Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

How to Belong by Sarah Franklin is an inspirational and heartbreaking read that reminds us of the importance of community, family and understanding the value of our own story.

The book's vivid prose is reminiscent of a poem, as Franklin delves into the lives of Jo and Tessa, two vastly different women from the same Forest of Dean. With no hint of romanticism, Franklin conveys the hardships of rural life in an ever-changing world. As Jo and Tessa journey through loss, family ties and personal redemption, the characters slowly draw together the scattered fragments of their respective lives, weaving together the warmth and hope that belongs only to belonging.

How to Belong will surely captivate readers from all walks of life. It is an unassuming tale that holds up a mirror to each of us, showing us the unique threads of community that define us and how they help us grow. Through this honest and tender narrative, Franklin shows us how it's possible to carry on with hope, and courage, when it comes to learning to belong.

A tale of friendship, choice and need to belong. The follow up to Shelter, the authors first novel.set in the Forest of Dean, I was drawn to the sense of place and well drawn characters.

I really enjoyed Shelter, so was looking forward to this sequel, which it isn't although it's set again in he Forest of Dean.

I was not disappointed, a beautifully written slow burner about friendship, love and place.

SPOILERS
I thought it was rather unlikely that the disease would have been undiagnosed for so long, and that Jo would come back to run the shop (and her parents would let her), but it was worth suspending disbelief for the rest of it.

My computer with ADE had water spilled on it AND I was unable to read this book as I had planned to before it expired in the laptop that was sent to be dried and "fixed". Sorry...do hope it does well. Was looking forward to reading it.

I thoroughly enjoyed 'Shelter' a few years back so was particularly excited to get to "How To Belong". Sarah Franklin has that ability to cast a character that's entirely credible. I was intrigued by Tessa and Jo, by the expectations they placed on themselves, by the way they believed they were perceived by others and by the way that impacted on how they lived their lives. It had a very different feel to Shelter - I wasn't expecting the modern setting, but it is an engrossing tale, well written.

How To Belong by Sarah Franklin is a beautifully written, gently paced story about friendship, identity and exactly what it means to truly belong. It’s the first book I’ve read by this author, but I really enjoyed her writing style and will definitely be reading more by her in the future.

Told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Jo and Tessa, the two female protagonists, I couldn’t help but fall in love with these characters from the outset. Both women have returned to the Forest of Dean after a period of time away. Jo has returned to try to save her families legacy after her parents retire, whilst Tessa is nursing a secret past filled with guilt and shame. Both women return home to find life in the community much different to how they remembered it, leaving them feeling lost and alone. So when circumstances bring the two women together, they must reevaluate everything they thought they knew, confront their identity and reconsider the meaning of home.

Although not a fast paced read by any means, How To Belong drew me in from the very first page, the story heartwarming and rather poignant at times as Jo and Tessa grow closer in their quest to find their place in the community. I thoroughly enjoyed this lovely story of family, friendship, identity and how Jo and Tessa finally come to find their place in the world where they truly belong.

A gentle read with a big heart, this is a book I would highly recommend.

A sense of belonging - that phrase means something different to each one of us. Belonging is the theme of Sarah Franklin's latest novel, set like her first in the Forest of Dean.

Now I'll be completely honest this book is not one that I would usually pick up but as I thoroughly enjoyed the author's debut novel Shelter and as I lived in the Forest from the age of nine until I left in my late teens, I couldn't resist to go 'home' once more.

Jo also chose to return to her childhood home with the aim of taking over the family's butcher shop, leaving behind her life as a lawyer in London and embracing her squeamishness of raw meat. Meanwhile Tess is battling some scary symptoms as she struggles to fit back into following her first serious relationship with a woman living in Bristol.

A thoughtful novel that bought a tear to my eye more than once and stirred up some forgotten memories of a place I knew long ago. The characters were lifelike and the problems universal which made for an authentic read and the book has left me feeling a wee bit sad to leave the cottage in the woods...

How to Belong is the second novel from Sarah Franklin about two very different women who are trying to find their place in their local rural community.

Jo grew up in the Forest of Dean. She has just returned home, having left her career as a lawyer in London, to run the family butcher shop. Tessa, a farrier, has recently returned from Bristol to her family cottage after a bad break up. Whilst both women are different, their individual circumstances bring them together and force them to face up to who they are and their lives as they know it. It took me a long time to connect with Jo and I am not sure I ever did with Tessa - I have a feeling that was me and current circumstances rather than Sarah Franklin's great story.

Through Jo and Tessa's different characters, Sarah Franklin explores what it means to belong, sense of identity, what home means, and the themes of gender - Jo is a butcher and Tessa a farrier, both working in what are seen as potentially male dominated worlds - and memory - by coming home, Jo is trying to get back to her past and Tessa is trying to forget hers.

I loved the strong sense of place that Sarah Franklin has created in How to Belong. It is set in and around the Forest of Dean and is evocative of rural communities. The butcher's shop in the town and the local community, where everyone knows each other and we probably recognise people in our own communities in these characters. The rural location not only acts as escapism for Jo and Tessa to walk away and make sense of their troubles whilst out in nature but it dictates the lives of the community.

In How to Belong, Sarah Franklin has created a well researched, written and plotted story with good characterisation that will make you ponder your own sense of belonging and the place you call home.

This is a contemporary fiction.

It focuses on two central characters, Jo and Tessa who are the unlikely duo who share their home together.

Jo has always helped her family at their butcher's shop when she was younger. When her parents retire and move closer to her brother's house. She decides to run the shop herself.

Tessa works as a farrier and lives in a cottage outside of the town, she suffers from health issues due to the loss of her little sister and departure of her mother. Reluctantly, she lets out her spare room and ends up sharing her home with Jo.

I like how the author took turns to focus on Jo and Tessa, so you get a better insight to the characters. I like how you as the reader find out about their secrets and hopes.

When I first read the title, saw the cover and read the synopsis, I thought I would like to read this book because it initially sounded like a book about finding your place on the world. Having read it, I wasn't disappointed. I like how the author developed the characters of Jo and Tessa.

I think I would have preferred reading a paperback as I didn't like the font.

Jo had thought that being a Barrister would mean she could make life-changing things happen for people she represented, but the cases she had been given to take on were petty and soul-destroying. When her father and mother decided to move nearer to her brother, she upped sticks and returned to the Forest of Dean, where she had been brought up, to take over the family butchers shop. The thing was Jo felt like she was walking back to the life and friends she had left behind years ago, but, everyone and grown up and moved on with their lives without her in them.


Tessa didn’t want to return to the past, it had been hard enough the first time around, she had faced prejudice and embarrassment over and over again. She wanted isolation. Circumstances were going to throw these two very different women together.


It isn’t an all-action read, it slowly unfolds but kept me wanting to know more about both of these women and the people that were important to them. Liam, the best friend of Jo from years before, is a cracking character that I liked. How they were all brought up has long-reaching effects of the people that they became as adults.


At first, I was intrigued about who these characters were and why they had come back to this place because the place was still the same, but the people weren’t. It makes you stop and think about what home means to everyone. Some had never really found it, just had a glance from outside looking in. I loved the characters the more I got to know them, a brilliant book that made me reflect on my home town and the past.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

Having loved Shelter I couldn't wait to read How to Belong. We are back in the Forest of Dean. Jo was brought up here and has returned, leaving her high flying career as a Barrister behind. She hoping to take over the family butchers shop as her parents are retiring. She thinks it'll be easy to slot back in to life in the village with her old friends doesn't she? Jo finds life back home is a lot different than coming back for visits. Her lifelong friend Liam is off with her and she's not sure why, her colleagues at the butcher's who worked for her folks are awkward, unhelpful and seem to want her to fail.

She decides to rent a room with Tessa, a loner who works as a farrier and has a cottage in the forest. It's a learning curve for both of them with Tessa being terrified that Jo will find out about her illness. Meanwhile, Jo's struggling with being back and finds her landlady a bit strange.

Tessa is hiding a lot of things, is abrasive and unfriendly at times. She's hurting from the recent and historical things which have happened to her as well not understanding why she feels unwell at times. I loved how Jo helps Tessa even after they have fallings out. I loved this story of belonging, friendship, starting over and finding a sense of self. It's one of my favourite reads this year.

"She's gradually learning to identify the shape and heft of other people's feelings, not just her own. The toil it always takes to be in the world, whoever you are."

How To Belong is a beautifully-written and absorbing story about our need to belong and finding a place to call home.

The story centres around Jo and Tessa, two very different women who end up living together when circumstances force Tessa to take in a lodger. Both are facing life-changing upheavals: Jo in her choice to leave her career as a barrister in London to return to her hometown of New Forest Dene, and Tessa as she tries to recover from a devastating break-up and attempts to grapple with the frightening symptoms afflicting her that seem to be worsening, leaving her unable to function at times. They are compelling characters and I enjoyed their awkward dynamic, finding it much more fun to read than if they'd been instant buddies.

While Jo is undeniably the warmer and more outgoing of the two, I found myself drawn towards Tessa and her mysterious story. While Jo is like an open book, Tessa is one you have to read in order to figure out; the pieces revealing themselves slowly until you can complete the picture. I also related to her fear about her deteriorating symptoms and being scared to have hope. This expertly written character found a place in my heart that I know will linger.

This was my first time reading anything by this author and it certainly won't be my last. Her engaging prose immersed me in the world she'd created and I quickly devoured this delightful novel. I would highly recommend this book and think it is one you can enjoy whatever genres you usually prefer to read.

This is a refreshing and original story about Jo, a barrister who is finding life unfulfilling so returns to her hometown, and Tessa, who struggles to fit in to her community in the Forest of Dean. They are quite different characters and this novel, with its gentle tone and beautiful descriptions, held my attention throughout as I waited to see whether they would become true friends. It’s a fascinating exploration of friendship, life decisions, making mistakes and what it means to be part of a community. I loved it!

‘How to Belong’ by Sarah Franklin considers what it is to belong – in a place, and within a family – and how not belonging affects one’s wellbeing. Like Franklin’s successful debut novel ‘Shelter’, ‘How to Belong’ is set in the Forest of Dean, an at times stifling woodland location where community seems set beneath a magnifying glass in which everyone knows everyone else’s business and they rub along together. Except, they don’t if you don’t belong.
This is the story of two women who don’t belong; one believes she does, the other thinks she is too different. Jo Porter grew up in the forest, daughter of the local butcher, and close friends with Liam whose single mum sometimes struggled to cope. Liam grew up learning to recognise his mum’s good and bad times and what to do when the bad periods happened, knowing there was always sanctuary provided by Jo’s parents. When Jo leaves the forest for university and then to work as a lawyer, Liam stays at home, marries Kirsty and has two daughters.
Tessa is a farrier, loving her solitary job in the open air, working with horses. When her romance in Bristol with Marnie turns sour, Tessa retreats to the country and into herself, blaming her fainting fits, her memory losses and secretly afraid she is ill.
When Jo’s parents retire, Jo surprises everyone by leaving London and the law to return to the Forest and take over her parents’ business. She rents a room in Tessa's remote cottage. Things don’t go as Jo expected. Butchering is not her natural occupation despite having practically grown up in the shop at her parents’ knees, her landlady proves herself silent and uncommunicative, and worst of all Liam seems to be giving her the cold shoulder. Meanwhile, Tessa has crashed her van and is earning barely enough to feed herself. When Jo tries to help diagnose Tessa’s illness, things don’t go according to plan. While Tessa keeps her secrets to herself, Jo doesn’t understand her own motivation in wanting to help her landlady. Neither woman appreciates the effect that their actions have on others, neither feels comfortable in the role of landlady/lodger perhaps because they are unsure of their own identity. It’s difficult to fit into a place if you’re not sure why you are there, whether you should be there, and if you are running towards or away from something.
The contemporary setting is very different from the wartime story of ‘Shelter’. This is a character study of two women lacking self-awareness who begin to understand themselves through their new friendship. When awareness arrives, it is raw and uncompromising. At times I grew impatient with each of them, perhaps because the author had to withhold some information about them in order to maintain the mysteries from their past until the end is reached. The end, when it came, felt like a rather quick shutting of the door.
The cover of ‘How to Belong’ is one of my favourites of this year, but then I love trees.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

Opening with the approach of Christmas in the busy village butchers’ shop in the Forest of Dean, perhaps the delayed publication of this book was always meant to be – but although the small family business has always been the heart of the rural community, the supermarkets on the edge of town have made life considerably more difficult. When Jo’s parents decide that the time has come to retire and move closer to family, she decides to take on the business: armed with spreadsheets and big ideas, challenging the way things have always been done, she walks away from her career as a junior barrister and seeks the comfort of the place – home – where she was happy.

Tessa has spent time away from the community too, although she’s always been rather on its periphery, her life blighted by a traumatic event in her youth that left her with pain and guilt: with the end of her relationship with Marnie and her life in Bristol, a rare time when she felt she belonged, now living in an isolated cottage on the edge of the forest, her sexuality and her increasing ill health have increased her isolation and social awkwardness, as she works as the local farrier and ekes a precarious living.

These two very different women are brought together when Jo needs somewhere to live, and Tessa decides that taking a lodger will both boost her finances and provide some reassurance as her health deteriorates. Initially, their relationship is difficult – Jo naturally bouncy and outgoing, Tessa shunning human contact and finding her presence distinctly unwelcome. But slowly, very slowly, the women draw closer to each other. Jo finds that coming home hasn’t been entirely what she’d hoped for, that place of warmth and sanctuary – life has changed, a childhood friendship she thought she could rely on just isn’t the support she expected it to be, and the challenge of running the business prove greater than she ever imagined. And Tessa finds Jo unexpectedly supportive, perhaps helping her find some hope for the future.

This is a story about home and belonging, about finding your place, discovering your self and what makes you happy – through the lives of these two sympathetically drawn women, both of whom captured my heart. The book has an exceptional sense of place, both the village high street fast becoming a relic of the past and the natural world of the forest, often a sanctuary but sometimes something quite other. The point of view alternates gently between them, interspersed with the memories that have shaped them both – the story isn’t fast paced, but I found it absolutely compelling and particularly engaging at an emotional level.

The writing is wonderful, sometimes focusing in detail on the ordinary and everyday – the forging and fitting of a horseshoe, the triumph of producing a line of perfect sausages – then dipping into the poignancy of a memory, examining an emotional response, setting a scene with an almost poetic beauty and turn of phrase. It’s a book that really makes you feel – and, despite that strong sense of place and the unfamiliarity of both women’s chosen paths, those feelings are universal, that powerful need to feel that you’ve come home and that you truly belong.

This might be the first of Sarah Franklin’s books I’ve read, but it certainly won’t be the last – I really loved this one, and recommend it highly.

(Review copied to Amazon UK, but link not yet available)

The follow up we all needed . Great read, Looks at how rural community can really make us what we are even if we think it is holding us back. We can shine is the small mundane be the best we can be.

How To Belong is a beautifully written, engrossing story about friendship and what it means to belong. I was a huge fan of this author’s first book so I was very excited to see what she came out with next.

The story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Jo and Tessa. I warmed to these two characters quickly and felt a lot of sympathy towards them as I have been in a similar situation. It’s hard to return to your home town and find everything altered or that everyone has moved on. I thought the author did a great job of describing the feelings the two girls must have felt. They seemed very real to me and I wished that I could reach into the book and give them both a hug at times.

This isn’t a particularly fast paced book but it is a very engrossing one and quite a poignant one at times as we watch the two characters trying to find their place in the community. I enjoyed seeing the two woman become closer and giving each other the support they both needed.

Overall I really enjoyed this heartwarming read which had a lovely message at it’s centre of its never to late to find your place in life. I grew very fond of the two main characters and I felt very involved in their lives. I wanted to keep reading to find out how things ended up for them.

Huge thanks to Tracy for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Zaffre for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

How To Belong is about living in a rural community in the modern world.

It is the story of Jo who had left the beautiful Forest Of Dean to live and work in London. She comes home to stay with her parents for Christmas and learns they are retiring from the family business. She convinces them to let her take over and so she returns to this community.

She takes a room, lodging for the time being with Tessa. Tessa has had a troubled past and is a bit of a loner, but gradually the two women become friends. Jo begins to feel she’s at home.

This is a gentle, rolling tale of family, friends and what it is to feel at home, to finally belong. A book for the quiet times, to relax, settle inane enjoy.

Thank you to The publishers and NetGalley for an ARC of How to Belong.

I was initially drawn to Sarah Franklin’s first novel, Shelter, because it was set during World War Two which is one of my favourite periods for historical fiction. I was also intrigued by the choice of location, the Forest of Dean. I loved the book and it left me keen to read whatever Sarah came up with next.

In How To Belong the location is once more the Forest of Dean but this time we’re very much in the present day. However, there is a sense of the timelessness of the Forest, even if much around it has changed and is still changing. Not only a source of recreation and employment, and a haven for wildlife, the Forest acts as a place for contemplation and reflection. As one character puts it, “The trees will restore the mess“.

The book switches between the points of view of Jo and Tessa, two women who are very different in terms of their life experience and character. Tessa is by nature an introvert whose one attempt at reaching out and expressing her true self ended in rejection, disappointment and a sense of failure, for reasons the reader will gradually discover. Jo, on the other hand, has forged a life for herself away from the Forest, a life that had been successful in many ways but which has left her unfulfilled and with a desire to return to her roots.

Jo returns with big plans for the family butcher’s shop but is disappointed to find it more difficult than she expects to be absorbed back into the community. The friends she grew up with have built their own lives – married, started families – and talk about people she doesn’t know. “The group’s shifted. She doesn’t know who she is or where she fits in. There’s nowhere left for her to go.” In particular, Jo struggles to understand the change in her relationship with her childhood friend, Liam, with whom she was once so close. “She’s homesick for happy Liam, who doesn’t exist anymore; perhaps never did outside her own naive bubble… Most of all, she’s homesick for her old self.” What Jo comes to realise is that it’s possible to be the repository of others’ hopes and dreams, not just your own.

Tessa has become used to living a life socially distant from others. From childhood, she’s instinctively felt different from her peers for reasons she couldn’t initially explain. Traumatic incidents in her past have left her with a misplaced sense of guilt as well as worries about her future.

Thrown together by chance, Jo and Tessa slowly discover they have more in common than they may have thought and that each can help the other find a way to achieve the sense of belonging they both crave. Whether that’s feeling a part of a community or a family, having a sense of security, fulfilling a dream or simply being comfortable in your own skin.

How To Belong is an engrossing human drama that shows it’s never too late to start again, if you just give yourself the chance.