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The premise of the story is captivating and remains that way until the very end. We are introduced to many different characters who, despite mistakes they may have made, I grew to love by the end. The family dynamic between the characters has the potential to be complicated, but the author completely pulls it off. It's this that many readers will relate to as there are so many families that are different from the 'Norm'.
What follows are chapters from each family’s members viewpoint, her sister Alice, her brother Will, her mother Belinda and her father Tony. As there were so many characters to get to know I thought things might become quite confusing but it was easy to follow each of their individual storylines and I enjoyed seeing how at some point they were bound to come together. The absence of Leni is felt keenly by her family and by the reader too. You are desperate to get to know her and to read things from her perspective but you know this can’t occur but the further the story develops you do get a sense of who she was and how integral she was to the family and how loved she was. Belinda is dealing with her grief in a different way and her partner Ray is extremely worried about her. Hours spent talking to Leni through a psychic hotline may be bringing Belinda comfort but deep down surely she must know that this is not real at all? She may be finding short term comfort but long-term acceptance seems very far away. As her ex-husband Tony seems to have had a revelation/wake up call when it comes to his own life situation Belinda starts to realise things from the past which she desperately wanted kept hidden could be about to break through the surface. Can a lid be kept on something she and someone else have been sitting on for years? Or will a new can of worms be opened up?
For Lara and her daughter Eliza, it has always been just the two of them. But when Eliza turns 18 and wants to connect with her father, Lara is forced to admit a secret that she has been keeping from her daughter her whole life. Eliza needs answers - and so does Lara. Their journey to the truth will take them on a road trip across England and eventually to New York, where it all began. Dreams might have been broken and opportunities missed... but there are still surprises in store. I love Lucy Diamond books and this one did not disappoint. The characters were so well written, with each persons individual journey and development always leaving me wanting more. Some characters are loveable from the start, some grow on you as you go through the story, and absolutely nobody is perfect. The different family dynamics in the book are truly relatable and I was left rooting for them all to resolve their issues together. Grab your napkins and brace yourself for a very emotional, heartbreaking, bumpy road ahead! 'The best day of our lives' is a beautiful story about love (in so many ways), grief, strength and overcoming your pain to build something amazing out of it... Although the novel has moments of sadness it also encompasses hope and the importance of having a strong support network.
I only thought about this in retrospect, but the book was me processing the ‘what if?’ In hindsight I was trying to figure out, ‘how would I cope, what would I do?’ Lots of us have been through this and have been very scared during that awful time that was Covid-19. I don’t think anyone has been untouched by it.” But I found this one to be just ok, I didn’t love it and I didn’t dislike it so I guess I’m somewhere in between. Even better is the sensation of being let into other secrets not all the characters know, but I won’t spoil the story by saying more! Reminding us how to fly Belinda Lenis mum is having a hard time dealing with the death of her daughter. She is in touch with a clairvoyant who she believes she is convening with Leni through. She is also thinking of selling the family home and setting up a b&b with her new boyfriend. The characters in the book were beautifully written, I loved getting to know their stories and how they all pulled together was heart warming.Thirty-something sisters Leni and Alice became inseparable following the divorce of their parents, Belinda and Tony, with younger brother Will always trying to keep up. Enjoy the convenience of having The Sunday Post delivered as a digital ePaper straight to your smartphone, tablet or computer. Lucy Diamond is one of favourite authors. Her books are easy to read and great to snuggle down to, on a cold autumn night.
Lucy Diamond writes with such warmth and her compassionate characters really shine in this story - Gen was a particular favourite of mine. A bittersweet ode to the highs, the lows, and all the shades of living in between, The Best Days of Our Lives is Lucy Diamond at her absolute best. Prepare to be charmed! * Laura Jane Williams * The Best Days of Our Lives by Lucy Diamond a beautifully written book from start to finish but you may need some tissues handy. Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for allowing me to read an advanced reader copy before publication date! 😊 I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Quercus and I am leaving this review voluntarily.Everyone is keeping secrets and the thing about secrets is that they will all be revealed in the end. Digital Reads A Curse For True Love : the thrilling final book in the Once Upon a Broken Heart series Now with her 18th, The Best Days Of Our Lives, just out, and the last of her “babies” preparing to fly the nest for university in Edinburgh, Diamond recalls those good-old-bad-old days: “I decided to give the novel a go, but there was no safety net at all. We didn’t have a lot of money. That was in 2002. I gave myself six months.” Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Every Friday Mercy Hamilton goes to the same supermarket. She doesn’t go to buy groceries, instead, she shows a fading photo of a little girl to anyone who’ll look – begging for help to find her daughter. One Friday, Erica Fielding comes across Mercy, and touched by her story, Erica agrees to help. As Erica is drawn deeper and deeper into Mercy’s life, she discovers there is no record of Mercy’s daughter. In fact, there’s no record of a child at all. But who is the girl in the photo if not Mercy’s missing daughter? And what danger will Erica find herself in by pursuing the truth? There’s such depth that it’s hard to accept that all the people here – Alice, Belinda and Will in particular – are not real people. I felt their emotions every bit as much as they did because I believed in them so completely. The mystery of Leni’s last few weeksWhere Lucy Diamond does excel is in her character creation. Main or supporting, old or young, female or male…they’re all so well written. And the extended family as a whole. It’s a great exploration of a dysfunctional family without straying into the pantomime. No one writes about family like Lucy does. This is a masterpiece in how broken people negotiate and ultimately survive the worst that life can throw at them. It's an absolutely beautiful book * Milly Johnson * One thing I really liked was how everyone’s stories were interconnected. It’s unsurprising that the parent’s and children’s stories link as they’ve all lost the same person, but there are some secondary characters that pop up here and there that help tie it all together. It helps create this sense of community and the importance of friendship and love. Set over the course of one life-changing year, The Best Days of Our Lives is a warm, big-hearted and poignant story, full of hope, heartache and love. Leni and her sister Alice were best friends as well as siblings. But did they know each other as well as Alice thought? In the hope of coming to terms with her grief, she tries to piece together Leni's last weeks - but her discoveries only lead to more questions. And that's before the surprise reappearance of someone from the past. Life is certainly getting very complicated...
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