REDEMPTION SONG.

REDEMPTION SONG by LAURA WILKINSON.

BACK COVER BLURB: Saffron is studying for a promising career in medicine until a horrific accident changes her life for ever. Needing to escape London, she moves to a small coastal town to live with her mother. Saffron hates the small town existence and feels trapped until she meets Joe, another outsider. Despite initial misgivings, they grow closer to each other as they realise they have a lot in common. Like Saffron, Joe has a complicated past ...one that's creeping up on his present. Can Joe escape his demons for long enough to live a normal life - and can Saffron reveal the truth about what really happened on that fateful night? Love is the one thing they need most, but will they - can they - risk it?

FIRST SENTENCE {Prologue}: The couple stagger to the front door.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 122}: Rage bore down upon him, pressing into him, drenching him with its blood-red stain. It tightened around his throat, choking him. It twisted in his belly and guts and punched at his chest and in his head till he might explode. It was a sensation he knew well, too well perhaps.

SOURCE: Honoured to have reviewed Laura's first book, Public Battles, Private Wars, I was delighted when she approached me to review this, an Advanced Reading Copy of her second novel which, hot off the press, was published yesterday.

MY THOUGHTS: A bit of a slow burner to begin with but, oh my goodness so, so well worth sticking with.

Quite different from the author's first book, Public Battles, Private Wars, but once again we are treat to some of the most wonderful female characters in mother, Rain, her daughter, Saffron, and Saffron's friend Ceri.

Told from the point of view of mother and daughter and carpenter Joe. Whilst I can find myself struggling with novels told from multiple points of views I had no such difficulties here. Seamlessly narrated with each character given their own very distinct voice. Like the roses on the cover, just as the story slowly unfurled so they bloomed, their secrets revealed (Joe's perhaps a tad too slowly), their inner feelings laid bare.

Labelled by some as a romance. Yes, there are certain romantic attachments formed but thankfully no so-called 'insta-love' connections. Like the plot itself, carefully considered, Redemption Song is more about the relationships in general. Baptist minister Rain's and non-believer Saffron's in particular lending a wonderfully compelling air to the story.

Ultimately a story of healing, of finding forgiveness, both self forgiveness and otherwise. Though only her second novel author Laura Wilkinson is already a firm favourite of mine.

Read for the 2016 Reading Challenge: 'A book published this year' category.