This review will take a look at the book <em>The Missing Letters of Mrs. Bright</em> by Beth Miller. I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book was released yesterday, January 9, 2020 from Bookouture.

At the start of the book we meet our leading lady, Mrs. Kay Bright. She has led a remarkably predictable (read boring) life thus far. Her thirtieth wedding anniversary to her dull husband Richard is approaching, and she has come to the realization that she's done. Done with working at her husband's stationary shop, done with never traveling, and done with marriage.

Pretty much the beginning of the book is one big--'what if' that has Kay in conflict with pretty much every other character in the book, and then working to resolve those conflicts throughout the book. Her biggest fight is with her daughter, Stella, with both of them blowing up at each other in reaction to Kay leaving her husband.

The story unravels in alternating points of view, learning about Kay's story, and then Stella's. They are also broken up by the letters that Kay sent her best friend Bear over the years. Bear moved to Australia with her family as a teenager, and since then Kay and Bear wrote letters to each other in alternating months. But something is off--Bear hasn't replied for a few months now so with a gentle push from their other best friend Rose, Kay decides to travel to Australia to visit Bear.

Upon finding Bear, Kay gets to catch up with her best friend in person, and realizes something is wrong. Only she couldn't figure out what exactly until Bear decides to travel to Venice with Kay. Bear insists on staying in a fancy (read super expensive) pallazo and going to an exclusive restaurant, paying all of the bills.

Kay's time spent with Bear helps her realize what she really wants to do with her future. Once home she works to resolve the various conflicts she has with family members, and fulfilling her promise to Bear.

While Kay is traveling and finding herself her daughter is going through her own problems. We follow her through fights with her flatmates and boyfriend. She finds a new love interest in a librarian (yay librarians!), and slowly things become more positive for her.

This book was a slower start for me, since I found it harder to relate to Kay's story because of my age. However, as the book progressed I was brought into the story and began having a deeper connection with characters and realized the connection between the letters we read, the title, and Bear. I think this was a lovely, heartfelt book and many readers will enjoy Miller's writing.

Happy reading :)

I enjoyed this book overall. It felt a little light considering the weightiness of the the subject matter — a marriage breaking up, illness, family secrets and so on. Although it was not really a romance book, it read a bit like one to me. It was just a bit fluffy, which isn’t a bad thing in a romance or chick lit book, but seemed out-of-place in a story with more dramatic elements. If half stars were allowed, I’d have gone with a score of 3 1/2 stars. But I rounded up because I did enjoy the book. I liked and sympathized with Stella, and Kay, who I initially found rather irritating, did grow on me by the end.

A sweet story that is both heartwarming and upbeat at times. I loved the story and the writing. My first book by this author but will look for more.

I really enjoyed this book! If you like stories such as The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel by Rachel Joyce or The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick (these are must-reads) then you will absolutely love this one.

After twenty-nine years of marriage, Kay has decided she wants more. She walks out one day in search of something she’s been lacking. Because her dear friend has stopped writing her monthly letters, Kay flies to Australia to see her face to face, searching for answers.

From there Kay confronts some issues that have deeply affected her including a choice she made when she was younger.

There is much more to this wonderful book. Kay’s daughter Stella is also dealing with changes in her life, the story is told in a dual timeline between Kay and Stella. It’s a bittersweet novel and I loved the author’s writing style, her humor, the fleshed-out characters. This was a wonderful break in the thrillers and suspense I typically read.

A solid four-star read! Be sure to get your hands on this one as soon as it’s out on January 9. Only $3.99 for your Kindle!

The description for this book says that it is an emotional and heart warming book. One of those things is true. This book is certainly emotional. The whole time. Heart warming though, it is not. I kept waiting for to get happier and found myself waiting and waiting... and waiting. Really it was just very sad for almost the entire story. The only character that I really liked was Stella and I was happy to see how her story turned out. Every other person pretty much was incredibly selfish and only wanted to do what made them happy with no regards to the others. About halfway through I really just found myself wanting this book to end. Overall I give this a generous 3 stars, with a warning that the synopsis does not really show an accurate picture of this book.

If your favoured reading material is a compelling tale with a good sprinkling of relationships, imperfection, hope, secrets and friendships then The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright by Beth Miller is a must-read for you! This book is substantially about family, love, mother-daughter relationships, women's friendships and starting-over, and the synopsis also implies a soupçon of mystery, which was exactly the reading experience I had.

Beth Miller has an admirable writing style: it is seamless, flows well, and is wonderfully expressive. The characterisation is impressive with an unforgettable cast of people that are complex and determined, though difficult and flawed to somewhat varying degrees. The character-driven plot uses a perfect blend of narrative, letters, and multiple points of view to help the reader understand the different reactions to Kay's decision to leave her husband after twenty-nine years of marriage.

This was an exceptionally compulsive story and the ending was bittersweet. I really hoped that things worked out well for all of the characters, having lived in their pockets throughout their respective journeys. Very highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel, at my request, from Bookouture via NetGalley and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

What a wonderful and charming read! I loved every minute and I felt like I was touring the world together with Kay from walking up Snowden, the highest mountain in Wales, to taking a gondola ride in Venice.

"I had a safety net my whole life; first with my parents, then for almost thirty years with Richard. Safe, knowable, no surprises. I wanted to try whatever life I had left without that net"

After 29 years of marriage Kay Bright calmly walks down the stairs, hands her husband her wedding ring and with a "Goodbye. Thank you very much for the marriage" announces she is leaving.

This comes as a total shock to everyone. Even Kay is a bit shell shocked that she did it.
One of her first goals is to go visit her friend Bear in Australia. They have been writing to each other for years but Bear has missed 3 letters already and Kay is worried.

What will the future hold for Kay and was this the right decision. How will it influence her children, especially her daughter and will she be able to share her big secret with the people close to her.

It's a wonderful story about love and lost and missed chances. About friendship and about living your life to the fullest.

Thank you to #netgalley and #bookouture for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Beth Miller’s The Missing Letters of Mrs. Bright is a touching, occasionally heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting story of love in many forms: of falling in and out of love, of expectations and failure to fulfill those expectations, of brief infatuation and long-term commitment, of taking one another for granted and gradually needing more, of breaking up and not realizing the consequences, of forging friendships that last a lifetime or evaporate in and instant, of daring to strikeout together on a new adventure or facing the fact that it is the last,
of losing one’s sense of self-worth or finding it.

The story opens with Kay Bright’s stuffing a few odds and ends into a backpack and telling her husband Richard that she is leaving him after 29 years of marriage. She has reread her childhood list of Things to Do Before 30 and realized she has done almost nothing by 51. What’s more, three letters are missing from her childhood friend Bear, who had moved with family from England to Australia as an adolescent. The pair had promised that they would each write six times a year, in alternating months—one sending a letter before the end of a month and the other replying before the end of the next. Three letters aren’t many to be missing in 35 years, Kay tells herself, but all three have been during the last six months. Kay has just written her third to her dear friend whom she hasn’t heard from for half a year. It’s time to go to Australia!

The Missing Letters of Mrs. Bright is divided into chapters labeled as Kay’s story or her daughter Stella’s. Twenty-something Stella is furious about her mum’s leaving her dad, and the two women part with angry, hurtful Words. Kay sets off on what Stella considers a selfish adventure, disregarding her devastated husband, her son Edward, Stella, and Kay’s job in one of Richard’s four stationary shops. Throughout the novel, readers share both women’s thoughts and experiences and watch them grow as Stella moves back and forth between home and the nearby town where she works as a struggling caterer and as Kay travels from England to Wales, Australia to Venice, and back to England and Wales.

As a reader a couple decades older than Kay, I saw little need for most of the profanity. The limited sex bothered me less and sometimes seemed a bit silly. I think at least one scene was intended to be silly although it empowers Stella and adds a touch of humor.

All in all, Beth Miller has written an entertaining and moving story that should draw readers into the lives of Kay, Bear, Stella, and other family and friends and maybe encourage a few to take the first step into a new life.

Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy.

I'm giving this 3 stars because I genuinely did like it, I just didn't love it. It was well written, and I loved many of the characters, but there was nothing that excited me in the book, nothing that made me want to pick it up and continue. It often felt dragged out, and I was bored by much of the reminiscing. Unfortunately it just never really found a place in my heart.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This one just didn't grab me.

The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright is a charming story of love, family and friendship.

When Kay leaves her husband after 29 years she starts out on a journey of discovery of not only herself but others.

Wasn't sure I liked Kay at first , but that was the charming part, as I got to know her I became her biggest fan.

Well worth the read and will definitely read another book by Beth Miller.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for another delightful read.

Kay Bright, worried about her childhood friend and bored with her life, unexpectedly walks out on her decades-long marriage with no particular plan or forethought. Thus begins the story of a woman's midlife crisis. This book explores the dangers of holding on to might-have-beens, of comparing a mundane present with an idealized past. It is an emotional roller coaster, at turns sad, funny, and exasperating. Worth a read for anyone who likes realistic female characters and stories about finding the joy in life.

This is a very enjoyable book. All of the characters were well-developed and very likable. I like many women could totally identify with Kay and her situation. I enjoyed the relationship between Kayand her husband, her adult children, and her mother-in-law. Not to mention her girlfriends. This was a great story with a very believable plot and ending. Thank you so much for my advance copy. This is the first book I have read by Beth Miller. I will certainly recommend her to friends and family, and look for other novels written by her.

After twenty nine years of marriage and Kay decides she needs more. So she leaves her husband, family home and business to sort out her life.
Kay flies to Australia to surprise her best friend, as she's not received her promised letters.
Her stay makes her recreate to do before I'm 60 list. This means travelling to other countries as well as other things.
This book covers family lives, close friendships, life and death.
I enjoyed this book and I believe it will appeal to readers of fifty plus; only because they can identify with some of the things mentioned.

A gentle story about taking chances to live the life you want. Kay leaves her husband of thirty years , much to the bewilderment of her family, and sets out to fulfil done of her early dreams. Along the way she makes discoveries about herself. Interspersed with the story of her daughter’s current life and letters written to a childhood friend over the decades. An enjoyable read.

The Missing Letters of Mrs. Bright by Beth Miller.

This delightful current day story carries you through the lives of three long time friends and their families. It’s the well thought out, easily relatable dialog that makes this story so real. Sometimes, though, it’s the things left unsaid that have the most impact.

Kay is in crisis after 29 years of marriage and, literally, with backpack in tow, runs off to “find herself,” as we used to say. Her son, daughter and dear friend/pen pal, Bear, are dealing with life changing events of their own, to which we are also privy.

Kay ends up traveling near and far to try to sort out things in her past which have bubbled up to affect her present life. Resolved issues satisfy the reader in this nicely paced, well written story, which would be a superb book club pick.

Many thanks to #Bookouture and #NetGalley for an ARC for my review.

I must admit that it was the blurb that drew me in. Perfect for fans of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. That book is one of my all-time favourites! And I do understand why The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright is compared to it, but I don’t think that the comparison does these two books any justice.

Don’t get me wrong The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright is a beautiful book, that I enjoyed immensely. But it lacks the emotional punch and the integrity of Harold Fry. I won’t be talking about this book in years to come. Even now, only 3 days after finishing this story I already lost connection with it. It is quite frankly a book that will speak mainly to woman who enjoy feel good stories. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But don’t blurb it for something that it isn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, it is really quite an enjoyable story. Told from a dual perspective we follow two female characters. Kay, who closes the door on her 29 year old marriage and her daughter Stella, who is trying to find her own way in life.

Two very different perspectives. Kay has been a caring mother and faithful wife for years, but now she has been unhappy for the longest time. For more than 30 years she has been corresponding with her best friend Bear in Australian. But when Bear doesn’t respond to her letters anymore, Kay gets worried. So worries that she decides to break free from her own unhappy life and explore what else the world has to offer. Starting in Australia to see why her friend hasn’t responded to any of her letters.

Stella on the other hand has finally left her childhood home to start a food truck. But she soon learns that adult life isn’t all it is cracked up to be. And it gets even more rough when her mother drops a bomb and leaves her after.

The missing Letters of Mrs Bright is a story that covers a lot of ground. Of course there are the obvious topics such as family, friendship, relationships… But the story goes deeper than that. It deals with pregnancy, sickness, marriage,… It is a very emotional story with an important message. Life is short, live it to its fullest!
I think the dual storytelling really added something extra to the story. Older and younger readers will find a connection with the characters. All the characters in the story are well written and have the needed amount of depth to them.

I truly enjoyed the story and would recommend it to all readers who enjoy female fiction and feel good stories.

Easy read over the NewYear period, heading towards her 30th Wedding Anniversary, Kay Bright wakes up to her life and dissatisfied embarks on a journey to find herself. Teenage letters written to a old student friend are at the heart of this novel and our main character searches her out in the hope that she will provide a path to her future life. The collapse of the relationship between husband and wife is a shock for the whole family and has repercussions. Not a gritty read but interesting nevertheless.

Thanks to Netgalley the author and publishers for an ARC of this book.

I thought this was a wonderful book! I liked Kay and her daughter Stella especially. I really admired Kay's courage in leaving her husband after being married for twenty nine years. I didn't particularly like Bear. I felt she wasn't a very good friend to Kay. I didn't understand why she didn't want her closest friend to know that she was sick. I did enjoy reading the letters that were between the chapters that they had written to each other over the years after Bear moved away. I thought the ending was a little bit lacking and wished the author had went a bit farther. All in all it is an exceptional that and I look forward to reading more from this author.

Thanks to Net Galley for allowing me to read this amazing book for my honest review.

The missing letters of Mrs Bright is a charming, uplifting read that will resonate with many, particularly women of a certain age. Who hasn’t ever thought of escaping a humdrum existence where work and children are all consuming and before a blink of an eye your life has seemingly passed you by??
That’s the case for Kay Bright, married for twenty nine years with two grown up children and a life spent in stationery! We meet her at the beginning of her epiphany when she decides to abandon her home and her husband in search of adventure and self discovery. She’s realised she’s unhappy, having set aside her own dreams and goals to be a mother and dutiful wife but now it’s her time to shine before her time on this planet runs out.
Full of warmth, love and humour, plus a little bit of sadness, this novel has some great characters, not just the plucky Kay who is determined to venture out of her comfort zone but her daughter Stella, best friend Rose, a difficult mother in law and last but not least her friend Bear.
The novel is interspersed with letters written between Bear and Kay over many years, revealing snippets of the Kay’s life since motherhood swallowed her up, giving the reader an insight to events leading up to her dramatic decision. Having not heard from Bear in a while, Kay’s first stop is Australia where Bear has lived since a teenager. So begins a journey of self discovery, much soul searching and a chance to make memories with a friend she holds so dear.
This is not just Kay and Bear’s story but Stella’s too, as she finds her place in the world but not without a few hilarious escapades along the way.
With characters that are believable and easy to like, this is a novel that will bring a smile to your face, maybe a few tears too and is a comforting, enjoyable read. It’s about friendship and happiness and following your heart. Perhaps slightly over sentimental in a few places for my liking but a read that will make you question your own place in this world and a gentle reminder that it’s never too late to realise your dreams.
Definitely recommend as a feel good read. My thanks as always to the author and publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read in exchange for an honest review.

Ah, this book was a journey. It told me the story of Mrs Bright and daughter Stella along with the letters to and from her best friend Ursula (Bear), who had migrated to Australia.

One day, after 29 years of marriage when letters from Bear stopped coming since the past 6 months, Kay decided to walk out of her marriage. She went to Sydney to meet Bear, then to Venice then came back home with new realizations.

My first book by author Beth Miller, the story told me their lives in the present and past. Both Kay and Ursula were adorable, but I liked Stella once she decided to stand up for herself. Strength personified these women and I lived how the bold strikes of the author made them real.

The depth of emotions were missing, I couldn't cry at any of the scene. That was a good thing for me as I didn't want an overly emotional book. The story had humor interspersed with truths and facts of life. Friendship between the best friends made me smile. They sure went through the rigmaroles of life.

Overall, a sweet read filled with strength and bittersweet moments of friendship and family.