4.5 stars - I love stories like this. Stories simply about life. Sometimes beautiful, oftentimes painful and complicated. Good choices, bad choices, no choices. Love, friendship, hurt, joy, regrets, missed opportunities, introspection, self-discovery. These are the things I can easily insert myself into and let the writing surround me. I am always entertained, but so many times I learn something I can take out into the world with me.

The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright is a good first purchase title for adult fiction collections where uplit and titles like Eleanor Oliphant is Completely fine are popular.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love that you see the various perspectives in this book. If my reviews tell you anything its that I LOVE dual perspectives and this just ticked that box for me.

It was a great read, I enjoyed every moment of this book and it stuck with me after. I absolutely devoured it. I would highly recommend this book to any and everyone who just enjoys a good heart warming story.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and netgalley for this review copy.

This is a fun read about a woman gaining her independence and taking steps to improve her life after half a lifetime in a boring loveless marriage with kids that did not appreciate her. Kaye is 51 and has been married over 25 years to the world's most boring man who refuses to go anywhere or step outside his comfort zone. She spent her marriage taking care of their business and the kids, the house and doing everything that he expected of her ad nausea. One day she has had enough and walks out . I She intends to travel to Australia first where she had asked her husband to go for many years. She has a good friend in Australia and wants to see the country. Now that she is free of her boring life she intends to take in all she can. She then travels further in her journey and meets great people and has wonderful experiences. Good for her !

I loved this charcter of Kaye and how she takes back her life and independence after mid life. She is brave and a fun charcter to follow . This is .a fun book to spend an afternoon with and a endearing charcter. Well done to the author.
Thank you to Net Galley and to the publisher for the opportunity. My review opinion is my own

The book is about a woman called Kay Bright and at the beginning of the book she leaves her husband, Richard. She has been married to him for nearly thirty years and they have two children together, Edward and Stella. Edward lives in Scotland with his wife and children but Stella has only just left the family home in London to move out to Romford in Essex. Richard owns a few stationery shops and Kay is the manager of one of them. Richard's shops have kept him away from the family for years and Kay has finally got to the end of her tether. She packs a few things, goes downstairs, gives her wedding ring to Richard, and leaves.

Firstly she goes to Bryn Glas, in Wales, a family friend's cottage that she has used a few times for holidays. Her best friend Rose comes to visit and the two start reminiscing about past times and about all the things they wanted to achieve in life. They climb Snowden together and then Kay decides to take off to Australia to see their mutual friend Bear, who emigrated there many years before.

Meanwhile there are chapters from Stella's point of view too. She's blindsided by the fact that her parents are splitting up, and ends up having to look after her dad back in London. She has been working with her friend Gabby, but the distance isn't helping her relationship with her boyfriend Theo and she isn't sure what's going on with them. She ends up going to a support group for adult children of divorced parents.

I liked the book and thought it had a warmth to it. There were some bits I didn't like - like I thought what happened with Theo was a bit daft. Edward's character wasn't as well developed as I would have liked. But mostly, I thought this was an interesting and compelling book and I would read something else by the same author. I liked Kay, I wanted her to succeed, and I understood a lot of the things she did even if I thought they were daft in parts!

A tale of love in all its guises, Beth Miller’s The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright explores friendship, family and the joy of life.

When protagonist Kay decides to up and leave her husband of 29 years, it’s a shock to her family and friends, even more so when she takes off to fields afar with just a rucksack. The catalyst: the letters that she’s been exchanging each month with her friend Bear (Ursula) for the last three decades have suddenly dried up and so Kay’s on a mission to find out why.

Miller tells the women’s stories from the dual perspective of Kay and her daughter, Stella. Both women are at crossroads in their lives, both wondering what life holds for them and backed by Bear’s letters, we get a lovely, entertaining and at times very funny insight into their worlds.

Engaging and highly readable, The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright is the perfect holiday read, especially if you happen to find yourself in Venice… Recommended.

Happy publication day to Beth Miller! It’s really an honour to be touring with you today, on publication day for the wonderful book that is The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright.

This book is an absolute delight! From the bright, eye-catching cover (I’ve told you before, I do judge books by their covers), to every single life-affirming message encapsulated in its pages. It’s a real little gem, and the perfect way to start off 2020!

Kay Bright has been married to rather dull Richard for 29 years. Their life is ordered, neat and routine. They run their stationery shops – businesses that they’ve built up over the years – with care and proficiency. Their two adult children seem to finally be establishing themselves in their own lives and now should be the time that Kay and Richard are able to take some time out for themselves; splurge a bit, maybe? But Richard is quite happy to plod along, oblivious to Kay’s desperate need to ‘live a little’.

For years, Kay has been exchanging letters with her childhood friend Ursula (Bear), who left with her family when she was much younger, to live in Australia. Each month they write to each other. One month Kay to Bear, and the other month vice versa; a friendship that’s spanned decades and continents. But suddenly and without warning, Bear’s letters stop arriving. Paired with her increasing restlessness and her concern for her friend, Kay decides that she has no alternative but to pack up and leave home.

Her decision is both shocking and inexplicable to her family. Richard is devastated and is left literally unable to function, not understanding how his wife has upped and left him without saying why. Even Kay herself isn’t completely able to put it into words. All she knows is that she needs to leave. If she stays, it will be the undoing of her.

And so she sets off for Australia, with just a backpack … and no wedding ring … not knowing what she will find when she gets there. This is the beginning of a journey that will be an awakening that she didn’t even know she needed. It is the start of an adventure that she had no idea she was ready for, and that the loved ones she left behind didn’t realise was necessary for their growth and the enhancement of their own lives.

This is a story about family ties, relationships, friendship and unity. It’s about illness and how we choose to deal with it, the dignity that we’re entitled to, and the choices that are ours to make. It’s also about the pain of loss felt by our loved ones once we’re gone. It’s about finding inner strength that we don’t even know is there, until we have no choice but to delve deep inside and drag it out of ourselves. And ultimately, it’s about triumph and success … setting out to achieve a goal we had no idea was within our reach, and not only attaining it, but knowing how much better we are for having done so.

I give this book 5 bright, shiny stars. It’s heart-warming and just fabulous!

This is a story of yearning; about making decisions that are hard to make; about wanting a change; about leaving what you know because there just has to be more.

"Kay Bright" wants more. She has been a devoted mother, wife and the backbone behind her husband's stationary chain of stores. After 29 somewhat happy years she grabs her backpack, places her wedding ring on the counter and walks out the door to the next part of her life.

Her husband, her adult children and her friends don't know what to make of it all...her husband is convinced she had an affair and is leaving for someone else. Her daughter is angry and strikes out. Her son is indifferent. And the company she helped to build is suffering.

But the truth remains as lost as Kay is, or maybe she isn't ready to look at the truth...the decision to walk away is too fresh.

Kay books a flight to visit her very best friend, a woman she has been friends with since they were young girls. Kay needs her help, but something has drastically changed with her friend, something is very wrong.
Kay has much more to deal with than she expected.

She wonders how it got so complicated...or how she got it so wrong.

3stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Ms. Beth Miller for the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers Copy of "The Missing Letters of Mrs. Bright". The opinions expressed in this review are mine alone.

Some people, when they reach a certain age, start to reflect on past years. Some remain happy where they are; others decide they need a change. Kay falls into the latter category, and she remedies her unhappiness in a big way. While I thought her decision was a bit on the drastic side, I could understand her wanting more out of life. I thought the parallel story of Kay’s daughter, Stella, was interesting but sometimes didn’t fit. Along Kay’s journey, she realizes that while rose-colored glasses tint memories, there is still much to learn from the past. She also learns lessons that people may recognize in their own lives. For more thoughts, please visit my blog at Fireflies and Free Kicks Fiction Reviews. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a digital ARC of this book.

a gentle books about life, living, marriage and children. I guess as I am going through a divorce it did ring true, except that I don't have any money to travel the world. It's a gentle read, but didn't excite me.

Kay Bright has been married for 29 years. She's in her early 50s, has two children and is working together with her husband in their family business.
Kay Bright is unhappy.
When her best friend Ursula (called Bear - no idea why, to be honest) moved to Australia 30 years ago, they both promised to write to each other, at least once a month. And they kept their word. However, now, Kay hasn't heard from Bear for three months in a row and she's getting worried. She doesn't want to call - they said that they're going to use a telephone only when it's a matter of life and death, so she decides to head to Australia. Which means that she's going to leave her stagnant life, together with husband, behind. She can't put into words reasons for her need to leave, but she knows that she can't live like this any longer, and so she decides to be egoistic this once, and goes. Will she find happiness? Will she find out what's happening with Ursula? Will her closest ones accept her decisions?

Even though the story is told through mostly Kay and Stella's points of view, we get to know the other characters as well and we get to see all the different reactions to Kay's decision to leave her husband of almost thirty years. I liked Kay - she has eventually found the courage to be herself, to start doing things she has always wanted to do but never had a chance to do. Those both subplots, even though revolving around two different women, were actually about the same thing - finding happiness, trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives - and telling them in this way added a lot of depth, I think, the different perspectives of two different generations were absorbing and interesting. However, Stella's story, or rather her character's arc, was not my favourite one, not sure why. I know, she was a young person, discovering herself, and there were truly great moments in her subplot, but she as a person, as a character, was simply not clicking with me. Maybe I felt like this towards Stella because, well, she was an adult, right, yet she behaved around her mother like a little girl, not accepting that Kay is allowed to make up her own decisions, even if they seem to be egoistic. Kay has sacrificed everything for her family, and it's not a wonder that eventually she wanted something back - she wanted her happiness and the feeling of independence back. And Stella didn't want to give it to her mother, making her feel guilty. And I didn't like it. Though, of course, her narration has added a breath of fresh air, another perspective to Kay's story.
There is also, of course, the worry and mystery around Bear, though I relatively quickly guessed what it is, and to be absolutely honest I was not so found of Bear, I didn't feel I know her well enough to root for her, and while I felt sorry for her it didn't make a huge impact on me.

In the end, everything was perfectly wrapped up, maybe a bit too tidy? Also, the emotions and feelings, while present on almost every single page and handled with care, were not as deeply captured as I'd like them, they were a bit too two - dimensional. And there were a few moments that felt too forced, not so smooth compared to the rest of the story, or simply things that I could really live without them being put in this book.

This book is really well written, can I say that it's, I don't know, so easily readable? It's chatty, and the pace is just right, flowing well and making it a quick read. The writing style is so vivid, bringing the characters to life, but also the different settings simply came alive through the author's words.

But altogether, I haven't expected "The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright" to be so captivating and moving. I really liked the way it was written, interlacing two perspectives, two points of view, giving us a wider view at the same situations and events. It was filled with dry and clever humour and spot - on observations. It dealt with many more topics, going deeper than I expected, which was a rather nice surprise, as it was well worked and coherent. It was a lovely, heart - warming tale about friendship, families, starting anew, second chances, showing us it's never too late to be brave. Recommended!

Kay Bright has been stuck in a rut, until the letters that didn’t come and her decision to revisit all of the old ones push her to the edge. Her marriage of twenty-nine years is flat, her job is always the same. The bright spot has always been the letters from her best friend and the one who holds a never-mentioned secret. Regular as clockwork, Kay’s correspondence allows her to fully “feel’ herself with no chance of judgment – just an ear. And when the letters stop coming, she’s confused and hurt – thinking perhaps she’d missed something.

Told in the perspective of Kay and her daughter Stella – the decision to walk away from the uninspired marriage without actual ‘cause’, and Kay’s own attempts to explain the why to everyone, especially her daughter Stella, gave this story a sense of ‘what if’ that I’m sure crosses everyone’s mind occasionally after the ‘honeymoon period’ dulls. What stood out more from this one was Kay’s determination to explain, and Stella’s willingness to try and understand – as both found new opportunities in a wholly different life from the one that previously existed.

Miller does an excellent job of allowing the reader to travel along with Kay, get information from Stella and truly find that there isn’t one person, place or thing on which to lay the blame, but that lives are a series of choices taken and not, secrets shared or kept, and being willing and able to move toward something – even when you don’t quite know what that something is, but are sure of what it isn’t. Clever, engaging and witty – the tone of ‘what could I have done” was clear, and with or without the dramatic chucking it all in will give people an opportunity to see different ways of making a change while still holding tight to family, friends and experiences that put you into that place.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-aAT” </a> <a> I am, Indeed </a>

With a wonderful sounding synopsis, how could I not want to read this book…

Life is unpredictable and you never know what is round the corner. Plans made as a teenager with lists of things you would like to do before a certain age are not guaranteed. Years go by and before you know it you are older, children have left home and you find yourself looking back at your life. This is what happened to Kay Bright. Stuck in a rut and feeling unappreciated.

This is a story that has elements that will resonate with many people, how quickly time passes. Kay feels that she has spent most of her life supporting her husband, he owns and runs four stationary shops leaving Kay doing the main bulk of the parenting, household management and also spending time working in one of the shops. Because they are business owners holidays have been quick or cut short.

Feeling unhappy and wishing for more Kay decides she is leaving, she wants to travel and needs her own space to work out what she wants out of life. Walking out of her 29 year marriage causes more ripples than she had originally bargained for, there are tears, anger and frustrations.

Keeping in touch with her friends has been part of Kay’s life, one of her friends lives a long way away and it was through letters that they kept in touch. The letters are included in this story and fill in gaps and gives Kay the incentive to visit her friend who has mysteriously stopped writing.

I think what makes this books so special is the way you see various perspectives, not just from Kay but also from her daughter Stella. It shows the emotions that are part of a breakup and also as part of your parents breaking up. It is not all straight forward and there are some eye-opening moments and some quite emotional ones as well. I did have a few watery eye moments with this book.

I enjoyed the flow of this story and if I didn’t have to go to work I would have easily sat and read this book in one sitting. It is a story of life, growing up and getting older. A story of family, friendship, truths and forgiveness, it has the feel of a family saga and is a truly wonderful book that I would definitely recommend.

A lovely, undemanding read - perfect for cold winter evenings or a lie in at the weekend! This is a well paced, well written story, with believable characters and plot. It tackles some of the burning issues of modern life - marriage, separation, adult children, demanding mother-in-law, and the need to escape a humdrum existence, and does so with sensitivity and understanding.

This is a lovely book, about a lady who decides there is more to life than her marriage of several decades. In a change from my usual diet of psychological thrillers, I was captivated by Kay and her journey, as well as that of her estranged husband, mother-in-law, daughter and friends. It was beautifully written and is an easy 5 stars.

This was a fun, delightful read full of quirky characters and interesting places:the UK, Venice and Australia. Kay becomes an empty nester and realizes that she is sick and tired of her husband's lack of interest in anything but his job. So she decides to leave him. It sounds trite but it turns into a time of growth, introspection, connecting with old friends, fun and love. I loved that it was narrated by both Kay and her daughter Stella which is a nice balance to all the drama. Mt first read by this author but it definitely won't be my last.
Thank to Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
4.5*

I picked this book up because I had read and liked another by the author: The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom. This, however, was not exactly my kind of read.

At this point, I should mention that most of the people in the narrative are of ages that I am either past or have decades to get to. Sometimes you can put yourself in the place of the characters and see their world and decisions through their eyes. In this story, I just couldn't. We begin with Mrs Bright leaving her life and husband as she tries to work out what she wants to do next. A part of the push to make this was the sudden and abrupt unresponsiveness of her friend Ursula ( So the title could have been the missing letters to Mrs Bright for the situation to be more evident). In between chapters, we are given a backwards look at the letters Mrs Bright wrote which also made for interesting reading (but they aren't missing either, Ursula/bear has them). She is tired of the life she has led which is nowhere close to the dreams and ambitions of her teenage self. The justifications for her decisions and the events that follow are not completely strong but are written in an entertaining (if sad in parts).

We also get to see the thoughts of her daughter and her life was interesting. She is emotional and stuck in a life where she is struggling to shine. Her story was pretty much the only reason I finished the book and although I enjoyed all her ups and downs including the reconciliation with her mother (they have a falling out- it is not exactly a spoiler). Despite that, I cannot give it the same rating I did for the previous book by the author.  I have to admit quite wholeheartedly that although the content did not reach me, I did really like the author's style of writing, and for this fact alone I will pick up another book by her if I get a chance.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but as you can see the review is entirely based on my own reading experience. My only bias could be the fact that I am not close to the ages of the protagonists discussed here and may not have the life experiences to understand the situations written here.

Kay, a middle aged woman leaves her husband and begins to work on a bucket list she created in her twenties. Two girlfriends from her childhood help her come to terms with her former and present life. One friend in particular , Bear , she has corresponded with for twenty nine by letter writing. Their correspondence disclosed Kay’s life mostly during her married years. This book explored Kay’s relationships with her husband , children, mother-in-law, her two girlfriends and other minor characters. The book also deals with other characters relationships . The book has a few light moments but for the most part it is a book about regrets. In the end we see how regrets do not have to own us .

‘The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright’ introduces us to Kay Bright as she psychs herself up to tell her husband of twenty-nine years that she’s leaving him. The book follows her journey as a newly single woman returning to the bucket list penned by her much younger self and is contrasted by the perspective of her daughter, Stella as she tries to make her first independent steps into post-Uni adult life.

Eh. I didn’t -not- enjoy this one, it was an easy, speedy read and a nice palette cleanser but there was just nothing overly remarkable about it. I wasn’t blown away by The Flatshare like every-other-bookstagrammer-ever but I could at least appreciate that it was an exceptional addition to a genre that doesn’t really tick my boxes... Mrs Bright (the character and book both) lacked that spark for me and didn’t really provide anything to separate it from the crowd.

Enjoyable but forgettable.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely. Once I started it the story flowed and I was in such good company with all the characters that I forgot where I was and more and more pages were turned until I almost reached the end in one sitting. I took a break for a few hours to sleep and upon waking finished the novel. I literally devoured it.
I found the book to be very easy to read, delightfully charming and although there were sad parts, ultimately a feel-good uplifting story of friendship, love, adventure and the courage to start again.
Kay Bright is stuck in a rut. Twenty nine years of marriage to her workaholic husband and two grown up children, Kay looks forward to writing and receiving correspondence from childhood friend Bear in Australia. One month Kay writes, the next month Bear writes, and so the pattern continues for years until one day there are missing letters and Kay feels uncertain. This uncertainty compels her to go on an adventure, abandoning home and her role as Manager in one of the four stationery shops her husband owns, embarking on a journey of self-discovery aided and abetted by friends. Family however are not so keen on the latest domestic developments and Kay's motives and actions are misunderstood.
There is so much to laugh about in this story, the self-deprecating middle-aged Kay, the imposing and dragon like mother-in-law Alice, Piet who shares a house with Kay's daughter Stella and has some rather dubious sexual preferences, and the actual antics Kay gets up to on her travels. There are new horizons to explore, love to experience and businesses to set up. Whilst some friendships won't last the test of time, some will flourish, make you smile, make you cry and eventually feel good that there can be joy in new beginnings.
There are no real surprises in this novel, you can easily anticipate what will happen to each character and where the plot will take them, but this does not detract from being able to enjoy this gorgeous book about Mrs Bright. Reading about her definitely brightened my day! Will it brighten yours?