I felt that this book was a little drawn out. The descriptions seem to go on and on , dragging out the story. Once you knew Victoria’s mother hadn’t died, you could predict the rest. I didn't’ feel there was enough depth to the story. It was pretty straight forward with no twists and turns which Is what seems to keep me interested. I felt that I skimmed a lot. It is an easy read and good if you like a single plot.

Thank you Net Galley for the chance to preview this book.

Emotional Story Of Love And Loss
This is an unforgettable work of Women's Fiction. It involves generations of a family whose secrets come to light only after the death of the grandmother. Those who are left behind, primarily the granddaughter, discover some life-altering lies and must learn to deal with them. It is a very emotional story that will take some time to digest. The author has put some book club discussion questions at the end. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

I received this ARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. This is my first book by this author. I feel like it was slow going for me. It took me 2 weeks to read this book because I was determined to finish it but it did not hold my attention. I would give this authors books another shot though in the future.

A beautifully written story that will send you on an emotional rollercoaster. This story gives you all the ‘feels’. Sometimes tears of sadness as you feel for Victoria and the grief she is dealing with to tears of frustration at her behaviour sometimes.
Amanda Prowse writes her books in a way that make the characters come ‘alivem and become ‘real’ people, almost like you’re there in the story with them and experiencing what they are.
A story about love, loss and trust.

A lovely book that was well written.
To start with a was a little frustrated with some of the characters in the book. I was questioning how deceitful Prim & Sarah could be to make up a story that was so hurtful in that way, as the book went on I warmed to them a bit and got to understand that in reality what they did was in the best interest of raising Victoria.
A few times in the book I wanted to shout a little at Victoria for the way she was acting towards people especially when she was a little rude to Gerald and how she was getting herself into a situation with Flynn, whom I took a disliking to from the start as there was something I could not quite put my finger on, am glad she did not fall for his charm the second time, am also glad she went travelling with Daks I thought they had a great friendship. It was lovely that Victoria found true love and could have a relationship with her mum....a great happy ending.

Amanda Prowse is a prolific and versatile author whose novels describe ordinary females who suddenly find themselves in difficult circumstances they overcome through determination, positivity and sheer grit. Her prose is so captivating because she does not shy away from addressing difficult dilemmas but does so in a positive, life-affirming way. I looked forward to reading this novel but found myself underwhelmed as the protagonist, 18-year-old Victoria (who presents as a much younger girl), and her beloved grandmother who dies early on in the novel, appeared shallow and one-dimensional in comparison to some of Prowse’s earlier strong, clearly depicted heroines. Fellow parents of young adults would probably agree the dialogues between Victoria and her grandmother, and the dialogues between Victoria and her best friend Daksha, appear unrealistic as they are unfailingly polite, sweet and considerate to one another. The narrative gained in momentum, and the individual characters gained in depth when the plot moved to Norway, where Victoria went on the trail of her mother who had been presumed dead for a long time, but not enough to make me like this novel as much as Prowse’s earlier novels. The ending also appeared too ‘neat’ and less intriguing than it could have been. The Day She Came Back has all the hallmarks of a novel that will appeal to many readers – a versatile cast of characters, plenty of dialogue, lots of emotion and recognisable themes – and still presents a good read, it just doesn’t quite match the promise of Prowse’s earlier works. I am, however, looking forward to her next novel and would like to thank Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Victoria is 18 and lives with her gran, Prim, in a big house in Epsom. Her mother, Sarah had died of a drugs overdose when she was a baby. Then one her whole world is turned upside down.
This story is about Victoria's journey through to the other side. As usual, Amanda Prowse makes her characters real and relatable, exploring the situation from different points of view.
Loved it and really recommend it

This was my first book by author Amanda Prowse. I really enjoyed this sweet story of love and loss. Victoria, a teenager in England raised by her grandmother, discovers after her grandmothers death that her mother who she thought had died shortly after her birth, is very much alive. As you can imagine, Victoria is angry and also sad to learn they had lied to her all these years. But they had a very good reason to do so. I found this to be a wonderful story of discovery and forgiveness as mother and daughter reunite and learn about all they had missed.

EXCERPT: The woman shook her head. 'No, your name isn't Victoria.'

'Okaaay,' Victoria raised her eyebrows, thinking she would get this conversation over as quickly as possible and make her way back into the house. Even the maudlin, quiet gathering of the pensioner bees was better than this. 'What is it then?' she challenged, intrigued. 'What's my name?'

'Victory.' She smiled. 'Your name is Victory.'

The woman searched her face and Victoria saw a brief reflection of something so familiar it made her heart jump.

'Victory?' She bit her lip. 'Is that right?'

'Yes. A strong name, a name that I thought would see you through anything.'

Victoria took a step backwards.

Her heart beat loudly in her ears and her stomach flipped with nausea. Whatever this was, whatever joke, prank or deception, she was not enjoying it and wanted to be anywhere else. It was as if her feet had grown roots in the mud and, as much as she wanted to run, she felt stuck.

'I don't know why you would say that to me. Who are you? Who did you come with? Because I will see if they are ready to leave.' Still she was torn between wanting to throw the woman out and being polite: it was a funeral, after all. She was aware she had raised her voice slightly.

'Who am I?' The woman's tone suggested the question almost pained her.

'Yes, who are you?'

ABOUT THIS BOOK: When her loving, free-spirited grandmother Primrose passes away, Victoria is bereft, yet resilient—she has survived tragedy before. But even her strength is tested when a mysterious woman attends Prim’s funeral and claims to be the mother Victoria thought was dead.

As the two women get to know each other and Victoria begins to learn more about her past, it becomes clear that her beloved grandmother had been keeping life-changing secrets from her. Desperate for answers, she still struggles to trust anyone to tell her the truth.

To live a full and happy life, Victoria knows she must not only uncover the truth, but find a way to forgive her family. But after so many years, is trusting them even possible?

MY THOUGHTS: Another 'I couldn't put it down' read from Amanda Prowse.

I read The Day She Came Back overnight, a box of tissues handy for the second half. I cried tears of sadness, sympathy, and joy. Prowse does human emotion so eloquently, so realistically, that the reader is transported into the book alongside the beautifully crafted characters. She understands grief, and anger, and how, when someone is hurting, they lash out at the ones who love them. Which is exactly what Victoria does. Her world is turned upside down, and she is angry with everyone whose life is unaffected. She is eighteen years old, alone, vulnerable, and ripe for the picking. With the whole foundation of her life ripped out from beneath her, Victoria reacts, and reacts badly. Some version of her story is played out multiple times every day all around the world. I wanted to reach out and hug her, she became that real to me. I also, at various times, wanted to ground her, slap her, and give her a reality check or two. Very realistic characters. All of them.

The Day She Came Back is a beautifully poignant story of a young woman finding her place in the world. There is nothing predictable about Prowse's writing. When I was expecting the storyline to go in one direction, she took it in another. The plot is as superbly crafted as the characters.

Five very tear-stained but smiling stars.

😪😍❤😪😍

#TheDaySheCameBack #NetGalley

'I used to sit there in a warm spot like a sun-puddling cat and read.'

'I love to see people in love. I think it is one of the most hopeful sights known to man. I think that as long as people love one another, then there is hope.'

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Amanda Prowse was a management consultant for ten years before realising that she was born to write. Amanda lives in the West Country with her husband and their two teenage sons.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Amazon Publishing UK via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Day She Came Back by Amanda Prowse 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, Instagram and my webpage

This is the first time that I am reading a book by Amanda Prowse and I am glad to say she goes into the list of authors whose work I look out for.

The title was really intriguing and the blurb also painted a picture of mystery thriller. This book a contemporary women's fiction.

Victoria is an 18 yr old teen living with her Grandma Prim since birth. She was told that she had lost her parents to a drug overdose. She loved her Grandma very much. The day she finds her Grandma's dead body in her favourite garden place....she is shocked and is not able to recover from it. To add to this A lady visits her at Prim's funeral. She claims to be her dead mother. This is where the roller coaster ride in this book starts.

I liked the plot of the story and it is evenly paced. The intrigue is carried till the end. The characters are thought out well with no unnecessary characters in the story. I particularly loved Daksha and Jens. Although in a suppoting role.....their personality really shone through.
The story did go through a boring patch in between.
It's an emotional story of mother daughter relationship. If you love to read stories that tug at your heart then you will definitely love to read this one.

I thank the publisher, author and Netgalley for approving my Review request. The opinions expressed are all mine

Amanda’s books are feel good and wholesome. They are easy to read but intricate enough to provide a gripping story. I’ve always said you can tell an Amanda Prowse book by the cover or title alone and it’s true - they’re beautiful and always carefully paired to create something that you absolutely want on your shelf even before you start reading it.

Amanda is truly talented when it comes to domestic dramas and she is always my ‘go to’ Author for emotionally charged contemporary fiction.

This isn’t normally my kind of book but I have read Amanda’s books before and enjoyed them immensely so thought I’d give this one a go and I wasn’t disappointed.

The book follows a woman called Victoria as she discovers that her grandmother hid family secrets from her which have come out after the grandmother has passed away.

The first secret we discover is that Victoria thought her mother had died but she turns up at the funeral, which has an effect on Victoria.

The story then follows Victoria as she works out her life and looks into what she thought was true and the real truth.

At times Victoria was a very annoying character but overall it was a very good book which I mainly enjoyed.

I read this book very quickly.There was not much to think about and I found the story a bit far fetched.
I did not bond with the main character Victoria or Victory and thought she was very naive and not like any of teenagers I know today.
Victoria lived with her gran thinking her mum had died when she was small.Her gran dies suddenly and Victoria thinks she is left alone.She sees a women at the funeral she does not recognise.Guess who, yes it's her mum who is not really dead.
They get in touch and become close.Her mum lives in Oslo and on a visit there she meets a boy who lives in the same block of flats and guess what! They get married and live happily ever after.So overall not the best Amanda Prowse I have read but it passed some time in lockdown.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
This book was sweet and an easy read. Perfect for a summer pick me up. I really loved the imagery and language used in this book.
This is a book on family and relationships and the author does a fab job and delving deep into both.
There is a colorful cast of characters who are well thought out and interesting. I loved Prim and wished we had more of her!
The book was a bit slow in paces and could have more drama but that is my opinion.
On the whole, a great book to read.

I usually devoir anything by Amanda Prowse but this book failed to deliver for me. The story seemed childish and even silly at times. The author has a wonderful style always but this time there was a lack of substance.

This is my first Amanda Prowse book and I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately I just couldn't connect with the characters and really struggled to stick with it. Sadly I only made it 30% through. Thank you to netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

I read "The Day She Came Back" by Amanda Prowse and thoroughly enjoyed it. Victoria is a young woman, raised by her grandmother who has her life quickly changed when her grandmother passes on. On the day of the funeral Victoria has a huge shock, one that she doesn't believe to be true at first. The story is well written and easy to follow. I laughed and I cried. I would highly recommend this book!

The day she came back is an emotional journey you will take with Victoria/Victory. The story starts out with her losing her Grandmother “Prim” who raised her since she was a baby. Prim leads her to believe her mother died when she was 3 months old. At Prim’s funeral Victoria discovers her mother is not dead. This book is the journey of discovery, who her mother is, who Prim was and why they lied to her and most of all who she is? Not who she thought she was but who she really is. Great coming of age story. Join in Victory’s travel thru discovery, love and understanding of who she is. I was given this ebook in exchange for a unbiased review and this is solely my opinion.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book, as I did and didn’t enjoy it. There are a few funny moments tinged with a lot of sadness and anger. I can understand the main character being angry at the death of her grandmother. Who brought her up. Along with the anger of finding out that throughout her 18 years of life, what she was told and lead to believe about her family was a lie.

The character was finding it hard to comprehend what she had been told and what actually turned out to be the truth. In real life anyone would go through a huge mixture of feelings and the author portrayed this very well. For me however the part I enjoyed the most in the book was the epilogue, when we found ourselves ten years down the line.

Victoria is 18 years old, she lives with her elderly grandmother Prim. Who is the only family that she has. Her mother passed away when she was a baby, due to her being a drug addict. Prim and even her grandfather kept to this story until he passed away when Victoria was 9.

One day Victoria goes out with her best friend Daksha and as they are leaving Prim asks her to bring a balaclava when she meant a baklava. When Victoria gets home she finds Prim in her favourite chair in the garden room, she is slouched with blank looking eyes. Victoria realised that her grandmother has passed away. She contacts Daksha and she and her parents turn up to help her. Daksha’s father is actually Prim’s GP.

Daksha and her family do all they can to help and support Victoria and when she finally goes back home Daksha stays with her. On the day of Prim’s funeral Victoria is still in shock and is basically just going through the motions. After the funeral they all go back to Victoria’s for the wake. When she spots a woman out by the lake. She goes out to see if she can help her. The woman somehow looks a little bit familiar but she can’t understand why. The woman is called Sarah and she drops a huge bombshell that sets Victoria spiralling a bit out of control. She says that she’s Victoria’s mother!

She asks the woman to prove who she says she is. With all of this Victoria doesn’t know what to do, her mind is constantly going over everything she grew up knowing and what Sarah has told her. She meets up with a boy she went to school with and they hook up with each other. Flynn isn’t the right guy for Victoria, but she can’t see that until he persuades her to have a party at her house.

Daksha isn’t impressed about the party, plus she can’t go anyway as her mother is taking her to see family. Besides Daksha and Victoria have had a bit of a falling out due to the way Victoria is treating Daksha along with doing things she wouldn’t normally do.

The party ends up being a disaster. Victoria gets drunk, people are abusing the house. She ends up hiding in the larder being sick in to a boot. When she realises she needs to find Flynn. However when she does find him, he’s in Prim’s bed having sex with another girl. She wishes that Daksha was there to help her get rid of everyone, but she wasn’t there. So she called on the only other person that said she could count on him day or night, Prim’s companion Gerald.

Gerald turns up and starts to get everyone out, except Flynn as he starts mouthing off at Gerald. So Gerald pulls out his father’s pistol from WWII and threatens them all if they don’t leave now. Unbeknown to everyone the pistol was decommissioned after the war.

The next day everyone rallies around Victoria and they get the house back to how it should be. All of them in their own way tell Victoria that she can’t carry on acting like this, and what would Prim think of her? They all agree that she needs to sit down with Sarah and discuss the reasons and why Prim told her that her mother was dead.

Victoria goes over to Norway to see Sarah as she’s been living there for many years now. Hoping she’ll get all of the answers she’s looking for. Her time in Oslo is tiring, upsetting and very emotional. She doesn’t know how she feels one minute to the next it’s like she’s on a rollercoaster. Sarah says that she hopes one day they will be able to meet half way and build up a strong relationship.

We eventually jump 10 years into the future where life for Victoria has changed so much. I can’t tell you anymore about her future as I don’t want to spoil it for you. As this was my favourite part of the book.

19 year old Victoria live happily alongside her grandmother, who has raised her since her parents died tragically in a car accident when Victoria was a baby. There are no other relatives around for Victoria when her grandmother suddenly and unexpectedly dies. She has to rely on friends to help her through the funeral.
A woman comes to see Victoria and says she is her mother. Victoria knows deep down Sarah is her mother but will not accept that her beloved grandmother has lied to her all these years.
The revelation has made Victoria so distressed that her life seems to implode around her. This is a moving story and we feel sympathy with Victoria but her mother has suffered for years too as she rebuilds her life after finally beating drug addiction. The Norwegian setting she moves to has been able to heal Sarah and also finally makes things understandable for Victoria as well. The satisfying ending was deserved by both of them and even Victoria’s grandmother had only ever acted with the best of intentions. Drug addiction is never easy to understand to outsiders but Prowse has an amazing ability to see both sides and explain them to us. This is a very satisfying read and well constructed so that the situation evolves in a natural way.