Welcome to the seventh of my 'Reading the Rainbow' posts, in which I take the books I received in my 2023 book advent - each cover representing a different colour - and review them for you!
July is YELLOW and the book is The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright by Beth Miller.
Read on to find out more...
Blurb: Sometimes it takes losing something to see where you truly belong.
For the past twenty-nine years, Kay Bright's days have had a familiar rhythm: she works in her husband's stationery shop hoping to finally sell the legendary gold pen, cooks for her family, tries to remember to practice yoga, and every other month she writes to her best friend, Ursula. Kay could set her calendar by their letters: her heart lifts when the blue airmail envelope, addressed in Ursula's slanting handwriting, falls gently onto the mat.
But now Ursula has stopped writing and everything is a little bit worse.
Ursula is the only one who knows Kay's deepest secret, something that happened decades ago that could tear Kay's life apart today. She has always been the person Kay relies on.
Worried, Kay gets out her shoebox of Ursula's letters and as she reads, her unease starts to grow. And then at ten o'clock in the morning, Kay walks out of her yellow front door with just a rucksack, leaving her wedding ring on the table...
This emotional and heart-warming novel is for anyone who knows it's never too late to look for happiness. Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, A Man Called Ove and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will fall in love with this feel-good and moving story that shows you that the best friendships truly last forever.
Review: This isn't really like 'Eleanor Oliphant', as the blurb suggests, other than they are both stories about an older/middle-aged woman making changes in her life.
In this story, we follow both Kay - the titular 'Mrs Bright' - and her daughter Stella, as they navigate the balance between their own happiness and that of those around them. For Kay, this means leaving her husband and the family business to finally travel the world and catch up with her oldest friend - finally chasing her own happiness after a lifetime of it being on pause while she put everyone else first. For Stella, just starting out on her own path, it means dealing with relationship and career setbacks and toxic friends while she tries to feel her way towards what she might want out of life in the first place.
The letters mentioned in the title are sprinkled throughout the story, but don't really have much of a role in the plot, other than giving Kay an excuse to finally kick off her mid-life-ish crisis. Mainly the story is one about following your dreams, even if it is later in life, before it gets too late.
There is plenty of family and friendship drama for both women along the way but I found I struggled to fully connect emotionally to the story and characters, and therefore didn't really feel their highs and lows with them as I read. I'm pretty sure it wasn't them, but me, as I'm not big on the angsty drama or weighty self-discovery pondering generally.
For me, this was quite a light, easy read despite the heavy emotional load on the characters; pleasantly enjoyable but not particularly memorable.
[...] He looked at me expectantly. I wanted to tell him, 'I'm leaving,' but it sounded so dramatic, so silly. Instead, I said, 'I'm, er, I'm going away.'
Richard's face lightened. 'Oh, to Rose's?'
'Maybe. I'm not sure.'
'What do you mean? Where else would you go?'
'Well, Sydney, first. Then Venice, perhaps. Or Prague. Then who knows? Lisbon, or Russia.'
'Um...' I could see he thought I was joking but couldn't work out why it was funny. It did sound like a joke, because I'd never been further afield than Winchester without him. Jovially, he said, 'Shall I make you a packed lunch?'
'Richard, I'm sorry.' I took the wedding ring out of my pocket, and held it out to him. 'I'm really sorry.'
He stared at my hand, then his eyes rose slowly upwards until they met mine.
'Kay, What's going on?'
- Beth Miller, The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright
About the author:
I have been told that I write like a tall blonde, so that's how I'd like you to picture me.
I've published six novels. The most recent, which came out in January 2022, is 'The Woman Who Came Back to Life.' I've also published two non-fiction books. I work as a book coach and creative writing tutor.
Before writing books, I did a lot of different jobs. I worked in schools, shops, offices, hospitals, students' unions, basements, from home, in my car, and up a tree. OK, not up a tree. I've been a sexual health trainer, a journalist, a psychology lecturer, a PhD student, a lousy alcohol counsellor, and an inept audio-typist. I sold pens, bread, and condoms. Not in the same shop. I taught parents how to tell if their teenagers are taking drugs (clue: they act like teenagers), and taught teenagers how to put on condoms (clue: there won't really be a cucumber). I taught rabbis how to tell if their teenagers are druggedly putting condoms on cucumbers.
Throughout this, I always wrote, and always drank a lot of tea. I'm now pretty much unbeatable at drinking tea.
Website: https://www.bethmiller.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethmillerauthor
X/Twitter: https://x.com/drbethmiller
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beth_miller_author
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