📖 Blog Tour ~ The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh

 

Mantle
23 June 2022

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book and the invitation to the blog tour

Emma was quite certain she'd never fall in love again. But then she met an obituary writer, Leo, and within months, they were engaged. Seven years later came Ruby, their daughter, and then John Keats, their rescue dog. Now Emma, a marine biologist, has her perfect little ecosystem. They are happy, crammed into the tiny house her grandmother left her.

Leo was adopted as a baby, and this noisy, joyous little family is the first place he has ever felt he belongs. In fact, everything would be just perfect if Emma was who she said she was. If Emma was even her real name...

Because of Emma's preeminence in her field, Leo is asked to write his own wife's obituary while she is still alive. That's when he finds that the woman he thinks he knows doesn't really exist. As Leo starts to unravel the truth about the stranger in his bed, Emma's old life breaks out of the carefully cultivated shell she created, threatening to wash away everything she has worked so hard to build.

When the very darkest moments of Emma's past finally emerge, she must somehow prove to Leo that she really is the woman he always thought she was.

But first, she must tell him about the love of her other life.

📖 My Review..

Marine biologist, Emma and newspaper obituary writer, Leo have a happy marriage, and a beautiful daughter called Ruby. However, when serious illness affects Emma, Leo, starts to pre-prepare, just in case, her obituary, only to find that there are gaps in Emma's life that he can't fill. With Emma's settled life imploding around her, she knows it's time to tell Leo about her past, something which is easier said than done. 

In many respects this is a well crafted love story, certainly the sensitive issues around Emma and Leo's marriage are handled well but I think it is in the serious issues around mental health and the disintegration of Emma's peace of mind where the story starts to come alive. The characters who flit into and out of the story add depth, with some being slightly more intriguing than others, but collectively everything adds up to a complex story with many possible outcomes. In individual chapters we get to hear both Leo and Emma's voices which, when added together, shines the spotlight on lives which are made up of secrets, lies and heart break.

The Love of my Life is a beautifully written study about the secrets which threaten a marriage and the way in which life events can be manipulated, and stretched, until you don't know where the truth ends and the lies begin. 

🍜 Best Read with.. a bowl of cereal in the garden

About the Author

Rosie Walsh has lived and travelled all over the world,working as a documentary producer and writer, The Love of my Life is her second novel under her own name; The Man Who Didn't Call, which was her first, sold over a million copies worldwide. She lives in Devon with her partner and two children.

Twitter @TheRosieWalsh #TheLoveofMyLife

Website

@MantleBooks