In time of need, can all be forgiven?

Synopsis

Fifteen years ago, one desperate act tore sisters Bex and Briony apart. 👭💕✨

Growing up side by side against the backdrop of a feckless father and a hardworking mum, they were inseparable—until Briony’s attempt to save Bex from a disastrous engagement shattered their bond.

Now Bex has the life she dreamed of: a loving family, a new glamping site on the family farm, and roots she’s proud of. Briony, living under the online alias “Holly Day,” drifts from place to place in her van, watching her sister’s happiness from afar.

When their beloved mum falls seriously ill, Bex must track down the sister she hasn’t seen in over a decade. But finding Briony brings more than old wounds—it brings unexpected closeness, new beginnings, and the realisation that some bonds never truly break.

As secrets unravel and hearts tentatively open, Bex and Briony must decide whether they can finally forgive, heal, and find their way back to each other—and to the family they both desperately need.

My review

Bex couldn’t imagine her life going any better than it does now. She is happily married with the love of her life, sharing three children together. And now that she is finally opening a new glamping site on the family farm, it is truly a dream coming true. Also the relationship with her parents is one filled with love and warmth. But when her beloved mother falls ill and even needs a transplant, Bex finds herself doing something she never imagined doing, contacting her sister Briony. The sisters couldn’t be more closer while growing up, until Briony, wanting to protect Bex from a disastrous engagement, betrayed her sister in a way Bex could never forgive. And for years, Bex did not want to hear anything about Briony. So Bex doesn’t even know that Briony now has an online life as ‘Holly Day’, going from one place to another in her van, putting videos about her experiences on the web. Nor that Briony has kept an eye on Bex’s life from afar… Now that Bex needs Briony, for their mother’s sake, Bex wants to keep her distance, which is just impossible. As old wounds resurfaces, can the bond between the sisters be restored, if not only just for their mother’s sake? Or is what has been broken beyond repair?

A new book from an amazing author, so no doubt at all I had to read it! And perhaps a little different from the other series I have read from her, but that doesn’t mean I did not enjoy reading it!

At the start of the book, it is obvious how close Bex and Briony are, especially after what the sisters (and their mother too) have been through with their father. And that thick bond is something that I recognize with my own brother. Of course I cannot confide in my brother with absolutely everything (like you could with a sister). But when I say that even now, where I am almost forty and he is 4 years older than me, we still go on holidays together, you know how close we are, right?

I could understand Bex’s anger upon discovering Briony and her betrayal many moons ago. And while it may seem very despicable what Briony did, I felt it even before I knew what truly happened, that it couldn’t be just that straightforward. And it saddened me to red how even in the present, with Bex having a great life with an amazing family of her own, the pain and feeling of betrayal never left her… And how Bex has excluded Briony from her life completely. I could understand Bex, but I also couldn’t, if you get what I mean? Because before that specific event, Bex and Briony couldn’t be any closer, and without even trying to hear Briony out, for years… I found that difficult to understand…

And we see how Briony’s complete life is affected by that event. She is living a nomadic life, cruising around with her van and her dog. Not only is that kind of life rather lonely, and difficult to bond with people, what has happened also truly made her more introvert and closed off. She has an online life, where nobody knows her real identity. Because she is known now as Holly Day.

It truly saddened me reading how lonely in fact Briony has been for all these years. Yes, her parents are still in touch and visit whenever possible. But as Bex keeps that door clearly shut, Briony feels like that she isn’t a real part of the family…

I have to say, that I liked it how from a parental side, there was no preference. They respect Bex’s choice but that doesn’t mean that they also break all contact with Briony. Bex and Briony are both their daughters, and they love them both equally.

In this book, we see when in time of need, people are able to put their own feelings aside for the “greater good”. Because Bex knows that the only way to help her ‘stubborn’ mother, is contacting the person that hurt her the most…

Some may think about that feud, that Bex should just let it go, and as she has found her happily ever after anyway. But I could understand her pain, because she has lost the most important person of her life in the process, and how often do we hold onto old feelings, instead of addressing the issue and solve it?

Of course, the first encounter could not be a warm one between the sisters. Yet somehow I could read between the lines the longing for that bond Bex and Briony once used to have, from both sides. But pain and hurt (and even a grudge?) that have been festering for so many years, cannot just disappear overnight, can it?

I found this book one with several emotions and feelings. Because there is the long-lasting feud between Bex and Briony, but also the serious health issues of their mother, just like Briony finding herself and her voice again, and finding that special connection with someone.

Jo Bartlett wrote (as I expected) a wonderful, bittersweet story. How one person in the past can break bonds that were unbreakable before, and how that can change the course of several lives. But with the warm characters in this book, we see that when the need is high, personal feelings can (and must) be put aside. And how perhaps one terrible event in the present can be a way to restore something that seemed broken forever… Perhaps this book can even work inspirational for people in somehow the same situation that Bex and Briony find themselves, as proof that it is never too late for forgiveness and love…