Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Unfortunately I was unable to get in to this story and had to put it down, however, I'm sure it is a highly loved book and appreciated by the right readers.

This was a sweet read with an interesting and inspiring premise. A quick weekend read, the only real problem I had was that I didn't find Thelma all that likeable and therefore wasn't as intune with her journey. 3 stars.

“The burden of habit. The joy of habits. The unchanging pleasure of family rituals. Those little day-to-day gestures that define us and that change everything.”

Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for my ARC

This book really makes you realise how precious life is and how you need to make the most of everything life throws at you. It shows that we moan a lot about insignificant things in our life instead of being grateful for what we have, it's definitely one of those books that really made me think about the way I live my life and how I can change it for the better.

This is such a wonderful, hard hitting story and I really loved it so much. I am not a mother yet, however this book still resonated with me, it is so well written which helps the reader to relate.

The only negative thing I can say about this book is it is too short, I would love to have read more. I feel like the story was tied up way too soon. It had so much potential, and whilst it lived up to some of that potential it could have excelled further.

I would recommend this to everybody thinking about reading this book.

3,5 Stars

Thelma's son Louis (yes, he is named because of the 90s movie and ideally should have been a girl) is in a coma after an accident with no sign of any brain activity. The doctors give him another month to wake up, otherwise they will stop the life-sustaining measures.
Faced with this deadline, Thelma is determined to fulfill Louis' bucket list that she finds accidentally in his room. And so she spends the next 30 days in unexpected situations.

I find the idea of the mother ticking off the things from her sons bucket list very heart-warming. It's a great idea! BUT, and this is a major but: if this means that I'm away from my son, the person I love the most in the whole wide world, for more than only a couple of hours a day, I wouldn't do it. No way! Especially if the chances are high that these are the last days I might get to see him. On the other hand, Thelma is doing it not only to fulfil her sons dreams (which in itself would have been a grand gesture), but most importantly to tell him about it and thereby bringing him back to the world of the living.

There are several items on this bucket list, and Thelma ticks them off to the best of her abilities. But some things are actually a bit weird for a 12 year old! Writing a letter to your 10-year-older self? Stripping off in a classroom?? Seeing a traditional wedding in Tokyo??? Those are really the dreams of a 12-year-old boy? I'm not convinced.
Still, I quite enjoyed reading this story, but then got a bit disappointed by the sudden and abrupt ending. And instead of an epilogue we only get a letter by Thelma writing to herself in 10 years time and what she hopes will have happenend by then. But will this become a reality? I can only wonder...

“The burden of habit. The joy of habits. The unchanging pleasure of family rituals. Those little day-to-day gestures that define us and that change everything.”

It’s strange how quickly when we are stressed, other people’s habits can become irritations: the pile of clothes on the floor, the toast crumbs on the kitchen side or the constant failure to replace the loo roll! And yet they’re all little reminders of the people we chose to share our lives with. In the Book of Wonders, Thelma’s son Louis has an accident that puts him into a coma just moments after a minor disagreement. Thelma spends the next month working through Louis’ Book of Wonders, doing all the things on his bucket list to try and coax him into consciousness, including travelling to Tokyo and to Hungary. The central message of the book is one of hope and redemption. A reminder to grab life with both hands and not to waste a second of the sheer miracle of our existence. There were parts of the book that I enjoyed, the rave in the Budapest Sauna and Thelma’s time in Tokyo, but the narrative felt rushed and superficial. There was limited exploration of the characters’ emotions and it all came together a little too easily. Perhaps it was my mood, but there wasn’t enough darkness to allow the light to shine through.

Thank you for the opportunity to read 'The Book of Wonders'.

This is a charming and uplifting story of a mother attempting to fulfil her son's bucket list while he is in a coma. It is an easy read and I loved the bucket list.

Definitely recommend!

Thelma is a single mum with no time for anything other than her career. When her son Louis runs away and ends up in a coma after being hit by a lorry, Thelma sets off to fulfill his bucket list for him, filming everything along the way so Louis can experience it all when he wakes up. A lovely, heart-warming story.

I really enjoyed this unusual take on a bucket list story (and will be looking up the original to read on French!) Thelma is a single mum with a high powered career and little time for anything or anyone else. After her son, Louis, runs off because she's on a get another work call, he is hit by a lorry and ends up in a coma, with no vital signs at all. Looking through his room at home, Thelma finds Louis' "book of wonders", a list of things he wants to experience and achieve. In a desperate attempt to get her son to wake up before they turn his life support off, Thelma decides to go out and experience them for him, filming them all for Louis to 'watch' from his hospital bed.
What follows is a wonderful story of a woman waking up to what is actually important, starting to live again and rediscover relationships with others again. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to reread it in French!

The Book of Wonders is a novel translated from French about single mum Thelma and her 12 year old son, Louis. Thelma is career-driven and successful, all she needs is her job and her son. But one day, when a traffic accident leaves Louis in a coma, her whole life is thrown into turmoil. The doctors tell her that Louis has 30 days to recover before they will have to look at whether to keep his life support on or not.

One day Thelma discovers a 'Book of Wonders', a book full of bucket-list ideas, under Louis' bed. She decides to try and tick off as many of the goals as possible whilst her son can't, and hopes that her daily updates will bring him back and show him how much he has to live for. The Book of Wonders leads Thelma on trips around the world to Tokyo and Budapest, and helps her to make new friends and reconnect with estranged family members.

Considering the subject matter, The Book of Wonders is surprisingly feel-good and a very easy read. I sped through it over the bank holiday weekend - I really liked it!

This book an absolutely lovely story and I'm really glad I chose to read it. The novel was superbly written by Julien Sandrel and the characters he created were fascinating to read about. Once I started it and didn't want to put it down. The pacing was perfect for me and there were many laughs and teary moments.

"The Book of Wonders" was a very poignant tale of emotions and accomplishments and I would happily recommend it.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Quercus Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

This book could have been dark and heart wrenching but the author was able to make it full of light, hope, and tenderness.
I liked the plot, even if it takes some suspension of belief especially if a member of your family was in a coma, and the fleshed out characters.
Thelma grew slowly on me and I appreciated the change from career obsessed woman to a multifaceted character.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

4.5 stars
The Book Of Wonders is a delightful, fun and heart warming read that was perfect for curling up with on the bank holiday. It’s flowing style and funny action made it an easy read which I finished over two days, no mean feat with three kids.

The book follows Thelma as she tries to cope with her son being in a coma and the guilt she feels for not being there more from him. After finding his Book Of Wonders she decides to start living and experience new things by following her son’s wish list. This leads to some heart warming and utterly hilarious situations that made me laugh out loud at times. I loved the descriptions of the places that they visited, especially Tokyo and Budapest. I’d love to go visit them myself at some point and maybe experience some of the things they did as if all sounded wonderful!

Thelma was an interesting character who took me a little while to warm to as I didn’t like her much at the beginning of the book. However her open and honest narrative of everything she’s going through and the way she beats herself up over what had happened made me sympathise with her. It was great to follow her on her adventures and watch her develop into the wonderful lady she becomes.

The narrative was quite fast paced and there was always something happening to keep me absorbed in the story. Some of the situations Thelma finds herself in are perhaps a little unrealistic but for me that was part of the fun of this book and added to my enjoyment of the story. The ending was wonderful and I found myself tearing up at how far everyone has come. I’m trying not to give too much a way but I hope that there are places like where they end up as I think they are really needed.

Huge thanks to Milly Reid for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Quercus for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

When twelve year old Louis is badly injured in a road traffic accident, his mother Thelma is devastated to discover that Louis has secretly made a bucket list of all the things he wanted to see and accomplish in his life. However, with only a limited time, before the doctors need to make a decision about Louis' future, Thelma decides to work through this bucket list and record her experiences in the hope that it will aid her son's recovery.

The Book of Wonders is a salutary story about fulfilling your dreams as you never know what is going to happen. As in Louis' case, a freak accident changed both his and his mother's life forever, and yet, testament to Thelma's determination, that even though she was grieving, she drew on every ounce of her resilience to try to bring hope to her damaged son.

Sometimes its important to take a moment to stop and consider what's important and I think that's where the strength of this novel lies, in that, even though the story has the potential to be a sad and rather dark story about loss of hope, what the author has in fact done is to make this a really hopeful story about finding strength, courage and resilience in the face of great adversity. It's not an overly sentimental story and there were moments which made me smile, so all credit to the author for writing an uplifting story about a sad subject

A quick easy read. I enjoyed the story but I could not get past the fact that if my daughter was in a coma I would not leave her side. I would not be leaving to go on any trip no matter how justified it seemed.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This book is beautiful and wonderful all in one. It’s about a teenager called Louis and his mother Thelma. Thelma is very career driven and doesn’t seem to have a lot of time for anyone let alone Louis her son. Louis has an terrible accident and he is left in a coma. Thelma is heartbroken and realises what she has missed. She goes into his room and find a note book that Louis has called his Book of Wonders- like a bucket list. With time running out until the doctors decide to switch his life support machine off Thelma goes through the Book of Wonders and one by one ticks off things off the list and records then for Louis for him to listen to them.
This book is so wonderfully written and the characters are both strong and interesting. There is so much more to the story- I read this in one day I started it and couldn’t put it down.
Highly recommended read.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Quercus Books for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review

Originally published in French, The Book of Wonders tells the story of Thelma, a single mum with a successful career in a large beauty and makeup company, and her pre-teen son Louis. Thelma is nailing life, managing career and parenting...or is she?
The book is written in a style that is easy to read and a lovely flow to it. I enjoyed the telling of the story by from the different perspectives of Thelma and Louis and the humour and vulnerabilities that they each brought to the story. The way each of them had a different understanding of their relationship, as is probably true of most parent/child relationships.
The story demonstrates how easy it is to be so consumed by one area of life that you miss the beauty of the other possibilities around you.
I laughed and cried at this book, and I thought that the book’s namesake was a beautiful idea that I am tempted to create for myself.
Overall, an easy read that I absolutely loved.

Honestly, I was a little nervous when I realised that this was a translation from the original French novel. the last time I read such a book, the contents were rather dark and disturbing, and the translation didn't help the unease I felt whilst reading!

I really shouldn't have worried though.

What a 'Wonder'ful book! (Sorry!)

Imagine being a successful career woman, and a single parent to a teen who was being a typical teen. The tussles and joys of bringing one of those up are never really thought about until something major happens...

... a tragic accident, followed by the news that your precious child is on a coma. You might never get to live those moments of grief and happiness with him again...

Thelma is in that exact situation, yet instead of wallowing at the bedside of her inert son, she accidentally finds a book he had written in, like the beginnings of a bucket list: all he wants to do in life - well, all he had thought of, up to his accident. His Book Of Wonders

The doctors are reluctant to give much hope as to whether he will ever wake, setting a time upon when the machines will be shut down.

But this mother has some hope.

Along with her own mum, and a bevvy of newly acquired friends, she embarks upon a month-long journey to try and fulfil all his wonders, filming them as she does, in the hope that hearing the videos might just jolt him back to life...

I shan't tell you the ending, but what I will say is that within a tragedy, Julien Sandrel still manages to weave humour, romance and smiles.

It was an easy read, a pleasant read, and sometimes, that is exactly what you need. Not too many complications, but a lovely story that offers hope in a world of craziness.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Publishing for an ARC in return for an honest review.

No one knows how they would react to their son being in a coma. I feel the author of this book has gave us a viewpoint which we maybe wouldn't take but that every one rests differently. To do all the things your son wanted to do and record them is wonderful. It's a goood feeling book in the middle of a tragedy.

I was expecting this book to fill me with joy...unfortunately, it just didn't quite get there.

The premise of the book is that Louis, 12, falls into a coma after an accident (no spoilers there). His mother, Thelma, finds 'the book of wonders' under his bed, which lists things which Louis thinks would be cool to do before he dies. Thelma decides to set out to do these things on Louis' behalf, sending videos for the nursing staff to play to Louis, in the hope it will awaken him from his coma.

I thought from the blurb that I would love this book and be unable to put it down, but it just didn't happen for me. I didn't get the feeling that I was 'there' with Thelma on her adventures, and the 'book of wonders' was very much a 12 year old boys ideas, which is great, but didn't really suit Thelma doing them. Doing the things from the book with a load of ready cash and being able to drink alcohol took a lot away from the experience as those are things Louis would not have been able to enjoy on his experiences, so felt inauthentic.

Sadly, the book was extremely predictable and I didn't think the ending was any kind of surprise.

Disappointing and tough to get through. What a shame.