Layla's friend Danni died and now she's in deep with Danni's parents. She knows a secret, though, and in order to move on with her life, she must tell them. This is a well done novel with sympathetic characters. A good read.

This book was ok to me, it just seemed like it was so much going on. It deals with loss, grief, guilt and secrets. Danni, the daughter of Melody and Reece dies during a student party. Layla, Danni’s best friend, carries the guilt of her death because she wasn’t there for her. The parents, especially Melody, latches on to Layla in an effort to fill Danni’s void. Morgan is also a character in this story who interacts with Layla, but she can’t get past her guilt to explore a relationship.

Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to have read this great book.  It is a book focussed on a family’s grief and how they deal with their daughter’s death.  It was beautifully written and recommended.

This story looks at the many ways grief, guilt and loss makes us react to it and how it touches upon all our relationships. Layla carries the heavy burden of feeling responsible for her best friend Danni's death.

Melody and Reece appear to have come to terms with their daughters death, but cling unnaturally to Layla, her best friend and daughter substitute.

Kate is a counsellor who appears outwardly to encourage Morgan, her boyfriend to fulfil his dreams and become a writer, but is emotionally pulling away from him.

Layla feels deeply guilty that if only she had been there with her friend rather than skipping off to be with her boyfriend, that her best friend wouldn't have died.

A fluke meeting between Layla and Morgan has the potential to be something wonderful if Layla can just get past her guilt.

This is primarily a book about finding forgiveness, what it takes to make a relationship work and when its time to let go of false ideas. Told in the current day with occasional flash backs to the night of Danni's death, this gentle book explores forgiveness in all its guises.

Easy to read, the twist will leave you heartbroken. The characters are well written and wonderfully human. It is a slow paced book that has romance and mystery in equal parts.

Beautiful.

This is a very hard review for me to write. I don't like giving negative reviews, so I will try to make it more of constructive criticism.
Although this book used a lot of british terms that I'd never heard before but I could still understand what the author was saying, luckily I've read a lot of historical romances and read books by English and Australian authors. So that being said it did not take away from the story. However, the story itself was okay but it really dragged. The author goes into great detail about things that don't actually give much to the story itself.
There are A LOT of characters and at times I became confused on who was who. For instance going into lengthy detail about one of the sisters and her life gave nothing to the story except word count. Although the story idea was very good and what the main character goes through on dealing with her own grief it seems sometimes she was over dramatising things.
When the hidden facts are revealed and the final love interests come together it was very quick and anti-climatic. If the author had maybe eliminated some of the drowning commentary I think he book would have moved a little smoother because like I've stated the story idea was good.
I wont leave this review elsewhere because I dont like leaving reviews that are negative.

This is a very emotional story that centers around the character of Layla. Layla is struggling with the death of her best friend and the guilt she has over her loss. She is also struggling with how dependent her best friends mom has become since the death. This is a book about loss, love and finding yourself. I felt a lot of emotions while reading this book. The book started a little slow but it ended up being a really good read.

I enjoyed the novel. I love strong female characters who refuse to change their life goals for a man. Terrific read.