I found this quite hard at the start - mainly due to the chopping and changing of time/place and person, but once I had gotten used to it - I really enjoyed it.
Dan got right on my nerves for most of the book. Moany and selfish, he was difficult to empathise with.
Really tragic parts, and the emotional rollercoaster of infertility and IVF was heart breaking at times!
Good read - if you can stick with it.

This was a book that really had me hooked. Characters that you can relate to, Dan the husband made me feel really angry. An emotional, real life book that was well worth a read.

What a heartbreaking, but completely amazingly addictive read. This book is not my normal genre, but I did really enjoy it, although I was crying during it many times. I thought that it developed the characters amazingly enough to have them go through some very heart wrenching ordeals and persevere. An emotional read, but amazing.
Will be using in a daily challenge, as well as recommending to the members of Chapter Chatter Pub!

I found this a bit confusing to start with but it turned into a real roller coaster of a read. Highly recommended

A book about, love, growth, family, loss, pain, triumph, and forgiveness.
What happens when you are young in love and begin your life together already with loss?

With that the characters dan and kate grew together, they loved, the grew apart, they existed together until they could not exist anymore.
Told from the point of views and experiences of Kate and the children, you can experience the loss, loneliness, and judgement cast. Can you eventually forgive to come full circle?
Read this heart warming story and find out.
An enjoyable read that is easily relatable.

Definitely recommend.

Author Vivien Brown's new release, Five Unforgivable Things, takes the reader through the frustrating, heartbreaking journey of the IVF experience. While her book is fiction, she has drawn upon her own real life experiences  to provide the depth and detail necessary to reveal the emotional struggle of the main characters. Not only does Brown convey the devastating lows and euphoric highs of the experience, she subtly portrays the thinning out of a marriage in the process. Love slowly degrades to tolerance, and then to disdain, even as the sought after family becomes reality.

The view points of Kate and Dan, a young couple ready to start a family, are represented well in this story. Kate becomes obsessed with the idea of a pregnancy, while Dan, an accountant, sees the crushing debt mount while shouldering the financial burden. Both continue down the path toward a family by IVF after rejecting other options.

After several trials the procedure is successful, and the happy family life the new parents have long imagined can begin. Reality sets in once inescapable exhaustion and bills overwhelm them both. What they thought would be their greatest joy someone begins to drag down the marriage. Tragedy befalls the family, and hard feelings, can't be shaken and life isn't what they had anticipated.

Vivien Brown has provided the reader with an engaging plot, a sincere couple and likeable kids, and a story with several engaging plot twists. Glad I received the copy and had a chance to review this story.

Thank you to NetGallery, the publisher and Vivien Brown for the opportunity to review "Five Unforgivable Things." All opinions and thoughts are completely my own.
Beautiful story....about how a family will stay together no matter what.
The struggles, mistakes and finally the forgiveness.

This book was the first for me for this author and won't be the last. All the feelings in this book were real. Tears good and bad. Love this book!


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an early release of this book.

I would like to thank Harper Impulse and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Five Unforgivable Things’ in exchange for my honest unbiased review.

This book is full of heartbreak, twist and very emotional. It goes from past to present day and back again, so it is almost like you are following 2 stories. But you do need the past and present in order for you to have the complete picture as the story goes on.

I started reading this and I was hooked- I was sucked in and just wanted to know what was going on next and what the unforgivable thing where.
Enjoy

I absolutely LOVED this book beyond words! This was a heart gripping story about the trials and tribulations, the joy and heartache, the love and loss of a family. From the unique way that Dan and Kate met in the early 1980’s and the desire for them to marry and have children together down to the struggles they endured during IVF treatments and the family they managed to have, you will be captured by their story.
The way this book was organized into 5 parts or “unforgivable things” made reading it so natural. It was as if I was part of this family myself, a sister to Jenny, Natalie, Beth and Ollie, daughter to Kate, wife to Dan. It was an emotional rollercoaster that left me not wanting to turn the last page!
Often the reader identifies with a character from the story they read making it real for them. This story was so unique for me because I related to Kate as a mother, Natalie, Beth, Jenny, and Oliver as siblings, and even Laura (Ollies wife). Viven Brown did such an amazing job placing me in the story. I always felt like I was there with them. When they were cooking in the kitchen, I felt like I could smell the aroma. When they were in their small house with 3 crying babies and in the middle arguing about money and family time, I felt the utter hopelessness that Kate felt.
Viven Brown balanced the heartache and tragedy with joy and unconditional love that brought this family together, perfectly! And side note…. she did an unbelievable job keeping the reader in suspense as to the story behind Jenny. I won’t say any more. Just read it!
I just can’t say enough about this book. I loved Viven Brown’s style of writing! 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I absolutely LOVED this book beyond words! This was a heart gripping story about the trials and tribulations, the joy and heartache, the love and loss of a family. From the unique way that Dan and Kate met in the early 1980's and the desire for them to marry and have children together down to the struggles they endured during IVF treatments and the family they managed to have, you will be captured by their story. 
The way this book was organized into 5 parts or "unforgivable things" made reading it so natural. It was as if I was part of this family myself, a sister to Jenny, Natalie, Beth and Ollie, daughter to Kate, wife to Dan. It was an emotional rollercoaster that left me not wanting to turn the last page!
Often the reader identifies with a character from the story they read making it real for them. This story was so unique for me because I related to Kate as a mother, Natalie, Beth, Jenny, and Oliver as siblings, and even Laura (Ollies wife). Viven Brown did such an amazing job placing me in the story. I always felt like I was there with them. When they were cooking in the kitchen, I felt like I could smell the aroma. When they were in their small house with 3 crying babies and in the middle arguing about money and family time, I felt the utter hopelessness that Kate felt. 
Viven Brown balanced the heartache and tragedy with joy and unconditional love that brought this family together, perfectly! And side note.... she did an unbelievable job keeping the reader in suspense as to the story behind Jenny. I won't say any more. Just read it! 
I just can't say enough about this book. I loved Viven Brown's style of writing! 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is about the journey of a family as they navigate toward a path of forgiveness and to keep their family together due to multiple events that took place, The author did a remarkable job writing about infertility, IVF, the loss of a pregnancy, multiple births, disability, amongst other things. Have tissues handy, as this is one book that makes you feel for the characters! I would not be surprised to see this chosen as a book club selection!

More than just a family drama, this novel is packed with secret, betrayals and deception and full of unexpected twists and turns.

Kate and Dan wanted a family but didn't quite realise what they would have to go through to achieve their dream. This is the story of their lives over twenty years and more, and it's a fascinating tale.

Getting to know the Campbell parents and offspring makes for interesting reading; we meet the members singly as well as a family unit. With an upcoming wedding, it is an eventful book. A beautifully woven tale merging all the happenings into a compulsive and thought provoking read. Well written, this author knows how to pull the readers in and keep them hooked. What you see isn't always what you get and the revelations come at all speeds, so it's wise to keep your wits about you. This is a damaged family - in more ways than one and it gives much food for thought. Was the cost of creating a family too high? Read the book and find out!

My thanks to publishers Harper Impulse for approving my request via NetGalley. This is my honest, original and unbiased review.

Firstly, what a clever title! It keeps you guessing throughout – what could the next unforgivable thing possibly be? However, I wasn’t expecting the emotional rollercoaster that this book took me on. It’s a suspense novel with a difference. With themes of infertility, pregnancy loss, IVF, multiple births, disability and more this story of a family trying to stay together and forgive each other will resonate with so many readers. For some people it may be cathartic but if you are going through any of the above issues it could be upsetting so have the tissues handy!
The family relationships are convincing and relatable and it is a charming well written story. Ultimately it is about a family learning to forgive each other for certain mistakes and wrong decisions and also a ‘be careful what you wish for’ warning!
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Impulse for the opportunity to read and review this great book.

Having read the author's first novel, Lily Alone (which, incidently, is a great debut), I jumped at the chance to review Five Unforgivable Things.

The story is told from Kate's point of view, going back to the early days of her marriage to Dan, and then the present day in third person as we go through the preparations for Natalie's wedding, supported by her siblings.

Throughout the book we learn of the secrets which have had devastating effects on the family. It is very emotive and heartbreaking in parts, as we learn of Kate and Dan's struggle to have a family through IVF back when it was in its infancy.

The relationship between all four siblings is lovely - they are very close and protective of each other. But there are secrets even between them.

I love the way Vivien Brown has written the characters. Kate grows from a timid kitten, unsure of herself, into a tiger, fiercely protective of her children.Natalie is not defined by her wheelchair. She is a lovely, warm character without any bitterness, and a determination to succeed in whatever she does - just like any other strong woman. In fact, brother Ollie is perhaps the most fragile of them all.

Five Unforgivable Things is a heartbreaking but ultimately heartwarming tale of secrets and forgiveness, and love and family. I loved it.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to read this book as I dealt with infertility and it is quite taxing.

My heart just broke for Kate and Dan and their struggles; emotional and physical.

It was very well written.

Don't let the title fool you: this book is not about unforgivable things. Rather, it's very much about forgiveness.

Dan and Kate's marriage feels pretty real. Some days they love each other deeply, other days they are distant strangers. They both make mistakes (one of them makes far more grievous errors, I do believe), and they have to figure out how to respond to those mistakes, both as a couple and individually. Vivien Brown doesn't just tell you about their relationship, but about their children, too. You get in their heads and see what they're going through, and not much of it is pleasant. Actually, I guess I should say that not all of it is pleasant. They have some good times, and they have some joy in their lives, it's just that they tend to focus on what's going wrong.

Ultimately, though, the point of this book is the power of forgiveness. Characters hurt each other, sometimes cruelly and heartlessly, But within them is a capacity for compassion and reconciliation. It is vital that we remember that and that we give each other the chance to ask for our mercy.

Some of the subplots work better than others, and some of the characters are better developed than others. Sometimes you will feel your emotions manipulated, and sometimes you will feel genuinely attached to characters. This book is not always evenly told, but yet it grabs you. The infertility subplot is poignant and relatable. I can see book clubs devouring this one.

This is a bittersweet read. Parts of this book broke my heart. Kate and Dan want a family. IVF and the result is more costly emotionally than they ever thought it would be. This is very well written and I went through a rollercoaster of emotions reading it.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This book was equally hear-breaking AND heart-warming. Oh, the feels! This is a good "make you cry" book, I enjoyed it, and look forward to reading more by Vivien Brown.

Twenty years ago, Kate became pregnant. She and her husband Dan had been struggling to start a family for years, and thanks to the wonder of IVF they finally did it! But at the time, neither of them realised what price they had to pay for making that wish come true. Family secrets, betrayals and five unforgiveable things tear this family apart over the next twenty years.

My first book by this author, but the book sounded so captivating that I just had to read it! I just had to find out what the five unforgivable things were! I love books with lots of family secrets, something you can really get involved in, and this was certainly one of those books! Initially, it took a bit of time to get to grips with the characters as there are quite a few of them but once I’d worked out who was who I really got into the story and became hooked. Kate was the most likeable character and I felt so much for her throughout the story.

It was a gripping story of relationships, love and family, but not all in a good way! There was plenty of heartache and pain and the book had me in tears at various points throughout! The storyline was strong and it had me thinking long after I’d finished the book that you don’t realise what you do at the time can have so many repercussions in the future and affect so many people.

A heart-breaking, yet heart-warming story of families, secrets and forgiveness. I would definitely recommend.