Review ~ Dead to Me by Lesley Pearse

Michael Joseph
14th July 2016

There is something really comforting about the latest Lesley Pearse novel dropping through the letter-box. It's not just that the cover always looks really appealing, but I also know that, in the time that it takes to read the novel, I will have been taken into a wonderful world of genuinely, good story telling, by author at the top of her game.

In Dead to Me the story begins in 1935 in the years just before the outbreak of the Second World War.  We are introduced into the lives of two teenage girls who couldn't be more different. Verity with her beautiful manners and sumptuous lifestyle is as far removed from dirty and dishevelled Ruby as is possible. However, against the odds, the two girls become friends and their lives start to intertwine and through great adversity the friendship endures, that is until, one of the girls sends a note with the words you are Dead to Me. What then follows is the story of how their friendship survives through the unpredictability of the war years and how both Verity and Ruby find out to their cost that friendship can take a battering when the odds are stacked heavily against you.

Whenever I  read one of this author's finely written novels I discover that I am taken away from my ordinary life and plunged into a rich and varied world which is peopled with characters who tug away at your heartstrings and for whom life is never going to be straightforward. And of course, you can't help but be drawn emotionally towards such heartfelt characters whose lives are so often overshadowed by hardship and heartbreak.

At the end of the novel, there's always a sense of a good story well told and, even more importantly, there's always the promise of another fine novel to come by this talented and prolific author. I am sure that fans of Lesley Pearse's writing will not be disappointed by this, her 24th novel, and for those who haven't read one of her books before, well, Dead to Me is as good a place as any to start.

Best Read With ....A nice cuppa tea and a toasted teacake, heavy on the butter.

About the Author

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Dead to Me is out in Hardback and e-book from the 14th July 2016

Amazon UK

My thanks to the publishers and Emma at edpr for sending me a copy of this book to review in advance of its publication.

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