fbpx

Digital Reads Reviews

This post contains affiliate links for products and services I recommend. If you make a purchase through those links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Life can change in 30 seconds and leave us devastated in 60 seconds. What can I say about grief? It affects all of us in different ways, and sometimes there are no right or wrong ways, just ways which are both right to each other.

Finn and Bridget have moved houses with their sons, 16 year old Jarrah and 2 1/2 year old Toby. The family lives a happy outdoorsy kind of routine life in the new place with sea and the swimming pool and fun. When tragedy strikes one morning….

The book by Jesse Blackadder deals with the aftermath of that tragedy and the way the members of the family deal with it in the next 36 days. Told from the POV of the parents Finn and Bridget and teenage son Jarrah, their emotions, their sacrifices, and their dilemma just seeps into the pages.

The story has been written based on the tragedy which occurred in the author’s life 40 years ago, and that makes it all the more poignant. The book made me feel all the emotions, the days prior and post tragedy were well shown. The book had its niggles. Only the mother’s POV was written in second person You, and that made it odd reading for me, it broke my rhythm. And the ending felt a bit rushed and different.

Overall, an emotional read on a Tuesday afternoon.

I received an ARC from NetGalley, and publisher St. Martin’s Press, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!!

All my reviews can be found here

Would you read such a book where the story pivots on a tragedy?

Jesse Blackadder is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, freelance journalist and a budding screenwriter. Her novel The Raven’s Heart won the Benjamin Franklin award for historical fiction, and she was awarded an Antarctic Arts Fellowship for her novel Chasing the Light.

The Brennans―parents, Finn and Bridget, and their sons, Jarrah and Toby―have made a sea change, from chilly Hobart, Tasmania, to subtropical Murwillumbah, New South Wales. Feeling like foreigners in this land of sun and surf, they’re still adjusting to work, school, and life in a sprawling purple clapboard house, when one morning, tragedy strikes.

In the devastating aftermath, the questions fly. What really happened? And who’s to blame? Determined to protect his family, Finn finds himself under the police and media spotlight. Guilty and enraged, Bridget spends nights hunting answers in the last place imaginable. Jarrah―his innocence lost―faces a sudden and frightening adulthood where nothing is certain.

Publication Date: 19th March 2019

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

25 Responses

      1. Same Shalini. They accepted one time. And I am even doing a book tour for them, because they contacted me personally to host the book tour for them, now figure that one out! I think their all nuts at St. Martins Press 🤣

        1. Hahaha…. Lucky you… I keep requesting, they keep rejecting… We have a love hate bond. 😂😂😂
          The reasons they give are so flimsy 😂😂

    1. Last Tuesday… I think I had an off and I was lazing around on my couch unwilling to do anything, I even ordered a take-out🙈🙈😂😂

    1. It really was… I think I read these stories in a week hence the box of tissues got done by the time I reached the weekend 😂😂

  1. I don’t know why I assumed that this is a thriller. I love a good, emotional read. This sounds great though heavier since it touches on the author’s life. Still one I’d like to read though. Great review.

Awesome to see you here. Let's chat.

Digital Reads Media/ Reviews blog is featured on 

KINDLEPRENEUR

New Books Alert

Click on the cover

always amy
June 21, 2023
reckless
June 1, 2023

Authors, if you would like to have your books mentioned in my newsletter and post, kindly contact me here.

If, after subscribing to my newsletter, you would like to put your books for review, then the link is here

Send me the details of your book so that I could have them on the sidebar and in my newsletter

Before you go, subscribe to the newsletter

February – March Giveaway – 1 Amazon GC US$5

%d bloggers like this: