SilverThistle

2016 is still new but I've already found a strong contender for my favourite book of the year. I absolutely loved this! Emotional, heart-warming, tragic, bittersweet, charming and very, very satisfying are all words I'd use to describe this and I read it in a day, which is something I rarely manage. I started this at 7am this morning and turned the last page at 8pm tonight and loved every word of it.

Will, widower and single father to six year old Ella, has promised he will never leave her. On his way to pick Ella up after school he meets with a fatal accident and is devastated at having to break his promise and at having to leave without saying goodbye. His guide to the spirit world, Lizzie, gives him a little extra time to come to terms with his situation and to decide if he will stay to watch over Ella and his family or if he will take the journey to paradise that she would like to lead him to.

As a parent it was all too easy to put myself in Wills shoes and his frustrations were mine. I shared his joys too though and was supporting him all the way through to make the right decision. The family troubles which ran alongside his own fleshed everything out and the twist near the end caught me unawares and was brilliantly executed. His daughter, mother, sister, father and even the spirit guides just sprang to life for me and I was totally engrossed from start to finish.

S.D Robertson can definitely write and I can heartily recommend this as a fabulous read. I'm drawn to books I categorize as 'dead narrators' and usually find they're much lighter than the name conjures up. This one, despite the heart rending situation does also have a lightness to it while still touching on some deeper family issues. I just can't fault the story or the storyteller.

Some similar books I've enjoyed which encompass the 'dead narrator' are The Angel at No. 33, The Five People You Meet In Heaven and The Brief History of the Dead and Time to Say Goodbye ranks up there with the best of them!

I received this free title from the publisher for review purposes.

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343 more pages added to my One Million pages in my lifetime challenge!  More than a 10th of the way there!

 112,581/1,000,000