Another wonderful reliable story from Amanda. Wonderful story that's really well written and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to read this. Thank you for the chance and sorry my review is late.

With this being only a sample all I can say is that it sounds brilliant and I can’t wait to read the full book

A nice idea. Haven’t seen many of these before. An adequate amount of the story to get a flavour of what the novel will be like and whether it could be something that would interest you.

I love Amanda Prowse’s writing and characters, and Theo is no let down! Anna was a great read so I was really looking forward to getting back into their world, and seeing their relationship from another perspective. This novel filled in the (important) gaps in a satisfying way... but left me still wanting more.

As with Anna, the characters are great, but I felt I actually connected more with Theo than Anna, once I read both their stories. Not because of a similarity in background with Theo - I really don’t have much in common with either character, I’m very lucky to say. More because I prefer Theo as a character - though Anna was truly sweet and lovely, she sometimes felt a little too naive and I didn’t feel as much of a connection. In Anna I didn’t feel like we got to know much about Theo, so this novel corrects that and I’m so glad - Theo is a great, but suitably layered and interesting, character.

There are parts of this story which are upsetting and shocking, just as in Anna’s story, and even having finished them both I’d happily read more about either character.

This is an easy, enjoyable read which isn’t all light and fluffy - there are certainly darker parts - but which left me feeling satisfied. I can always rely on Amanda Prowse’s novels for fantastic characters and genuinely interesting storylines, and both Theo and Anna are no different. Definitely recommended.

Another amazing story by the talented Amanda Prowse after reading the book from Anna's perspective this sampler gives another take on what unfolded and how Theo and Anna both remember it happening.

Full review to come on The Glass House this coming month..

A fabulous book that really explores the 'two sides of every coin' argument for novel writing. A beautiful and heartbreaking book that stays with you LONG after you turn the last page.

*Book provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

Two sides to every story…

We finally get to read from Theo Montgomery’s perspective, yay! I loved Anna’s way of the story and was very curious about his side to it.

We follow Theo Montgomery, learn about his past and get to know his personality. He then meets Anna. They come from two different worlds and both have to learn to let go of their past.

Theo had a childhood without love and care. His parents send him to boarding school and don’t even seem to be interested in him at all. He befriends groundsman Mr Porter, I it’s save to say that Cyrus Porter was my fave character in this story.
Theo also has a secret, concerning his past as well as his future.

The idea of telling a story from both sides in two different books is brilliant, it really makes you understand both characters.
The story is beautifully written, it’s heart-breaking and very touching. Amanda Prowse’s style is unique and absorbing.

I absolutely loved this book!

5* review for the Theo sampler I was sent via Netgalley on kindle. It was lovely and heartwarming to get to know Theo and how his childhood shaped him into the man he became, having finished and loved Amanda Prowse's first half of the story where we meet Anna and understand what made her the woman she became.

I am so looking forward to reading the whole book, but I could not wait to let everyone know how fantastic the book is no doubt going to be, if the Sample is anything to judge by. Another wonderful story for the heart and from the heart Amanda xxx

My 5* review for Theo, the second part of this amazing complicated love story by Amanda Prowse.

There are two sides to every love story...Anna Cole grew up in care, and wants to start a family of her own. Theodore Montgomery had a loveless childhood, and wants to find his soulmate. Then, one day, Theo meets Anna, as each shows the other how to love, each also shows the other what heartbreak feels like...

This is Theo's story.

I love the saying "No matter how flat a pancake it always has two sides" and this is true with any love story, and what a wonderful idea of Amanda's to put the two sides of the same story in different books told by Anna and then Theo to let us see this amazing heartbreaking love story through their own eyes. We are able to see how they became the people they did, starting with their troubled childhoods and taking us right through their relationship to the end.

The first pull of the book for me was the fact that age only 7 Theo was sent off to a private boarding school that generations of Montgomery boys had attended for his own good, to make a man of him, and also as it becomes clear later on, to literally get him off his parents' hands! However, he is a lonely child who gets bullied and had a horrendous time there. This resonated with me because my ex-husband also attended a boarding school in Bath in the 1970's and hated every minute of it, resented his parents for sending him there (and even years later he was affected by the experience). It is so sad that parents feel education is more important than a loving home and can contemplate sending such a young child off to boarding school is completely foreign to me, and made my husband determined NEVER to do so to our children, and yet I know it happens still.

I cannot believe that parents can be so casual, so careless with their children and so determined to enjoy their childfree lives as Theo's were, and in fact completely forgot when he was due to phone, when he was due home for the weekend and, in fact, went on holiday to France and forgot he was due home for the summer break!

I was so pleased when Theo eventually meets and befriends the groundsman, Mr Porter, who takes him under his wing and treats him with the respect he deserves, and makes him feel not so alone in the world. I love Cyrus Porter, and in fact he reminded me of Hagrid in the Harry Potter books (sorry Amanda if that is offensive?!) but I pictured the same warmth and caring compassion that he obviously showed to countless boys over the years at the boarding school.

Theo's parents were not very nice people, his Father was obnoxious and his Mother heartless, and were so well written and realistic that I actually got cross with them, swore at them in places, and really felt their indifference to Theo and hated the emotional damage they were inflicting on this sensitive child. I wanted so many times to give Theo a hug, invite him for tea and cake and just reassure him that he was not a loner, a loser, unworthy of love or a weirdo as he believed.

When Theo meets Anna by chance, there is an opportunity for him to feel loved and be enough for once. However, can their troubled childhoods affect the future of this perfect match and if so, will it draw them together or force them apart forever? Is there a way that they can both be parents, without turning out like their own parents, and can Theo ever believe he would make a fine Father? When Theo meets his old flame Kitty years later and realises he misunderstood her decision, it really upset me to think of all the hurt he had inflicted on himself because of her careless comment about him.

I liked his University mate Spud and I will quote one of my favourite lines of his to Theo who is complaining that he is sick and weary of being so sad and unhappy all the time and feeling he will never be happy and content with his life. "Sometimes I think you're looking for perfect where perfect doesn't exist. It's important to look at what you've got and not at what you haven't". This is a great piece of advice.

I have always loved how Amanda writes her female characters, taking strong women like Anna and putting them in real life situations with dramas, conflicts and disappointments we all face, but triumphing in the end. However, I think this is the first time she has written a male character so beautifully that I was rooting for him all the way through and went through every single emotion he did and was a soggy emotional wreck by the end of it. All I really wanted was a happy ending for Theo and Anna after all they had been through, whether that be together or apart, but the reader is left right until the end to find out the end to their story. The final sob goes to Theodore Montgomery for his homework assignment poem The World Through The Eyes Of A Blackbird which he received back from Mr Porter at the end of the book.

I am not sure if you need to read the books in the order that Amanda wrote them, because now that I have finished Theo I am intending to read Anna again to see if her side of the story affects me differently now that I know why Theo was behaving the way he was? Either way, these books are keepers for my shelf that will be read again and again in the future.

P.S. Thanks Amanda for basing Theo's project in Bristol and allowing me to relive memories of my youth from nights on the clubbing boat the Thekla in the 1980's.

This sampler was a great introduction to the second book in this series, I can't wait to read more of Theo's story.

I read a free sampler of this so I cannot speak for the whole book but it seems to be up to Amanda Prowse’s normally high standard. This is a companion work to her novel ‘Anna’ which I loved and tells the story of their relationship from Theo’s childhood onwards. The scenes set in his School and the relationship between Theo and his parents are bleak but Theo’s personality that we saw in ‘Anna’ shines through. I look forward to reading the whole book in the future.

This is a brilliant introduction to what looks like another amazing book by Amanda. Can't wait to read the full book

Sampler so good I was lucky enough to request & receive a PDF copy, however too annoying to read on kindle so just went and bought the book. Full review to follow

The author has a skill with packing an emotional punch. I read this story with my arms open wanting to give Theo a hug, wanting him to be okay. Money means nothing when you are starved of love and Theo is an example of that.
A moving read from a brilliant author I will read over and over again.

So pleased to have finally read "Theo" after reading "Anna" a few months ago. Amanda Prowse is so gifted at story telling and my only complaint is that I didn't want it to end as wanted to know more of their story! Loved it and had me gripped from the start

Having read Anna I couldn’t wait for Leo. I love Amanda’s books and didn’t think I could fall in love for her characters more than Poppy Day but oh yes I did. This book needs to be read after Anna but really is a like putting on the opposite glove that fits so well. The book goes from childhood to adulthood for Leo making us realise why he acted as he did in Anna. The sampler teaser just sets your lips ready for the main event. An interesting look into English boarding school and growing up in certain ways. Now I can’t wait for Kitty.

Another brilliant book by Amanda Prowe. I loved Anna and cannot wait to read the full version of Theo.
I immediately had empathy for Theo and it is the brilliance of the writing that makes the characters so real. I couldn't put this down and read it in one go.

truly stunning, i couldn't put it down. I can't wait to read the full version and looking forward to learning more about Theo and Anna and Kitty. I love the complexity of the relationships and the depth of characters. Another truly brilliant book full of humour and emotion.

I loved Anna and couldn't wait to get my hands on this. Have gone straight to Amazon and ordered it!

Loved Anna and couldn’t wait to read Theo’s story. Loved it and need to read the whole story now :)

Straight away I drawn in by the story of Theo, having read the previous book I was so excited to read to read the next book and just has I was really getting into it, it sadly ended, brilliant story and look forward to the publication of this book.