My enormous thanks to Jaime Frost at Harper Collins for sending me a Netgalley copy of The Book of Love in return for an honest review.

Fionnuala Kearney’s You, Me and Other People was one of the first books I reviewed when I began blogging and you can see my review (and the way the blog has evolved) here. I also reviewed Fionnuala’s The Day I Lost You here and it was my book of the Year in 2016 amongst some very stiff competition. You can find out more about that here.

Published by Harper Collins on 25th October 2018, The Book of Love is available through these links.

The Book of Love

One love. Two people. Twenty Years.

From the moment they met, Erin and Dom loved each other too much, too quickly. Everyone said it wouldn’t last. But they knew differently.

A wedding present, a notebook, brings them together through the good times and the bad. On the blank pages of their love story, they write down everything they can’t always say – the secrets, the heartbreak, the highs and lows. It’s where they see the best and worst of each other.

Falling in love is easy but staying in love is where the story begins…

This is The Book of Love.

My Review of The Book of Love

Erin and Dom use the book of love to record their thoughts.

I’m not sure I can write a review of The Book of Love because I simply do not have the vocabulary to describe what an impact this glorious celebration of love in all its forms has had on me. I feel simultaneously broken, uplifted and so emotional I can hardly see the screen to write through my tears.

I thought all the characters were wonderful but it was Dom who appealed to me most. The intensity of his relationship with Erin, his flawed and realistic nature and his unfailing love meant he infiltrated my thoughts even when I wasn’t reading about him. I ended The Book of Love feeling I had known Dom and Erin personally, shared the ups and downs of their lives and I wanted to hold them in my embrace.

The Book of Love is brilliantly plotted by Fionnuala Kearney so that the surprises on the way left me emotionally stunned. There are mysteries that unfold through magnificent storytelling. I genuinely gasped aloud a couple of times and occasionally I so wanted things to be different that my heart shattered. To have such a huge impact on the reader takes consummate skill and Fionnuala Kearney has it at its most wonderful. I can’t say too much about the plot because I would hate to spoil the read for others. However, I would say; be prepared to invest all your emotions without your consent because once you’re absorbed into The Book of Love your life, your heart and your very soul will not be your own. It’s fair to say that Fionnuala Kearney not only understands humanity in its very essence, she knows exactly how to convey that essence on the page in The Book of Love.

I’m not going to say more because I don’t feel up to the task of articulating what a wonderful, wonderful book this is. The Book of Love is compassionate, beautiful and raw. It touched me. It broke me and ultimately it left me feeling that, whatever life throws at us, love can and does endure.

I completely and utterly adored The Book of Love – mightily!

About Fionnuala Kearney

Fionnuala Kearney, pronounced Finoola Carney, was born Fionnuala Moore into a large Irish family. One of seven children, she discovered, age six, that she had in fact been christened Ann. That’s Ann with no ‘e’. Her parents had decided, for some reason to address her by her second name, saddling her with a life of dealing with unnecessary vowels.

At twenty she moved to London and marrying Mr Kearney proved to be the best thing she ever did (apart from the fact that the vowel thing escalated even further). Two daughters, both with deliberately simple mono syllabic names followed.

Earning a living meant working in property. She was for many years a home search agent (like Phil and Kirstie without the cameras). Dealing with high net worth individuals and celebrities, she decided one fateful day, five years ago, that it was time for a change.

Encouraged by her loved ones, she did just that. Five years later – years of penury in her garret spent learning her craft, with not a celeb in sight (except for an odd dose of the Kardashians on telly), she is often found talking to herself with yellow ‘post its’ stuck to her forehead.

She likes to write about relationships: a married couple, a mother and child, siblings, best friends… She likes to peel away the layers and see what’s going on beneath and then tell you all about it.