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calturner's review
4.0
Review to be posted as part of the upcoming Blog Tour. Thank you to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this lovely and moving gem of a book.
zooloo1983's review
5.0
I am writing this with the tears still fresh on my face as this book has just completely moved me. It is safe to say that when Hilary’s next book comes out in 2019 I will be the first person to want to read it and I need to catch up with her back catalogue! I flew through this book today, I read a couple hundred pages without even realising it, I couldn’t put this down. An insight into this family, the “drama” unfolding, watching and waiting for the light to come to us.
With this book, I got the ending I wanted but the journey it took to get there was one of a heartbreak, and realisation that life is just too short. One of my favourite thing about this book was how it was not two twenty-somethings trying to resolve their life and find meaning. This was Stella and Jack, in their sixties! They were married before, and due to the most overwhelming soul destroying event that happened, they had to part ways not seeing each other for years. Then the summer when their daughter Eve was pregnant, needing her mother for the summer, Jack and Stella see each other.
This book is a beautifully tragic story, I am still emotional! Life is just too short and this book proves it. This book is so character driven, mainly told from the point of view of Stella, but we do get glimpses of Eve and Jack too. We also have flashbacks to the past, when Stella and Jack were younger and in love.
I must admit I did not warm to Lisa, nothing against her really but she is written this way. I did not want to like her, she was with Jack. I did not want her to be with Jack, but then I liked Iain who Stella was with. Crazy I know!
Could their love survive another go?
There were times when I was shouting at the book! I was getting frustrated, why can’t things be so simple! Instead, the conversations were guarded, there was hostility, this was not the way it was meant to be! I love the simple life, why could they not! Other times I was cheering, things were going to (my) plan and it was perfect. A lot of the time, I was bawling my eyes out, how could Hilary do this to me! Yes me, I take it all personally lol.
I love this book, and I urge all of you to read it, maybe have a couple of tissues with you. You are left with the warm fuzzy feelings, hope and a final acceptance of how life is and how it could be.
With this book, I got the ending I wanted but the journey it took to get there was one of a heartbreak, and realisation that life is just too short. One of my favourite thing about this book was how it was not two twenty-somethings trying to resolve their life and find meaning. This was Stella and Jack, in their sixties! They were married before, and due to the most overwhelming soul destroying event that happened, they had to part ways not seeing each other for years. Then the summer when their daughter Eve was pregnant, needing her mother for the summer, Jack and Stella see each other.
This book is a beautifully tragic story, I am still emotional! Life is just too short and this book proves it. This book is so character driven, mainly told from the point of view of Stella, but we do get glimpses of Eve and Jack too. We also have flashbacks to the past, when Stella and Jack were younger and in love.
I must admit I did not warm to Lisa, nothing against her really but she is written this way. I did not want to like her, she was with Jack. I did not want her to be with Jack, but then I liked Iain who Stella was with. Crazy I know!
Could their love survive another go?
There were times when I was shouting at the book! I was getting frustrated, why can’t things be so simple! Instead, the conversations were guarded, there was hostility, this was not the way it was meant to be! I love the simple life, why could they not! Other times I was cheering, things were going to (my) plan and it was perfect. A lot of the time, I was bawling my eyes out, how could Hilary do this to me! Yes me, I take it all personally lol.
I love this book, and I urge all of you to read it, maybe have a couple of tissues with you. You are left with the warm fuzzy feelings, hope and a final acceptance of how life is and how it could be.
portybelle's review
4.0
I have enjoyed Hilary Boyd's books ever since I read Thursdays in the Park some years ago so I was delighted to have the chance to read this book ahead of its release later this month.
The book begins with a very romantic scene between Jack and Stella, who are clearly a young couple very much in love and who seem just perfect for each other. Fast forward thirty odd years and we find that Jack and Stella have split up. Both have new partners: Jack is married to the much younger Lisa while Stella has been in a relationship with Ian for some years though they don't share a home. When their daughter Evie experiences difficulties in her pregnancy while her husband is working far from home, they find themselves reluctantly having to spend time together while they support her and their grandson Arthur. With two significant anniversaries looming, they find themselves forced to think about what tore them apart all those years ago.
This is a difficult book to review without giving too much of the plot away but I will try my best. What Jack and Stella went through as a young couple was unbearable to think about. Hilary Boyd writes so perceptively about their emotions and through occasional chapters set in the past really explores what went on and how they reacted. You'd need to be really hard-hearted not to feel for this couple. Even although how they behaved, Stella in particular, sometimes seemed irrational, it is hard to see how you could behave rationally in such a situation. I know this is all a bit vague but I really don't want to give away what happened. Hilary Boyd's skill is in showing just how her characters felt and responded and how their earlier experiences reverberated throughout their lives. Jack and Stella clearly still have feelings for each other, can sense that deep love they once had for each other. You really feel that the time has come for them to really talk over their feelings so they can move on with their lives.
In The Anniversary, Hilary Boyd really gets to the heart of the relationships and feelings of her characters. I particularly like how she looks at love through the eyes of older characters, characters who have much to contend with. Characters who can be pulled in many directions as a parent, as a grown-up child, as an employee, as a husband or wife, as a lover. As she rightly says herself, there is no age limit for falling in love! The Anniversary is a poignant and moving story.
The book begins with a very romantic scene between Jack and Stella, who are clearly a young couple very much in love and who seem just perfect for each other. Fast forward thirty odd years and we find that Jack and Stella have split up. Both have new partners: Jack is married to the much younger Lisa while Stella has been in a relationship with Ian for some years though they don't share a home. When their daughter Evie experiences difficulties in her pregnancy while her husband is working far from home, they find themselves reluctantly having to spend time together while they support her and their grandson Arthur. With two significant anniversaries looming, they find themselves forced to think about what tore them apart all those years ago.
This is a difficult book to review without giving too much of the plot away but I will try my best. What Jack and Stella went through as a young couple was unbearable to think about. Hilary Boyd writes so perceptively about their emotions and through occasional chapters set in the past really explores what went on and how they reacted. You'd need to be really hard-hearted not to feel for this couple. Even although how they behaved, Stella in particular, sometimes seemed irrational, it is hard to see how you could behave rationally in such a situation. I know this is all a bit vague but I really don't want to give away what happened. Hilary Boyd's skill is in showing just how her characters felt and responded and how their earlier experiences reverberated throughout their lives. Jack and Stella clearly still have feelings for each other, can sense that deep love they once had for each other. You really feel that the time has come for them to really talk over their feelings so they can move on with their lives.
In The Anniversary, Hilary Boyd really gets to the heart of the relationships and feelings of her characters. I particularly like how she looks at love through the eyes of older characters, characters who have much to contend with. Characters who can be pulled in many directions as a parent, as a grown-up child, as an employee, as a husband or wife, as a lover. As she rightly says herself, there is no age limit for falling in love! The Anniversary is a poignant and moving story.
inspirationalley's review
5.0
I sat down to read for a few minutes and found that I couldn't put the book down. It had everything I look for in an easy read - a believable plot, well-crafted characters, well written and moving.
The story plots the relationship between Stella and Jack, two people deeply in love until they are torn apart by the tragic death of their son. Twenty-five years later they are thrown together again whilst supporting their daughter through a complicated pregnancy. Both are now with new partners, but there is still unfinished business between them before they can move on with their lives.
This is the first Hilary Boyd novel which I have read, but it won't be my last. Beautifully written, poignant, love, loss and conflict, what more could I want? Highly recommended.
The story plots the relationship between Stella and Jack, two people deeply in love until they are torn apart by the tragic death of their son. Twenty-five years later they are thrown together again whilst supporting their daughter through a complicated pregnancy. Both are now with new partners, but there is still unfinished business between them before they can move on with their lives.
This is the first Hilary Boyd novel which I have read, but it won't be my last. Beautifully written, poignant, love, loss and conflict, what more could I want? Highly recommended.
noveldeelights's review
3.0
Here is something I often wonder about. A relationship fails, people move on and live their separate lives, and then one day, sometimes even decades later, they find each other again and decide to give things another go. Why? Do people change that much? What happened to the thing that made them split up in the first place? Is it no longer an issue?
Meet Jack and Stella. Once happily married, they have now been divorced for over two decades. Jack has remarried, Stella has a longtime partner and they haven’t seen each other in years. But now their daughter needs help and Jack and Stella will be bumping into each other on a regular basis, whether they like it or not.
There’s an especially devastating event that caused their marriage to hit the rocks back in the day. Neither has dealt with it particularly well. This is definitely the case for Stella, who has built a rock solid wall around her heart to protect herself. But this behaviour has had an effect on a lot of people, including her daughter. And for myself, as the reader, I found her quite hard to warm to.
The Anniversary is an emotional story about family, grief and loss with complex characters trying to navigate through complicated relationships. Any child of divorced parents knows how difficult it can be to have both parental units in the same place but in this case, there is also a massive elephant in the room and a need to somehow let go of the past.
This novel has you rooting for the characters and wishing for a happy ending. Although maybe not all that surprising with regard to the plot, it’s the characters that make this a wonderfully immersive and poignant read.
Meet Jack and Stella. Once happily married, they have now been divorced for over two decades. Jack has remarried, Stella has a longtime partner and they haven’t seen each other in years. But now their daughter needs help and Jack and Stella will be bumping into each other on a regular basis, whether they like it or not.
There’s an especially devastating event that caused their marriage to hit the rocks back in the day. Neither has dealt with it particularly well. This is definitely the case for Stella, who has built a rock solid wall around her heart to protect herself. But this behaviour has had an effect on a lot of people, including her daughter. And for myself, as the reader, I found her quite hard to warm to.
The Anniversary is an emotional story about family, grief and loss with complex characters trying to navigate through complicated relationships. Any child of divorced parents knows how difficult it can be to have both parental units in the same place but in this case, there is also a massive elephant in the room and a need to somehow let go of the past.
This novel has you rooting for the characters and wishing for a happy ending. Although maybe not all that surprising with regard to the plot, it’s the characters that make this a wonderfully immersive and poignant read.
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