Filled with humiliation, Merrin flees her beloved hometown to forget her sorrows, but with a huge sense of regret at leaving her family behind. When she meets the man of her dreams she has her future planned until it is cruelty taken away from her. I thought the characters were richly developed, everyone needs a friend like Bella and personally, I could do without Merrin's sister, Ruby. Merrin's story is one that I'm sure every girl who has ever been in love dreads and my heart broke for her many times during this book, it's a tale of love, loss, grief, sibling rivalry and fractured loyalty and I encountered so many different emotions whilst reading it.

When tragedy strikes and she has to go home to bury her father, Merrin is faced with the difficult choice of moving back to the place she loves or staying in her city life away from all the embarrassment that befell her 6 years previous. The Down Beat reviewer highlighted Mabern's solo piece: "Though he's performed and recorded this one before, the pianist's fearless melodic attack of the ivories and unfailingly soulful feel for the blues remain poised to make longtime fans fall in love all over again.Amanda Prowse is one of my favourite authors and I always can't wait to start one of her books, as they are always a treat. However when he leaves her standing at the alter in her beautiful dress, and runs off, live in her gorgeous fishing village will never be the same. I enjoyed the drama within a set of relatives, where there is anger and love, sadness and happiness, reality and unforced exaggeration - things that exist in every family. The first step may be to consider self-knowledge, truthfulness, and other building blocks on the road to personal growth.

I received a copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review as part of the book tour hosted by Lovebookstours. Trying out a new role, developing a new skill, investigating a possible future self can bring honesty and inner direction and with them the self-respect that lies at the core of loving oneself.I loved the characters in the story, but would have liked to have gotten to know some of them a little better. Through meditation and self-love, Buddhists are able to find their connection to and thus love for all living creatures. Prowse alternates a bit of time periods, stopping right when you really want to know what's about to happen, tho. Amanda Prowse is my go-to author when I need romance, complicated emotions, intense yet subtle drama, and a keen understanding of human relationships. I loved the candor of these relationships, the easy way and the difficult times of facing the what are relationships are made of.

I find the character of Merrin quite daring and brave as opposed to what other characters feel about her when the story started.

The struggle of being able to let go of the hurt, finding hope through forgiveness as well as being able to discover a new you! The h, being very young, super sensitive, and self-conscious, knows she has to leg it out of there because she simply cannot stand to be the object of the town's attention, gossip, and pity. Six of the ten tracks are played by the quartet of Harold Mabern (piano), Eric Alexander (tenor sax), Nat Reeves (bass), and Jimmy Cobb (drums). I have to be in the mood for an Amanda Prowse novel and this one hit the spot because I was in the mood for something more introspective (read: naval-gazing, although this h's self-absorption almost exceeded my limit) and women's-lit-ish, rather than contemporary romance or PNR.