I am incredibly grateful to LoveReading for providing a reader review copy of Freya North’s ‘The Turning Point’ published by Harper Collins in ebook and hardback on June 4th 2015.

When divorced writer Frankie has a chance encounter with Canadian musician Scott, she has little realisation just how her life will change. Moving to Norfolk for a fresh start away from London, Frankie suddenly finds herself conducting a long distance relationship. However, not everything will go according to plan.

I have read and loved all Freya North’s novels and honestly believe ‘The Turning Point’ is her best yet.

Recognisably Freya North’s style, there is something slightly different about ‘The Turning Point’, as if the writing is more organic and beautiful than ever. I found the variety of sentence structure, for example, had the power to manipulate my emotions without my permission so that I was on a roller coaster of an experience in reading this lovely novel. It is utterly engrossing and totally devastating. I enjoyed too the jolt when the perspective changes from third to first person after one of the turning points in the plot. I found it added to the intensity of emotion.

There are several turning points in the story, from characters’ realisations of what different relationships mean to them, to pivotal plot moments that change the whole course of the story and to readers understanding the central message of the novel – that we should embrace and cherish what we have. This is not to say that the writing is saccharine, but instead totally satisfying and poignant.

What I also thoroughly enjoyed was how believable the characters were. I don’t usually like the portrayal of children in fiction, finding that portrayal often wooden and unnatural, but both Sam and Annabel are perfectly drawn so that they are not incidental adjuncts to the central characters of Frankie and Scott, but have a life and realism of their own too. As I read I got slower and slower as I didn’t want to leave behind Frankie and Scott and finishing the novel would mean I had to.

Whilst ‘The Turning Point’ can be simply enjoyed as a gorgeous love story, it also has fundamental themes that weave through the text giving it depth and substance. Jenna’s epilepsy, parent/child relationships at all ages, what makes a home, how we stifle or encourage our creativity, the importance of place and nature in our lives all reverberate throughout to become a totally wonderful whole.

The attention to detail in scene setting means that ‘The Turning Point’ is a vivid picture in the reader’s mind. I could see the cottage in Norfolk of the mountains in Canada so clearly it was as if I was there.

To say I enjoyed reading ‘The Turning Point’ would be an understatement. I adored it.