Predictable in places, but not really in a bad way, this is a very sweet meditation on life, love and the power of stories.

I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to explain to you how this heart-wrenching story is also uplifting and inspiring! I’m sure if you’ve already read it you will understand what I mean. If you haven’t read it yet, then you really should. It is so beautifully written.
I LOVED Keith Stuart’s A Boy Made of Blocks, which I read and reviewed in October 2016, so I was very much looking forward to reading Days of Wonder. Keith Stuart is an amazing writer and I know I could buy one his books, without even reading the blurb, and be confident that I will thoroughly enjoy whatever story he is telling.
Days of Wonder introduces us to Hannah and Tom. Hannah is Tom’s teenage daughter. He has brought her up singlehandedly since her mother left them a decade previously to pursue her career. I absolutely adored Hannah and Tom. Their relationship is just so lovely. A very realistic father/daughter relationship which isn’t without it’s ups and downs. Not least as Hannah has a serious heart condition which they both struggle to deal with at times, understandably. Hannah has her moments, but generally prefers for life to carry on as normal as possible. She does, however, try not to focus too far into the future. She lives for now, which we all should really. None of us knows how long we will have on this earth, but to be faced with your own mortality so starkly must be so scary. I admired her bravery and strength. Tom obviously can’t help but feel extra protective of her and quite terrified a lot of the time. I can’t even begin to imagine! He always treats Hannah with the respect she deserves though which I found totally endearing.
There is so much I loved about this story. I loved the fascinating array of characters, all of whom add depth to the story. I loved Hannah’s friendship with Margaret. I loved how she so desperately wants her Dad to find new love and happiness. I love how Tom and their theatre group put on a show for every one of Hannah’s Birthday’s as she grows up. I love that none of them are prepared to give up on their beloved theatre. I loved Hannah’s relationship with Callum. I loved her letters to Willow……. I loved it all! It made me cry so many tears, but it also made me smile equally as often.
The epilogue just broke my heart but made me love Tom even more.
A highly emotional, thought-provoking, stunningly beautiful story. One I am sure will stay with me for a long time to come.
My favourite line (which had tears streaming down my face) –
(Hannah) ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘There was always magic and wonder in my life.’

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Hannah is a teenage girl who has lived with a serious heart condition nearly all of her life. Her mother left her and her father when Hannah was five years old and has never returned. Tom is Hannah's father who manages a small local theater and with the support and assistance of his co-workers, has been able to take the very best of care of Hannah and be successful at his work. Every year on Hannah's birthday the group performs a play especially for Hannah and it is always a masterpiece. This year, Hannah begins to break away from her father and finds a boyfriend, Callum, and also learns that her heart is beginning to fail. Both Tom and Hannah go through the inevitable growing pains all parents and their children go through and this wonderfully written and fabulously engaging book describes their lives in such a way that I simply could not tear myself away from it. Very strongly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author Keith Stuart and the publisher Little, Brown Book Group UK for allowing me to experience this lovely story in an ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

Where A Boy Made of Blocks dealt with a father-son relationship, and their learning to communicate through Minecraft, this deals with a father and daughter and their life revolving around the local theatre. They are treated a little more kindly and come across as more likeable characters. A gentle, feel good novel.

A wonderful strong novel about Tom, a single parent and Hannah his daughter who is suffering from a potential life-limiting heart disease. He manages a local theatre, and Tom puts on plays for Hannah's birthdays, based on fairy tales that she loves.
A life-affirming plot, with easily recognizable characters, and a satisying ending.

This has absolutely been the best book I have read this year. Oh Hannah!! I cried so much. Beautifully written with a heartbreaking but perfect ending.

Loved a boy made from blocks and so couldn’t wait to get my paws on this one!!!

Loved this one too, a sad bit also uplifting story of a dad who will do anything for his fatally sick daughter and the relationship they have, as well as her own take on life. Makes you truly grateful for all you have in life, it’s touching and heartbreaking and uplifting and just all so many wonderful things in one!

Get the book it’s a must read for everyone

I am not so enthusiastic as everyone else.I found the book quite long and a bit predictable.
Never the less it was a nice story and I am glad I have read it.
The story of a father who is trying to save the theatre he works at from closure and at the same time deal with his daughter who has a heart condition.

It does make you think about living life to the full and I like the fact the end gave you an update on how Hannah was.

Oh Wow. Here is a list of words to describe this story… Beautiful. Powerful. Emotional. Heart-warming. Bold. Touching. Heart-breaking. Wonderful. Outstanding. Brave.

This story had me feeling a whole range of emotions from happy to sad. I actually cried towards the end and not many books make me cry… However, A Boy Made of Blocks made me cry too. This is such a beautiful story filled with love, hope, family and friends. Also a great community coming together.

I absolutely loved every single character in this book. Days of Wonder is told through father (Tom) and daughter (Hannah). Hannah is one brave, determined and lovely girl. A character that makes you feel proud. A girl her age shouldn’t have to face what she has had to cope with. Tom is one devoted father wanting the best for his daughter no matter what.

This story contains a powerful message that life has to go on… Life is what YOU make it and it’s good to lose yourself into books, theatre, art, music or whatever your form of escape is. Keith sure knows how to write beautiful, tear jerking stories that are real page turners. I absolutely fell in love with this book. It will stay close to my heart!

Days of Wonder has earned a well deserved place in my top 20 books of 2018! A well deserved five stars. Highly recommend. A must buy. A must read… But you may want some tissues.

After enjoying ‘A Boy Made of Blocks,’ I was keen to read Keith’s Stewart’s second novel. Whilst it isn’t as instant a hit as his first book, I found it worth persevering with as the relationship between Tom and his teenage daughter Hannah was explored amongst the backdrop of fairytales and the theatre. Although overly long and drawn out, it is still a well written heartwarming and emotional story.

This story follows a father and daughter duo as they deal with life changing events through their love of art. Hannah is a teenage girl afflicted by a heart problem, which is an imminent risk to her life. Her father Tom, tries to put on whimsical stories and plays for her to help distract her and make her feel better. When the council threatens the closure of the theatre that Tom runs, it's Hannah that does everything she can to help her father.

The way the beginning of the story is written felt a bit immature and unimportant, but I persevered and was rewarded. Halfway through the novel all the different plotlines and ideas had joined to create an engaging story about life, loss, death and theatre.

The magical title and gorgeous cover held out the promise of recapturing some of the wonder I felt while reading Pamela Brown’s Swish of the Curtain theatre stories in my teens. And, while a young girl with a terminal heart condition might not sound like the basis for an uplifting story, I knew that Keith Stuart could conjure one up having read his debut novel A Boy Made of Blocks.

Tom is doing his best to navigate his daughter’s teenage years of exams and relationships and a growing need for privacy and independence with the competing demands of managing his daughter’s condition which requires constant vigilance and keeping the struggling local theatre open. Hannah wants to be as normal a teenager as possible while health setbacks remind her she isn’t and that her future is uncertain and limited. They’re characters I came to know well and really felt for, as the story progressed. The heart of the book is the tender father-daughter relationship and it feels true here; there is humour and affection alongside the secrets they keep and disagreements they have. I enjoyed the dynamic between these two.

Days of Wonder may well be a moving father-daughter story but there is an entire cast of characters with layers of relationships, all of which lift the novel, making it into something truly special. There are friends and family (more theatrical than biological) and then the wider community within which the theatre operates. Of these, I most enjoyed the intergenerational friendship between Hannah and Margaret, and was positively willing Margaret’s outrageous stories to be true.

I cried when I wasn’t expecting to, and loved how this wasn’t a sappy story about a delicate helpless princess-type but instead of which a modern-day teenage girl facing an extraordinary contemporary curse with attitude and spirit, the loving care of her Dad and her motley theatre family and friends. Days of Wonder isn’t a fairytale story of how one girl is saved (even if there are fairies within its pages).

It’s the story of that more everyday magic when people are there for each other, sharing the wonder and joy, no matter what life’s throwing at them. Days of Wonder is a story with a great deal of heart, and I loved it for that. I’d give it to everyone I know, if I could.

Such a lovely book - original and moving. We were delighted to feature it in Gransnet's best summer reads

This was a lovely book. It was very enjoyable to read. I also liked this authors first book and this one didn’t disappoint

Hannah and her father Tom have been a team ever since Hannah's mother walked out on them when she was 3. Tom runs the willow theatre which is a part of the local community and ever since Hannah was diagnosed with severe cardiomyopathy at the age of 4 the actors and crew have been her best friends and family. So when Hannah's health starts to deteriorate and the theatre comes under threat of closure it really is all hands on deck to fight it!

An absolutely lovely book very emotional and heartfelt, the players really are a family and Hannah probably had the best life and family she could under the circumstances..... highly recommended!

I was looking forward to reading this as I enjoyed his last book do much. An enjoyable enough read, but I found it a bit long and not entirely believable.

A word of warning to start this review; unless you are very hard-hearted please don't read this in public! I started but had to admit defeat and retreat into my insular little bubble to complete the read.

Told via the dual narratives of Tom and Hannah, Days of Wonder is Keith Stuart's second novel, following the amazing debut A Boy Made of Blocks, and tells the story of a girl living with a serious heart condition. Not just the girl, Hannah, however, but her father Tom and her extended makeshift family of the people involved in the theatre Tom manages and in which Hannah has grown up. Despite my initial warning, it is by no means a depressing tale, rather one which takes you on that rollercoaster of emotions - touching, funny, sad and uplifting.

A Boy Made of Blocks was exquisite because of the characters it contained, and once again it is the characters that shine within Days of Wonder. Hannah manages to be an ordinary teenager with the most extraordinary way of dealing with her condition. That sounds so patronising and I really don't mean it to be; of course she deals with it, there isn't much of an alternative, but as anyone who has knowledge and experience of a child facing challenges, the way they cope can sometimes put adults to shame - that is perhaps a more explanatory (if not eloquent) way of putting it. Anyway (she says digging herself out of the hole she's put herself firmly in) Keith portrays this far better than I'm explaining it!

The relationship that Hannah has with her dad manages to run between those lines of her being a respectful and obedient daughter but one who is also trying to claw a way through to independence, and it portrays this quite realistically I felt. Though my own reference is so far with my son, I see the similarities. My son is one of these amazing children I speak of, and though his challenges aren't as life-threatening as Hannah's, they nonetheless help shape his sense of being. And he shares Hannah's determination to be 'normal' and to not be defined by the disability, but at the same time not being able to escape it. So therefore, I also identified with the feelings that Tom has of wanting to wrap Hannah up in a bubble, but knowing that ultimately some things are just out of our hands. Though of course, these are emotions parents all over the world feel, regardless of whether their child has a disability or not.

Anyway, sorry, digressing again - the characters; all of them are special and are the very solid foundation upon which Days of Wonder is built. I loved it, I did get the echoes of the feelings that I experience whilst reading the books by Jodi Picoult for some reason, I don't know why, but I just thought I'd throw that observation into the mix! The story itself is as magical as I hoped it would be, and it certainly kept me turning those pages well into the night. This is another rather special book from Keith Stuart, I hope it's a huge success.

Days of Wonder is a special sort of a book which makes you think about what is important. It looks at family life and the effect of living with life limiting illness and does so in an inspiring and uplifting way. I loved the eclectic range of characters who are all there in Hannah and her father's life, brought together through the theatre and forming an extended family around them. There is plenty of humour in the story despite Hannah's grim prognosis and especially in Hannah's case, it adds vitality to her character. She is a great creation- so feisty and at the same time so vulnerable.

Keith Stuart has done a marvellous job of capturing the spirit of a young adolescent, in Hannah. She veers between childhood and young adulthood, at times showing insight beyond her years. In being given two points of view- Hannah and her father, Tom, you really feel that you are looking in on their lives. Theatre and escaping into a performance is a huge part of the story and there is a magical feel about it at times. Captivating, emotional, poignant are all words you want to use to describe this book.

In short: A deeply affecting but understated story which gets to the heart of what it is to be alive.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the book.

I read Keith Stuart’s debut novel A Boy Made of Blocks last year (I talk about it here) and I absolutely loved it, so when Sphere got in touch earlier this year and tempted me with a copy of his new book, Days of Wonder, I pretty much bit their hand off. This has been one of my most anticipated books of the year and you cannot imagine how happy I am to sit here and say it does not disappoint.

I loved it.

I loved it as much as I loved A Boy Made of Blocks.

I may have loved it more. I already want to read it again.

I’m going to tell you why.


It’s about this guy called Tom, who is the manager of a small local theatre (hello my theatre loving heart. Also my bestie is on the committee of our local theatre so you know, relatability) and a single father to Hannah who was diagnosed aged 5 with a heart condition that threatens to kill her. Hannah’s almost 16 now and she’s this gorgeous gorgeous creature who refuses to let a life-limiting condition limit her life. You’ll fall in love with Hannah, I promise, she’s delicious.

So we have Tom who is trying to be all things to all people but honestly – he’s struggling: Hannah is sick and the theatre is under threat of closure and he’s carrying all this weight on his shoulders and he’s on his own and trying to put a brave face on it and we have Hannah, who is so aware of her own mortality, more than any of us should be at 15, and who’s major worry is that her Dad will be alone when she’s gone and wow but doesn’t that break your heart? Well yes, actually, it absolutely does, but then it also mends it – the bond between Hannah and Tom even when she is so sick of him is a pleasure to behold and her attempts at matchmaking are the best. As is watching her navigate the waters of first love for herself. Oh, and don’t get me started on Hannah’s best friend because my heart cannot take it – I’m telling you nothing about her; you can go and meet her yourself. It’s an emotional rollercoaster this book and I LOVE it. I love Tom and Hannah and every single member of the supporting cast; I loved the way it was written with the flashbacks and the fairy stories and the comics and all of it, I didn’t even care about how it made me want to cry because on the next page it made me laugh and the whole way through I just felt….warm. You expect it to be sad but in actuality it’s the opposite. It’s just so….so…uplifting. I felt better for reading it.

This is a story of love and loss and laughter, of learning to make the most of what you have and how family isn’t always blood, it’s about Dads and daughters and the wonder of imagination and fairy tales.

It’s a beautifully written, sensitive book and I didn’t want it to end. You know when you want to climb inside the pages and just live in a book? This was that for me. It’s the book, actually, that book hangovers are made of. I finished this and I couldn’t let go. I WAS JUST SO IMMERSED. I finished it a while ago and I still miss these characters.

It’s one of my reads of the year for sure and if you’re going on holiday this summer and need a book to lose yourself in then this should be it. I know I’ll be shoving it under the nose of everybody I know anyhow.