Quirky story of Amy who is trying to solve the mystery of the sudden disappearance of her boyfriend and best friend. The book was written with such tenderness and insight on why Amy has become a hoarder, explaining thoroughly her thought processes on why she looks for and keeps so many 'treasures'. The plot regarding her quest for the truth of why the most important people in her life left her keep the story engaging and unravels at a perfect pace. Loved Richard's character who shows such warmth and patience in helping Amy. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an opportunity to read this book in return for my review.

So, this book only gets three stars from me, and I feel really mean because it’s a good read. The whole concept is great. There are a few twists and turns that you don’t expect. Ray writes really well, and manages to keep the reader engaged. The reason for the three stars? I just didn’t connect with the main character, Amy.

Amy is lost; in the past and the hundreds of possessions she keeps to fill the void. Rather than feel sorry for her, she annoyed me. I didn’t view her as the heroine of the piece, but rather the victim. At times I felt Amy was playing the victim, whether that was Ray’s intention, only she knows.

The whole book revolves around the secret that has resulted in Amy’s recent state.
She’s a hoarder. She collects those items that others would throw aside, because that’s exactly how she feels; cast aside. She’s buries herself in her own home. After all, no one can hurt her if they can’t get in. As the reader, we get to witness her metamorphosis as she confronts what brought her here.

As I say, do not let this put you off picking up this book. It’s well crafted, and I truly believe deserves a sequel. It’s a book with definite Eleanor Oliphant vibes, but for me Oliphant wins.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and became totally engrossed in the storyline. It is well written, clever and intriguing and I found it hard to put down, especially towards the end. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, slowly being pieced together, the back and forth on the timeline all gradually making perfect sense as to why Amy lives the way she now does. I loved every minute of the story.

Amy lives in a world of uncertainty now and a house full of her treasures; full to breaking point in fact. I really liked Amy and wanted her to find a way through her problems and find a good life. I really liked the interaction between the characters, especially Richard and the boys, her new neighbour. The story portrayed the very best and worst of people and nothing was ever quite what it appeared.

As everything came together I was gripped towards the end of the book, I was on the edge of my seat and couldn't put it down. I really loved this story and highly recommend you read it too.

As soon as I started reading this book I got major Eleanor Oliphant vibes. Amy the main character is quirky, funny and also really sad and lonely. 11 years ago her boyfriend and best friend went missing and ever since then amy has shut herself off from the rest of the world in hopes they would one day return. Oh and she has a major hoarding problem. 

The chapters are split into present day and before her boyfriend and best friend went missing. The before chapters give us an insight into why amy collects the things she does which I felt made us really connect with her.

At the beginning of the book a new family move in next door and I found the children’s dialog hilarious. They are typical small children who force amy to come out of her shell in the best way possible. It was heartwarming and different to the typical romances you read, I love how this played out. I absolutely loved this story line and how amy gradually connected with all of the characters.

I did not guess the ending but I was so pleased with how this book finished. I felt everything was tied together nicely and as it should be.

At what point does collecting things becoming hoarding? Well Amy has definitely tipped over into the latter category.
11 years ago her boyfriend and best friend go missing, Amy starts to collect little trinkets that remind her of certain times in her life in the run up to this event, but it kind of gets out of hand.
Told in alternating chapters between present day and the past which is told through the trinkets she collects, we learn about Amys life with her boyfriend and friend.
I love a slightly quirky awkward character and Amy was likeable in her defensiveness. I also love intergenerational friendships so when the new people move in next door I was cheering this on.
A lovely heartwarming, but at times really emotional book about learning to let go of the past and moving on.
This book also deals with domestic violence and miscarriage in a very sensitive way, but it may be a trigger you.

This was definitely one of my most loved reads of 2020. Everything is beautiful is a compelling novel of love and loss and friendship and how life changing events can effect our emotions and behaviour. It sensitively explores the topic of hoarding and how this has taken over the life of Amy and how she uses it as a coping mechanism for the things life has dealt her way. This was such a heartbreaking yet heartwarming at the same time read of how Amy has found new friendships and how they have helped her to recover and address issues in her past.

Amy Ashton has to cope with a lot after facing the traumatic realisation that Tim. her boyfriend left her for her 
 
best friend. Chantel. She has been betrayed by the two people she loved the most.  Eleven years later, Amy is 

trying to cope with work and, troublesome neighbours.

She is also a hoarder and gradually begins to investigate a ring, a letter and a photograph she accidentally found. 

for further clues and answers,  Amy is an amazing person, She shows courage in the way she copes in the face 

of not knowing what actually happened and trying to carry on., 

The book is full of hope and revives the spirit. ,

Brilliant, beautiful story. Amy is a really interesting character that you can’t help liking. Charles is so perceptive to how she feels about her collections and understands her in a way only a child can. I wanted Amy to be happier and get answers to her questions. This is one of the best stories that I have read in a long time. 

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy.

This was a lovely, lovely book.  Watching Amy open up and accept help was really heartwarming.  The characters were well-written and really came to life.   Highly recommended.

Actual rating 4.5 stars

In Everything is Beautiful the reader is welcomed into the world that belongs to Amy Ashton, a woman who spends her working life at Trapper,Lemon and Hughes and her spare time adding to her hoard of treasures, many of which serve as a painful reminder of a happier past life. In one fell swoop Amy lost both her boyfriend Tim and best friend Chantal, their sudden disappearance eleven years ago still a mystery to this day. With her house fit to bursting but unable to curb her hoarding tendencies, Amy is struggling to let go of her past even if it means eventually being buried alive underneath all her boxes of treasures. The arrival of new neighbours sets to disturb her equilibrium thanks mainly to the inquisitive nature of Richard’s two boys. Except it’s their sense of adventure that leads to a most unexpected discovery amongst all her clutter, providing Amy with a much longed for clue to finally solve the mystery surrounding Tim and Chantal’s disappearance. 

Amy is like a modern day womble (or magpie given her love for our little feathered friends) further adding to her treasure trove of birds pots and bottles in particular, the significance of which will become as transparent to the reader as the empty bottles she’s amassed over the years. To the majority of people, broken or damaged objects or those that have simply outlived their use can be discarded without a second thought. For Amy it’s a very different story. She sees beauty in the broken and unwanted, lovingly creating a shrine (as well as a health and safety hazard!) to the past, trapped in a cage of her own making. With only her memories and her treasures providing comfort against a life that has caused her immense heartache Amy is a tragic yet endearing character. I was utterly charmed by her as I’m sure you will be too. 

I knew I’d thoroughly enjoy this storyline because Amy is the type of fictional character I’m drawn to since she’s the epitome someone who has lost their way in life and the subject of possible ridicule. Her unusual way of living and her prickly demeanour hides her true personality turning her into a complex and fascinating  figure. There is so much tenderness in the way in which the author approaches and deals with Amy’s hoarding I could imagine her wearing kid gloves as she wrote these scenes mindful of Amy’s fragility. Like her many broken pots I felt the author didn’t wish to inflict any more harm upon Amy’s fractured self. The inclusion of delightful characters such as Charles and Daniel add some levity to what would otherwise be a tough subject to deal with (without causing offence) as what better way to disarm Amy and throw her life off kilter than the presence of two innocent and playful little boys. Oh my goodness this pair made me laugh with Charles’s encyclopaedic knowledge of diggers and Daniel never missing an opportunity to ask for ice cream! Even next door neighbour Rachel’s darling cat Smudge forever lurking in the background and causing a fair amount of mischief ups the ante in terms of amusement. Plus there is a certain amount of ironic humour to be found in the accumulation of so much ‘treasure’ which may eventually prove to be incredibly useful if not dangerous!! 

I loved that there is a mystery element to the narrative albeit one that can be solved within a blink of an eye. What’s happened to Tim and Chantal in the eleven years they’ve been missing from Amy’s life isn’t hard to fathom and really that’s my only criticism of this novel, not that it’s entirely predictable but that parts of its execution had me raising an eyebrow in disbelief. However it is only a minor criticism and didn’t lessen my overall enjoyment of what is such a pleasurable read. My favourite part by far is the unfurling of Amy and Tim’s love story which is as beautiful and sweet as the honeysuckle Amy is so fond of.

Everything is Beautiful is a funny, touching, romantic, wonderfully hopeful novel featuring a quirky protagonist who proves its never too late to mend a broken heart. This is a storyline about accepting people, warts and all, so despite her peculiarities, Amy may just come to realise life is there to be lived if only she can begin to let go of both the physical and emotional baggage that is weighing her down. I felt infused with a warm contented glow from tip to toe from having ‘met’ Amy Ashton, delighted and humbled by her brief presence in my world. Plus I don’t think I’ll look at an empty wine bottle in quite the same light from now on! Highly recommend. My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read.

Sometimes it's impossible to part with the things which remind us of the loves that we have felt the most...

When Amy Ashton's world came crashing down eleven years ago, she started collecting. To start with it was just a little collecting of the keepsakes of happier times - sometimes some honeysuckle to remind herself of the boy she loved, a chipped china bird, old terracotta pots. However things that others might consider throwing away, Amy feels the need to keep them as they to her represent a life that she would have had. 

Now the house is overflowing from all of the collecting that she has done and it is getting to the point that her obsession could mean that the house runs out of space ... even for herself. When a new family moves in next door, a chance discovery unearths something which has been long buried and Amy's carefully constructed life starts to fall apart. If she is able to find the courage to face the painful things from her past, might the future she though she had lost all of those years ago be for her to grasp in both hands ?

I absolutely loved this story and all of the descriptive chapters helped to bring the story to live for me. On several occasions i found myself shutting my eyes and i could see Amy in her cluttered house and feel the items start to push in on you making you feel claustrophobic. I loved that i didn't really know until the last couple of chapters that Amy was going to find love, but i was hoping in all my heart that she would find a loving man. I can not wait to see what comes from this author in her next book.

Seamlessly blending romance, drama and crime thriller - this was such a beautiful book. I binged it in as close to one sitting as possible, I was so gripped by it and was desperate to know what was going to happen next. I came to care for Amy so deeply and so quickly, my heart was shattered by what happened and having to say goodbye to her. Few books have handled these themes - of obsessive behaviours and hoarding - with such compassion and sensitivity.

I really enjoyed this heartwarming novel. Amy starts collecting beautiful, often broken things, after her life is changed 11 years ago. Her home is overflowing with things she loves so much so that she cannot open her front door to let anyone in. A new family move in next door and Amy begins to find a new focus and makes a discovery which starts her thinking again about the events leading up to the disappearance of both her best friend and her boyfriend. As she finds out more she is forced to face what her life has become and find a way to move on.

A book I will be recommending to others. Lovely.

3.5 rounded up

Amy Ashton is a hoarder, her house filled with collections of objects, including bottles, newspapers and pottery birds. The story is told from the present day and backtracks to 1998 and charts her relationship with Tim and her friendship with Chantel and through this we grow to understand the motivation for her hoarding. 

This is a good debut and I really like the concept of the novel. There are some good descriptions of objects in the house and one in particular feels alive. You can easily visualise Amy clambering over boxes and negotiating the space. She is always fixing broken things, these damaged goods upset her and this is symbolic as they represent losses and in fact she is the one that needs fixing. These objects and the house are her safety net, it’s where she feels comfort but conversely they are also weighing her down. There are some lovely characters including Amy who is depicted very well. The standout character though for me is the little chap from next door - Daniel - who is utterly adorable, he’s innocent, smart, so cute and wise. The growing friendship with Daniel’s father Richard is lovely too and exactly what Amy needs. The story has plenty of good elements, it’s happy, sad, puzzling and has a mystery to it especially regarding the reasons for Amy’s life  becoming the way it is. 

Although I really enjoyed most of the book some elements I find rather too convenient such as some discoveries Amy makes so many years on and also the way the truth unfolds. 

However, overall it’s a pleasant easy read and one to immerse yourself in right now to shut out the realities of 2020. 

With thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group/Piatkus for the arc in return for an honest review.

The TV series “Hoarders” always fascinated me. Not because if the squalor inside people’s home but the reasons that lead them to become hoarders. It usually was some kind of trauma: a death, a loss, violence. And with what little control they perceive they have left, they build fortifications around them, made of “stuff”.
Our protagonist Amy follows that scheme. Eleven years ago, her boyfriend and her best friend disappeared on the same day, presumably together in her Ever since then, she “rescues” broken things, brings them home, stacks them ceiling-high. To the outside world, she is absolutely in control, avoiding close personal contacts, a model employee, but her vulnerability makes her live in chaos.
She bristles when a family with two lively boys moves in next door, fears the disruption, the noise and their prying into her personal space. But might they be a blessing in disguise? And will she ever find out why her boyfriend and her best friend disappeared from her life?
This is not a high-brow, heavy read, but it has a nice depth to it.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot (plenty of reviews like that out there already!) - my advice is to read this for yourself!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, a definite page-turner for me as I wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery myself!  

Amy is a somewhat spiky and defensive character, but I can fully appreciate how she came to be that way.  As someone with a natural tendency to squirrel away some types of items myself, I felt very sympathetic towards Amy.  The book explained the logical-but-illogical reasons behind Amy's behaviour and it all made sense. I had never considered the psychology that might lie behind "hoarding" and feel that the book has shone a light on the subject.

There are some lovely characters - favourites were Amy herself, and young-but-wise Charles.  I was happy with the eventual outcome of the story, and would love to read more about the cast of characters.

I will look forward to more books from this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC.  All opinions my own.

This book was truly wonderful, I simply loved it, the descriptions in this book bring it alive, I could picture Amy in her cluttered house with all her “treasures”.  This book had similarities to Eleanor Olliphant but it was just as enjoyable, especially the twist near to the end. I do hope that this author writes more books like this. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Date reviewed/posted: November 16, 2020

When life for the entire universe and planet turns on its end and like everyone else you "have nothing to do" while your place of work is once again closed and you are continuing to be in #COVID19 #socialisolation as the #secondwave is upon us,  superspeed readers like me can read 300+ pages/hour, so yes, I have read the book … and many more today.

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.  

From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸.

Sometimes it's impossible to part with the things we love the most...

When Amy Ashton's world came crashing down eleven years ago, she started a collection. Just a little collection, just a few keepsakes of happier times: some honeysuckle to remind herself of the boy she loved, a chipped china bird, an old terracotta pot . . . Things that others might throw away, but to Amy, represent a life that could have been.

Now her house is overflowing with the objects she loves - soon there'll be no room for Amy at all. But when a family moves in next door, a chance discovery unearths a mystery long-buried, and Amy's carefully curated life begins to unravel. If she can find the courage to face her past, might the future she thought she'd lost still be hers for the taking?

Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant and The Keeper of Lost Things, this exquisitely told, this uplifting novel shows us that however hopeless things might feel, beauty can be found in the most unexpected of places

I, too, may a collector bordering on hoarder, although I just donated 16 boxes of books to the library - but that barely made a dent.  Amy is a warm and engaging character and I loved reading about her and her life unravelling. The characters are rich and inviting and the plot enticing - this is a sweet treat of a book meant to be inhaled. Out in time for Valentine's Day, this along with some chocolate would be a great book to gift....perfect for book clubs, friends and library patrons alike.

As always, I try to find a reason to not rate with stars as I simply adore emojis (outside of their incessant use by "🙏-ed Social Influencer Millennials/#BachelorNation survivors/Tik-Tok and YouTube  Millionaires/snowflakes / literally-like-overusers etc. " on Instagram and Twitter... Get a real job, people!) so let's give it 😷😷😷😷😷 (stay in, stay safe!!!!!)

Wow this book is amazing and i would say one of the best books that I have read in 2020 and I will be recommend everyone reads it.

This Book tells the story of Amy who in charge of the admin team at a Financial Company , one of her colleagues is leaving and amy decides to go to colleagues leaving do which she normally doesn't do.

Amy steals a empty  bottle from the table of the  pub where the leaving is is being held, we then go to amy house where we find that Amy collects things and is a horder after a traumatic experience happened to her.

without giving too many spoilers away what we find in this book is the reason why amy is a horder, friendships developing, noisy neighbours  .

I would give this book 5 out of 5

With thanks to Netgalley & Little Brown Books for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest review

This book was so enlightening. I have watched quite a lot of programmes about people hoarding but never really understood the psychology behind it. Until I read this book which although a novel still has an explanation. Amy's best friend and boyfriend both disappeared at the same time 13 years ago and she is convinced they were together. The story goes between the past and the present. Amy reads as a middle aged character during the book but by the end you realise she is still young enough to start again. The book explores why she hoards and what each thing means to her. She starts to allow people in to her life and heart especially two cute boys who live next door. A really lovely read.