How one moment is the catalyst…

Synopsis

A borrowed boy, a borrowed name and living on borrowed time.

What do you put on a bucket list when you haven’t done anything with your life? No interesting job, no lovers, no family, no friends. Believing she has only weeks left to live, Angie Winkle vows to make the most of every minute.

Going back to Jaywick Sands, is top of her bucket list. Experiencing life as a grandmother is not, but the universe has other plans and when four-year-old Danny is separated from his mum on the tube, Angie goes to his rescue. She tries to return him to his mum but things do not go exactly as planned and the two of them embark on a life-changing journey.

Set in Jaywick Sands, once an idyllic Essex holiday village in the 70s, but now a shantytown of displaced Londoners, this is a story about hidden communities and our need to belong.

My review

Angie Winkle believes she has only a few weeks left to live. So she decides to go back to Jaywick Sands, a place with many memories.
At the train station, she is witness how the four-year-old Danny is being separated from her mother on the tube. She starts doing the right thing, wanting to return him to his mother, but suddenly she finds herself with Danny in Jaywick Sands.

Initially I found this a very disturbing book.  A woman just taking a small child to fulfil her dream of being a grandmother… well, not a good excuse to kidnap a child, right?

Yet the better we get to know Angie, it starts making sense… not that I approve het actions, but I felt her pain…
And when I started to read Nikoleta’s point of view, I was glad that Angie took the boy…

This is not a book to take lightly, it shows how nasty people can be, working with an own agenda.
And even if Angie seems to be that bad person in this story, she has her heart in the right place. And Also Nikoleta is the same. Even if she is a bit naïve in the beginning, she sees things that are out of the ordinary, and is putting the child’s safety above everything.

It was sweet to read how Angie was accepted by the small community, and how even after her lies came out, the community stood by her side, doing whatever they can to help Angie and Danny…
And when Angie wanted to give Danny back to Nikoleta, she didn’t just do it without a fight, she wanted to be 100% sure that Danny would end up with loving people.

This story is not what I thought, it surprised me in a good way. It was sometimes dark, but there were moments of lights, when Danny’s happiness were so obvious.
It was bittersweet, because you know it has to come to an end somehow, and I was afraid that it wouldn’t be a happy one. But all the people around Angie, Angie herself and Nikoleta are proof that there are good people around, ready to help, no matter how well they know you (or don’t know you)

It’s a book that puts you back into place, and that even no matter how bad your situation looks like, it will make you stronger and you will find caring people when you least expect it and where you least expect it!