I’m thrilled to welcome you today to the last day of the blog tour for the beautiful and moving Nothing Else by Louise Beech. Thank you to Anne Cater and Orenda Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this outstanding book.
About the book:
The multiple bestselling and award-winning author returns with an exquisitely moving novel about surviving devastating trauma and the unbreakable bond between sisters; a story of courage and love, and the power of music to transcend – and change – everything.
Heather Harris is a piano teacher and professional musician, whose quiet life revolves around music, whose memories centre on a single song that haunts her. A song she longs to perform again. A song she wrote as a child, to drown out the violence in their home. A song she played with her little sister, Harriet.
But Harriet is gone … she disappeared when their parents died, and Heather never saw her again.
When Heather is offered an opportunity to play piano on a cruise ship, she leaps at the chance. She’ll read her recently released childhood care records by day – searching for clues to her sister’s disappearance – and play piano by night … coming to terms with the truth about a past she’s done everything to forget.
About the author:
Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. The follow-up, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both of her previous books Maria in the Moon and The Lion Tamer Who Lost were widely reviewed, critically acclaimed and number-one bestsellers on Kindle. The Lion Tamer Who Lost was shortlisted for the RNA Most Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019. Her 2019 novel Call Me Star Girl won Best magazine Book of the Year, and was followed by I Am Dust and then This Is How We Are Human. Nothing Else is her latest novel.
Louise lives with her husband on the outskirts of Hull. Follow her on Twitter @louisewriter
My Review:
You never know quite what you’re going to get when you read a book by Louise Beech as each one is so different, touching you in its own unique way and drawing you in until you’re living and breathing the story alongside characters who you very quickly come to care about. But at the same time, what you do know is that you’re always going to get a powerful, thought provoking story that will move you in ways you never thought possible. In Nothing Else, the author has hit it out of the ballpark once again, writing a melancholy, haunting tale that I know will stay with me for a long time to come.
Heather Harris is a piano teacher and professional musician, whose life revolves around teaching and playing music. But Heather is haunted by a song she wrote as a child, a song she and her little sister, Harriet, played together to help drown out the violence they were confronted with in their home. She longs to perform the song with her sister once again, but Harriet has gone, disappearing after their parents died to never be heard from again.
Troubled by the memories that haunt her, Heather has struggled to find her place in the world. So when, at the age of 47, she is offered the opportunity of a lifetime, to play piano on board a cruise ship, she jumps at the chance. Taking her newly released childhood care records with her, Heather plans to read them by day and play piano by night. But as she searches the records for clues to her sister’s disappearance, she is confronted by memories of the past that threaten to overwhelm her. Now she must come to terms with the truth of a past she has spent her whole life trying to forget…
Nothing Else is the beautifully written, moving and haunting tale of two sisters torn apart by circumstances beyond their control. A dual timeline story, we learn more of Heather and Harriet’s childhood and the events that led to them being separated. The love and protectiveness they feel towards each other is palpable and my heart breaks for them as the horrifying truth slowly begins to be revealed. But, as with all books by this author, there are also moments that make your heart sing, taking that feeling of devastation and replacing it with the feeling that maybe, just maybe, there is a glimmer of hope shining on the horizon…
Nothing Else is a stunning novel that swept me away on a tsunami of emotion. Louise Beech’s writing is beautifully descriptive, with a heartachingly moving musical theme running through it that took my breath away. I can’t even begin to find the words to do this beautiful book justice, other than to say that I absolutely adored it! Louise Beech somehow always gets deep into the heart of the human spirit, exposing layer upon layer of those things that make up the essence of who we are. She is an author who obviously feels deeply about her fellow humans and shows great empathy for the characters she creates, so therefore we, as readers, feel every emotion right alongside her.
Moving, powerful and hauntingly beautiful, Nothing Else is a story of love, loss, heartbreak, longing and steadfast familial bonds that I would highly recommend.
Nothing Else by Louise Beech is available to purchase now:
Thank you as always to Orenda Books for continuing to give me the opportunity to read such meaningful and thought provoking books..
Check out what these other lovely bloggers have to say about this book:
Cal Turner Reviews 
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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