I love a good read – especially one you can’t put down, and Missing Pieces was exactly that. I devoured the book over the course of a weekend, if it had been a lazy weekend I feel sure that I could have done it in a day, but as I had loads of other plans, the book was slotted into bedtimes, early mornings and car rides, and meant that I had to read ‘just one more page’ before I could put it down!
The story is of a family, a mum, dad and their two children with another child on the way. As a reader I felt almost part of that family, although I was observing it from a place of safety. All along I was thinking ‘thank God this isn’t happening to me’ but the story so very easily could have happened to any one of us and this is what strikes the nerve. The book was haunting and emotional, without being ‘sad’ or ‘hopeless’. I found extraordinary strength in the characters – especially the father and eldest daughter who I wanted to both mother and befriend at the same time. But I could also feel for the youngest daughter who had a lifetime of feeling ‘on the outside’ through no fault of her own, but you could also empathise that it wasn’t anyone else’s fault either. The love in this book comes through, the characters try hard to protect each other – even when the result of that protection seems to create a distance between them, but ultimately I was rooting for all the characters throughout the book – and was satisfied with the ending.
The author Laura Pearson, pictured below, is a first time author – this surprised me, as the work was so accomplished and ‘finished’. I’m sure there were plenty of lessons learned along the way, but it didn’t show in this book. Every word earned its place in the book – there was nothing irrelevant or redundant within the storytelling, I couldn’t find any points within the story where my mind wandered – the book held my attention well from the first page to the last. In a way I’m disappointed that this is Laura’s first book because that means I’ll have to wait for her to write another one and that’s a long process, before I devour that in a weekend too!
Laura Pearson – Author Photo
I don’t want to give the plot away, all I’d say is read it – it’s great! But to help give you the gist of what this book is about, here is the book description from the press release:
What if the one thing that kept you together was breaking you apart?
All Linda wants to do is sleep. She won’t look at her husband. She can’t stand her daughter. And she doesn’t want to have this baby. Having this baby means moving on, and she just wants to go back to before. Before their family was torn apart, before the blame was placed.
Alienated by their own guilt and struggling to cope, the Sadler family unravels. They grow up, grow apart, never talking about their terrible secret.
That is until Linda’s daughter finds out she’s pregnant. Before she brings another Sadler into the world, Bea needs to know what happened twenty-five years ago. What did they keep from her? What happened that couldn’t be fixed?
A devastating mistake, a lifetime of consequences. How can you repair something broken if pieces are missing?
Missing Pieces by Laura Pearson is published by Ipso Books and will be released on 21st June 2018. Laura Pearson on Twitter and Instagram.
You can pre-order this book at Amazon.