This book is a really special book.. I think it is the sort of book that will mean so many different things to so many different people for so many different reasons. It reads like a light easy to read book but that would be to underestimate its underlying message. It touches on grief, relationships, family, and love in a really unique and beautiful way but manages to do it without being overly sentimental or with any pity.

This book follows the journey of Emily across Europe as she follows the clues left in her Grandmother’s books and letters following her death hoping to lead her to a lost, unpublished manuscript, but with all great journeys Emily finds so much more than she was looking for.

Katherine Slee how is this your first book? This story her debut novel was so emotionally charged I felt myself holding my breath in places and marvelling at the words literally bouncing off the pages.
I loved this gentle paced melancholy story about Emily and her beloved Grandma who had recently passed away.
Her Grandmother who was famous over the years creating a series of adventures about a girl called Ophelia and her magical atlas, an atlas that takes children and the readers on adventures around the world learning as they go. Imagination soaring I was taken on a journey of past and present and learned the sad history of Emily - how her parents died in a tragic car accident and how she had been cared for and guided by her Grandmother who had secrets from her own past locked away.
A series of clues left by her Catriona Robinson the country's famous author encourages Emily to leave her country life and travel to Paris, Rome and St Tropez. She unfolds some of the secrets of Catriona's past and learns for herself to try new things. This is quite a challenge for the young girl who is not used to venturing far from her cottage in Norfolk seeking solace in her illustrations.
Perfectly put together the plot progressed and the characters entwined in Emily's life perfectly.
It made me think about my own family and somehow with life challenges we sometimes take each other for granted.
Katherine Slee you created a joyful book, thought provoking and extremely enjoyable considering the heartbreak Emily encounters. I loved the addition of the bird stories - at various times the birds that Emily illustrated become part of the story. This book paints pictures galore in your mind as you go along and embrace the story with different animals taking part.
Book lovers I say read this when you want to marvel in diaries recorded from past loves and lives and get lost in different descriptions allowing you to fill in gaps for yourself.
I would love to see a sequel - what would Emily do next with her new found bravery? I could also see this being a movie but not sure it would translate across and maybe lose something?
You've got a lot to do in your second novel Katherine - I'll be looking out for you.
THANK YOU

For Emily-Katherine Slee

I found this to be an emotional roller coaster of a book for me. Although I found I couldn’t truly connect with the characters which I found made it a little hard going. Not sure if it was me though or how the book was written.
Many thanks to net galley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.

What an emotional rollercoaster of a book. So sad, but heart warming all at the same time. Beautifully written. Totally recommend.

Emily’s grandmother has left her a quest, on which she learns about herself, grief and her family. A charming little story exploring hope and the connections we build in our lives.

Emily has been left a quest by her late grandmother, an inspiring children's author (who I couldn't help imagining as looking just like Cressida Cowell)! A sweet and fantastical book with a recognisable quest structure. Thank you to Netgalley for the review copy.

Thanks for the advanced copy Netgalley.

This is not my usual sort of read to be honest but I was excited to read one from a new author. Little hard going at first but got going with it. Light in places and fairly heavy/repetitive in the middle. Moral undertone to the story which I liked.

Emily is a young woman who has suffered significant trauma and disappeared into herself and an imaginary world shared with her grandmother in order to avoid her grief.

But when her grandmother, a world famous author, dies she sends Emily on a final quest to rediscover herself and try and find a way to begin healing.

This is a melancholy yet optimistic tale about discovering what matters in life and following your own path. Emily's journey is swirled with flights of fancy and hopeful symbolism giving a dreamlike quality to the story thag mirrors Emily trying to find her way through the fog of grief and PTSD.

The self discovery musings feel a little repetitive towards the end, but the characters are likeable and the story engaging.

This book focusses on Emily, the grand-daughter and only surviving relative of legendary children’s author Catriona. Following Catriona’s death (not remotely unexpected as the blurb initially suggests) Emily is struggling with her grief, when suddenly she is spurred in to reluctant action by a visit from a stranger with a message from her Grandmother.

What follows is a trip around Europe (taking in London, Paris, St Tropez, Rome, Verona etc) and a potted history of her Grandmother’s life, as seen through diary entries and the friend’s Catriona has left behind.

Really this has the promise of a wonderfully moving tale about grief, and how we learn to live with the loss of our loved ones. However, for me, it feel entirely too short in what it set out to achieve. I struggled to feel any connection with Emily, and actually found her to be annoying. It was impossible to sympathise with her situation, or even really understand the quest she’d been sent on. The whole time I was reading it I felt there had to be more, that I was missing something, but I wasn’t. It almost felt as though it was trying to be cleverer than it actually was, which just made it seem pretentious.
It clearly just wasn’t for me.

Thank you for the opportunity to read For Emily, unfortunately it just wants for me - I didn't connect with the early part of the story and consequently things felt a little slow moving.

This is a sweet book, but it fell a little short for me.

Emily is grieving the death of her Grandmother, a renowned children’s author. She is also still grieving for her parents, something we can see clearly even though she can’t! The story takes us on a treasure hunt designed to help Emily learn more about her Grandmother.

The characters were all rather weak and waffly and I felt the writing could have been tighter- there seemed a lot of unnecessary prose. I did enjoy learning about the birds though!

It’s a nice enough tale, but it never really got going and I finished it more out of a sense of duty than because I was desperate to solve the mystery. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

I appreciate being given a copy via Netgalley but I hate to say this book wasn't for me. I didn't care much for the characters or for the plot points. It just didn't grab me and I ended up feeling like it was along hard slog to get to the end.

Glorious!
Gone straight to the top of my best reads for 2020 .

A quest, through the picturesque and the painful, so beautifully depicted and all the while I wished I knew a little duck to take me on adventures and a man like Tyler to come home to and tell about them.

A quite delightful enchanting tale with a touch of childlike magic. Interesting tale and keeps the reader's attention, although a little slow to start, and was slightly lengthy in places when the main character, Emily, seems too introspective. A little like Roald Dahl crossed with Masquerade from the aspect of a treasure hunt. The writing seems to flow along nicely which made it a quick light read set against some lovely backdrops. Interesting first novel.

Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced reader's copy in return for my honest review. Overall I found the book a bit meh. Hard going, didn't really care about any of the characters.

The love of family members shines through this book- such a beautiful story. I love how special Emma must feel, the love she’s shown.

This is a gem of a book. Emily discovers a lot about about her grandmother and herself in this story. It is beautifully written and a pleasure to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this book.

I enjoyed it, once I'd just accepted that this was the kind of plot you shouldn't question, or it would all fall apart a little bit. There were a few verbal tics that irritated me - everything "was stood" or "was sat" - when things could perfectly well have just "stood" or "sat" - and the word "slithers" was used instead of "slivers" twice. I know that sounds picky, but it spoilt the flow for me.

I love reading new authors and I enjoyed this book and found easy to pick up and keep reading.

Emily's grandmother who she is very fond of passes away but not before leaving her clues with friends for a journey that she wants Emily must take which leads to her travelling across Europe.

A lovely read where you can feel the love she had for her grandmother and how important this journey is for both of them even when she is no longer able to see Emily make the journey.

This is a rather unusual book. No need to repeat all the other reviews who have described the premise. Overall I enjoyed the read although got rather bogged down in the middle with the repetitive nature of the 'treasure hunt'. Like many other books, I have to really like (or hate) the characters to engage and I could never really warm to Emily so in the end I wanted to finish the read and move on. The idea is great but the execution a little laboured in my opinion. It deserves 3.5 stars in my opinion.