📖 Book Review ~ Six Poppies by Lisa Carter

 

Penguin
Michael Joseph
30 January 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

Afghanistan, 2007. Carl meets Sarah, a nurse, at Camp Bastion and they feel an instant connection. But she’s the girlfriend of his fellow soldier, Danny, so he pledges to keep his distance.

Finally back in England, Carl vows to never forget those who didn't make it home, honouring each of them with a tattoo of a poppy. While many miles away, Sarah tries to forget the man she swore to leave behind.

But when Carl and Sarah are thrown back together, it’s clear that both of them are broken. But do the scars of what they went through run to deep, or is there a chance they can find happiness again, together…

📖 My Review..

There is no doubt that the war in Afghanistan left its mark on those service personnel who fought and died there. Six Poppies is an emotional story which, although fiction, is based on factual experiences and highlights the difficulties of adapting to life when you feel you have lost everything and of the horrors of PTSD, which so often goes untreated.

Carl and Sarah meet at Camp Bastion and although there’s an instant connection between them Sarah is the girl friend of Danny, Carl’s fellow soldier, and is therefore off limits. With emotions running high and danger never far away this group of soldiers bond together like brothers , they feel loss sharply and grieve keenly for those who never make it home. Back in England, Carl picks up the pieces of his life, honouring his lost comrades with a poppy design inked onto his back by a talented tattooist. However, even though his life is returning to some semblance of a new normal, Carl can never forget Sarah and the dream of what might have been…

This beautiful story is told from both Carl and Sarah’s perspective, we find out more about them, their lives going forward and the hurt they each carry within them. And as each beautiful poppy is etched painfully into skin we learn the significance of each one, the memories evoked, and the raw pain of not being able to do more for those who lost their lives. Carl and Sarah’s story broke my heart into a million pieces and as their connection becomes ever more irresistible so we learn more about the harsh reality of living life broken in mind and spirit.

Poignant, beautiful, emotionally charged, this is one love story which will stay with me for a long time.

About the Author

Lisa Carter is a journalist who has worked for The Sun, The Mirror and the Daily Mail where she edited the Femail pages for over ten years. She lives in London with her husband and three sons.

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