ABOUT THE BOOK

Are you suffering from a broken heart? Searching for the right medicine? Staring down the barrel of being single and not knowing where to start? Learn from Grace Callaghan! She’s done it all:

• Wine is the answer. Some serving-size suggestions include: a glass the size of your head, a bathtub, an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Best served chilled, and with a straw.
• Friends with benefits is always an option. Be prepared for side effects such as the guy saying ‘baby’, crying out his ex’s name and preferring to keep his socks on.
• Going ‘out out’ helps banish the blues. It may involve breaking into replica ships from the fifteenth century, screaming ‘Aye-aye, Captain!’ and accidentally falling off the plank.
• Karaoke makes everything better. Best enjoyed singing Enrique Iglesias, followed by an extra-large serving of fries.

Three years ago, when Grace’s heart was blown to smithereens, she made a promise to protect herself. But has she gone too far? Has she played it too safe? Should she take a leap into the unknown, messy business of the heart? Because maybe, just maybe, she could learn to love again…

This hilarious and totally gripping tale is for anyone who’s questioned their qualifications at life, and learned that a little bit of wine goes a long way! Fans of Shari Low, Sophie Kinsella and Why Mummy Drinks, be warned: prepare for odd looks when reading this in public due to the ugly laughing it induces.

MY REVIEW

Holy cow! Yet another Callaghan sister has won my heart. What a heartbreaking and inspiring book about loss, motherhood, and family. Right from the very first page with a letter written by a dying husband to his wife, this book will grab you and never let go. You will ugly cry and laugh so hard you’ll wet yourself as Grace Callaghan takes a journey to survive her loss and conquer motherhood like a warrior all with the great advice from the sisters Callaghan and the many friends she has met through her beloved husband, Tom.

Grace battles her grief for her charismatic and loving husband, Tom, every day as she reads the letters he wrote her on his around-the-world teaching excursion. A three-year hiatus after college when he left her alone to find himself not knowing what would come of them. His dying wish was for her to travel to those same destinations to meet the friends he made and during one of those meetings at the age of twenty-eight, she adopted two Vietnamese girls Maya and Cleo who had lost their parents. Maya and Cleo’s grandmother Ba Linh would save Grace from sinking into a black hole of grief and helped her to find purpose. Grace returns home and puts all her energy into motherhood and her relationship with the girls is uplifting and funny as Grace deftly deals with school-gate and bullying PTA members.

In typical Kristen Bailey fashion, there are several LOL moments from the school biting incident to the swimming pool throwdown. I love Grace’s quiet and firm confidence. She is honest and tactful as well as playful and kind. She even has a man friend with benefits and nothing more. Grace’s friends and family are fierce and would do anything for her as evidenced when a ceremony celebrating a new school wing in Tom’s honor brings all of them together.

If you haven’t picked up a Kristen Bailey book, you are missing so much. I have read all of her books on the Callaghan sisters and each one is better than the next…okay, that’s a lie…they’re all fantastic reads. See my reviews at Has Anyone Seen My Sex Life?, Can I Give My Husband Back?, and Did My Life Shrink in the Wash?.

I highly recommend you take a life-changing journey with Grace as she battles her grief, becomes a kickass mother, and finds peace in her life. 

Thank you to Ms. Bailey for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mother-of-four, gin-drinker, binge-watcher, receipt hoarder, enthusiastic but terrible cook. Kristen also writes. She has had short fiction published in several publications including Mslexia & Riptide. Her first two novels, Souper Mum and Second Helpings were published in 2016. In 2019, she was long listed in the Comedy Women in Print Prize and has since joined the Bookouture family. She writes women’s fiction and she hopes her novels have fresh and funny things to say about modern life, love and family.

Follow Kristen on her website, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

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