Sometimes one act of kindness can make a world of difference…

Synopsis

Meet Tilda Wright…

Tilda has done everything she can to make her life neat, protected, tidy. No longer the girl who was scared of everything, whose family pushed her away, who hit rock bottom. Now she runs her life – as she does her successful business – with the utmost organization. As long as she keeps everyone at arm’s length, she will be fine. She will be safe.

But then a chance encounter with a man who’s fallen on hard times changes everything. Milo needs a break, and self-contained Tilda surprises herself by deciding she should help him. Just for a while. A few days at the most.

Maybe all he needs is someone to organize him, to help him clean up his act? She is sure she knows how to kick-start Milo into turning his life around.

What Tilda doesn’t know is that – with this single act of kindness – it might actually be her own life that’s about to change forever…

My review

Tilda Wright has worked hard to make her cleaning business a successful one. her life has not only been easy, and she knows what it’s like to be rock-bottom. That is why now that finally her life is back on track, everything in her life is neat and protected. Tilda doesn’t do spontaneous, even her dinners are planned. And she keeps everyone at distance, not only the people that work for her, but also her neighbours, and even her own family.
Yet that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t feel sorry for Milo, who is living on the streets, in her street. She knows how difficult life can be…
So when Milo has been literally hit, she cannot leave him in pain on the streets. Even while everything inside her screams to not do it, she offers Milo her help.
And Tilda makes it her plan to get Milo’s back life on track. But little does Tilda know that her act of kindness, no matter how much she eve surprised herself, could be an act that will change her life too…

How often do we see people on street and have our judgement ready? Yes, there are some people only pretending to be living on the streets, trying to gain some money from you. But now I am talking about the real people living on the street, how saw their lives falling apart, and having no other option that living on the streets.

And do we truly know what happens behind closed doors? What people, even the successful ones, are going through? What inner demons they are still fighting and trying to defeat? No, of course we don’t…

This book was in that aspect so overwhelming, making me realize that while I have had only little demons to fight, I can count myself lucky that I have never fallen so low. But also that falling so low is nothing to be ashamed of. Life can throw you lemons, and sometimes they hit you very hard…

It’s clear from the start that while Tilda is proudly running her own business, her life is not that okay at all. Ever since losing her father as a child, her whole life changed. From going to boarding school, not connecting with any other child there, losing the close bond she had with her little brother, her mother ready to pinpoint all Tilda’s “flaws”, leading all to that dramatic point in her life a few years ago…
My heart just broke for her, and learning about her past for sure made me understand her nature and behaviour so much better. As she has been disappointed by so many people, she had to toughen up, even not letting her own cat, Dettol, getting too close. Because all that Tilda knows is that if you let someone too close, it will end in heartbreak.

So in a way it was lovely to see that despite Tilda’s hard lessons, she never lost her kindness. Every fibre in her bone screams to just walk away from Milo, to not offer some help, because you may never know how that would backlash.
But with her heart screaming louder to help out, Tilda finds herself doing the exact opposite, and offers Milo the help he desperately needs.

Poor Milo… he also has been through a lot, and is also still carrying the burden and the guilt of what happened years ago.
My heart broke also for him, because it’s clear that he wants to get his life back on track, but with being so at the bottom, it’s not easy to pick yourself back up…

He is even shocked himself with the help Tilda offers him, because he isn’t used to people being kind to him.

He understands that Tilda is still wary of him, but it was sweet to see how slowly Tilda is letting go of her strict policy, and how Milo is slowly getting the much needed opportunities all because of Tilda’s kind heart.

Obviously Tilda and Milo clash over a few things, but as they are both growing in the story, they also come more and more to an understanding. And there were a few revelations that came as a surprise to both the main characters and to me, but also a few revelations that for me were a bit obvious, yet I was eager to read how that revelation would flabbergast Tilda and/or Milo.

Can I just also say that Dettol is my personal hero in this book! I just wanted to grab her and give her all the possible hugs ever! 😊

This book shows us that even with a small gesture, an act of kindness can truly mean the world to someone.
And that with one act, one gesture, it can also change our own lives.
I was truly touched by this story, as it shows that no matter how deep you fall, it takes just one person to lift you back up. But also that even if we don’t see it, how events of the past can hold us back, not letting us being all that spontaneous again. But also that all it needs is one person, perhaps even one that irritates you, to bring spontaneity back in your life, just like letting love back in your life. And that can be by easy things, like learning how to pet an cat, or even rekindle broken relationships.