Top notch narration and an emotional story that rips open the old wounds and secrets of one woman's troubled past and the turbulent life she led away from the two old friends that help bring her future back to her.

Book Title: Back to Her Future
Series: The Gen X Series #1
Author: Cary J. Hansson
Audiobook Narrator: Lisa Armytage
Publisher: Dreamscape Select-Hansson Publishing
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Pub Date: March 5, 2024
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pages 326

When Maryam Saylan was fourteen she and her siblings were kidnaped by her father as punishment to her mother when he learns she plans to divorce him.
Maryam was forced to marry a man twice her age.
Many years later she returns to London and finds her father is dying. He begs her for forgiveness. She refuses.

Narrator Lisa Armytage did a fantastic performance of all the characters. She totally drew me in making the characters come to life.

Want to thank NetGalley and Dreamscape Select – Hansson Publishing for this Advanced Audiobook.
Audiobook Publishing Release Scheduled bot March 5,. 2024.

This was a good book about the adversities of life and how a woman overcame them and deals with abuse and growing up strong it also touches on the fragile of life it was well written and the person who read it was really good I would recommend this book for people who like women's fiction

I honestly thought this was an unusual friendship until we got further in. Then I realized that they were just kids who loved their friends until they were ripped apart. They all lost a piece of each other and it’s so sad they all suffered until they could put the pieces back together. Truly a story of forgiveness and new chances.

🌀Synopsis
Maryam receives a confession from her father on his deathbed. Their long lost mother had written to them for years after they left her. Maryam had convinced herself that she hadn’t loved them and had taken a career path with a heavy conscience of guilt. When she hears this, she decides to return to London and to her best friend Alma.
Alma has also lived a troubled life since Maryam left. Especially after she walked into the bathroom where Maryam’s mother had killed herself. When Maryam first returns Alma feels like she is a shadow, like she had been those years ago.
Together they walk through the past and help each other see it with a new clarity. They find a way to get through the things that happened and let the truth finally come out so they can forgive each other and themselves.

Meryam is kidnapped at 14 by her father and taken to his home country of Turkey where she marries a man twice her age. These events change the course of the lives of 4 women. When her father is dying he finally confesses that he has been lying to her and that her mother had written her several letters that he sent back unopened. The news has her questioning so many things. She then travels to London to see her old friend Alma and they along with another friend Sammy embark on a journey of discovery and lots of 80s nostalgia. The story alternates between letters from Meryam’s mom and present day. The story isn’t the easiest to listen to because of some of the revelations that occur but it was well written. Thank you to Net Galley and Dreamscape Select for the advanced copy of the audiobook

Book Review: Back it Her Future
Stars: 4 X 5
Author: Cary J Hanson @caryjhansson
Publisher: Dreamscape Select @dreamscape_media Hanssen Publishing
Thank you to @netgalley for this Audio ARC

Maryam is a 40ish divorced mother of two who lives in Dubai and is fairly well off.
‘Maryam arrives at her dying father’s house in Turkey to say goodbye. Unbeknownst to her and her brother her father confesses that he stole them from their mother in England and that she had sent letters to each them for years and he returned them unopened. Maryam finds this u forgivable and leave. She decides to head to England to see if she can reconnect with her teenage best friend Alma and Alma’s mother who had been her mother’s best friend. As Maryam arrives in England she has no idea what Alma will do when she contacts her. Unfortunately for Maryam, Alma’s mother has already passed but Maryam and Alma decided to meet up. They also meet up with Sammy, Alma’s current best friend and a teenage friend and Maryam’s too. As the three women reconnect it takes a bit for Maryam and the girls to get to know each other again. It isn’t easy but they do end up becoming friends again. There is are many ups and downs and secrets that end up being revealed. There is a lot to be learned from each other and about each other. The are lots of laughs and tears shed. Ultimately in the end the friendship is still there even with all scars from the past.

The book was very good even with the difficult topics that are covered such as prostitution and suicide. This is definitely a book about self discovery, friendship and forgiveness.

4.25/5

This book is told in snippets of both the past and the present from several different women's lives. This was strong story exploring the struggles of life. This book infuriated me in the best way; it was hard to read some of the things that happened to women in this book. This was a real representation of what women endure every day. 
The one thing I didn't love is the G slur is used in this book. I'm not sure if the author was just unaware that the term is problematic or not, but I wanted to address it. 

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Select for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

When Meryams father is dying he finally confesses that he has been lying to her for the entire of her life. What she learns is life altering and has her questioning everything. She begins her journey back where she started in London to try to try to find her happy and place in the world. Not the easiest listen, but a good one.

A truly emotional story of womanhood stripped bare.

Fourteen year old Meryem and her brother were abducted from London and their mother, by their father and taken to Turkey.

Years later and Meryem is living in Dubai, when her brother calls her to return to Turkey to see their father on his deathbed. A shocking confession sends Meryem back to London and her old friends, Alma and Sammy.

The three women embark on a journey of rediscovering themselves, their friendship and what it means to be a woman, in a man’s world.

3.5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Cary J. Hannson and Dreamscape for an ARC in return for an honest review.

When Maryam Saylan’s father is dying, he confesses that he had returned all the letters her mother had sent after he had taken his children away from England and back to Turkey. Maryam refuses to forgive him. After all, he had taken her from the life she had known from birth and arranged a marriage with a man twice her age. Now divorced, she is living on her own in Dubai, but she decides to go to England to see if her best friend, who had lived downstairs, might know what had happened. She reconnects with her and other schoolfriends and agrees to go with them on an 80s nostalgia weekend. Maryam and her two best friends have secrets they are unwilling to share with each other, but as the weekend progresses, the secrets peel away like the layers of an onion.

This is a fabulous book, and it only took me two days to finish. “Back to Her Future” by Cary J. Hansson (and narrated by Lisa Armytage) is a strong five stars! I can’t wait to read more books by this author. Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC. My opinion is my own.

O where to start....as a whole the book was written well.
Maryam...I cannot say enough how much I admire her and even suspect that she might not be just a book character but somewhere out there right now are several women going through the hell she has been through. Her culture was shown to me clearly without the tug to judge - in my inexperienced opinion.
Sammy...the scared but still fighting survivor once again showed me that not all fight happens during a health problem. One still needs to fight to live long after the scars heals.
Alma...is a successful career woman who views her life as small. I would pick her as my bestie anytime!
Three women in their forties, all have demons to vanquished and all have a lot of good to offer to their own corner of the world. I love that their reunion was not that instant coming together again like the past decades did not happen. Even in the stilted moments they are very human and relatable.
So overall, the story is a good one.
Now, the bouncing point-of-view of four women, I can deal with. Then add the constant flashback scattered throughout the book, it is very jarring to me. For most reader, this might be a non-issue but to me it is like a nail on a chalkboard with the constant interruption. Again, this is a personal preference issue so I am putting it out there as an fyi.
Thanks to netgalley for providing the audiobook.

This book was devastating - it managed to turn suicide and prostitution into strength for the women in the book, because at least they were choices. It was heartbreaking to read how few choices women can have, how absolutely a cruel man can knock the lives of multiple women off course, destroy them.

Premise - an abusive man kidnaps his children when he learns his wife plans to divorce him. He moves them out of London, back to Turkey. The story follows the return of the daughter to London many years later, after the deaths of both parents, her escape from an arranged marriage, etc.

The ending is semi-hopeful, but it was still sad to me because [ while Miriam is free of guilt and at peace with being a sex worker (and making absolute bank doing it), that doesn’t change that it’s a dangerous profession that keeps her fate in the hands of men (even if an a more empowered way than it had been before) whereas she could have been anything. She had so much potential, was the brightest in her class, etc. and now her choices are down to this.

Separately, there is SO much vomit in this book. I get if one character reacts to stress/emotional pain by vomiting, but all of them do! My goodness, I got a little queasy reading this.😅

📚 Series or Standalone: standalone
📚 Genre: literary fiction
📚 Target Age Group: adult
📚 Cliffhanger: no

✨ Will I Reread: probably not, just too sad
✨ Recommended For: fans of ‘ 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World’ by Elif Shafak

💕 Characters: 4/5
💕 Writing: 5/5
💕 Plot: 4/5
💕 Pacing: 4/5
💕 Unputdownability: 3/5
💕 Enjoyment: 4/5
💕 Book Cover: 4/5

Thanks, NetGalley and Hansson for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.