It was a surprise to read this one. a good and great surprise.
although the beginning was slower, when you get into the rhythm of reading it becomes incredible and addictive.
is a touching book, exciting and full of surprises. I found myself crying in many parts and reflecting in others.
incredible.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this one was a surprise! It was emotional and touching. I loved Geraldine and her grief and her struggles. I loved learning of her life and then hear meals on wheels. Her reluctance but then wonderful connection with her friend. This book was touching, emotional, and with great little moments of humor. The book felt tender, handling the tough topics well, and I was completely wrapped in the story. It felt quick because I didn't want to stop reading. So glad I gave this one a try!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Oh Geraldine! We have so much in common! Geraldine retired from the library in 2012, I retired from the library in 2015. She was married for over 50 years. I have been married for 46 years. I'm only four years younger than her, and, we both love books, baking, and Baileys. LOL

Geraldine's beloved husband Jack passed away mere months ago. Now she is bereft, adrift, and mourning. She has found that her love of people and life in general has completely diminished. She is living in a bereavement induced limbo. She does not venture out. She keeps Jack's ashes in a red wheelie suitcase and wheels him around the house with her wherever she goes.

An inopportune fall leaves her with broken bones, a limp, and a bandaged hand. Her husband's best friend Len arranges for her to have 'Meals On Wheels' at his expense. She is adamantly against the idea of strangers in her home.

One of the Meals on Wheels volunteers in a young woman named Lottie. Despite her initial reluctance, Geraldine finds herself caring for this vibrant young woman. The budding friendship blossoms, giving newfound vibrancy to both their lives.

This novel was written with great empathy, more than a little humour, and an uncanny understanding of loss. It explores the physical and mental manifestations of grief, yet it ends on a joyous note. Women's fiction and Uplit that will be appreciated by many readers.

Geraldine Verne’s Red Suitcase by Jane Riley is a story about Geraldine who after the loss of her husband Jack becomes agoraphobic and is slowly pushing away all her friends until she meets Lottie. This is a well written story which explores the topics of depression, grief and friendship, while I liked it unfortunately I couldn't connect with Geraldine and found it quite repetitive. Having said that I would still recommend this to others who seem to like quirky characters.

Well written and a nice enough story, but I felt it only scraped the surface of the subject matter.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this book. My heart ached for the main character, Geraldine. The loss of her husband was such a heartwrenching experience for her. And seeing her approach each day without him by her side was sad. But her behavior was so quirky … and not in a funny and entertaining way. I just could not connect with her and had to force myself to keep reading. I finally reached the end and felt just meh! However, I am one of a few who was not blown away by this book, so I would encourage you to read it yourself and see if appeals to you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

A sweet story about completing dreams and wishes and creating a relationship that you can look at fondly.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this.

Have requested this book a while back and forgot all about it. So glad I requested it and remembered to read it.
Geraldine's story was quite emotional - having lost my grandfather a few months back, I felt her grief for the loss of her husband.
I could picture her as my grandma and it was truly emotional seeing how she coped with her loss.
Loved all the characters, although I felt like the Len's and lost daughter's story could have been left out as not really relevant to the narration.
Would really recommend for a light but inspiring read.

There were laughter and tears present as I read this book. I adored it. Having experienced grief myself I understood Geri. I love the friendship that she developed. There is hope.
Many thanks to Amazon Publishing UK and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

After the loss of Geri's husband, she was heartbroken. She drags along her little red suitcase with her husband's ashes around the home, while her friends try to help with her grief. I could not complete this book because it was too sad and repetitive. I wanted Geri to pick up her life but it did not happen until 30% of the book so I had to give up.

My thoughts 







Narrative and Plot 



With a compelling voice and an elderly charm, Geraldine Verne's Red Suitcase is one of those stories that can easily touch your hearts with its simplicity. Grief is a powerful emotion. The book portrays it with grace and feeling.

The story is mostly character-driven. It is basically the journey of Geraldine Verne and how she overcomes a difficult phase in her life with a little help. This simple story is executed beautifully that it brings a smile to your face while reading. 







Characters and Conflicts  










While Geraldine Verne is the main character and the narrator of the story, there is enough room for other supporting characters who make an impression.
Mrs Verne is witty and feisty which makes the story all the more interesting. While she portrays this eccentric old woman, Lottie's character creates a balance by being as grounded as possible.

The conflict of the book is one's own inhibitions and fears which is quite relatable. To read about someone getting out of it can be quite inspiring even if it is fictional.

The only thing if I had to point out would be, we never get to know much about Lottie and where she is coming from. However, that is forgivable since this is mostly Geraldine Verne's story. 



Conclusion 




If you're looking for a heart-warming and uplifting book , this one is for you. The story is quite self aware of its limitations. It does not do anything grand and yet, it makes a point by reminding us to rejoice in the simple joys of life.

After her husband, Jack, died, Geraldine cut herself off from the world. She became agoraphobic, and wouldn’t let anyone in her house, even friends who tried to help her. All that changed when Lottie, a young Meals in Wheels volunteer, begins to deliver meals and friendship. An odd pair, both quirky and unique, Lottie and Geraldine form a bond that helps Geraldine move forward. I really enjoyed this book, and recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Geraldine Verne is struggling through the grief of losing her beloved husband, Jack, after 50 years of marriage. He was her soulmate and they still had so much they wanted to do together. So, she carries around a red suitcase as a substitute for Jack. She dances with him in her home, drags "him" from one room to another and even takes him for an outing to the zoo. Worried about her mental health, her good friend, Len, signs her up for Meals on Wheels so she can get fresh food delivered daily. Geraldine resists at first but soon finds friendship with one of the Meals on Wheels volunteers, Lottie, who is dealing with her own sort of grief.

I loved this novel! It's such a sweet book about grief, but also about love and companionship. From the neighborhood kids who she finds herself baking for (and who in turn bake for her) to her friend Len who keeps an eye out for her, to 20-something year old Lottie with whom she forges a new friendship. Through the love and encouragement of those around her, Geraldine finds a way to process her grief, let go of the past, cherish her memories and move forward.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this e-copy of the novel. You can also find my review on Goodreads and IG @maria.needs.to.read

Geraldine Verne and Lottie form a very unlikely friendship, after Geraldine loses her husband and Lottie gets broken up with. Geraldine is having a hard time coping with the loss of her husband after fifty years of marriage. She's been stuck in the house for months, not going out, not talking, not wanting to take care of herself. Her friends do their best to help her, but changes seem to happen only when Lottie is introduced in her life, through Meals on Wheels.

I loved Geraldine's character. She's 72 years old and even though she is grieving you still get to see bits of her personality pop through; she's quirky, funny, blunt, kind and gentle. I loved how she described how handsome and sharp her friend Len looked: ''You're looking sharp, Len. Like a block of Parmesan cheese.'' She's just cheeky at unexpected times, but you feel no malice radiate from her. She's just freaking funny and adorable. It was difficult and emotional to read the parts where Geri couldn't deal with her grief and how she couldn't let go and how that influences the people around her.

I feel the author managed to beautifully portray the complexity of emotions when you're dealing with loss. You're sad and lonely and you don't need anyone, but at the same time, you don't want to be lonely and you need people around you.

But apart from loss & grief, we also watch a friendship between Lottie and Geri grow and blossom, we see the importance of people in life who support and understand you, and love you, and how asking for help and just letting people see you and be by you in the darkest of times can be healing on its own. It's wonderful to see two women help each other to regain confidence and the courage to keep living life.

If you've ever read Britt-Marie Was Here or A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, you're going to really enjoy and appreciate this book. This is exactly my kind of a book, therefore, I am giving it all the five stars I can.

A struggle for me to get into this book, as I found it all a bit dreary and dull and the suitcase actually annoyed me. Sorry not for me.

Overall, this was a sweet story of letting go and it's mostly about grief and dealing with it. Geraldine is a childless woman in her 70s who's just lost her beloved husband and she's dealing with it in increasingly weirder and more dysfunctional ways. The story is about how her friends helped her deal with it and how she got better.

It was meant to make you feel warm inside, I could tell - but I know I won't remember the story after I close the book, and I found myself bored quite a few times. However, there will definitely be readers who will be more in tune with the themes, so I think it can be a meaningful and enjoyable story, just not for me. It does have a few triggers though, they are [PLEASE READ ON GOODREADS BECAUSE I CAN'T SPOILER TAG THEM HERE.]

In this book, I was only really uncomfortable with one thing - the hobby of the main character's husband, catching butterflies and pinning them in boxes. It's talked about as if it's romantic, but... It's just killing. It's killing beautiful butterflies. It's even mentioned that it's not allowed anymore, because species are going extinct. And I do get that it's realistic that pensioners of now might have had this hobby in the past, back while it was perfectly acceptable. But it was quite upsetting for me to read 'romantic' descriptions of a man waiting to catch AND kill a beautiful creature, to put it in a box in his room. Catching and killing butterflies was described as sensitive and romantic. Not something I'll ever understand, and I don't feel like this is something that should be romanticized.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

My thanks to #Netgalley and #AmazonpublishingUK for the opportunity to read this book.
This is the second book by Jane Riley and I’ve loved them both.
She has a gentle way of telling a story that is thought provoking and within the realms of possible personal exsperience.
Loved the characters and the heartwarming ending.
Fingers crossed that there is another book on the way

Geraladine is a  70 yr old senior lugging a red suitcase everywhere she goes.
I first thought she was in a marriageless relationship and to escape, she has a red suitcase  at her side  wherever she goes. 
The story explains what is really inside the red suitcase...and her prolonged greiving in every decision she makes every day.This suitcase listens to her  vents, and decisions she must make,for she has remained in isolation  three months when her spouse of fifty years, Jack has passed away .He leaves behind notes and instructions for her how  to continue living without him.
She meets two children selling cookies, a Meals on Wheels Volunteer and her  library freinds , Len,an old freind, plus loyal freinds who all coax her to start living again.It was a slow read at first but as I got moire into the book, it held my interest.
Gerry, learns how to continue living alone in a new journey  without her partner.Her mourning is a compassionate and heartwarming  read and the strength she gains from old and new freinds .I found myself chuckling, teary eyed,and sighing. Rooting for Geraldine and  scolding just wanting  push her out that door .
Thank you Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced copy pre read for my honest and solely my own opinion review.

Jane Riley’s unusually titled debut novel The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock was something special – feel-good fiction at its finest and one of my favourite reads of 2020. And so I knew, despite this novel’s grief-stricken premise, that I would be in safe authorial hands.

Geraldine Verne’s Red Suitcase is a far gentler story than Riley’s first novel, but nonetheless impactful. Her capacity to craft believably flawed characters is again on full display in retired librarian Geri’s compulsion to obstinance and seclusion despite her loneliness. The first-person narrative allows readers to appreciate first-hand as it were, the layered depths of her love for her husband and thus comparable grief in his passing. And, how even the most vital of personalities and quick-witted, staunchly independent of minds can knowingly be held prisoner to grief.

Read full review: https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/2021/07/geraldine-vernes-red-suitcase-jane-riley-review.html

After spending fifty years of her life with Jack, Geraldine is alone, with only the urn holding his ashes to hold onto, while she struggles to navigate a life without him. It’s only been three months, but her grief has isolated her and she finds herself unable to let go of the grief which now serves as her companion. She’s let herself go in the process, no longer caring about how she appears to others.

She spends her days trying to lose herself in television or watching the neighbors children through her window, or reliving moments with Jack. The first time they met, in her days as a librarian, she recalls his love of butterflies, many of which he framed and are still on the walls of their home. A reminder, these days, as sweet as those memories are, that he is gone. With no children for family, her only family was Jack. The memories she treasures most were formed with Jack. Their adventures, their travels, chasing butterflies, their life and love was complete. But now that he is not there, she is left with only the memories and his ashes, and can’t bring herself to open the door and her heart to imagine a new life without him.

Neighbors stop by now and then to check on her, but her main interaction begins with the children across the street, after noticing the muffins and lemonade they seem to be selling, she hesitantly opens her door and remembers the children she never had, the children they had wanted. She calls them over, still unable to bring herself to venture beyond her door, and the girl crosses alone, offering her a muffin. She overpays for the muffin, and gives her some sunscreen at the same time. A friendship begins.

When she finally does manage to venture outside, she has a fall which requires a brief hospitalization, and a neighbor arranges for Meals on Wheels to deliver meals for a time. Another friendship develops with one of the young women delivering the meals.

Grief serves as a paralysis of life and love, for her the only person she feels capable of talking about her grief with is the one person she is grieving for. But these new people who enter her life offer brief moments where she begins to let a bit of light in. In listening to others, she begins to see that she is not the only one struggling, and her new journey begins.

Shared in the vein of the quirky charming ways of Harold Fry’s Pilgrimage, I felt like those people cheering him on as he neared the end of his journey, and cheered Geraldine on as she slowly begins to let herself relive those memories, holding onto the joys, after all, ’isn’t that what grief is, a form of love?’.


Published: 29 Jun 2021

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Lake Union Publishing / Amazon Publishing UK