1.5⭐️First, I absolutely loved this story. The main character, Alyssa, invoked much empathy from me for a variety of reasons. Her anxiety disorder, and the physical manifestations of the mental illness, conveyed the real terror Alyssa (Lyssa) felt when confronted with crowds or going out in public, period. Alyssa, who was verbally abused by her soon to be ex-husband, caused almost irreparable harm to her confidence and self-esteem. Dealing with these enormous problems without professional help were crippling. Yet, Lyssa created a healthy, happy environment in which to raise her adorable 2 year old, Nora. Lyssa's sister who lived in Australia had a close bond with each other. Their mother apparently was a waste of space.
Luke, Luke, Luke. This is a to die for hero. I loved his character who was understanding, patient and kind. But, Luke lost his baby girl 5 years previously because his ex was high, drove without placing Izzy in a car seat. She caused a 3 car collision and the 2 year old was killed. Luke mourned his baby girl every day and was haunted by her death because he felt guilty about working late that night. Hence, Luke had tremendous guilt, albeit unwarranted. I loved the support he received from his mother.
Two broken people found each other by happenstance. This story tells of their journey toward love, understanding and compassion.
Now, on to the reason for the one star. My God, didn't anyone do a cursory read to edit this book? I don't mean for content, but for punctuation alone. The many run-on sentences that went from cover to cover. Commas are available and should be used fro a reason. Wrong words were prevalent, e.g., the use of too instead of to. Other punctuation errors made these editing problems exceed the egregious level. Truly. Additionally, IMHO, it is also critical that an author is consistent when writing child-speak. Here, the inconsistencies in Nora's speech were glaring and often appeared during one conversation, e.g. pweese turned into please and Yuke turned into Luke to name a few.
This was such a heart-felt, heart-warming book with likeable main characters as well as a few notable ones. Thus, this review is rather painful to write because of the editing problems on every page of this book. I really wish the author can fix the editing problems and re-release the book. It is really worth reading.