This was a lovely and heartwarming read by a new to me author. I loved following Ella's physical and emotional journey. I felt seeing Jude's side of the story gave a unique perspective that allowed me to develop sympathy for, and understanding of, the whole situation rather than just Ella's perspective. I admired Carolyn's tenacity and unquavering love, too. There were some convenient plot points that helped to tie up and progress the story, but ultimately the story felt believable and touching. Overall, a great read and I'd love to read more by this author.

This book is told in dual timeline
It’s a very easy read with elements of Romance and mystery within it. It is a bit predictable but it’s still an enjoyable read

So beautifully written. I felt myself wanting to read faster. Such a lovely story of love and loss. Also the power of love through the ages. I fell in love with the chafe test in the book wanting them to find the connections and love

This was okay, i did quite enjoy it. A very quick tor ead and heartfelt novel that i would definitely recommend!

This is a little bit of a slow burn, but when it picked up it was a really good read. A twisty story that will keep you reading. A good, quick read that will keep you thinking and may leave you in tears.

Dual timeline stories being told. Issues of abandonment that tug at the heart,,,, and a phenomenal story by an amazing Canadian Female Author - I want to read all of Leah's books now!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Leah Mercer and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

I love the cover of this novel and the inside. "Ten Little Words" is an exciting novel by Leah Mercer. A page turner for sure.

An interesting book that drew me in from the first pages even though I didn't really like the main character and couldn't relate to her. The plot was good with plenty of twists to keep your interest and it worked well being told by the different characters, a bit dark in places but definitely worth reading

Ten Little Words is a family drama written by Leah Mercer. She does a wonderful job telling the story through two different voices. This is an intriguing novel about the consequences of unhealed trauma. I would recommend it as a quick but engaging read!

The publisher made a copy of this book available for review via Netgalley. This is my honest opinion.

Ella has grown up since the age of five without her mother.

I am always with you. I will always be here.

Those ten little words her mother used to say to her each night before bed.

When they appear in a newspapers classifieds Ella has to wonder what they mean.

This leads her on a journey of discovery not only of herself, but her mother and her past.

Told from the perspective of Ella in the current day and Jude in the past, this is a story of abandonment, secrets and withholding the truth.

A well written novel with family at the centre.

Ella has barriers; ever since her mother walked into the sea and disappeared when she was five years old she has allowed no-one to get close, not her aunt and uncle who brought her up, not her work colleagues, no-one...that is until she sees an advert in a newspaper one day. The advert contains just ten short words - 'I am always with you. I will always be here;' the very words that her mother used to say to her before she disappeared forever.

Ten Little Words is a story with heart, and lots of it. Told through the the dual perspective of Ella, and the historical voice of her mother Jude, we learn of a heartbroken little girl, abandoned suddenly by her mother, the aloof and distant adult she becomes, and the story of Jude and Bertie that resulted in her birth.

Ten Little Words is a lovely story told with warmth and compassion that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Enjoyed this one, though having it veer from Ella in Present Day and Jude in the past made it a bit jumbled and I couldn't stay with one character long enough to settle in. The writing was beautiful, though, and it flowed nicely and I really liked the unusual world Ella works in - it was fun to see how a museum and its audio displays and all that come about.

What a great read. Really got into this book and loved how the story was told from start to finish. Interesting characters

Anyone who fancies shedding a tear or two would enjoy this book! Mum Jude disappears one day leaving her five year old daughter Ella, who never gets over it. She then becomes a human iceberg, letting no one anywhere near her. A bit of a slow burner as each chapter features the women in turn, They were both selfish and treated Carolyn despicably. The feeling of heartache is strong enough to feel some empathy with the characters but the ending was a little simplistic for me, too cosy to ring true but an enjoyable read nonetheless. I liked seeing Hastings play such a big part in this book too.

Such an emotional, poignant story of loss, love, and unanswered questions.
As Ella struggles to understand why her mother took her own life all those years ago, she comes across 'ten little words' printed in a paper that will change her life forever.
Although Ella was not always the most likeable at times, you couldn't help but feel for her regardless. The discoveries she makes about herself and her life along the way really pulled on my heart strings. The topic of this book is a difficult one, but the author tackles the subject perfectly. I would certainly recommend it!.

Having lost my mother as a child, I was instantly drawn to the premise of a woman who is still feeling the absence of her mother as an adult. I was intrigued to find out the events surrounding Jules’ disappearance, who left her five- year- old sleeping at home to walk into the ocean and never be seen again. I thought this would be the perfect book to elicit an emotional response from me.

Surprisingly, though, I felt very little as I turned the pages, trying to bond with a cold and stand-offish Ella as she vacillates between wanting to find out things about her mother, then in the same instant hating her and vowing never to let her disappearance affect her life again. Even though I understood her trauma on a deeply personal level, I found it difficult to get into her head. At 35, it seemed unlikely to me that she had never before questioned her mother’s fate, or tried to find out something about her. Her detachment from friends, colleagues and her loving adoptive parents bordered on a personality disorder, even taking her childhood trauma into consideration. She was full of contradictions, which got the story off to a rocky start for me and never really recovered. Lacking any insight in any of the characters’ motives (including Jules), I soon floundered and found that I wasn’t emotionally engaged at all. With a fairly predictable, clichéd storyline in which I knew the outcome from very early on, I struggled to muster up enough interest to keep reading to the end.

Seeing that 2020 has been a year that has heavily affected my reading enjoyment, perhaps this was a case of “it’s not you, it’s me”, but this was at best an average read for me. However, readers who may not look for the same emotional depth I had hoped to find may disagree and find TEN LITTLE WORDS to be a pleasant, unchallenging weekend or holiday read. That just wasn’t what I had been hoping for.

Wow, what a book, This book was such an emotional one for me, I thought I was going to hate Jude for leaving her daughter and not being woman enough to handle her responsibilities, but then I got to understand her more, and even though it was wrong how she went about everything and even wanting to commit suicide to end this misery that even I didn’t know? The way the story was told, the fact that the narration was split between mother and daughter, and then how Carolyn being Jude’s older sister did everything in her power to protect them made me cry like a baby.

So, Ella, lost her mother 30 years ago, Jude committed suicide and left her daughter and older sister behind. Jude was a free spirit, she was an aspiring singer with dreams bigger than herself, and even though she lived in this fantasy world where she met her dream man who loved and supported her and even had a sister that was supportive of her dreams as well, Jude had it MADE! But then Jude was also very naïve, and because of that years later she ended up pregnant, alone and miserable, and that was the saddest part for me. Bertie was her dream man, even though he was a lot older, and wanted to settle down, he was always so supportive of her, but someone closest to him did something so bad and Jude wasn’t herself anymore.

Ella is such a complex character, because she is so hard to love and even when towards the end she learns to let go and live her life, it was still so hard for me to love her. So on her mothers birthday, Ella was reading this free newspaper, and then those ten little words that her mother always told her was placed on it. This threw her off, aside from her being so damn weird and such a loner, this threw her off. She has this crazy feeling and she has been having it for some time that her mother is alive even though everyone says that she’s not. Then she finally askes her aunt Carolyn that she wants to talk about her mother, which is crazy because before she never even wanted to talk about her mother. In everything that her aunt has given her there were letters between a man named Bertie and her mother Jude. There is this mystery man that feels just like her and she needs to go see him. And she does and she finds out things that made her question damn near everything.

She goes and tried to find her mother after Bertie told her that he has seen her in London, she goes to London, and this spiraled out, and I cant even say because it was just so damn beautiful, I didn’t think I would really like this book, but I can honestly say I am in love with this book, this author did something that its hard to do and that is creating the image of a character that we will all really dislike and then out of nowhere, POW, we love them and we forgive them the way the characters have as well. Amazing.

Thank you Netgalley, Leah Mercer for such a sweet read and her publisher Lake Union Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Heartfelt about a tough topic, Leah Mercer brings the character of Ella through the emotional struggle of attempting to understand why her mother would leave her by walking into the sea.
As she navigates her life, one day she discovers a phrase her mother often used that's been printed in the paper.
Now, she must decide if the answers she's told herself she's wanted all these years are what will really fix her wounded heart and help her heal the relationships she's rejected with anyone all this time.
The book had some tough moments for the character as she was hard to like at times, but a classic example of someone who's so deeply wounded, they don't realize how much they hurt those who want to help them.

*I received a copy of this book for an honest review.

A beautiful story which dealt with the issues of abandonment and its repercussions.
Written in dual timelines, the story captured by heart with its vivid portrayal of life's circumstances. This was a new author for me, and I would love to read all her other books.
Overall, a beautiful read

There were so many intriguing twists, not only in the plot, but also in the telling of the story. I love the fact that we get more than Ella's point of view, which allows us a greater glimpse of the motives and intentions of the characters.

It's difficult to say more without giving away spoilers. Thirty years is a long time, but in some ways, when there's love, it's no time at all.