Kiltie’s Advent Book Calendar – 13th Dec

Single All The Way by Karen King; Bookouture

Page Count (e-book) – 286

The Blurb:

Single together for the first time, 34-year-old Meg and her warm-hearted, long-suffering mother Sally are cancelling Christmas, and running away to a tiny cottage on the Cornish coast. For Meg, it is the perfect place to heal, away from all the mistletoe, while for her mother it has a special, and secret, place in her heart – from a love story that seems a lifetime ago…
Meg and Sally find they’re getting to know themselves, and each other, better than ever before. But as they are unable to resist getting involved in the village Christmas celebrations, they encounter two handsome local strangers.
Sometimes, it’s being away from home that helps you realise where your heart is. What neither woman knows is that, by the time the new year rolls around, one woman will have fallen in love with her husband all over again, and one marriage will be over for good…

My Review:

This was a glorious read of a book which makes you look at the family unit from all sides.

For entirely different reasons, Meg, and her mother Sally, find themselves leaving their husbands and heading off to Cornwall to lick their respective wounds and support each other through the painfully emotional days ahead. Ms King has managed to portray the exact balance of enjoying time with a parent or child alongside finding being constantly in the presence of a parent / grown child frustrating and difficult, exceptionally well. Throw a slightly overbearing brother into the mix and you have a story that is a prefect representation of so many families.

What is most interesting about this book is that there are no bad guys in it. It looks at the same relationship from all sides and the reader finds themselves sympathising with all the characters involved. 

The description of the little Cornish village is lovely and the welcome Meg and Sally receive there goes a long way towards taking their minds off their troubles and reminds them that they can still laugh and have fun despite the pain in their hearts. There are also a few interesting village characters who make more than a small impact on their lives and, in doing so, help to lead them towards the decisions they make about their futures.

This is not the longest of books and I read it in twenty-four hours. It flows well and every character is interesting and certainly brings something to the party. This is the first Karen King book I have read but I’ll certainly be checking out her previous releases in the New Year.

Available in e-book and paperback on Amazon