The Life You Left Behind

by Debbie Howells

A heartbreaking, life-affirming novel for fans of Mhairi McFarlane's Last Night and Holly Miller's The Sight of You.


Two strangers.

One missed flight.

It only takes a moment to change a life.

One year ago Casey Cassidy was happy. She had great friends, a wonderful teaching job and a busy life - until with one missed flight, everything changes.

One year later Casey knows what it means to find that once-in-a-lifetime love people dream of. But when Ben leaves, her heart is shattered.

Left facing a year of firsts without him, piecing her life back together seems impossible. But then a friend offers her a home in rural France.

In the solitude and emptiness, Casey needs to comes to terms with what’s happened and find a way to move forward. She has no idea where that will take her one year later...

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Romantic, Grief, Adult

362 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 23, 2022

About the author

Debbie self-published three women's fiction novels before writing The Bones of You, her first psychological thriller. It was a Sunday Times bestseller and selected for the Richard and Judy book club.
Since, she was written The Beauty of the End, The Death of Her, Her Sister's Lie, the e-book bestseller The Vow, and her latest, The Secret.
Her women's fiction novel, The Life You Left Behind will be published on 23rd February.

Follow her on Facebook at Debbie Howells writer and on Instagram @_debbiehowells.

Reviews

[Sandysbookaday (taking a step back for a while) · Rating 2 out of 5]

EXCERPT: After - March
I know exactly what you'd say if you were sitting next to me.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Not your words - they're Lao Tzu's. You loved old wisdom - the way it held true, even hundreds of years later. And you would have loved this journey: the wide, open road ahead of us, the ever-changing landscape, your imagination sparking off in a hundred different directions. Poring excitedly over spread-out maps, you'd have made lists of places to check out, while I'd be thinking about getting my nails done and wondering how many outfits I could cram into a small suitcase.

But adventures were your lifeblood - you told me your boyhood tales of climbing and wild camping, gazing at seascapes and skyscapes, riding waves harnessing the wind. The beaten track wasn't for you. There are a million other paths, Cassidy, you'd say to me. The same old is never going to take you anywhere new. It was one of the hundred reasons I fell in love with you.

ABOUT 'THE LIFE YOU LEFT BEHIND': Two strangers.

One missed flight.

It only takes a moment to change a life.

One year ago Casey Cassidy was happy. She had great friends, a wonderful teaching job and a busy life - until with one missed flight, everything changes.

One year later Casey knows what it means to find that once-in-a-lifetime love people dream of. But when Ben leaves, her heart is shattered.

Left facing a year of firsts without him, piecing her life back together seems impossible. But then a friend offers her a home in rural France.

In the solitude and emptiness, Casey needs to comes to terms with what’s happened and find a way to move forward. She has no idea where that will take her one year later...

MY THOUGHTS: (may contain spoilers) What I read was totally not what I was expecting. I was looking forward to a bit of light relief from what I have been reading. That's not what happened. From the publicity blurb, The Life You Left Behind sounds like a light and fluffy read with a bit of heartbreak in it. Believe me, that's not what you're going to get. It's the absolute reverse.

Written over two alternating timelines a year apart, we follow Casey Cassidy as she meets, marries and loses the man she regards as her soulmate. It could still be light and fluffy, but it's not. There's a lot of darkness.

The Life You Left Behind deals with depression and suicide. And eco-something (stress caused by concern over the environment), a term I thought I must remember but then neglected to either highlight or write down.

I couldn't get invested in the story at all, nor the characters who simply did not seem real to me. I felt like I was being lectured on mental health and environmental issues, both extremely important I know, but if I want a lecture I'll buy textbooks rather than fiction, thanks.

Debbie Howells may have achieved what she set out to achieve, and kudos to her for even attempting this, but I didn't enjoy it at all, and didn't like the feeling that I had been hoodwinked by the book's description. I also didn't like the way the author initially tried to make a mystery out of where Ben had gone, saying he had left, or gone, when all the time . . .

⭐⭐

#TheLifeYouLeftBehind #NetGalley

I: @_debbiehowells @bookandtonic

T: @debbie_howells @BoldwoodBooks

#contemporaryfiction #deathanddying #mentalhealth #sliceoflife

THE AUTHOR: Having previously worked as cabin crew, a flying instructor and a wedding florist, Debbie started writing during her busiest summer of weddings.

Debbie now writes full time, inspired by the peacefulness of the countryside she lives in with her partner Martin and Bean the rescued cat.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Boldwood Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Life You Left Behind by Debbie Howells for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Life You Left Behind by Debbie Howells is a women’s fiction title that deals with mental health issues. The story in The Life You Left Behind is one that is told in two timelines alternating between about a year in the past and the current time.

The year before Casey Cassidy had been carefree and headed out to a vacation with her friend when she discovered she had left her passport at home. Of course for Casey this meant missing her much anticipated flight and having to fly out later but as she was leaving the airport she met Ben, the love of her life.

Now Casey is picking up the pieces to her life by taking off to another country and staying in the home of a friend. Casey doesn’t know how she came to be where she is today after things had been so good the year before.

I have to say first that I picked up The Life You Left Behind by Debbie Howells because I have read several books by the author and really enjoyed them so I was surprised to find myself rating this one at two stars. The thing is that this one deals heavily with a form of depression caused over worry about the environment and goes repeatedly over the state of the world which to be honest I read to escape so I really didn’t enjoy it feeling preachy about the state of things. Also, I personally enjoy a story of growth and strength which I thought I might find with the main character but instead I found myself questioning her state of being and wasn’t satisfied at the direction it went. Some may enjoy this one but it just wasn’t for me unfortunately.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/

[Alayne Emmett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for better but, this book didn’t deliver at all. It was dark and disturbing dealing with such sensitive subjects as death, metal health and suicide. I felt very uncomfortable reading this book and was glad when I finished it. Reading this slow book felt like I was walking through treacle waiting for things to brighten up. But, only the last chapter did it seem to lighten. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Life You Left Behind is the seventh novel by best-selling British author, Debbie Howells. Fifteen months after she first met Ben Summer, the love of her life, twenty-nine-year-old Casey Cassidy is driving to rural France. Her destination is a remote cottage, the sort of stay Ben would have loved, but she’s going alone. All she has of Ben is his commentary in her head, countering any negative thoughts.

Casey met Ben in an airport where her forgotten passport led to Ben’s Good Samaritan move. His genuineness and sensitivity overrode her usual caution. Mutual attraction did the rest: she was, almost instantly, in love. Within a few months they were living together, and their relationship progressed quickly from there.

At her somewhat-isolated French retreat, Casey tries to work out what direction her life will take now. She can’t live in the house she and Ben had together, too many memories to deal with. But does she want to stay in France?

Searching for distraction, she comes upon an anonymous diary: someone who has lived in this house, has suffered a great loss, bears a burden of guilt, has to reassess his direction. Casey sees parallels to her own situation.

It is difficult to say much more about this rom-trag (as opposed to rom-com) without spoilers. The story is told through a dual time, one describing Casey’s relationship with Ben, the other, her life in France. In tandem with these are the diary entries. Featuring bipolar disorder, solastalgia, depression and eco-grief, the story is quite dark, and is heavy on the message of climate change, environmental damage and factory farms.

Howells gives the reader a complex protagonist who is supported by caring, loyal friends. However, the pace leading up to the reveal is almost glacial and impedes any meaningful connection with Casey. The synopsis given indicates a much lighter read than what is delivered, until the hopeful ending. May appeal to fans of tragic romance stories.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Boldwood Books.

[theliterateleprechaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This life-affirming story features Casey and Ben who meet when she leaves her passport at home and misses a flight. Ben becomes her once in a lifetime love and she’s shattered a year later when he leaves her. Casey learns to grieve over what was, what could have been and the world she now lives in.

Told in a dual timeline (before/after) in Casey’s point of view, she shows us that life goes on and we have to navigate the twists, expected or not. Casey gets us thinking about change and the dark moments that have us digging for our strength and light. She brings us to the conclusion that hope is often found in the unlikeliest of places. Set in Sussex and in rural France, Casey’s story highlights mental illness and untimely loss and the ripple effect.

I learned about eco-grief, the sadness felt for the planet we’re slowly destroying, and solastalgia, the homesickness for a way of life that doesn’t exist anymore. I think we can all identify with these feelings. Isolation and anxiety have played a huge role in the past few years and Howell’s latest will resonate with a wide audience.

Inspired by life in a quiet part of rural France, Howells has switched from writing her trademark psychological thrillers to women’s fiction books about family, friendship, love and loss. She highlights the time of change that we now live in and the life shocks that some of us receive. Transformation as a result of the light and strength we all possess is the focus for her next 5 books to be published. Readers will still be able to enjoy one more thriller to be published in 2023.

I was gifted this advance copy by Debbie Howells, Boldwood Books, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

[Danielle B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a love story about Casey and Ben. They met one day at the airport and their love for each other blossomed rather quickly. A year later, Ben has disappeared from Casey's life leaving her shattered and in despair. She leaves their home they lived in together and travels to France. She is staying in a home offered by a friend of a friend to work out what happened and to try to figure out the next steps for her future.

This is a very emotional book. I didn't properly prepare myself for what I was about to read. But I am so glad I read this book, even though it explores heavy topics like mental health. I was blown away by the author’s storyline and how she made me really feel all the emotions. I really enjoyed the story, it was different than anything I would normally read. I think Debbie Howells did an amazing job of writing something outside of her normal thriller genre. I would highly recommend this book to others, but be prepared to have some tissues handy!

Many thanks to Boldwood Book and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.

[itsallaboutbooksandmacarons · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Whit whatever fires you, babe. Follow your heart. Find other people that feel the same."

Oh boy. I was not expecting this kind of emotions. I am deep deep touched. I will have this book forever in my heart. It so hard to explain how I feel.

The story is told in two timelines. Past and present. Everything happens in 2 years. So much love, so much regrets, so much emotions, so much coincidences. Everything was so much it hurts. It really does. But is also so warm and tender that is worth, worth of everything.

"It was not my fault. Tragic accidents simply happens."

We are not here forever, but we can to the best from what we have. We have to follow our heart.
We all lose, we all make mistakes. Everyone have bad experiences. This book give you reay everything, I mean really everything.

Cassie and Ben were here, they took my heart and did everything with it. It will be really hard to feel same emotions again. It felt all so much real. The enviroment is important, people are important, animals and plants are important. We have to take care about and be sensitive to all that surrounds us.


"The best think you can do to honor her memory is to live - fully and wholheartedly."


Thank you to Debbie Howells for reaching out in the perfect time. Thank you Bolwood Publishers and Nettgaley.com

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this book captured my attention, which is why I wanted to read it initially. I also love the cover. The story was interesting overall, with a strong narrative throughout. I liked Casey a lot and sympathized with her plight. I couldn't fathom being in a wonderful relationship only to have it end a year after it started. I don't blame Casey for wanting to get away. 

The story goes back and forth in time over the span of two years or so. The first year is Casey's life with Ben, which all is talked about in the past. The second year is Casey's life in France, without Ben, and how she's trying to get her life back together and possibly move on when she's still stuck on him. Along the way, she makes a new friend and finds a diary with an intriguing story that mirrors her own in some ways. 

There were a lot of good things about this story and I liked how bits and pieces unfolded throughout, painting the bigger picture of what was going on. However, there were some things that didn't work as well for me. The past scenes being written all in italics felt unnecessary as a font choice. It was clear that the events were in the past, due to the chapter headings of "Before." The time progression felt strange too. There were times when a whole month would go by but it felt like nothing was really going on during that time period. Casey finds this diary, reads a couple of pages, and then waits another month before reading more? I would devour that thing in one day! It seemed odd that she kept dragging it out when she had all that time to herself anyway. I also felt like some of the story was preachy. I get that horrible things are happening in the world, but there was an element of guilt for the reader. Finally, I wish the climax had come as more of a surprise. There were so many hints leading up to it and lots of foreshadowing due to Casey writing about the past from the present view.

Debbie Howells tackles the subject of mental health in an honest and sensitive way. The timing actually works well with the return of A Million Little Things, which also covers a lot of mental health topics. Overall, I enjoyed this novel and it had a Leah Mercer, Josie Silver, and Rosie Walsh feel. 

Movie casting suggestions:

Casey: Ella Purnell

Ben: Tom Ainsley (I've been watching How I Met Your Father and he just popped into my head while reading this book.)

Ellie: Karen Gillan

Kevin: Jack Farthing

Sylvie: Inès Melab

Julia: Kate Winslet

Originally posted at Chick Lit Central

[Nila (digitalcreativepages) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben and Cassie were the perfect couple who knew they were soulmates. Yet, in less than a year, Ben left her.
And Cassie had to glue the pieces of her heart and accept the truth of the situation. Sometimes love was just not enough.
Seeing Cassie dealing with her grief made my heart wrench with emotions I really didn't want to face at this moment of my life.
Their moments of love were beautiful as well as bittersweet, knowing that secrets still abounded between them. Some of them were too difficult to deal with.
I knew the story was going to be emotional as the blurb had a critical review asking me to keep tissues ready. But I didn't expect to be slammed down by so much of it. Some of them felt overwhelming.
The book was ideally meant to be about flying high on the wings of hope. But I couldn't find my wings after reading so much of this. I wanted a book that made me fly, but I got prose that made me feel worse than what I started out with.
There was hope written in, but for me, it was not enough. There was just too much pain and tears.
The first half was better; the second was all about inhuman farming practices and how the earth was slowly getting destroyed by selfish humans. The clarity of a love song was lost in it.
I was left feeling sad at the end of the book and couldn’t seem to shake it off.

[Anuradha Goyal · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very average sad book - didn’t enjoy reading it at all😔

[Elina · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book really didn’t gel with me.
The synopsis promised something light and fluffy and the book truly isn’t like that at all.
The story has 2 timelines: one where Casey’s husband is still alive and one where he’s already dead, but you don’t get to learn if he did really die (and how) or he simply left the main character until approximately 90% into the book. This was incredibly annoying as every time she talked about him, it felt like she’s giving clues to help uncover the truth before you are explicitly told what happened.
Besides that I truly believe that the author learned what eco grief/solastalgia was and was determined to write a book about it one way or another. Because otherwise I don’t understand how any of this would be connected.
I also couldn’t understand the author’s attitude to depression. On the one hand she drives the point of it being a real illness through different characters and at the end of the book. At the same time it was never, to my recollection) mentioned that the depression was the cause of death. The responsible parties were: ecological situation, which reached the point where it is now through corporations and the rich, Ben’s sensitive nature, his inability to rest, him worrying too much, people not caring enough, obviously the wife and the mother (thankfully, by the end they shook off this guilt).
And coming back to the eco grief: I have never ever felt like I’ve being repeatedly preached and lectured about anything through a novel, but now I know what it’s like.
Genuinely wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. Please don’t waste your time!

[Megan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this is certainly a different type of book from Howells and I have to say it was incredibly refreshing to read. We pick up with Casey as she tried to rebuild her life after a devastating loss and see her as she begins to hope for the future. Howells uses a tried and tested technique of eking out the moment of truth of what happened between Ben and Casey, except I thought it was obvious what happened and nothing was gained by slowly revealing the truth. It almost added a "thrilling" edge to the book which is so opposite to the vibe of the rest of the book. I honestly think if we knew the truth from early on, it would not detract from the book and would remove some of the unnecessary dramatics.
I also think the book should have come with a trigger warning, I do not want to be specific, but Howells writes about some incredibly difficult subjects, I struggled myself at times and I am not sure I would have read this if I was fully aware. That being said, I absolutely adored this book. I fell in love with Casey and just wanted to give her a big hug. There is a lot of emotion in this book but it is not all negative, there is a lot of laughter and hope as well. But be warned this book contains a lot of pain and it is a tough read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an advance copy.

[ThianeJansen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The synopsis looked amazing, and I couldn’t wait for our MC’s redemption and light at the end of the tunnel moment, but the story we had to follow until it got lighter, was very dark. Sensitive subjects like suicide, mental health problems and death were around every corner, leaving me very heavy while reading this. Only in the last few chapters did it feel like I can take a breath of fresh air. As a mood reader, I just don’t think I was in the right headset for this particular story, the writing style was easy to follow and you get drawn in very easily, it was just wave after wave of wallowing darkness as I read this book.

So even though this might not have been for me, it could definitely be for you. Its very emotional, and I feel a lot of readers will relate to the depression Casey feels, but it felt a bit repetitive at times. It wasn’t a bad read at all, I just didn’t find it a page turner.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC

[Joan]

Theres a LOT of italics in this book which makes it an uncomfortable read. Pages and pages of the darned stuff. The problem with italics is that they are hard to 'take in' when there is so much and I end up skimming through the pages with the result being I end up totally confused.

dnf at 6%

[Federica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. It's a very emotional story, and I could relate to certain themes, like depression for example, but I found some parts to be a bit repetitive. I liked the dual time narrative, through which the author lets us know what's happening at the moment and what was happening in the same period the previous year. The writing style is very good, I especially loved the "Before" chapters, even though the dialogues seemed sometimes stilted or unnatural.
This book touches a lot of difficult themes, and I think that is maybe why I have mixed emotions about it, it was really a lot to deal with, for me. But I would love to read other books by this author, because I really loved her style.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Fatima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depression is no joke.

[Tamsin Preece · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ben and Casey are fated to be together. Meeting by chance, their whirlwind romance is the stuff that dreams are made of. They are on track to live happily ever after when tragedy strikes. In this dual timeline book we get to meet Casey and Ben at the very rbeginning of their relationship but we also have Casey one year later, dealing with the aftermath.

I found this quite a weak story. I guessed what had happened pretty early on and I also knew who the diary belonged to. It was all just a bit simplistic. It wasn’t a bad read, but I neither was I desperate to read on. As my daughter would say, it’s just not my vibe. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read this arc.

[LianaReads blog · Rating 4 out of 5]

The life you left behind

This story is so raw and beautiful and touching. After these two years of pandemic and so many changes, the story really makes you stop and rethink everything around us.

The family we love, the friends we make, the environment we live in, whether it is a big city or a small town, each person who we get in contact with every day, they all count.

I must admit that I had to read this book in a few episodes because it made me sad but also filled out my heart with the passages that really touched me.

I would probably recommend this story to anyone that needs a touch raw reality and how we many times forget what humanity means.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy through NetGalley

[Vanessa Sumner · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Pretty good. I didn’t like how I’m the beginning it was implied over and over and over again that Ben broke up with Casey when you could tell he completed suicide. The characters were bland, although Ben really made up for that. His afflictions were SO RELATABLE. I understand exactly where he’s coming from and if I was an empath like I suspect he was, I can see not being able to live in this world. I loved all the French scenes. Kevin’s journal was a glittering gem in a sea of despair.
All in all, I liked this book but do not feel it reaches its fullest potential.

[Michelle Claypot_Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a heartbreaking story of loss and self exploration. I really enjoyed the writing style with the diary and the flashbacks to “before.”

It’s not my usual type of book and it’s a raw love story but it was weirdly uplifting too.

I received an arc of this book

[Mrs A Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written book about grief and depression . A love story of two people Ben and Casey who met by chance and fell in love but Ben is tormented by animal welfare and the environment . Family and friendship are so strong through the book a recommended read

[Kali Winsor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sad love story, good from beginning to end.

[Susan Ratliff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, I have no idea where this title came from. As I read the book I realized it was a girl finds love boy finds love and then Love is lost. What I didn’t expect was a mini education on the environment. I would have looked for a book, specifically geared toward that education, if I had wanted to which I did not.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Shannon Wing · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading The Secret by Debbie Howells and making it my first 5* book of the year, the author reached out and asked if I’d like to read and review her new book, and of course I said yes!

This is Debbie’s first women’s fiction novel, and it was packed full of emotion, love and heartbreak.

The writing was INCREDIBLE! I’ve never highlighted so many sections of a book before, but there were just so many beautifully written passages that I knew I needed to save to come back to!

There are some really tough topics discussed in this book, but it’s done so in a very sensitive and delicate way, and they were so impactful to the story.

It was such an emotional rollercoaster, and managed to make me feel heartbroken but uplifted all at the same time!

I will definitely be reading more of Debbie’s thriller books, and I hope to see more women’s fiction from her in future too!

[Aoibheann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started off OK and went downhill. Lots of preaching and facts provided, not real emotion. Dialogue felt like the author googled uplifting quotes

[Jacqui · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know why I have been reading so many books about depression, lately. But this one, I had a problem with the main character (Casey) she was fairly independent in the beginning but then she lost her independence to her husband. I just wish she had more confidence in herself. I did enjoyed the parallel storylines of the diary person (Kevin) to Casey.

Page 2 - Leaving space for the unexpected, you always told me, because that’s where the magic happens…

Page 9 - As for the great healer that time’s supposed to be, I could wait a thousand years but every moment of every day, I will miss you.

Page 64 - quoting Frida Kahlo. You know the one: I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned to swim… But she had an answer to that, too. Apparently, hers were Olympic fucking gold medallists. Whatever she tried, there was no stopping them.

Page 81 - This pain you hold on to… maybe it’s time to let it go. You have the whole of the rest of your life, Casey Cassidy. Just imagine if you could do something amazing with it.

Page 109 - Solastalgia–a collective despair felt by people around the world; a form of homesickness for an environment that doesn’t exist any more.

Page 111 - instead of encouraging, puncture people’s dreams. when you take away hope, you kill something.

Page 172 - ‘I have a bottle in the fridge. Would you like some?’ Opening it, she pours it into two glasses then passes one to me. ‘Santé.’ ‘Santé.’ The wine is cold and crisp. ‘This is lovely.’ ‘Good. Why don’t …

Page 188 - For a child to lose their mother is to lose their cornerstone. But grief is different things to different people, changing the way we think and what’s important to us. Makes us kinder, more understanding, stronger; ignites a renewed desire to find meaning in this life, as it has for Brad. But it’s happening to me, too.

Page 193 - Normal life, interrupted by heart-stopping moments.

Page 218 - ‘There’s a Toltec word–mitote. Means fog in the mind.’
‘What?’ I frown at him.
‘It comes from all the stories we tell ourselves–like about the person we think we should be. You know, like when you’re a kid, it matters what your parents think of you; then as you get older, it’s your friends who matter, then society, until before you know it, you have this life designed purely to fit with everyone else’s expectations, which kind of works–except we lose track of who we really are, underneath. You have to get rid of all that. It fogs your mind. Stops you seeing clearly.’

Page 222 - I don’t think grief goes, it just becomes a part of you, woven into the fabric of who you become.

Page 244 - mitote–how our thoughts are clouded by everything we’re brought up to believe, the rules we live by, passed down through families, upheld by our schools, society, politics. For some people, they keep life ordered. But my mind is clear and the answer instantly comes to me.

Page 280 - Unless you know how pain feels, you have nothing to illuminate those glorious, sky-soaring moments of happiness.

Page 309 - There is one thing I have learned; it’s that you can be there for someone, support them, love them, try to understand, but you can’t change what they do and how they feel. The only person who can do that is them.’

Page 323 - That solitude and loneliness are addictive. That the more you know how peacefulness feels, the more you crave it. Those things in life which aim to break you make you stronger. That the greatest magic happens in the darkest times, and that endings lead to new beginnings. How, if you listen to the silence, the universe whispers to you. As for grief, hopelessness and unhappiness, they can knock you off track, but they can never put out the fire inside you.

Page 340 - Some people come into our lives when we need them most. We might not know it at the time, but they leave their footprints in our hearts, changing us with the richness they bring, with their own unique way of looking at this beautiful world, the multi-coloured layers of their rainbow dreams. They are the gems and shining lights and they fill our lives with love. Ben was one of them and who knows, just maybe, Kevin is another. But none of us knows what the future holds. For us all, it’s about the dance between dark and light, death and life, and if we’re lucky, love, wherever that takes us, whatever happens along the way.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a teensy little confession to make – yes I know another one. Although I have Debbie’s other books on my ever increasing ‘to be read’ mountain, I haven’t actually read one yet. Having enjoyed reading ‘The Life You Left Behind’ as much as I did, I am now rather cross with myself that I left it this long to discover how flipping great her books are. The synopsis of ‘The Life You Left Behind’ really appealed to me and so without further ado I grabbed a cup of tea, grabbed my Kindle, grabbed a box of tissues and settled down for what proved to be one hell of a read and then some. I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Life You Left Behind’ but more about that in a bit.
I loved the character of Casey Cassidy and I warmed to her from the very beginning. In fact it didn’t take long before I felt as though she had become a friend of mine and I started to feel all protective towards her. When we first meet her, it’s obvious that something has happened in her life leaving her feel as though she had had the rug pulled out from under her feet. We don’t find out exactly what happened until later in the story but little clues are given as the story continues and they fit together like a jigsaw. Casey is a lovely young woman and she seems particularly vulnerable when the story starts. Casey needs a period of time to be able to heal herself and build her life up from scratch again. I kept everything crossed that she would be able to find happiness again. What happens? Well for the answer to that question and so much more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
I was drawn into this story from the synopsis alone. When I started reading the story itself, I knew that I wasn’t going to be moving very far from the couch for the rest of the afternoon as I wasn’t going to be able to put the book down. That’s exactly what happened. My Kindle wasn’t exactly glued to my hands but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me. I couldn’t bear to miss a single second of the story. I was rooting for Casey. The more of the book that I read, the more I wanted to read and the quicker the pages seemed to turn. I soon got to the end of ‘The Life You Left Behind’ and I had to say goodbye to Casey. I found ‘The Life You Left Behind’ to be the true definition of an unputdownable page turner of a read. I was gripped by the story from start to finish and on the edge of my seat throughout.
‘The Life You Left Behind’ is superbly written and then some. The author has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to ad easy to get along with. For me, the story hit the ground running and maintained a gentle pace throughout but that suits the tale that Debbie is telling. Debbie clearly cares about her characters and this shines through in the very thorough way in which she describes them. Reading this book took me on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride with lots of ups and downs, twists and turns and well you get the picture. I found Debbie’s beautiful writing to be so convincing that I went through every emotion that Casey went through. I love the way in which Debbie makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story and at the heart of the action.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Life You Left Behind’ and I would recommend it to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Debbie’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

[Mikayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Life You Left Behind

1.5 Stars

Where do I start with this book?


Synopsis:

Two strangers.

One missed flight.

It only takes a moment to change a life.

One year ago Casey Cassidy was happy. She had great friends, a wonderful teaching job and a busy life - until with one missed flight, everything changes.

One year later Casey knows what it means to find that once-in-a-lifetime love people dream of. But when Ben leaves, her heart is shattered.

Left facing a year of firsts without him, piecing her life back together seems impossible. But then a friend offers her a home in rural France.

In the solitude and emptiness, Casey needs to comes to terms with what’s happened and find a way to move forward. She has no idea where that will take her one year later...

Review:

There are very, very few things that I enjoyed about this book. – there were even moments when I had to call my friend to rant about how much I did not like this book, how often it was actually ridiculous.

It took forever to get through, yet felt like it was too short based on the content and how it was written. It only took me a few days to read, but felt like weeks by the time I was done.

We follow a story of Casey, before and after the death of her husband Ben. Before, as they meet and their whirlwind love story told in snippets of moments, vs after, when Casey moves to rural France into a house her friend Kevin gets for her by knowing the owner.

To begin, there is no warning before reading this book that there is a suicide, nor the fact that Ben doesn’t leave the relationship or breakup with Casey, he commits suicide. I think that it would have been a good warning to have – or at least something more than a synopsis that sounds like the main character is getting over a traumatic breakup.

Secondly, there is not a single character that had a good arc. Casey comes to rural France, drinks a lot of wine in her pyjamas, takes care of some stray cats, reads a diary that was more interesting than the actual story but had a horrible representation of bipolar disorder, went to a bar, tutored a kid for maybe 10 pages, and talked a lot about how she never knew her husband had depression.

The dealing of Ben committing suicide was one of the worst mental illness representations I’ve seen in a long time. His reasonings didn’t feel real, it all felt superficial and that the author just really wanted to put some information out about how the world is changing and the dangers of the meat industry – but didn’t even do that well. It was all in snippets that didn’t align well, especially with topics as rough as the ones brought forward.

Once you realize what the tone of the book is, it feels like it’s almost too late to not finish it, but too far from the end to enjoy it. The topics of depression, bipolar disorder, the meat and food industry felt like they were barely researched and it was all off of memory from research that happened months ago, there was no in depth to what was being felt by the characters, it was all very glossed over. Along with moments that should have been more in depth – Casey telling Ben about her sister and her guilt, confessing her guilt to her mother etc. were all very surface level and read very fake. There was no real emotion anywhere in the book other than when Casey finds Ben.

The book comes to an end with Casey going on a retreat that she had bought for Ben, his suicide being taken as “this is what I was made for” and “everything happens for a reason” – Ben’s death being necessary for Casey to do good in the world with what Ben was passionate about. The last few chapters are supposed to be uplifting and joyful compared to the rest of the book, but it felt so rushed and false-hopeful when it comes to the rest of the content that I had to sit through.

Overall, I really struggled through this book. I love darker themed books, but was not at all prepared to be frustrated with the writing style, the content, how the content was handled, and how it all wrapped out. So much was missing by the end and it left me more annoyed than satisfied by the end of it.

I would just like to thank NetGalley for the ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Casey – Cassidy to her friends – arrives at the airport for a holiday with her friend Ellie, she frantically unpacks her suitcase to find that she’s left her passport behind. A stranger, Ben, becomes her knight in shining armour, taking her home for the missing passport and out for a meal – and when they sit up all night, talking about anything and everything, she realises she might have found someone very special. But at the book’s beginning, we also know that – a year later – Casey is alone, in the depths of grief, having decided to take a solitary trip to rural France to take time to recover and decide what to do with her life.

Both threads unfold in parallel, a year apart. The romance between Casey and Ben is one of those gloriously all-consuming ones – it’s quite beautifully done, grabbing you by the heart, and you can really feel the depth of their love for each other. It just feels too perfect – and when the inevitable clouds appear on the horizon, it becomes amply clear that there’s unlikely to be a happy ending. And we already know there isn’t, because they’re not together a year on – although we don’t know what happened, Ben is gone, and Casey has time and space to reflect on what happened and to learn to cope with the extremes of her devastation.

I’ll admit that this wasn’t entirely the book I was expecting it to be. I knew there was going to be “solitude and emptiness” in Casey’s future, but the turn that her relationship with Ben took was particularly hard to read – and emphatically not because of the quality of the writing, but because of how deeply you felt the despair and inevitability of what happened. The book presents a painful and convincing portrait of a facet of mental illness that I’d never come across before – solastalgia, eco-grief, a collective despair about the state of the environment. And that environmental theme becomes central to Casey’s attempt at recovery and try to move on with her life – and to turn what happened into something considerably more positive.

It might sound like there aren’t many laughs, but there’s certainly plenty of lightness – yes, even joy – in the early days of Ben and Casey’s relationship. And there are some interesting diversions as she finds herself in France – the diary found on the shelves telling someone else’s emotional story (identity unknown), the opportunistic cat visitors, the new and established friendships – lifting the veil of darkness, and keeping the story moving at a satisfying pace.

It almost feels wrong to say “I enjoyed this one” – the emotional content was much too raw for that – but the author has certainly produced a book with unexpected and considerable impact, along with a compelling story that kept me entirely hooked throughout. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what she does next.