The Life You Left review

The Life You Left by Carmel Harrington



Synopsis

Sarah, I’m not coming home tonight.
If you love me, you will give me the space I need…
Tell the children I love them.
Paul

It started out like any other day for Sarah Lawler; getting the kids ready for school, making the pack lunches and juggling baby Ella’s feeds.

There was no way of knowing that her husband, Paul, would leave for work that morning and simply not come home.

Now the questions are piling up quicker than the unpaid bills and, unable to answer her children’s questions about where their Daddy is, Sarah is getting desperate.

But it turns out she isn’t quite as alone as she thought she was. When her beloved childhood friend, Edward, comes back into her life, Sarah thinks she’s finally been thrown a life line.

There’s just one problem with Edward: no one else can see him.

Edward is an angel. And he has a message for Sarah that will change her life and the lives of others forever. For it is only in the most difficult of times that Sarah can discover how strong
she truly is.

Set in a small coastal village on the beautiful Irish coast, The Life You Left is a story of redemption and the strength of love



Lisa's Review - 4.5 out of 5

The Life You Left is the second book by Carmel Harrington that has left me reaching for the tissues more than once, so be prepared!

Sarah's life is turned upside down when she finds out that, out of the blue, her husband has left her and their three young children. Left alone to try and pick up the pieces and pay the bills, Sarah finds that the childhood friend who actually is an angel that nobody else could see, and the cause of her parents admitting her to psychiatric help as a child, has come back to help her, and ultimately help Sarah to help others, too.

This was such a great story, emotionally charged from the beginning, a page turner that pulls you in from the beginning. The characters were fabulous, from the lovely, sweet Sarah, to her husband who on more than one occasion I wished I could reach into the pages of the book and slap his face, the obnoxious, selfish mistress Michelle, plus a whole array more of colour personalities. Tied in with the murder story running throughout the book, along with the rest of Sarah's psychic visions kept this book rolling almost to the end at a really fast pace.

That said there were a few times when I felt that there were a few pages of 'filler' information that padded the chapters out a little more than necessary, going slightly over the top on descriptive information that I found myself skimming over as none of it seemed detrimental to the story line. Without that, my review would have been a full on 5 star one.

As I said, it is an emotional book throughout, although the last few chapters were the ones that really had me sobbing, so get those tissues at the ready!

Links

Goodreads     Carmel Harrington 

Purchase Links

Amazon UK      B&N       KOBO