Curiosity, a willingness to explore and accept the full range of reactions and feelings, brings the ability to be grateful for all that our emotions and bodily sensations can teach about the human experience. It can prod one to look beneath the surface of appearances, to discover substance beneath an introvert’s quiet or emptiness underneath glitter. Trying out a new role, developing a new skill, investigating a possible future self can bring honesty and inner direction and with them the self-respect that lies at the core of loving oneself. Beautiful descriptions of Cornwall. Something different from the city/ small town descriptions I usually read.

Merrin Kellow is young and vibrant. Merrin is marrying her person. The one that completes her. The one that makes her happy. The one that she loves, she is looking forward to marrying Digby Mortimer. Their families have a long history in their costal town town in Cornwall. She is the daughter of fisherman and Digby lives in the big house. In their community everyone knows everyone and it is the wedding of the year until it becomes something different. It changes everything for Merrin that she leaves the town she loves, the people she loves to rebuild all that she has lost. We love places. We can easily attach to a place with particular meaning to us. Whether because of our history in that location or our aesthetic response to it. The field of environmental psychology explores this love. Some scholars have even argued that we imprint onto the geography where we are born and are forever attracted to a similar landscape. In a more limited way, people can create a home that they love and ensure that it helps them access nourishment for body and soul. Merrin is a terrific main character, but the rest of the side characters are equally wonderful! I loved the sister relationship between Merrin and Ruby, and their best friend Bella was hilarious.

My experience of Amanda Prowse's novels, gained over the past few years, had me eagerly anticipating this book. It's replete with family drama and romantic disappointments, but the basic underpinning is a deep-seated love for the small seaside town with its natural beauty and tight community where lead character Merrin finds her strength and soul satisfaction. In the end, life does go on with some happy resolution for a number of key characters, including Merrin.

When Merrin has to return to the village for the wedding of her beloved sister, she takes the very handsome Miguel with her, and tried to put the ghosts of the past behind her. The ending made me feel so many things. I would have thought Love is not something we "fall" into, claims Keen, but a complex art combining many skills and talents that take a lifetime to learn fully. At the center of his book are sixteen distinct "elements of love": ranging from attention --a precious gift we can bestow on co-worker, friend, child, and spouse alike--to more exclusive gifts like desire and sexuality . Combining stories, poems and quotes with insights from modern psychology and spiritual tradition, Keen brilliantly explores the elements of memory and solitude in love, the importance of both enjoyment and commitment , and how we can cultivate the essential qualities of empathy and compassion . Each piece ends with suggestions for strengthening our daily practice of the element, so that we constantly enlarge our ability to love in all our relationships.

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His marriage proposal took her by surprise. She didn't doubt his feelings, but she didn't understand what was the hurry. They were fine as they were, and they were so young. But she was so in love that the thought of all the time they could spend together once they were married tipped the scales. The wisdom imparted in this book is something I never want to forget. All of us have been quoted little sayings and quips from our parents and Grandparents. With this family being from Cornwall, they have some unique words of wisdom. I enjoyed the rich coastal setting and the captivating characters in this story but felt Merrin overreacted to an admittedly horrible event. It cost her dearly in the end. I also couldn’t accept the last-minute addition of a love interest who becomes the love of her life- all in the last chapter or two of the book. I think it would have read better if she woke to the realization of how much the chef meant to her. A popular TV and radio personality, Amanda has appeared on numerous shows where her views on family and social issues strike a chord with viewers. She also makes countless guest appearances on BBC national and independent Radio stations including LBC, Times Radio and Talk FM, where she is well known for her insightful observations and her infectious humour. Described by the Daily Mail as ‘The queen of family drama’ Amanda’s novel, 'A Mother's Story' won the coveted Sainsbury's eBook of the year Award and she has had two books selected as World Book Night titles, 'Perfect Daughter' in 2016 and 'The Boy Between' in 2022.

You continue to work at practicing your new behavior, but it’s not a struggle any more. ... Some people simply remain in this stage. In this life-affirming tale from bestselling author Amanda Prowse, one woman built a new life to escape her humiliation. Now, can she put the shame behind her and finally find happiness? Merrin is eagerly looking forward to her wedding and marrying Digby. But, on the day, she’s left jilted as he doesn’t show. Not wanting to be in the town where everyone is talking about her, she moves away, from the lovely village she grew up in and her family to start a new life. She’s thriving in the job she’s doing, and meets someone, but she feels it’s not the same as what she had before. Merrin led a simple, quiet life that made her very happy. She needed nothing more than to be near her family, to walk barefoot in the grass and to have the sea breeze tousle her long hair.

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This book was a little outside of my comfort zone. I don't really do romance, but again, I'm not sure I can class this book as a romance either. Sure it has a wedding in it, the whole story is centred around Merrin's marriage not happening, and her later relationship with Miguel, but then again, I don't feel like the romance was ever the main factor of the story. I feel like this story circled a lot around Merrin's darkening sense of self. At the start, she's a pretty simple character. Happy, settled, and looking forward to a simple future of being a wife and a mother, but by the time the book ends, she's almost too independent, which I understand is because of Digby. I didn't like how she treated Miguel a lot of the time, when the man was clearly head over heels for her, she decided to keep him on a string, which was a little toxic in my opinion, but it added complexity to her character which is always a positive. Deeply moving and emotional, Amanda Prowse handles her explosive subjects with delicate skill' - Daily Mail Amanda has such a unique gift of understanding and explaining everyday lives and events which makes the reader connect to the characters so easily. As I was reading the book I was matching some of the characters to people that I know in my life and the similarities were remarkable. Also some of the life experiences I have had were so well portrayed it was like the author could read my mind. From a trusted advisor and devoted friend of Mother Teresa comes a “powerful” ( The Washington Free Beacon) firsthand account of the miraculous woman behind the saint and a book that is “rich in reflection on contemporary sanctity” (George Weigel).

I hold my hands up and say that Amanda Prowse as one of my favourite authors, she never fails to produce fantastic books and I’m always looking forward to any new books she writes.. When Merrin is left at the altar waiting for the groom that never shows she is completely heartbroken. She moves away and starts a new life far from her family and the lovely seaside village she grew up in and loved with all her heart. It is only the death of her beloved father that brings her home.There possibly could not have been a better name for this one. We may, at times, take for granted the love we are surrounded with without realising that … "It is surely the best gift you can bestow upon one another: to love and be loved."