When I picked up The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright, I had absolutely no clue what the book was about, but drawn in by the charming title of Beth Miller’s novel, I picked it up and immediately fell in love with it. Funny, poignant, moving and uplifting, The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright is a joyous, charming and thought-provoking read I simply could not stop reading.

For the past twenty-nine years, Kay Bright’s life has followed a very familiar routine. She works in her husband’s stationery shop, does all the cooking and cleaning, tries to remember to practice yoga and writes to her friend Ursula every month. Her old friend’s letters never fail to improve her mood and lift her spirit and there is nothing Kay enjoys more than curling up with her friend’s latest missive. Seeing Ursula’s letter drop on the mat always brings a spring to her step. The two friends go way back and know each other’s secrets – even a dangerous one that if exposed could well end up tearing Kay’s life apart.

When Ursula’s letters stop coming, Kay is beside herself with worry. What could have possible happened to Ursula? Why has she stopped writing to Kay? Are Ursula’s missing letters something Kay should worry herself about? Is there something far more sinister going on than she had previously imagined? Or is there a perfectly reasonable explanation to this unexpected turn of events? As Kay begins to look through her friend’s old letters, her unease begins to grow. As her worry escalates, Kay finds herself with no other choice available to her, but to walk out of her front door with a rucksack and leave her wedding ring on the table…

Will Kay get to the bottom of the mystery behind Ursula’s sudden radio silence? Will she find the answers to the questions she has been searching for? Or is Kay about to be seriously disappointed?

A sparkling jewel of a book that once you start, you simply cannot put down, The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright is an enjoyable, emotional, heart-tugging and engrossing read I absolutely loved. A fantastic read about women’s friendships, redemption, healing and moving on, Beth Miller’s The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright is best read with a box of tissues handy as it is sure to bring a tear to the eye of even the most cynical of readers.

A first class read that is absolutely unputdownable, The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright has got winner written all over it.

I enjoyed this book but found it a little slow for me. The concept was brilliant but perhaps I excepted too much. I loved the characters and the general feel of the story. Very charming, warm and engaging.

Definitely worth a read if your a fan of warm and cosy stories.

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley.

When I picked up this book, I thought I was getting something light and fast. It was definitely a fast read -- I got sucked in and finished it in a day -- but it was not light. Have tissues at the ready, especially in the middle of the book. But it was a really good, unexpected read.

Kay Bright's mother passed away recently, and while cleaning out her old childhood bedroom, she finds a list of what she wanted to accomplish before she turned 30. Kay is now in her early fifties and realizes that the only thing she has accomplished from the whole list is having children, and she got that done much earlier than she planned, having dropped out of college to have her son. The book opens with her packing a bag and leaving her husband. Her husband, while reliable, is obsessed with building and running his businesses and treats her more like an employee than a spouse.

Kay decides to go to Australia -- which her husband would never do or allow her to do without making her feel guilty -- because she hasn't received a letter from her best friend in six months. There's also a subplot/alternating chapter style with Kay's adult daughter Stella, who is trying to figure out her own complicated love and professional life while struggling to leave the nest.

Really, though, this is a book about living your best life, giving yourself the opportunity to be the person you want to be, and to avoid getting trapped by everyone else's expectations for your life, an amazing message that so many of us need to hear (says the stay-at-home mother of two young children.)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.

Favorite Quotes:

My rational brain pointed out that this was kind of irrational, and my irrational brain said, ‘Yeah, so?’

It was a folded piece of yellowing paper, and in my childish writing, with hearts dotting the i’s, I had written at the top: ‘Things to do by the time I am thirty.’ This was underlined twice in red biro. The date: 5 June 1982… Teenage Kay must have assumed she’d better get everything done by thirty; for afterwards, there’d be nothing but senility and the grave.

Once again, I’d have to amend my mental list of the top ten things I wished I’d never seen.

I looked at him, appraising him with an objective eye. There were always little things one didn’t like about one’s boyfriends. You tended to overlook them, prioritise other things as more important. Leon, for instance, had patches of awful acne on each cheek, and treated any mild suggestion that he speak to a pharmacist as an infringement of his human rights. Now, with Theo standing in front of me, fake-beaming, I realised that with his thin face and shifty eyes, he looked exactly like a weasel.

I had a bath and did all the woman -going-on-a-date things I hadn’t done for years… and had a little trim of the old lady-garden, not that I was planning to sleep with him, obviously not, he was clearly a café-lothario, but just in case… In case what? I heard Rose say. In case there was a freak accident that involved your pants coming off in public?


My Review:

This was my introduction to the stellar stylings of Beth Miller and I was an instant fan. Forgive my exuberance and probable abuse of exclamation marks but I reveled in this book! The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright was thoughtfully written and gently chronicled and may be best suited for those of us more mature beauties on the other side of fifty, but being on that side of the age stick I found it flawless. The writing was as profoundly insightful and perceptive as it was cleverly entertaining. I was fully engaged from page one and adored Beth Miller’s witty prose, seamless writing style, enticing and quirky characters, and ample servings of clever levity that were skillfully woven in all the way through. The storylines and writing were easy to follow and continually poked and prickled my curiosity. I was enjoying the tale so much I would have gleefully continued on for several hundred more pages. Beth Miller has a new fangirl and I have a new favorite author at the top of my list.

Kay Bright has had enough. She has been married for nearly thirty years to her workaholic husband. Her children have fled the nest. Her friend, Rose, has a new man. Added to that one of her best friends (Bear/Ursula) who she has exchanged monthly letters with for years has stopped writing. One day she throws some clothes in a rucksack, leaves her wedding ring on the table & walks out of her life. Her husband is shocked, her mother in law is not surprised & her daughter is devastated. Whilst appraising where she will go from here Kay decides to go to Australia to find out what has happened to Bear & to cross thins off the list the friends had compiled when they were teenagers.

The story is told from Kay & her daughter Stella's point of view, as well as some of the letters exchanged over the years between Kay & Bear. I really liked Kay. It is really well written. I loved the way the author dealt with the friendship between Kay, Rose & Bear.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

A beautiful read about life, love, loss and taking your chances. Resonated for me as the main character is a similar age to me. Kay leaves her marriage of 29 years and not only finds herself but those around her find themselves too.

Such a sweet heartwarming story. Loved this one!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

A heart-warming book that will leave you feeling the importance of making good decisions while you can.

I loved this book, so easy to read and both heart-breaking and heart-warming in equal measure.

The book is told by Stella and Kay, mother and daughter, who are both making life changing decisions in their lives. It follows them as they fall out and reunite, with the help of some friends along the way.

The female characters are all lovable, even Alice, and the men are left to the sidelines.

The book shows how people can hurt and heal and how, no matter what life throws at you you need to make the most of it as who knows how long we all have.

When life hasn't panned out quite how you predicted what is the best course of action? Pack a bag, leave your wedding ring on the table and walk out the front door? Is that deemed brave or selfish? But should you stay in a stale situation when you are deeply unhappy because walking out would turn many worlds upside down? So many questions and situations for our heroine to work through and boy does it seem exhausting. This book is a candid view of life in all its messy and wonderful glory. The fallout of Kay's actions are extremely well documented and the narrative runs like a trail of thought patterns and movement. I felt as though I was in the front row of the action due to the raw, honest and witty ramblings that were put down on the page in front of me and I loved each and every minute of my time spent with Kay and her thoughts.

The element that captured my heart truly was the letters that wove their way neatly throughout the book. Kay and Bear, a long standing childhood friend, have corresponded in this long lost art form for years, without fail, but Bear's letters have stopped and Kay is in need of answers. Cue a plane journey to Australia then Venice and an emotional roller-coaster that had me reaching for the Kleenex, more times than I care to admit, and we have the threads of Kay and Bear's storyline.

Also thrown into this smorgasbord of life, love and lessons was the unravelling achievements of Kay's daughter Stella. Her initial situation in life when we first met was definitely not a bed of roses and one scene had me clasping my hand to my mouth in a truly melodramatic fashion as it definitely had that soap opera quality about it. I did love Stella and I was eagerly cheering her own to find happiness and success in her scattered life. She had elements of soul searching to do that mirrored those of her Mam's which worked well, mainly finding a keen sense of happiness in this rat race we call life.

The Missing Letters of Kay Bright is an amusing, yet frank look at life and love. The writing is a tremendous creation of warmth and wit that welcomed me in like an old pal and I was sad to see the book come to an end as the characters had morphed into friends by the concluding pages. This is definitely a story to add to your tbr mountains if you don't already have it on your radar yet.

One day, I might just sit down and write a list of everything I love to see in a book that wins my heart – although I really don’t need to any more, I’ll just point them towards this wonderful read and say “it’s ALL here”. Older characters, fresh starts and new beginnings, a fine touch with the emotion, laughter and tears, friendship and love, a really strong sense of place, the most wonderful supporting cast… and the author’s even included the story of Kay’s daughter Stella, not to appeal (probably…) to the younger reader, but a strong story in its own right exploring both her own fresh start and the impact of Kay’s actions on the mother/daughter relationship. This book… well, it was just perfect in every way, and I enjoyed every single moment.

Where shall I start? The writing, maybe – and I just loved the easy, almost conversational style, the use of dialogue that was so absolutely real (akin to eavesdropping on conversations you sometimes really shouldn’t be party to), the deftness of touch with the emotional content that takes you from a chuckle to a tear with extraordinary ease. Kay herself becomes your best friend – you share her feelings around leaving her marriage of 29 years, and I defy any reader at or beyond their middle years not to identify with her in some way (yes, even if you haven’t dedicated your life to the world of stationery).

The female friendships are just wonderful. Rose is critical in the way a close friend is permitted to be, and as supportive as anyone could possibly ask for: and the strong relationship with Bear (Ursula) is revealed beautifully through Kay’s letters (and one in return, at a particularly significant point in the story), and exceptionally moving.

There are secrets – slowly revealed, and quite beautifully handled. But in a way, they’re not what drives the story – what really keeps the pages turning and your heart engaged is the way Kay remakes her life, handles her relationships and what life throws at her, finding a way to be happy, and the story’s ending leaves you excited and uplifted by what might follow. There are some significant lows along the way – with moments that are deeply moving and have you reaching for the tissue box. But it’s all about the balance – it’s absolutely right, and that’s such a difficult thing to achieve.

If you can tear your eyes away from Kay, there are some superb supporting characters. Husband Richard is completely real, and I did rather like the way his life progressed – and his mother Alice is simply wonderful, with her cut glass accent, her identification with the royals, and her unique delivery of a put-down line. There are strong characters in Stella’s story too – inhumane housemate Gabby, the magnificent Piet with his mangled expressions (he’s Dutch) and total absence of inhibitions, and the rather lovely Newland (yes, it’s from Edith Wharton). Even the very minor characters are so well drawn. Imogen might never be more than a voice on the phone as Kay arranges her next stay at Bryn Glas, but I really liked her – and I did have rather a soft spot for poor Anthony in the wake of Kay’s departure.

And then there’s that strong sense of place – from Snowdon to Sydney to Venice, with descriptions and small touches of detail that bring them to life. And goodness, I’ve never actually been to Hoylake, but one turn the story takes almost made me want to head to the Wirral (almost…).

This is a book with a strong message – not one that’s hammered home, but it’ll certainly stay with me. Life isn’t a rehearsal – it needs to be grabbed in both hands, making the most of every opportunity.

So, have I left you in any doubt? Yes, I really loved this book. And might it be one of my books of the year? Oh yes, I really think it might….!

(Review copied to Amazon UK, but link not yet available)

EXCERPT: The photo was a little crumpled around the edges, but - please excuse my lack of modesty - there was no denying the quality. It was a tight headshot in black and white of three pretty young women: Rose on the left, smiling and looking sideways at Bear next to her; me on Bear's right, looking simultaneously pleased and harassed. Setting up the camera timer and making sure everyone stayed in the right place was a bit stressful. With film, you couldn't keep trying again and again until you got it right. You had to get everything in place, then hold your breath and hope.

The photo was from the one visit to Australia that Rose and I took together, during our gap year, when we were still in our teens. When everything in life was there to be looked forward to, and it was too early for us to have made any mistakes. Before I met Richard, or David; before I got pregnant and crashed out of my degree. I looked again at our unlined, hopeful faces. So beautiful, so young.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: You’ve met Mrs Bright. She’s that nice woman who lives three doors down and always smiles at you in the mornings. She’s planning her thirtieth wedding anniversary with her husband. She wants to travel, read endless books and take beautiful pictures. She’s been waiting for this forever.

For the past twenty-nine years, Kay Bright’s days have had a familiar rhythm: she works in her husband’s stationery shop, cooks for her family, tries to remember to practice yoga, and every other month she writes to her best friend, Ursula, and Ursula replies. Kay could set her calendar by their letters: her heart lifts when the blue airmail envelope, addressed in Ursula’s slanting handwriting, falls gently onto the mat.

Ursula is the only one who knows Kay’s deepest secret, something that happened decades ago that could tear Kay’s life apart today. Ursula has always been the person Kay relies on. Knowing she will hear from Ursula is like being sure the sun will rise tomorrow.

And now Ursula has stopped writing. Three missing letters doesn’t sound like a lot, but Kay gets out her shoebox of notes from her best friend, in case there’s something she overlooked. Ursula seems fine, but the further back she goes, the more Kay begins to question every choice she has made in her life. Which might be why, at ten o’clock one morning, Kay walks out of her yellow front door with a just a rucksack, leaving her wedding ring on the table...

MY THOUGHTS: This was an enjoyable read. I laughed, and I shed a few tears. And I remembered a similar exit from my first marriage to my 'practice husband' as I now affectionately call him. So yes, this read brought back memories, some good, some bad, but the thing that struck me most was how well Beth Miller has captured the emotions, how she has transferred them onto paper without, at any point, making them seem trite or hackneyed. She has written with flair and humour, unafraid to dissect a marriage, to examine the relationships between a mother and daughter, between lifelong friends.

She had me wondering, at times, if Kay really knew what she was doing, what she ultimately wanted, if she had really thought this through.

Ultimately this is a story about love, about friendship, about loss, and about not losing sight of the things that matter to you. It is beautifully written; sad, funny and inspiring.

This is the second book I have read by this author, and I am developing a real liking for her work.

😢❤😂.5

#TheMissingLettersOfMrsBright #NetGalley

Some of my favourite lines from The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright:

'You go through life, you make choices they lead to other choices, and before you know it, you're in a place you wouldn't have started from.'

'I enjoy speaking English very much, but sometimes it is too English. Italian is the language of romance.'

THE AUTHOR: have been told that I write like a tall blonde, so that's how I'd like you to picture me.

I've published three novels, with one more about to be born, in January 2020. I've also published two non-fiction books. I work as a book coach and creative writing tutor.

Before writing books, I did a lot of different jobs. I worked in schools, shops, offices, hospitals, students' unions, basements, from home, in my car, and up a tree. OK, not up a tree. I've been a sexual health trainer, a journalist, a psychology lecturer, a PhD student, a lousy alcohol counsellor, and an inept audio-typist. I sold pens, bread, and condoms. Not in the same shop. I taught parents how to tell if their teenagers are taking drugs (clue: they act like teenagers), and taught teenagers how to put on condoms (clue: there won't really be a cucumber). I taught rabbis how to tell if their teenagers are druggedly putting condoms on cucumbers.

Throughout this, I always wrote, and always drank a lot of tea. I'm now pretty much unbeatable at drinking tea.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Bookouture via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright by Beth Miller for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon and my webpage

‘A woman in her prime,’ Piet said, ‘has many layers.’

Kay Bright married young and has been married 29 years. Their two children have finally both left the nest and she works daily at one of her husband's four stationery stores in England.

It comes as a total shock to everyone (even herself) as she packs a backpack, hands her wedding ring to her husband and walks out the door.

This is a story of a 51 year old woman trying to find "more" in her life. It's a tale of long-time friendships, relationships with your children, husband and friends, and it's about rediscovering yourself.

Kay has written to one of her best friends in Australia for 30 years. Every other month she writes her friend and every other month she gets an answer back. But her friend hasn't answered her last three letters and one of the things Kay wants to do with her new freedom is fly to Australia to see if there is anything wrong.

I enjoyed this story of difficult choices and moving forward. It goes to show it's never to late to become the person you're supposed to be.

I received this book from Bookouture through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

This was a heart warming story about the power of friendship and the mother daughter relationship. Kay is fed up! Now that the nest is empty she has packed up and is leaving her husband Richard who is never wanting to do anything or go anywhere. Everyone is shocked most of all Richard and her children Stella and Edward. Kay’s first destination is Australia where she plans to check in on her longtime penpal friend Bear, Who she unexplainably has not heard from in months. A heartwarming occasionally humorous journey of discovery that takes Kay from the UK to Australia to Venice and then back again.

This was a feel-good story filled with likable somewhat quirky characters. The story was told from the perspectives of both Kay and her daughter Stella, this was clever it really added another layer to the story that would not have been there had the story been only from Kay’s point of view. We were also privy to the correspondence between Kay and Bear through the years. I liked and cared about both these characters and really wanted nothing but the best for them. I also liked how the author subtly implied that daughters tend to mirror their mothers (whether they want to or not). The book also really touched on the strength of friendship and the power of standing up for one’s self.The book also had me asking myself some questions. Does a woman need to leave her husband in order to find her self? I’d like to think not, and I am saying this as a happily divorced woman. How strongly did Kay express to her husband that she wanted to go and do these things, could they have possibly gone to Australia together? Or maybe she didn’t want to go with him? I mean she could’ve gone by herself and not left him? And then there is a question as to why Kay didn’t just give Bear a phone call? I mean I know that’s not how they communicated,but.... still. This book has also been compared to Eleanor, Ove, and Harold Fry. I loved all three of these books. While I think this book could probably be pigeonholed into the same category I didn’t think it was as quirky or as emotional. Having said this I did think this was a good book that can stand on its own 2 feet or on its own spine if you will.

This book in emojis. 👭 ✉️ 🐨 🍝 💪🏻

*** Big thank you to Bookouture for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

After 29 years, Kay Bright is unhappy with her life and decides to leave her husband. Meanwhile at the same time circumstances cause, Kay's daughter, Stella to make some major life changes of her own. Miller does a good job of portraying the main character's dissastisfaction with her life and need to make changes without vilifying the husband she leaves. It is not a story about placing blame. It is a story about taking charge of one's lives and making changes. This book shows that it is never too late to change your life.

Kay Bright is married with two grown up children. She has worked in her husbands chain of stationary shops, paid her bills on time and writes to her best friend in Australia. She leads a quiet life. But then she shocks her husband when she tells him she leaving him. The letters from her best friend have stopped, so she decides Australia will be where she goes first.

Kay has been married for twenty nine years and she's fed up with the same mundane routine day in, day out. The story is full of humor and love but it's also tinged with a little sadness. There are some great characters. The letters give us snippets of what Kay's life was like since she became a mother, giving us an insight leading up to her departure. I throughly enjoyed this moving but entertaining story.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Beth Miller for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There are some books that you want to gallop through as you “have” to know what happens. Others like a good wine or chocolate you want to savour- let them linger awhile and mature whilst your brain relaxes and takes in the thought processes. This is one of those savouring reads that I really didn’t want to end. Kay has left her husband. She has packed a rucksack with a few bits, told him that she is going travelling and walked out of the door. He didn’t realise to start with that she meant leaving him as in “this marriage is over”. She takes herself to a friend’s cottage in Wales and so starts the rest of her life. Every month she and her friend Bear exchange letters. Bear has known Kay for more years than she cares to remember and knows things that no-one else does about her.When Bear misses writing, Kay begins to think something must be wrong but what? They have always been so very honest with each other. Oh I loved this beyond words. I believe that there are parts of this that most women will relate to. For me it was something along the lines of “ I am now free of the shackles that I have worn forever” which took my breath away. A poignant read and an emotional one. Beautiful doesn’t do it justice. If you read just one book about life make it this one. 10* if I could.
For more reviews please see my blog http://nickibookblog.blogspot.co.uk/
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(amazon review done- misfits farm)

I really enjoyed reading this story! With witty dialogue and down to earth characters, this book was easily devoured. It’s not often you find books with such realistic scenarios and no added fluff, and I really appreciated that. Kay up and left her husband rather suddenly, but it wasn’t so far out of reach from how many relationships end these days. Sometimes it isn’t a matter of what’s going wrong between you and your spouse, but rather what’s not going right. So Kay took matters into her own hands, after 29 years of marriage, and did what was best for her.

I especially loved Kay’s friendships with Rose and Bear. I could very well see myself being friends with them too. Even with so much time and distance between Kay and Bear, their friendship never wavered, and I felt I could definitely relate to that,

While this story had its fair share of love and loss, I think it relayed some very important life lessons, and I thoroughly enjoyed following along in Kay‘s journey to discover them.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3126237684

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a honest review.

Ultimately, the bright cover art is what drew me into this book.

The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright was beautifully written. The book was charming and an easy read all together. I will definitely be reading more by this author!

I loved this book even the sad parts about leaving loving and an ungrateful family. She has friends and she takes back her life.

A beautifully written book that had me reading through tears at times! It's a story of a woman who has decided her life isn't what she thought it was going to be and makes that brave leap from a safe and routine life, to following her dreams and finding out that there is more to life and how her actions also end up waking up the rest of her family from living life in slumber and learning to take chances.

When Kay decides to leave her husband, Richard, of almost 30 years the shock waves are felt far and wide - even she doesn't know why she's picked this moment but it's something she knows that she needs to do. She escapes to her bolthole in Wales to figure out things, while her daughter moves back to help her dad adjust to this news.

Throughout the book we get to see letters that Kay has written to Bear over the years, and we discover the identity of Bear when Kay goes to visit her in Australia. The women have been friends since school and it's clear that they share everything with one another. Friendship is a big thing for Kay - she relies on Rose too to help her through and they're always seemingly honest with her about whatever she has planned - they're not afraid to burst her bubble if her plans get too out there!

We also hear from her daughter, Stella, who is dealing with her own issues in her relationship and work life and it was interesting to see how she had inherited that strong bond with her family from her mum, but still couldn't work out what her mum was playing at and shows how complex that mother/daughter relationship can be at times. You could feel the frustration from Stella especially as to why was her mum doing these things now - was this a mid life crisis thing?!

This was a book about being brave! What happens if you step outside your comfort zone and grab hold of new chances in life and it was so inspiring. It also faces those 'what if' moments we all have looking back over our lives and how just being honest can mean new starts for everyone. It was emotional and touching and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with all these characters and I look forward to reading more from this author!