Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale
Published by Lake Union Publishing on August 1st 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Contemporary Women, Family Life, Fiction, Romance
Pages: 296
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
Sous chef Aimee Tierney has the perfect recipe for the perfect life: marry her childhood sweetheart, raise a family, and buy out her parents restaurant. But when her fiance, James Donato, vanishes in a boating accident, her well-baked future is swept out to sea. Instead of walking down the aisle on their wedding day, Aimee is at James s funeral a funeral that leaves her more unsettled than at peace.As Aimee struggles to reconstruct her life, she delves deeper into James s disappearance. What she uncovers is an ocean of secrets that make her question everything about the life they built together. And just below the surface is a truth that may set Aimee free or shatter her forever.A luminous debut with unexpected twists,
When I saw this book as one of the BookSparks 2016 Fall Reading Challenge, I didn’t have any expectations either way since I had never heard of author, Kerry Lonsdale. When I picked up the book and read the cover, I was very interested in the storyline. Now that I’ve completed the book – a book I really enjoyed and finished in two short days – I cannot even believe that this is Kerry Lonsdale’s debut novel! Even more exciting to me is the fact that this is the first book in a series, which means I am looking forward to future books by this author! Woo hoo!!
The main character, Aimee Tierney, is madly in love with her childhood sweetheart, James. She’s known him since she was about 8 and they grew up together. He protected her as children and as they grew up and fell in love, they became engaged.
Most people are excited and happy on their wedding day. They are at the church ready to marry their beloved after all that waiting leading up to this day. Tragically, that isn’t the story for Aimee, since her wedding day has turned out to be the day she is mourning the loss of the love of her life, her fiance’ James.
Just before the wedding, James’ family business calls him to go to Mexico on a business trip and only his body returns. Aimee is not only mourning the loss of James, but she also mourns the dreams and hopes of their future together that ended on this day. On the day of the funeral, a strange woman approaches Aimee telling her that James is not dead.
Aimee then spends nearly a year refusing to accept that James is dead but tries to move on with her life in other areas. She pursues something she’s always dreamed of – she opens a restaurant of her own with the money James’ brother, Thomas gave her. At the opening of her restaurant, the woman who approached her in the parking lot leaves a business card alleging James’ current location somewhere in Mexico.
This was a story about love and loss, but at the same time, it included lots of secrets and surprises. Everything We Keep provided readers with a love story and a thriller all in one and kept us interested with interesting twists and turns that we simply could not predict. I don’t write spoilers so I’m not going into the plot too much here, other than to tell you to pick up this book and read it for yourself!
Since I was happy to hear the sequel won’t be long in coming, I will do my best to be patient and see how this story will continue to unfold. I’ll definitely be reading any other future book written by Kerry Lonsdale because I loved this book.
I received a complimentary hardbound copy of this book from the publishers and BookSparks as part of the Fall Reading Challenge 2016 (#FRC2016) in exchange for this post, which is my honest review and unbiased opinion.
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