Wow, it took me a good couple of days to get over this highly emotional read. Dani Atkins never fails to break my heart and mend it all in one story.
A Sky full of Stars is full of tragedy and heartbreak, with times of absolute utter grief pouring out of the page. With each word another part of your heart will melt, and you will be reaching for the tissues.
Organ donation is a massive issue, and this book raises the issue of how the donors family continue afterwards. Here Alex finds it a struggle to move on since his wife Lisa died, leaving him to grieve yet stay as strong as possible for their young son. He feels that to start the healing process it may help to meet the recipients of Lisas organs, he does and they all develop this unique friendship. Alex is quite intense and desperate to see signs of Lisa, hoping that having them in his life he will also have her.
It is a gorgeous tale of coming to terms with loss, sad but written in a very kind, sensitive way. Highly recommended.

Beautiful written and very emotional read. After Alex is left to bring up Connor alone when his wife Lisa dies in an accident, he seeks out the people who received her organs after her death. I felt this was a lovely heart warming plot and the ending just finished it off nicely. .

I just don't know how Dani Atkins can bear to put her characters through so much in every single novel. It must be exhausting. But even though she makes me cry until i am severely dehydrated with each and every word she writes I still love the characters and the worlds she creates and the stories she weaves. A sky full of Stars was such a wonderful read and I enjoyed every moments, even the ones where I had to step away for a moment to get a new box of tissues.

Be warned, this book does start off with a lot of really weepy events. It's no spoilers because you know going into a Dani Atkins novel that you're going to need tissues but She doesn't normally get you so early on. You will need tissues for the first 25% of this book. There is a lot to get through in terms of bad new for people in that first quarter. After that though I loved the fact that we got deeper into the storyline and deeper into the relationships between these characters.

This book is told in a dual narrative format (my favourite). We get to meet Alex and we get to meet Molly. Molly is a primary school teacher so I instantly warmed to her. She is a similar age to me and she has a wonderful outlook on life. I really love the fact that her best friend is also a work colleague. That is so often true for those of us who work in schools because it is very hard to try and have a life outside of school to bravo to Dani for writing that so true to life.

Alex is such a complex character and because we get to see the narrative from his point of view as well as from Molly's we get to see how he is feeling after Lisa. I love that he is really open and honest with himself about his feelings and he has the most precious relationship with his brother. I really don't feel like I have read about such a brotherly bond in this kind of novel before and I found it fascinating to follow.

There are so many unusual features in this novel and even though it made me cry so much at the beginning and I spent the rest of the book worrying about these characters I just couldn't stop reading it. Like most Dani Atkins novels I read this in less than 24 hours. I felt such a bon with these characters and I loved the story that this author created. This is definitely another hit for Dani Atkins and I highly recommend this truly special book!

I read this in 2 sittings it would have been 1 but I needed to sleep. Beautifully written and heart-warming, no pun intended.

**3.5 stars**
I’ve been a huge fan of Dani Atkins books and while I enjoyed this, I feel it didn’t give me the same emotional feels her previous books have.
It follows Alex and Connor who have lost Lisa, wife/mother in a tragic train accident. They both struggle with acceptance and moving forward after the event but their life is enriched by four strangers who have received a transplant gift from Lisa.
I think part of the story that I had an issue with is that Lisa was put on a pedestal, she seemed perfect, the perfect wife, the perfect mother. I did enjoy the other characters and their roles and I’m really happy how everything played out in the end.
A light hearted read, great if your looking for some magical kind of escapism.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

Beautiful well writtn emotional story of loss and longing. Pulls at your heart and made me read on.

Death, life, hope, new beginnings!

When Alex's wife Lisa dies suddenly he is forced to piece his life back together along with his son Connor.  Alex struggles trying to bridge the gap of grief for them both, until he meets those whose Lisa's organs have saved. Alex seeks solace and help in each of them in various ways as their lives are now interlinked forever.

I am a huge fan of Dani Atkins and have read and enjoyed all of her previous novels and this was no exception. Yet another well written book that was packed full of emotion - keep those tissues handy. Would highly recommend reading this book. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I’ve read a few of Dani’s books and absolutely loved them. I expected to feel the same
about this book, but I struggled to get in to this one.

It tells the story of Alex. He loses his wife Lisa in a train crash and is left to look after their son Connor. He makes contact with the people who received organ donations from Lisa.

For me, the story struggled to pick up pace until near the end and the story was rounded off with a nice ending. I really wanted to like this book more than I did.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read it, in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. From heartbreak and death comes hope, life and new beginnings. A wonderful book about how the gift of being a organ donor breathes life into four people of different ages. How they get to meet the donors remaining family and the pleasure and pain that this brings. Definitely a must read.

A Sky Full Of Stars by Dani Atkins, Pub Date 4th February 2021
The story centres around Alex and his young son Connor, tragically coming to terms with Lisa's death, wife and mother, and the decisions made following her passing.
Lisa was involved in a train crash. Alex is faced with a painful decision. Lisa chose to donate her organs upon her death, despite breaking his heart, he must honour her wishes.
Multiple emotions arise as Alex meets the four donor recipients and the story follows them, Alex and Connor to an emotional conclusion.
There is a lot of grief, hope, friendship, kindness and romance woven throughout the story.
A wonderfully well-written story that touched me deeply in places, heartfelt and moving. I highly recommend it.
Thank you to Netgalley, Head of Zeus and author Dani Atkins for a pre-publication to review.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

This lovely story explores what happens when we lose someone from our lives suddenly and the bonds that are too immense to quantify and how love lives on.

This is, of course, a sad subject but a sensitive one, one which I felt was handled delicately and truelly to the journey of grief and what little things get overlooked or change.

Its not always the obvious loss that hurts the longest, but those micro moments that resurface time and time again.

It also, delved into the gift of organ donation, the journeys of those recipients and how their lives also change forever.

Recommend it.

Dani Atkins is a fabulous author and I was lucky to be able to read an arc of this, her latest book A sky full of stars.
Each of Dani’s books are beautifully and sensitivity written based on well written characters and each pull on the heartstrings. This is no different and caused me to laugh and cry at different points of the novel. Towards the end I was so emotional I had family members checking I was okay!
In this novel Dani writes about loss and the story centres around a young family who tragically lose the mother and the decisions that are made following her death. Lisa, the mother, has chosen to donate her organs and during the novel we see her husband Alex deal with his bereavement and his young sons inability to process the loss of his mum.
Complicated emotions come into play as Alex meets and befriends the four donor recipients and the story follows them and the family to an emotional conclusion.
It is a very interesting topic to cover and the delicate focus on grief, moving in and dealing with the complex emotions of another person living with something that was a part of your loved one is dealt with great compassion.
A lovely book which I am very happy to recommend and will be buying to add to my collection of Dani’s previous novels which I have also recommended many times.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

* Disclaimer I was given an ARC f this book in exchange for an open and honest review the NetGalley Platform*

Having been an avid reader of Dani Atkins previously I was eager to get started on this novel and as always it was worth the wait.

I hate reviews that give away too many spoilers so I’ll try my best not too.

This book is about Alex and his young son Connor tragically coming to terms with the death of Lisa, wife, love of Alex’s life and Connor’s mum.

As a result of Lisa’s death Alex agrees for her organs to be donated. 4 recipients receive something from Lisa and what then ensues is a friendship between Alex and the recipients.

What really got my intrigued though was the added relationships/situations of the recipients. We learn about each of them and there lives so it’s like there are 5 or 6 different stories all interwoven to create a fine masterpiece of fiction that will leave you not only, laughing out loud but reaching for the tissues through tear stained eyes.

Would definitely recommend,

*****

I’d like to thank Head of Zeus and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘A Sky Full Of Stars’ written by Dani Atkins in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Lisa leaves home to catch the 07:38 Norwich to London train to give a lecture to fellow-astronomers. The train never reaches London, there’s a crash and Lisa dies, leaving behind her husband Alex and six-year-old Connor to carry on without her. Lisa is on the Organ Doner Register and four strangers benefit from her untimely death, Barbara, Jamie, Mac and Molly, but Alex thinks Lisa is watching over them and for some reason has chosen these four people to be recipients of her organs. Months later they meet and become friends but Alex feels a special connection with Molly who has Lisa’s heart beating within her. Meanwhile, Connor is waiting for his mummy to return home and take him to the Astronomy Convention she’s promised they can go to.

‘A Sky Full of Stars’ is the heart-breaking story of the love and loss experienced by a newly-widowed father and his young son and the chance of a new life given to four strangers. I hadn’t long started reading when the tears began to fall and this continued near enough through the entire novel until the last few pages when they changed to tears of hope and the promise of a better future. I loved every single character who was each unique in their own way, and my heart went out to Connor who kept gazing at the stars waiting for his mummy to return. Ms Atkins’ tongue-in-cheek humour kept me smiling through the tears and brought lightness into what could have been a sombre and depressing subject. I’m so grateful that Head of Zeus allowed me to read this beautifully-written novel which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, the ending was perfect and it was a joy to read.

The premise as described is a bit misleading, and I was expecting a book that would be mostly about Alex learning to be a single parent (and to be honest, that's a huge part of why I requested the ARC because I usually enjoy single father stories). But there isn't much focus on that at all. It's not that the book doesn't mention the difficulties Alex faces, it's just that it feels like it takes a backseat to Alex's relationship with the four recipients of Lisa's organs.

I thought there was a lot of telling rather than showing, and the foreshadowing was very heavy-handed. The relationship between Alex and Molly felt uncomfortable, something the characters reflect on as well, but not something I usually go for. It becomes clear pretty fast that Alex is drawn to Molly because she got Lisa's heart, and vice versa, and while I went into this book hoping to see Alex getting a new chance at love, I wasn't expecting it to go like this.

I did like the characters and enjoyed getting to know them, especially Mac, and I was pleased with the way things ended.

After his wife dies in a tragic accident, a widower and his young son deal with their grief – with varying levels of success. Lisa's death saves four lives as an organ donor, and the recipients' lives are brought together along with grieving Alex and Connor.

I'm a little surprised by how engrossed in this story I became. There is a lot of cheesiness in it, and a lot of romance tropes (some of which were a little eyeroll-inducing), but they're balanced out fairly well by the tragedy and raw emotions also explored. There was a fair amount of suspension of disbelief needed, and as someone who rarely reads romance stories I did have to keep reminding myself that it's a quirk of the genre, however it ended up being somewhat of a page-turner.

When you pick up a book by Dani Atkins you know you are in for an emotional rollercoaster! What I didn't expect with this one was extra twists and turns I honestly did not see coming!!

A Sky Full Of Stars starts with a heart wrenching tragedy. Several people are tragically killed, including Lisa - an astronomer on her way to give a talk. The last thing she does when she leaves home that day is to promise her son Conner she will be back.

Lisa was an organ doner and consequently her death helps four other people - Molly with her heart, Barbara with her liver, Mac with her corneas and Jamie with her lungs. Lisas husband Alex is desperate to have Lisa come back to him and communicates with all four doners trying to find a link with them all and his deceased wife. He gets so wrapped up in trying to get Lisa back his personal life seems to unravel around him and his relationship with Conner takes a downhill slope as they both grieve for their loss.

The chapters alternate between Alex and Molly. Molly is a primary school teacher who has a genuine care for children and as she comes into Alex and Conners lives a connection is made between her and Conner, who kind of see's her as the motherly figure he has lost.

Throughout the novel as you read more about the characters and their lives as a reader I really did care about their journeys. They are all so different ... and Barbara has cats so extra brownie points from us for that! 🤣

I don't want to give away anything else that happens in this book because firstly I can't do it justice and secondly you need to experience this journeys yourselves almost blind about what's coming!

Will give this one a solid 4/5 stars! It's heartwarming, enjoyably to read and one I did not want to put down! Published on 4th February 2021

This was heart wrenchingly beautiful.

My heart was breaking as the book started and then I think I travelled every emotion along with Alex.

This book was very cleverly written, it was a clever touch, Alex was in the third person but Molly was in the first. This wasn’t Alex’s story but Mollys, but it was only made possible through Alex. I was right there with Todd with his skepticism about the coincidences of the 4 donors, but I was also right with Alex wanting it all to unravel how he wants.

I really liked how Mac was written, he was the strong, clear level headed person and just what Molly needed. I liked that they got to meet before realising they shared a link with Alex. Most of all I really loved how all the donors pulled together to save Connor, it really was like Lisa was there, never mind cellular memory this was a whole other level.

A simply beautiful read that had be reaching for the tissues many times. Everyone should read this book just to see the rainbow that comes after the storm.

Another great Dani Atkins book! Really enjoyed this and would highly recommend it!

This is an unusual story about a wife and mother who, when she dies, requests that her organs are donated. It tells of how she helps four other people, who all reply to her husband when he contacts them through the donor service. That might sound like a bit of a weird story line but in fact, I found it very uplifting. I have always been keen on organ donation - how wonderful to be able to help other people who are suffering, struggling and might not have long to live. I'm sorry but I see it that my organs are not going to be of any use to me as I leave this world, so I would love it if they could save someone else's live.

The characters were so wonderfully portrayed and you could see them all blossom as they rebuilt their lives. The four recipients, together with Alex and his son, Connor establish a fantastic extended "family" relationship, all helping each other out and just being there for one another in their own way. I thought I knew how the book was going to end, but as things developed, I began to think it might go in a different direction. I won't spoil your enjoyment by revealing the end but I have to say, I was really happy with how it all turned out....!

Don't hesitate to read this book - I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for allowing me to review this in exchange for an honest opinion, which is what I have given.

Oh my goodness, another brilliant book from Dani Atkins I just couldn't put it down, one of my favourite authors.

I just loved every heartfelt word on every page, the characters were brilliant, I felt I knew them all personally and the story was told wonderfully well with a great ending. A very worthy five+ stars from me.

Well done Dani, I can't wait for your next masterpiece.

Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this fantastic book.