But I Smile Anyway…

I am absolutely thrilled today, to be a part of the blog tour for my absolute favourite author, Amanda Prowse, and her latest release, The Day She Came Back.

If you’ve followed my blog, you’ll know what a huge fan I am of her books, and I can, hand on heart, say that she not only writes the most amazing books, but is the most wonderful individual too. A couple of months ago, we were supposed to meet, for a radio interview, but then the COVID thing happened, but I hope to still get a chance to fan-girl face to face soon enough!

Enough of that, and back to the book in question.

From the bestselling author of The Girl in the Corner comes a story that asks: how do you forgive the family that lied to you, and love the mum you never had?

When her loving, free-spirited grandmother Primrose passes away, Victoria is bereft, yet resilient—she has survived tragedy before. But even her strength is tested when a mysterious woman attends Prim’s funeral and claims to be the mother Victoria thought was dead.

As the two women get to know each other and Victoria begins to learn more about her past, it becomes clear that her beloved grandmother had been keeping life-changing secrets from her. Desperate for answers, she still struggles to trust anyone to tell her the truth.

To live a full and happy life, Victoria knows she must not only uncover the truth, but find a way to forgive her family. But after so many years, is trusting them even possible?

And here is my review:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star!

A new Amanda Prowse book? Yes, please!
There are those authors who you know, that even without reading the blurb of a book, you are going to enjoy, to matter what, and for me, Amanda Prowse’s books are just that,
Due to the craziness of COVID-19, I hadn’t heard as much about this particular release, and when the opportunity came to read, I didn’t hesitate to volunteer to read. And I wasn’t disappointed – at all.
In fact, I stayed up until the wee hours to read it, and had to force myself to put it down, to finish in the morning, because I was that immersed in the story.
The Day She Came Back tells the story of three women, interconnected forever, but apart for reasons beyond their control.
Victoria is an eighteen-year-old girl, brought up by her wonderfully eclectic grandma, Prim. Her mother, Sarah, passed away when she was a baby. Suddenly, she is left all alone after the sudden death of her only living family member, Prim.
Victoria is a character filled with confusion, and her journey through her grief is heart-wrenching.
Prim was a feisty woman, but her real inner strength is revealed as the story progresses.
Sarah, a woman who never got to see her child grow up, has a story equally heartbreaking.
The other characters in this book, like Daksha, Victoria’s best friend, Gerald, Prim’s ‘gun-toting’ beau, and Flynn, that crush that materialises, but crushes in a different way, flavour the whole story in a unique manner.
Despite being set in Epsom, Surrey, Victoria’s flights to Oslo add another beautiful layer to the story, with Amanda’s descriptions giving you hints of her own love of Norway.
I shan’t discuss the plot here, because you really need to read it yourself, but Amanda has tackled, with great sensitivity, loss, grief, addiction and reconciliation.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing for an ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

Buy it here!

Amanda Prowse is one of the UK’s most prolific and loved storytellers with global sales of 8 million copies and legions of loyal readers.  Based in the West Country, Amanda is the author of 25 novels and 7 novellas with books sold in 22 countries and translated into 12 languages– no mean feat when you consider her first novel was only published in 2012!

A passionate reader since her first visit to the local library aged 6, Amanda would read everything and anything and – armed with her precious library ticket – would spend hours reading loved Enid Blyton, Anna Sewell, Judi Blume, Nina Bawden while scribbling short stories of her own. As time passed, she moved onto the more risqué delights of Lace, The Thorn Birds and A Woman of Substance; gritty, emotional stories that would inform her writing. 

A powerful storyteller and a master of the addictive plot, Amanda’s rich imagination and prolific writing talent has seen her write over 20 bestsellers with millions of copies sold across the world. She often writes for 15 hours a day and sees her plots like movies in her mind that she’s compelled to get down on paper. These heartfelt human stories have made her one of the most successful female writers of contemporary fiction today and she has become a regular interviewee on TV and radio as well as a successful journalistic writer. 

Amanda’s ambition has always been to create stories that keep people from turning the bedside lamp off at night; great characters that stay with you and stories that inhabit your mind so you can’t possibly read another book until the memory fades. She is also a passionate supporter of military charities and those that support women’s causes and holds regular ‘Evenings with Amanda’ events as fundraisers for her chosen charities.

Twitter – @MrsAmandaProwse

https://www.facebook.com/amandaprowsepage/

Read it…. you WON’T be disappointed!