As a successful human rights lawyer living in London, Pip Appleby seems to have it all. She has a lovely flat in the perfect location, she has a charming and successful boyfriend and a job she loves. This all changes when Pip finds herself unable to cope in the aftermath of a tragic accident and she finds herself back at home at her family’s rural farm in Southwold. The humble life she tried so hard to leave behind suddenly becomes her new reality.

After discovering the diary of Evelyn Mountcastle, Pip enjoys being able to distance herself from her own life, and emerges herself into someone else’s. Evelyn’s diary reveals her life as an actress in the early 1980’s and how she too found herself reluctantly returning to Southwold. Pip can’t help notice the parallels between Evelyn’s life, also marred with tragedy, and that of her own.

Reluctantly Home is an interesting exploration into grief and guilt and how people react to tragedy. Imogen Clark isn’t afraid to tackle some really difficult themes and topics such as anxiety, death and sexual assault were both realistic and sensitively done.

The story moved at a slow pace with hints dropped throughout before eventually unveiling the truth. However I felt there wasn’t any real suspense or mystery as the “secrets” were, in my opinion, quite obvious and as I suspected. The book is well written and the characters were likeable and realistic. I just felt there was something missing. It’s a nice story of female resilience and the power of friendship, but I just felt it lacked any real impact.

You can find my full review at https://mmbbookblog.com/reluctantly-home-by-imogen-clark-review/

When a tragic event disrupts the life of the eminently successful Rose, she returns to to the safe haven of the family farm where she spent her childhood reconnecting with familiar faces to aid in her recuperation. Whilst volunteering in a local charity shop and sorting through a box of donated goods, she discovers a handwritten diary which irresistibly leads her life to become entwined with that of its author. The parallel lives of two women facing life-changing events draws the reader into a story which avoids the predictable. The concluding chapter leaves the reader reflecting on whether this is indeed the conclusion of the story or could perhaps be the opening chapter of the next book.

This is a highly recommended read. It fired my imagination with an original storyline.

I found this story to be interesting although it seemed to move slowly. Pip Appleby finds herself back home after a tragic event. She is not happy but when she finds a journal in a bokstore she becomes immersed in reading it. She is obsessed with learning all about an actress, Evelyn Mountcastle who also had a life altering event. Though generations apart their similarities haunt Pip and she seeks to find Evelyn. The alternating chapters reveal the history of each character. I loved the cover of the book which did entice me to chose it to read. Thanks to Net Galley for a copy, the opinions are my own.

A very nice read, well written and thought provoking.
The story is interesting, the dual narrative engaging.
Pip Appleby returns to her family home after a terrible accident and, while working in a charity shop, has the opportunity to read an old diary (discarded by accident) of an ex-actress who lives locally and whom she eventually gets to know on returning the diary. The friendship between them will help them both overcome their past, the sense of guilt and loneliness.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful and poignant story of friendship and forgiveness. Well written with slow build pacing. Relatable characters that are engaging. A solid women's fiction read.

Triggers: Panic attacks
Reluctantly Home is a beautiful story about forgiving yourself and moving forward in life. I suffer from panic and anxiety attacks so it resonated with me a bit. This novel has parallel stories of two women and for different reasons are stuck in life and unable to move forward. Though its slow going in the beginning it does pick up after a while and when it does its difficult to put it down. Definitely a wonderful

Reluctantly Home by Imogen Clark was a great easy read. I gave it a 4/5 star. Thank you NetGalley for this opportunity.
2 main characters, Pip and Evelyn find each other under terrible circumstances.
Pip is a lawyer in London living with her boyfriend and enjoying life. She has a tragic accident and it destroyers her. She has to go back home to heal and while there she finds a old diary at the thrift store she is working at. She reads it and decides to find the rightful owner.

Evelyn is an elderly lady living alone after tragedy strikes her family. Pip and Evelyn meet up and help each other heal and turn their lives around.

This is a very stratifying story. I would recommend this story and can't wait to read more books from this author.

Pip Appleby is a successful barrister in London when a tragic accidents sends her fleeing back to her childhood home in Southwold Suffolk. Whilst helping in a charity shop she comes across a diary seemingly abandoned in a box of books. As she's drawn into the musings of the author she starts asking questions about who she could be.
Meanwhile Evelyn Mountcastle lives the life of a recluse following her own tragedies. As their lives entwine, hope to move on is brought to both Pip and Evelyn
A lovely story that the reader is drawn into from the beginning.
Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own

In this, her fifth full-length novel, Imogen Clark proves yet again her superb talent for producing convincing family dramas and her skill in creating characters with which readers can truly identify. This time she does so with an engaging tale of parallel lives, initially played out in a dual narrative set across two different time frames. Two women, forty years apart, each make a break away from their stifling home lives in a sleepy Suffolk village to seek their fortunes amongst the bright lights of London. On the surface, they appear to be successfully fulfilling their dreams, free from the shackles and embarrassment of family expectation and censure. But when each find their hard-fought for and treasured independence snatched away by a life-changing event, and they are forced to return to their roots, they have to re-evaluate not only the choices they have made in creating new identities but also the old lives from which they thought they’d escaped.
In many ways this is a coming-of-age story, one which will chime with anyone who has wanted to forge a different life to the one they believe has been chosen for them. Many will understand the desire of the main characters to break free from the boredom which accompanies the familiarity of the family home. Readers may identify too with the characters’ conviction that they can make better choices for themselves and do without the support of family. Both women learn the hard way that independence brings responsibility as well as freedom. Both come to realise it is not the mistakes we make which define us but the way in which we deal and learn to live with those mistakes.
Reluctantly Home is also a story about the value of true friendship: the comfort and security of spending time with those who have known us since childhood and the benefits of cross-generational relationships – how young and old alike can learn from each other’s experiences.
As ever, the author’s writing is rich and the story well-constructed. The female characters in particular felt fully formed and were very convincing, and whilst I was not particularly surprised by any of the plot turns, this did not detract in any way from my enjoyment of the story. I was especially pleased that the loose ends were not drawn together in a predictable conclusion. I found myself drawn in by the main characters and invested in what happens to them – it was easy to imagine myself in their shoes, wondering how I would feel and react in the same circumstances and it was this that kept me turning the pages quickly. I thought too that the story’s treatment of a #MeToo situation was particularly clever – a reminder both of the limitations and difficulties of revisiting events from a very different past and of how other people’s memory of the same event is usually very different to our own. The novel gave me a lot to think about long after I had finished it and that is the true sign of a story well told.

I am grateful to the author and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for wish I have agreed to give an honest review.

In Reluctantly Home author Imogen Clark gives us two heroines and two stories that eventually merge. Both of the main characters left their hometown for greener pastures and ended up having to come back home. This story leaves the reader with a nice warm feeling. I want to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an early copy to review.

Imogen Clark’s Reluctantly Home was an emotional roller coaster that pulls you in from the first moment and doesn’t let go.

Pip is recovering from a traumatic incident that sends her reeling. To help with her recovery, she’s begun volunteering in a local charity shop. When an old diary arrives with a box of books, Pip decides to take just a little peek, to help find the rightful owner, of course.

Evelyn Mountcastle is an aspiring actress in 1979, on the verge of her big break, when she must return home unexpectedly to her overbearing sister and a life entirely different than what she planned.


This dual timeline novel is paced brilliantly, with the stories of these two incredible characters interweaving in just the right way. What really makes it irresistible are the two protagonists.

Pip and Evelyn are vastly different and yet its their similarities that draw one to the other. They’re both likable, relatable, and flawed. They’re the kind of characters that you’re sad to leave, and that you hope get a sequel or at least a short story so you can spend just a bit more time with them. They’re thoroughly likable, the exact kind of person its easy to imagine befriending. They’re realistically flawed individuals, beautifully crafted to leave a lasting impression.

The themes in this novel are heavy, and it’s a safe bet to say you won’t walk away with dry eyes. But the heartbreak isn’t for heartbreak’s sake; this tugs on your emotions because it is so accurate. That’s why it cuts so deep.

This book is hard on the heart, but its also thought provoking, gently handled, and one that is sure to stay with you. Though the themes are heavy, it isn’t pointedly done to provoke an emotional response. Information is measured and meted out to build tension and intrigue in just the right way.

The cadence and voice of this writing is reminiscent of hearing a wonderful story from a great friend who just so happens to be a master storyteller; the sensitive subjects are handled appropriately while the story inspires empathy and introspective thinking.

I was gripped from start to finish by this novel. I adored it, and thought it was just so well done. It’s a tricky topic, and it definitely made me cry, but it also made me think. I just can’t resist a book that makes me take a closer look, that shifts my perspective, that makes me think about it while I’m doing life in between reading it. I really loved these characters; Pip is incredibly relatable, on the bad end of a tragic situation, and yet even as she struggles she strives to do better. Evelyn is inspiring, a girl full of moxie who becomes a strong, capable woman the precise moment it’s asked of her. I just loved living in their world, seeing 1979 London and modern day Southwold.

Imogen Clark’s Reluctantly Home will be available on April 29, 2021 from Lake Union Publishing and Amazon Publishing UK. I’m grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this novel for my review.

After a beginning that was rather depressing, the book became more positive as Pip and Evelyn became friends. They both came out of the sadness which enveloped their lives and together were able to find hope in a new future.
An enjoyable read, as are all the other books by Imogen Clark, with the usual themes of family underpinning the narrative.

I've have enjoyed previous books by Imogen Clark and was delighted to get the opportunity to review Reluctantly Home. Unfortunately the book did not live up to my expectations and I struggled to finish it.

I read The Last {Piece and fell in love with Imogen Clark's writing. The twists and turns captivate your interest. In Reluctantly Home, the story starts and the the plot does an abrupt twist. It's those surprises that keep you wanting more. Hard to put down. I can't wait for more!

First, thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
This was a new author and title for me. The simple but pretty cover drew me in. I found this book to be a quick , easy read. The story was interesting and thought provoking. What would I do and how would I feel if this happened to me. I can’t imagine and hope to never experience anything like it. I liked the dual narrative and hearing both stories. I didn’t feel the similarities between their experiences but it made more sense as I got closer to the end. I enjoyed seeing the characters grow and overcome their difficult experiences. I liked this title and would rate this 3.5 stars

I received an advance copy of, Reluctantly Home, by Imogen Clark. Pip finds a diary from an old actress and reads it, and them meets her, judging her the whole time. I did not like this book.

This is an interesting read that begins with a shocking accident. Pip Appleby’s life changes suddenly. She’s a successful lawyer, living the highlife in London with her equally successful partner. Due to a terrible accident, Pip finds her world turned upside down. Unable to cope, she finds herself back at her parents farmhouse being cared for by her loving and patient parents.

Volunteering at the local charity shop, Pip comes across a diary that has been dropped off for donation. While reading the diary we are given a glimpse in to the life of Evelyn Mountcastle forty years earlier. With flashbacks in time we get to know the story of Evelyn who’s life also took an unexpected turn.

Pip is intrigued by Evelyn’s story and sets off to learn more about Evelyn who lives locally. When their path’s cross, changes come about for both of them.

This book covers several different topics including PTSD and tragedy, isolation and flashbacks to sexual harassment. Most of all it’s a story of friendship. Friendship can take many different forms and human connection with the right person or people can do us the world of good. With some people it just clicks and when you are lucky enough to find real friendship, I don’t think there is a greater gift.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The story starts with a shocking event and slows as the character copes with the consequences. It got engaging with the intersecting timelines and circumstances of Pip and Evelyn. That’s when I truly got drawn into the story. It was worth it to stick around.

What a wonderful read! Pip and Evelyn seem like an unlikely pair but life experiences have a way of bringing people together to help them through their personal issues. Fate throws terrible hurdles into everyone's lives. Both women have worked hard to change their personas but end up returning to the roots they tried to escape. Please read this book. I found myself wanting to find out the ending - you will too! Thank you Imogen Clark for this delightful read, Amazon Publishing UK/Lake Union Publishing, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and recommend this book!

Bittersweet and wonderful are two words for this story. The book will be the only thing you care about at some points along the story. It’s a great tale that we can all relate to a bit.