Review: The Things I Should Have Told You by Carmel Harrington

Every family has a story…

But for the Guinness family a happy ending looks out of reach. Olly and Mae's marriage is crumbling, their teenage daughter Evie is on a mission to self-destruct and their beloved Pops is dying of cancer. Their once strong family unit is slowly falling apart.


But Pops has one final gift to offer his beloved family – a ray of hope to cling to. As his life's journey draws to a close, he sends his family on an adventure across Europe in a camper van, guided by his letters, his wisdom and his love.


Because Pops knows that all his family need is time to be together, to find their love for each other and to find their way back home…

Shona's review 5 of 5 stars

This is the first time I have read anything written by Harrington and I cant help but kick myself and ask why it has taken me so long.

It's not very often that an author is able to elicit strong emotions from a reader within the first few pages of their story, normally you would need to build a relationship between the reader and characters to get the kind of emotions I felt right from the very first pages of The Things I Should Have Told You, but Harrington has perfected it. In fact those emotions where there throughout the entire book, bubbling just under the surface and bubbling over many, many times.

This isn't just a story of how one family dealt with the grief and loss of their beloved Pops, it's about their travel through Europe and how they found themselves. And each other. It has made me want to bundle up my family into a motorhome and head off out to explore the world together.