This story sat at a 3.75 for me, but just know that Julianne MacLean is a great write. The story flowed well, and it kept my interest.

Sable island was depicted perfectly. It was beautiful, yet treacherous, and I loved getting the feel of such a location that I did not even know it existed. A sandbar that’s been around for centuries!

Knowing the historical aspect of the story is true, it was fascinating to learn of a place I really was not familiar with. Although I’d heard of Sable Island, I had never actually looked at it on a map (please, do) and the history of saving those shipwrecked in the North Atlantic.

But the one thing, that I didn’t love was part of the story itself. While I actually LOVED the characters, there were so many negative coincidences that I really did struggle with it. And I would have felt a little better had we gotten a little more of Emma and Oliver at the very end of the story. We had gone through so much with them with what felt like such little return.

Overall, I definitely still recommend this book. Where it fell a bit short for me, I doubt others would feel the same, and the skill of MacLean’s writing would be enough for me to give this story a chance. I look forward to what she has coming next.

All Our Beautiful Goodbyes by Julianna MacLean is the most beautiful novel that I read in just one sitting.
The novel spans a lifetime as it is set in 1946, the following few years; and then into 1995.
The main setting is a wild and rugged small island off the mainland of Canada. The landscape is at one with nature – but nature can be dangerous.
The book is about the greatest love. It is a love that will never die, despite attempts by others to thwart it. People come and go; the years move on; relationships and people die – but this is a love that lasts. Like a diamond refined by fire. This is a love that only gets stronger.
All the characters were well drawn, likable and believable. I found myself cheering on the leading pair, willing their love to last.
There is also the parental love for their children. These various relationships are strong within the tale.
The beauty of the natural landscape takes up residence in the reader’s heart. We long for the wild, untamed landscape that offers both beauty and danger.
All Our Beautiful Goodbyes is a work of great beauty. It has a serenity that leaves the reader feeling calm, peaceful and loved.
I received a free copy from the author. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved this book. The characters are so well developed, I felt like I knew them personally. Emma is a smart, passionate young woman with a pure heart and a love for life. Oliver is persevering after witnessing the horror of WWII and trying to go on as normally as he can. Their connection is immediate, but filled with complications. Sometimes goodbye in all of its forms, is the only way to move forward. It can be beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. And it can take a lifetime to learn and heal from past pains. This is a journey of discovery on many levels. Life, suffering, perseverance and unending love. Simply beautiful.

Thank you so much Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this wonderful story. Julianne MacLean is an auto-buy author for me and she never disappoints! I really liked Emma, the main character, and enjoyed following her life in this coming-of-age story. There are twists in the story you will not see coming and MacLean always does a great job with that. The setting on Sable Island is incredible (love a Canadian setting!) and after reading I had to do a little research on my own with some of the resources MacLean recommends at the end of the book. I recommend this if you like a coming-of-age type story and you are needing to ignore your own world for a couple of days because you will be deep into this book when you start!

There are many twists and turns that caught my heart! All the emotions here. The writing is so beautiful that you can see the horses and feel the salt wind and see the stormy skies. Throughout the story, I felt the loss, but there is hope!

I had a hard time getting into this book. It might be the mood I am currently experiencing. As I have written with other reviews, I am a major mood reader.. I may give this book another shot in the future.

Such a gorgeous, emotionally frustrating story! All Our Beautiful Goodbyes is a love story set on the wild Sable Island in the rough North Atlantic Ocean near Halifax, Nova Scotia. Life circles around the young heroine with love, desertion, children, lost opportunity and more love. Didn’t want the lovely drama to end!

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read this beautiful ARC.

My rating:

Plot: 5 out of 5 stars
Writing: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Character development: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Recommended for readers of:

Historical Fiction


Review:

A beautiful vividly written story that starts of slowly but with great attention to detail, this made you get a real feel for the beautiful surroundings and the remoteness of Sable Island, it also made the characters appear realistic, as you got a good understanding what motivated them.

The book has a distinct feel of loss but also shows determination to never give up and a feeling of hope. The story is written over several different time lines that are nicely interwoven into a nice and satisfying ending.

Overall: this is an positive and evocative story with interesting characters. I really enjoyed it and recommend reading it.

Review copy provided through Netgalley at no cost to me.

This book was such a captivating read, but it definitely pulled at my heartstrings. The mix of historical fiction and family drama, with just a hint of romance, made it so engaging. I loved how the dual timelines were woven together—it made the story feel rich and layered. The characters felt so real, and the way the author wrote about love, loss, and resilience really stuck with me. It’s one of those stories that stays in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page. Beautifully written and deeply moving, it’s a book I’d happily recommend.

As much as I wanted to love this, as I so enjoyed two previous novels by Julianne MacLean, but I just couldn't finish this. There wasn't much plot, and in general I just found it boring. I loved A Fire Sparkling and enjoyed These Tangled Vines, but this one didn't live up to those standards. I couldn't make myself care about these characters.

So loved this book following Emma and her father who live and work on Sable Island which is in the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia Canada. From wild horses and ship wrecks it can be a beautiful island but desolate at times when a storm rages. After one storm a ship runs aground and when the crew are brought to shore Emma meets the Captain Oliver. A story spanning decades and an ending I was not expecting.
My thanks as always to NetGalley and publisher Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity for the early read.

Have you had a book on your TBR that keeps getting pushed back in the reading queue then you finally read it and wish you’d done so earlier? That was All Our Beautiful Goodbyes for me. I started the book on the way to work and had a hard time putting it down. I was so invested in the two main characters and couldn’t wait to find out what would happen. I so badly wanted it to be predictable with a happy ending but only one of those wishes came true. It was a beautifully written love story and I’m so happy I finally read it!
Emma had spent her entire life on Sable Island living with her father and dreaming of one day attending University. Her mother died giving birth to her and her father is her only family. She knows her father won’t let her go easily but like the wild horses on the Island Emma can’t be fenced in.
Right before Emma leaves a ship wreck rocks her world and changes her life forever. She will experience the greatest love and the greatest loss in her young life that would break most but Emma is resilient and does everything with passion and zest for life. Sometimes life throws painful curveballs and it feels like you can’t breath, but if you put one foot in front of the other you can find your own happiness.

“All Our Beautiful Goodbyes” is the perfect title for this book. I found the first few chapters slow at first, which is not at all typical of the writings of Ms. Maclean. Her other books tend to send you flying right from the first page. However, I understand the gradual movement was deliberate by the author. Those beginning chapters were a needed introduction to the characters and their disposition. In addition, the descriptions of the breath-taking geographical landscape and the purpose and work done on the island was important to the story. As the narrative unfolds it is clear that our main character is unbelievably naïve. The decisions she makes are totally from her heart and lack insight from world experience. In her defence, however, her life had been dictated by an over protective yet loving father. The book does pick up momentum and I was engrossed in the many thought-provoking twists of “lost love", "lost dream", "lost hope", and "lost future”. Ms. Maclean does a splendid job intertwining these losses with beautiful restorations. “All Our Beautiful Goodbyes” transforms to “All Our Beautiful Hellos". I thoroughly enjoyed this latest book by Ms. Maclean. Her immense research always adds exceptional value and reality to a fictional saga.

This is a saga of life on Sable Island, an isolated area where the citizens live with wild horses and rescue ships caught in bad weather. Emma is a young woman ready to spread her wings and leave for college in 1946. A nearby shipwreck brings sailors on shore, including a handsome captain who quickly makes a mark on her life. Their few days together changed both of them.

The story deals with Emma's life, choices, betrayals and successes, and eventually reconnects in 1995 when several pieces are put together.

Beautifully written story of life, love, loss, resilience, and second or sometimes third chances. There were so many quotes from the book that resonated with me, but especially this one: “There were no guarantees in this world. Happiness was never constant or unbroken. Sometimes it fell away, or was ripped away, and it was beyond the range of vision. But it was still out there, perhaps just over the next rise.” The story left me pondering joy, and how we can lose it, and what it takes to find it again. I laughed and cried throughout the book as it took me on a rollercoaster of emotions. I was so swept up in the story of Emma and Sable Island, I had to research more about the island and its beauty and horses. It was fascinating! And the ending was perfect, allowing us to imagine for ourselves, from the implied tidbits, the outcome of two love stories; although I didn’t want it to end and I would have loved more from the author! Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley, I received a complimentary ARC copy with no obligation to post a positive review.

Loved!

This is a book of many goodbyes, life changes and fresh starts. Emma is in her late teens, living with her father on Sable Island off Halifax, Canada. She’s ready to test her wings and head off island to university when two momentous events take place, putting her dreams on hold.

After meeting Captain Oliver Harris when his ship wrecked off Sable, Emma feels the first stirring of mature romance. But her hopes are dashed when he leaves. Through the rest of the story, their lives intersect at various times, will any of them become forever?

This author is someone whose books I will buy without even reading the blurb as I know the story will be wonderful, and this was no exception. Romance, outdoors, horses and city life. Highly recommend.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

I love Julianne Maclean's books and this is another really good one. Growing up on Sable Island was a unique experience for Emma Clarkson, way different than the typical city or suburb experience. She dreams of attending college in Halifax to study psychology. Just after WWII in 1946, a shipwreck changes the course of her life. She falls in love with Captain Oliver Harris of the downed ship, but their romance is forever complicated. When Oliver leaves to go back to England, Emma tries really hard to move on. She meets and falls in love with an adorable veterinarian who came to Sable Island to study the wild horses, but she soon finds out that he has some deep, dark secrets. The story progresses to 1995 with Joanna Griffin learning about her grandfather's past with Emma. She travels to Canada to learn more about this mystery woman. This is a beautifully-written story of love and dreams and the obstacles that get in their way. I recommend it and look forward to Julianne Maclean's next book. Thanks to #netgalley #lakeunionpublishing and #juliannemaclean for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

All Our Beautiful Goodbyes by Julianne Maclean is a beautiful and intriguing historical fiction that I really enjoyed.

Set on Sable Island, a small island southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The story is divvied into 3 parts, which I really enjoyed this format.

The characters were complex and well fleshed out. I appreciated the relationship between Emma and her father.

I was honestly not expecting that twist at all; my jaw was dropping.

Highly recommend!

All Our Beautiful Goodbyes by Julianne Maclean Review by Shirley Weidner 12-21-24

What a wonderful, intriguing Historical novel! Founded in fact on Sable Island, a lonely, little island 186 miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean. Emma, the protagonist, is an only child whose mother died in childbirth. Emma’s father is superintendent of Sable Island and is responsible for helping shipwrecked survivors, found off the coast of the island. It is a small community with 2 lighthouses, a telegraph station and the lifesaving patrol.

On May 8, 1946, Emma is now 21, and helping her Dad and the crew, who were called to rescue a stranded merchant ship, the Belvedere. Captain Oliver Harris is experienced from WW11, but the 52 ft. waves have pushed the ship off course. The captain has need of wounds healed physically and emotionally. Emma is drawn to him and helps him in recovery. A friendship has begun.

There are three sections of this story beautifully written by Julianne Maclean. Her character development is excellent, and I really enjoy her style of writing. She develops the many reasons that the Sable Island is a lovely place with drifting sand, roses, unusual grasses and wild horses. There is a twist three fourths of the way through! I read the novel in 3 days! I highly recommend this novel you won’t regret reading it!

I received a free advanced copy of this book from Net Galley. This is my honest review.

An epic tale of love. On the windswept Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia post war, Emma is ready to go out into the world. She dreams of college on the mainland. When Captain Oliver Harris is literally shipwrecked on the island, she falls in love. Fate has other plans. Oliver must leave with his crew and she still has college. When her father’s health turns for the worse, she stays and finds new love. But not all love is the same and Oliver is never far from her mind.

Later, Joanna realizes her grandfather loved someone named Emma in his youth. She talks him into going back to Sable Island. Old love and new love collide in the most beautiful way.