Do you sometimes find you need a good cry? If you do, check out the new book To Love and Be Loved by Amanda Prowse. I really loved this book. I laughed and I cried many times. This book will require a box of tissues next to you as you read because you will find you can’t see the page any longer through the tears. There were so many things to love about this book. Let me tell you about some of them.

The characters were absolutely fabulous! I wanted to know everyone. Heather and Ben are Merrin’s parents. They are salt of the earth. Her older sister is Ruby and her best friend is Bella. Her Gran lives next door. They are such a lovely family. There is great love between the parents and something we all strive for in our lives. There is a little sibling rivalry between the sisters but, Ruby will stand up for little sister Merrin. For the most part this family is pretty near perfect.

They live near the sea in Port Charles in Cornwall, England. Who wouldn’t want to live right on the beach. This is family property and the Kellow’s have been a part of the community for years. The description of the area will take your breath away. I want to live there! It sounds like perfection. At least perfection for a small town. As you know, in a small town everybody knows your business.

The wisdom imparted in this book is something I never want to forget. All of us have been quoted little sayings and quips from our parents and Grandparents. With this family being from Cornwall, they have some unique words of wisdom.

I have loved every book I’ve picked up to read by Amanda Prowse and this one is not any different. She has a way with words and promotes love the way it should be. It is probably the best one I’ve read by her. If you are a fan or you have never read one of her books, I urge you to read this one and see if you love it as much as I do. Let me know what you think. I’d love to discuss it with you.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from #LakeUnionPublishing via #Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Another great book by this author. Merrin is a great main character and you really feel for her and her need to leave Cornwall so throughout the book you are rooting for her to have her happy ending, great characters and storyline as well as being set in my favourite part of the country makes this a book that I couldn't put down

Another absolutely wonderful book by Amanda Prowse, with her trademark beautiful covers.

As soon as I met Merrin in Cornwall, where she loved to slip her shoes off and walk barefoot on the uneven cobbles outside her front door, I knew I was going to connect with her, as I love to do this too so that I can feel connected to the cobbles, grass, or sand and feel the earth. I was sure, from getting to know Merry by half way through the book, that although she had been knocked down and weathered storms, she would surface stronger than ever and find a new life for herself.

Reading the book from when she moved to Bristol (my home town) and worked at a castle, in my head I pictured a local castle hotel near me called Thornbury Castle (where I have treated myself to a birthday afternoon tea), imagine my surprise when I was right!! I was so pleased Merry met Miguel and found someone to love her again.

Amanda's writing is so full of characters, emotions, love and heartache, family and friends and my favourite line from the book is "Merrin was filled with such deep sadness, she was blank, raw and floundering, gasping for air like a fish in the net". I am sure we have all been hurt this badly at some point in our lives, but I have never been able to express is so beautifully. Thank you Mandy.

To love and be loved by Amanda Prowse.
Young and desperately in love, Merrin had the whole world ahead of her. But just as her new life was about to start, the ground beneath her feet was cruelly swept away. Devastated by the humiliation, she ran far away from the beloved fishing village she had always called home to lick her wounds and escape her gossiping friends and neighbours.
A lovely read. Great story and characters. 4*.

Overall this book was about love. being in love and the consequences of love breaking down. The absolute heartbreak of a breakup was so well portrayed it brought tears to my eyes. I felt so much for the main character Merrin. I was hoping she would find her happy ending. How our roots and upbringing impact on our lives and choices were also beautifully explored.

I really loved the Cornish setting and I could imagine the sea breeze on my face as I turned the pages. I was sad to finish this book and can only say Amanda you have done it again, I don’t know how you manage to write books each one unique but each one equally brilliant.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Yet again Amanda hasn’t let me down. I absolutely love this author, the way she writes you feel like you could be there. It is a romance book but with a difference. This isn’t just a boy meets girl falls in love and lives happily ever after like some romance ones can be. This book is hard hitting in places and true to life.
Merrin Mercy Kellow is the main character in this book, but there are some fab other characters too. Merrin’s sister Ruby, her best friend Bella, her first boyfriend Jarvis and also her parents. They live in Cornwall and having spent a lot of lovely holidays there I really enjoyed the setting. Amanda is so descriptive that you can imagine looking out to sea and feeling the sand between your toes.
After disaster strikes on her wedding day Merrin can’t face the town that she loves with the people that she grew up with thinking that they were all talking about her. Packing up her car she leaves to start a new life away from the gossip. Over the course of six years Merrin avoids home and gets on with life away from those she loves. When tragedy strikes all that changes. How will Merrin cope facing the life she left behind.
I highly recommend this book it’s a great read.

A tender story told in Amanda Prowse’s unique voice. This one looks at how beautiful and messy love can be. From romantic love to the love of family and loving where you are in your life. These characters are sweet and relatable with a captivating setting. 4.5 stars.

A comforting read, although at times I did find the pace a little slow. The writing style kept me going though, as just as you were getting to a ‘good’ bit, the author changed to another character’s point of view and that was part of the appeal of the book, wanting to find out what happened next…
I enjoyed being immersed in the Cornish way of life and the setting descriptions of Port Charles, the Cornish village really made me feel like I was there. The narrative was brilliant as it described exactly how living in a small village, where everyone knows everything about everyone, can have such devastating after-shocks when things go wrong in your life.
I found myself being taken in by Merrin’s charms, even though she was a very self-willed and at times, selfish character and didn’t always consider how her actions were affecting those around her. Although there were times when I did feel that the book was slightly overwritten as poor Merrin seemed to go through so many emotional / life-changing events at such a very young age, but in saying that, the author did give us all hope, that even after going through so much, and having to make far too many difficult decisions in her early twenties, Merrin showed us all that things can change, and that we just need to be patient.
I highly recommend this book; it is a beautiful book about love and friendship. It deals, empathetically, with love in its various forms, be it a long term married love, past and present love between couples which is affected by family disapproval and interference, a short-term affair that produces a pregnancy, and a love that upon maturity changes its attention from one person to another. Each of these threads work well together.
Many thanks to Netgalley, Amazon Publishing UK, Lake Union Publishing and the author for an eARC of To love and be loved in exchange for an honest review.

EXCERPT: Breathing long and slow, Merrin closed her eyes briefly, feeling instantly better, calmed. This was the perfect spot with the widest view and she could spend hours here, staring at the waves. Her dad once told her that they were the heads of white, foaming horses, cantering up to the break and crashing, before making a sharp turn and petering to nothing on their return. It was now impossible for her to see them in any other way. Looking out over the purple bruise of sky where clouds hung low over the ocean, she offered up a silent prayer.

Please don't rain! Not on my wedding day . . .

ABOUT 'TO LOVE AND BE LOVED': Young and desperately in love, Merrin had the whole world ahead of her. But just as her new life was about to start, the ground beneath her feet was cruelly swept away. Devastated by the humiliation, she ran far away from the beloved fishing village she had always called home to lick her wounds and escape her gossiping friends and neighbours.

It hasn’t been easy, but six years later Merrin has forged a new life for herself far from the sea, burying the impulsive girl she once was. But when tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to return to the village she swore she’d never set foot in again.

Reluctantly back in the arms of her community, Merrin begins to realise what she’s been missing out on all these years. As she begins to remember the person she used to be, she is forced to make choices about her future, and to question the past. What does she want from her life? Who is important to her? Who is to blame for everything that went wrong? And can she forgive them, let old wounds heal and finally be her true self again?

MY THOUGHTS: As with all of Amanda Prowse's books, To Love and Be Loved is a very emotional read. I had shredded a great number of tissues before I was a quarter of the way through! If only the worst Merrin had to worry about on her wedding day was the weather . . .

We follow Merrin's life journey as her future is ripped apart and she flees her home to try and make a life elsewhere. But, as we all know, the problem with running away is that we take along the problems that are in our hearts and our heads. And at some point, we just have to turn around and deal with them.

Don't expect a fast paced book, you won't get it. To Love and Be Loved is a meandering and often sad read as Merrin spends a lot of time treading water, surviving rather than living.

The sadness and grief is, at times, overwhelming. But it is also punctuated with some beautiful moments in Prowse's trademark style.

Prowse has created a very close knit family in the Kellows. Ben and Heather are still very much in love after their many years of marriage and I enjoyed the easiness of their relationship. Merrin is the younger of their two daughters and a very different personality than her older sister Ruby, who is more prickly and brash, Merrin more dreamy and soft. And I loved their friend Bella, whose role in life seems to be a buffer between the sisters.

Initially, I loved this book, and I still do, but with some reservations. It is intense, emotionally. But, in places it is just too much. Was there ever a family as perfect as the Kellows? I would like to hope so, but probably not. (view spoiler) And the ending is very sudden, and for me was, considering Merrin's past, far too fast and unlikely.

Yet, despite all this, I finished with a smile on my face and am eagerly awaiting Prowse's next.

⭐⭐⭐.8

#ToLoveandBeLoved #NetGalley

I: @mrsamandaprowse @amazonpublishing

T: @MrsAmandaProwse @AmazonPub

#contemporaryfiction #familydrama #romance

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, Lake Union Publishing, via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of To Love and Be Loved 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 is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

A gorgeous book that definitely pulled at my heartstrings as I avidly read this beautiful book.
A stunning setting and a lovely community, it was easy to be drawn into the story.
Merrin was a character who was both strong and weak, whose strength to overcome her past was inspiring.
It was a story that I couldn’t put down! I needed to know the outcome as I had become emotionally attached to the characters and intrigued by the situation.
Amanda’s amazing books always captures my attention and imagination, and this one was no different than the others I have enjoyed.
Such a fabulous book.

I love Amandas books and this is no exception.

Beautifully written this is the story of Merlin who moves away and rebuilds her life.

The story made me cry in parts but was heartwarming and lovely.

Thank you Amanda for another lovely book

Merrin is a young woman who is excited about her future, but her wedding day does not go as expected, and she decides to move to a new town to start over on her own. Merrin finds a place to fit in, build a career, and make new connections. But, she never goes back to her home village and her relationships with her family and friends there feel that pain. Events draw her back and she starts to deal with some of the ghosts of her past to determine her next path forward.

Thank you Lake Union and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This is my first book by this author and what a treat, the perfect book to join me over a couple lazy days after the Christmas holiday. I really enjoyed the writing style characters and storyline and will be seeking out more books by this wonderful author.

I have previously loved Amanda Prowse’s books so was excited to see she had something new out. Young and in love Merrin gets stood up at the alter and has to run away from her small hometown due to the embarrassment. This was a solid romance novel with likeable characters and family tragedies. It’s not a gripping read, but I liked it all the same.
Thank you to the NetGalley and the publishing house for this ARC in return for an honest review.

"To Love and Be Loved" is a romance and family drama set in the West Country. The central character is Merrin (Merry) who seems to have no career goals but instead wants to be a wife and mother. At the start of the story she believes that she has found her one true love in Digby. However, although the young couple are happy to ignore their class differences, this is not the case with Digby's mother. This is a book about finding one's way in life, the struggles of living in Cornwall, family, friendships and community.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

I am always enthralled with books by Amanda Prowse and this one did not disappoint.

Her gentle style is descriptive, her characters believable and the subject matter often painful. I enjoyed the way in which, although this story focused on Merrin and her very public humiliation, as a reader you are drawn into life in Port Charles and the inhabitants there.

The love and interactions between the characters is heart warming and I felt could even be developed further in subsequent stories. Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel, I would highly recommend it

Amanda Prowse always amazes me with her ability to bring out the feelings. Not just the romantic feelings, but the love of family and friends and nature. This book really hit me with how feelings may trick us and some may be the real thing and others may not, and who is to know the difference other than looking back and evaluating. This was a great story about love, family, denial, running away, and so much more. I would definitely recommend it.

I don't think I have ever read an Amanda Prowse book that I haven't liked, and this one is no exception.

Merrin is a Port Charles girl, born and bred. Her father is a fisherman and I have to admit to wanting to go and visit Cornwall ASAP after descriptions of the area in this book! Merrin loves her village and her family and when tragedy strikes and she feels forced to leave home, it has repercussions for everyone around her. She is quite an amazing woman and reading all about her made my heart full - clearly, I got very emotionally involved.

This is a book about family, love (in all its guises) and belonging. I loved it. I also loved that it had a decent epilogue and a nicely rounded ending :).

5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing.

Thanks to the Author and netgally for an early copy of this book in exvhange for an jonest review. Amanda Prowse is one of my favoutite authors and this book didnt disapoint. The story follows Merrin who grew up in a tight knit community in Cornwall but then experiences a heartbreak and in order to heal moves away from the gossip in the village. We then see how her life develops and what happens when she had to return some years later. Although it was a little slow in places, the story kept me hooked and I liked the characters of the main women in the book. The ending was perhaps a bit too neat but a good way to end none the less and I was sad to finiah the book. Would definitely recommend.

This book starts off really Heartwarming but soon takes a turn, evoking emotion. It's an emotion book because you feel like you're in it, going through what the characters are experiencing. To me this is a sign of good writing, drawing you in.

Digby seems like such a huge drip in the end, Merrin is so cool, calm and collected when they have their 'chat'.

I love the first trip to Port Charles with the lovely Miguel, he is so supportive.

Flipping heck did I need the tissues for this one, what a brilliantly emotional book.

You go from the place of extreme happiness to extreme sadness throughout the book on more than on occasion, but the way Ruby and Merrin and there mum and dad are with each other is really beautiful.