To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Lucy Diamond grew up in Nottingham and went to university in Leeds where she studied English Literature. He is devastated by the loss of Leni but without this occurring I don’t think he would have undergone the transformative journey which I enjoyed following. The book centres around how each family member copes with grief after loosing Leni to a tragic accident.

Shortly after her 35th birthday, Lina is out riding at night when she's knocked off her bike and instantly killed by a passing car.Leni McKenzie's family - her divorced parents Belinda and Tony, both with new partners, her sister Alice and brother Will - are still reeling from her unexpected death, all turning to different ways of coping - or not coping. I think that grief is explored really well in this book, and through the different family members, we see how everyone deals with grief differently. I think because at this point things started to happen and the secrets and issues that each person had been hiding started to come to the fore. Set over the course of one life-changing year, The Best Days of Our Lives is a warm, big-hearted and poignant story, full of hope, heartache and love. This was a beautifully written book, giving an insight into the family’s grief and showing how far out the ripples of Leni’s death went.

Despite this, it is an uplifting read and there are many important life lessons to be learnt from it. Normally, I don’t overly connect with male characters but there was just something about him that made me very fond of him. A brief introduction has the reader meeting Leni as she is about to celebrate her 35th birthday with her family. Last few books by this author didn't gel with me so much, but "The Best Days of Our Lives" turned out to be a poignant yet funny, touching story about a family dealing with the worst - with grief.It’s grieving to the fullest, following all stages from denial to coming to terms to their new reality. While I did cry my eyes out reading this story, I would definitely describe The Best Days of Our Lives as a fun and happy book. But overall I feel it’s a story about hope and joy, about redemption and family, about second chances, and about how important your loved ones are to you.

I know of her and I’ve seen her books and often been interest in them, but for reasons unknown to me, I have never actually read one. Alice her sister discovers things that lead to more questions to be answered and life starts to get complicated. I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Quercus and I am leaving this review voluntarily.She does make a brief appearance at the beginning, when the story takes the reader back to her birthday party before the accident but after that she’s no longer with us, at least not in person. I loved the idea of sharing memories with Leni’s friends and family - and although raw at the beginning they became a real source of comfort. I’m afraid it didn’t grab me like her previous books and I found it difficult to get into, although it did improve towards the end. Seeing the McKenzies finding their way in this new reality, experiencing happiness again and creating ways to honor the Leni they loved and miss so much in their lives - I think I’m going to water my eyes all over again for each and every one of them. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

I appreciated the honesty throughout and although the characters are each fractured and torn apart by their loss they have to learn to come to terms with the fate that has befallen them.Alice, her sister is angry, she’s lost a friend, and more so they were at odds with each other in the run up to Leni’s death. Each dealt with the loss in a different way, but it was nice to see them leaning in each other and coming together, achieving something that Leni would have loved to have happened.