28 January 2015

Review #135: The Life You Left by Carmel Harrington



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Where loved ones failed you, guardian angels stand ready to catch your fall.”
                                              ----Shannon L Alder, author

Carmel Harrington, an Irish author, entranced my mind with her new novel, The Life You Left , that lets us see the world and life in an all new way by making us belief with the existence and beauty of guardian angels, premonitions and by dealing with some life-altering problems with a positive attitude.

Synopsis:
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 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: Sarah is the only person who can see him.



PS: I have not reviewed this book based on what I believe rather on what the author tried to make me believe. So this review is impartial of my personal belief and faith.

Sarah is like any other regular mom- she has 3 kids and a boutique and her days revolve around taking care of her three children and has a husband who supports their household. All of a sudden, one day, Sarah's husband, Paul never returns back home from his office, while he emailed her to let her know that he is sick and he needs to get away from the chaos of his own family for few days. Thus begins the story of Sarah!
Sarah is normal, but she has a guardian angel to protect her and also fills up her head with premonitions like death or suicide of some random people, where as her brother, James is a PI who happens to solves all those cases- yeah, I know they sound like Holmes and Watson and the only difference is that, Watson has the power/ability to see the future crimes and criminals.
But when her husband abandoned them, Sarah's mind fills up with all kinds of doubts about her husband. Will she trust her premonitions or shall she trust her instinct that he will come back? Read this story to unlock this unraveling mystery about Sarah's husband.

I thing I would like to say is that the story is immensely heart-breaking and the climax, simple left me in tears. If you're an emotional person like me, then I'm pretty sure this story will deeply touch you. This is not only about guardian angels and mysteries, but it is about life in simple- what happens when your husband abandons you and your children forever, what to do in this situation, what happens when your best friend comes back to your life, how does it feel to save a random person's life who holds no meaning to you, all these issues are explained by the author in a delicate and sensitive manner. The central theme would be how we see certain things in our own mind. Although the protagonist, Sarah is constantly bumped up with visions of some murder or death, but still the author leaves us enough space to see those premonitions in our own perspective. The story felt very surreal yet somehow it felt thoroughly striking.

From the very first page itself, I got hooked on to the flawless story-telling of the author. Yet, the narrative style felt bit monotonous and sometimes very depressing. The idea of a guardian angel completely glued me till it's very end. There are also quite a lot of mysteries to be unlocked by us, which are described like any other mystery story- the only difference is that we knew who or what was the outcome, but it was quite intriguing to see how the author unraveled them layer-by-layer.

The characters are very striking, which seems like the author drew inspiration from her every day characters. Moreover, the whole setting is very Irish. With this story, I got a slice of Ireland- it's culture and customs and talking standards. The whole Irish flair is very vivid in the author's tone of story-telling. Sarah, James and her kids will enthrall your mind and heart with their demeanor. After reading this book, I too wish to have a brother like James. Their strong bond of love depicted by the author is fantastic. In Sarah's hard times, James was always there like a pillar. Edward- the guardian angel- we see a lot of this 11 feet tall guy- I felt his demeanor to be very soothing enough to like him. Paul sounds like a confused husband, running away from his wife and life, but still he made me feel like he had warmth in his heart and due to his confused state he couldn't show it. Rita, Paul's mother is one hell of a woman, supporting her daughter-in-law in her each and every step, and is can be bit funny at times with her snarky remarks.

Verdict: Contemporary fiction lovers will love this book, and for the rest, I would recommend you to read it to feel the warmth in the author's compassionate words!

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Carmel Harrington, for giving me an opportunity to read and review her book. 
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Author Info:
With her husband Roger and two beautiful children Amelia and Nate, Carmel Harrington lives a pretty idyllic life in Ireland, full of stories, songs, hide and seek, Mickey Mouse, walks on the beach, tickles, kisses, chocolate treats and most of all abundant love. To make life even more perfect, she have now fulfilled a lifetime ambition to be a writer as she is both a published author with HarperImpulse, a division of Harper Collins Publishers and a playwright. She believes in Happily Ever After’s because that’s what happened to her.
Visit her here 

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