I’m excited to welcome you today to my stop on the blog tour for heartwarming new novel Waiting for the Miracle by the always brilliant Anna McPartlin. Thank you to Tracy Fenton and Zaffre Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this beautiful and moving book.
About the book:
2010
Caroline has hit rock bottom. After years of trying, it’s clear she can’t have children, and the pain has driven her and her husband apart. She isn’t pregnant, her husband is gone,and her beloved dog is dead.
The other women at her infertility support group have their own problems, too. Natalie’s girlfriend is much less excited about having children than her. Janet’s husband might be having an affair. And then there’s Ronnie, intriguing, mysterious Ronnie, who won’t tell anyone her story.
1976
Catherine is sixteen and pregnant. Her boyfriend wants nothing to do with her, and her parents are ashamed. When she’s sent away to a convent for pregnant girls, she is desperate not to be separated from her child. But she knows she might risk losing the baby forever.
Anna McPartlin’s new novel is a powerful and emotional exploration of motherhood, filled with unique and unforgettable characters, as funny as it is moving, and as poignant as it is wise.
About the author:
Anna McPartlin is a novelist and scriptwriter from Dublin, who has written for TV serial dramas featured on BBC UK, RTE Ireland and A&E America. She has been writing adult fiction for over ten years, and also writes for children under the name Bannie McPartlin. She lives with her husband Donal and their four dogs.
To learn more about Waiting for the Miracle follow Anna on Twitter at: @annamcpartlin & Instagram: @mcpartlin.anna
My Review:
Oh how I love Anna McPartlin’s writing! Her characters fizz with larger than life personalities, feeling so real to me that I always feel bereft and reluctant to say goodbye as I turn the final page. Waiting for the Miracle was everything I wanted it to be and more! Filled to the brim with Anna’s trademark wit and Irish charm, it is both laugh out loud funny and heartwrenchingly moving, switching back and forth between Caroline and the other members of her infertility group in 2010 and Catherine’s story in 1976. Each timeline is rich with detail, dealing with love, loss, family heartache and motherhood in all its many guises.
It’s 1976 and Catherine is sixteen and pregnant. Sent away by her parents, she is desperate not to be parted from her baby. I was completely sucked in by Catherine’s story and wish I could say I was shocked by how she was treated, but sadly I wasn’t as everything that happened to her felt all too real. I wanted more than anything for things to work out for Catherine and her baby, but with the odds stacked against her I knew she had a long, hard road ahead of her. My heart ached for this young woman and the appalling things that happened to her, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away, desperate to find out how and where her story would end.
And then we have Caroline in 2010 who would like nothing more than to have a baby. After years of trying, the pain has driven her and her husband apart… and then her beloved dog died. Attending an infertility group, Caroline finds comfort in the stories of the other women who help her feel less alone. Each woman has a different story to share, all filled with heartache and longing, but with that wonderful undercurrent of humour running through them that this author does so extremely well. Before you know it these women feel so real to you that they begin to feel like old friends, making you laugh and cry along with them as they try to navigate their way through the often heartbreaking hand life has dealt them.
As always Anna McPartlin has written a warm, heartachingly moving story with characters who get under your skin, sweeping you along on a tidal wave of emotion as the tale moves towards a conclusion that will see the past and present collide. I loved every moment of this book and felt bereft as I turned the final page, not wanting to say goodbye to these characters who had come to mean so much.
Beautifully written, Waiting for the Miracle is full of the humour and Irish charm I have come to expect from Anna McPartlin and is a wonderful and heartwarming read that I would highly recommend.
Waiting for the Miracle by Anna McPartlin is available to purchase now.
Check out what these other brilliant bloggers have to say about this book:
Cal Turner Reviews 