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The Best Days of Our Lives: the big-hearted and uplifting new novel from the bestselling author of Anything Could Happen

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It's this that many readers will relate to as there are so many families that are different from the 'Norm'.

It’s unsurprising that the parent’s and children’s stories link as they’ve all lost the same person, but there are some secondary characters that pop up here and there that help tie it all together. There are a few little mysteries along the way which do add to the story - Leni's story particularly, but I feel its these mysteries that help give closure to a devastating tragedy. Belinda finds comfort in her many conversations with a telephone clairvoyant who is able to speak to her daughter and pass messages back from beyond the grave. Last few books by this author didn't gel with me so much, but "The Best Days of Our Lives" turned out to be a poignant yet funny, touching story about a family dealing with the worst - with grief.I’ve experienced grief in a number of ways and it can present in the most bizarre of situations and the strangest of times, but she’s definitely hit the mark with that.

Leni’s death forces Alice to rebuild things in her own life and I loved the metaphor of the butterfly showing her struggle and the symbolism of the peacock feathers throughout the book. The Best Days of Our Lives has a sad and difficult event that forms the core of the book from which all the other events and situations involving the characters evolve from. The story is punctuated with various people's reminiscences of her from a tribute page set up by her sister, and these were fun to read. Unfortunately, just a few weeks after this less than successful get together, Leni sadly dies in a tragic bike accident, and the story follows Belinda, Alice, Will and Tony as they navigate their way through their grief and their own personal feelings towards the part that they feel they played in Leni’s life and death. Diamond’s analogies of the butterfly having to fight it’s way out if it’s chrysalis and the way a river will learn to flow around a pebble we’re absolutely beautiful ways to explore how we might move forward after tragedy.

In the hope of coming to terms with her grief, she tries to piece together Leni’s last weeks – but her discoveries only lead to more questions. Although the novel has moments of sadness it also encompasses hope and the importance of having a strong support network. Evolving from distant and uninvolved to becoming Father of the Year over the course of a book is an impressive feat. I would recommend this book as it was enjoyable whilst reading but as for being one of the more memorable books I have read recently perhaps maybe not but I appreciate what I took from it at the time. Despite this, it is an uplifting read and there are many important life lessons to be learnt from it.

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