first time. I felt like I could really sympathise with Lucy and I loved getting to know her story as the novel progressed.



Although there are a lot of adventures to be had in this book there is some sadness and tragedy too and so this book overall could definitely be described as a bitter sweet novel but as a first time reader of this author I was just so impressed by the depths that this story goes into whilst still keeping up the pace of the breadth of the novel. I really loved this book and I highly highly recommend it.

Haven't read any Carmel Harrington books before so was interested to try this as I love this genre. Started slow found the back and forth in time a bit difficult to follow in audio but once I got the characters the story took off. With a few twists some expected more unexpected - with a final twist just as I thought it was wrapping up ! Will definitely try other books by this author