Heidi and Johnny were high school sweethearts a long time ago.  They became pregnant, and while they wanted to keep him, Heidi's mother Rosalind was adamant that the baby be given up for adoption.  Heidi and Johnny drifted apart, but later reunited and were married for 30 years and had 2 daughters.

Johnny suffered one heart attack, recovered, and then one day, suffers another that ends his life.  Heidi is left bereft and searching for answers.  One of the last things on Johnny's phone was a photo of a small cafe, and Heidi had no idea why the photo was taken, maybe it was a mis-dial?  Unable to leave the mystery be, Heidi goes to the cafe and sees a young man who looks very like Johnny, and realizes this is their long-ago adopted son.

The rest of the book deals with the struggles of integrating William, the son, into what is left of her family.  Her mother, Rosalind, deals a blow of her own when she reveals she also had a child who she put up for adoption.  Pretty soon the family meets Tuesday, the adopted daughter.

There are a lot of coincidences and drama in this family, but at the same time, it all gets wrapped up pretty quickly.  I'm not sure that is realistic considering the amount of lying and misrepresentations, but that's how the author chose to portray it.  

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

I went into reading this book thinking it was going to be a mystery about a husband leaving his wife and family.  Was a little surprised to find out why he “left.”
I found this story interesting though I didn’t connect to any of the characters.  The plot seemed a bit far fetched with both mother and daughter to be hiding such big secrets.  
Heidi strikes me as being a very smart lady but acting quite scatter brained.   I liked Max the most.
I can truly say....this story is certainly full of family turmoil and drama.  
All opinions expressed are my own.

This is a story of a young girl who gave her baby up for adoption because she was too young to raise him. She maintained a relationship with the father and after he died, she found out her had found their son. She starts on a journey to reconnect with him.

I had a very hard time getting into this book because I did not enjoy it. The plot sounded very intriguing but I did not enjoy the writing. I know many people will enjoy it but I couldn’t get into the story.

A woman struggles with balancing her family's needs when secrets are finally brought in the open. 
Heidi's beloved husband, Johnny, has a fatal heart attack while out on a job. He has a draft message on his phone to Heidi - q picture of the street shortly before he breathed his last breath. 
Heidi is convinced Johnny was sending her one last message. She struggles to find the meaning - until she finds a man who is the spitting image of her husband.  
Heidi needs to decide how much to share with her daughters.  When seeking advice from her mother,  Rosalind shares her own dark secret. 
I felt for Heidi as she tried to save everyone around her - William,  her son,  dealing with addiction, struggling to be a father. Her daughters' anger and grief. Her own half sister.  A lot going on in this book. And it just kind of ended without any resolution.  They are all on their way,  but it felt as though it was all swept under the rug.

What a rollercoaster ride this has been. It sucked me in completely. It is one heart warming story that I could not put down.
THE DAY MY HUSBAND LEFT is flawless and beautiful. It is one story about second chances, third and may fourth ones. It is a story about hope, righting the past wrongs and making peace with oneself. I was reduced to tears at times and I laughed out loud on many occasions.
I cannot recommend it enough

Really enjoyed this book, took me a little bit to get into it but what a lovely heartwarming story. Brilliant style of writing

Poor Heidi, she loses her husband and gains a mystery.  Johnny was trying to help but did not give enough clues. When Heidi finds out the son she gave up thinking Johnny did not want her or the baby, has been located she's not sure if it was a good plan or not.  To find she has a new family on many levels must have been a surprise but in the end Heidi gets everyone in line and has a happy ending.

What a brilliant book extremely well written with many secrets unfolding I just couldn't stop reading from the beginning to the end.  All the characters were well developed and it was very sensitively written and I just loved every page.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read this brilliant book which I can certainly recommend.

This was not at all what I was expecting and is not my typical read. I thought it was decent enough; I was able to finish it in just a few hours. For fans of family dramas - this was a "light" (not a lot of depth, more surface emotions) version of a Kristin Hannah style type book.

Thank you #netgalley and #bookouture for this eARC.

Heidi's world is shattered when her husband, Johnny, dies unexpectedly. His last text message is a photo - is there a message behind it? In the process of figuring it out, Heidi uncovers secrets that threaten to tear her family apart. 

.All in all, this was a decent read. My only issue was that it seemed like there were too many buried secrets being unearthed. My indicator of how much I enjoyed a book is whether I go back in to re-read scenes. Sometimes, when I'm just dying to find out how it ends, I realize I've missed details and I want to go back and absorb everything. Other times, i just loved the characters so much, that I want to go back and revisit. And, then sometimes, I get to the end and I'm just done. That's how I felt here. I hit the end and it was done and I have zero desire to revisit any of these characters or scenes. 

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read a digital advance copy in return for an honest review.  I would give this 2.5 stars.

This book didn't turn out as I had expected from the title. The writing was good but I just couldn't identify with the characters. I would have loved to give more stars but I'm stuck at three

Heidi's husband died of an heart attack on a busy street in Poole. After his death she looks at his phone and sees a photo. Convinced this is important she goes there and sees the person her husband had seen. 

I was touched by this story about adoption and the hope mother's have, who regret their choices, to find their children. It brought to light the struggles around adoption for the mother. Having to not mention the child again, trying to forget and move on. As the story progresses more secrets emerge. It's an emotional story but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.5★s
The Day My Husband Left is the second stand-alone novel by British author, Amy Miller. Even after Johnny Eagle’s first heart attack, life for him and Heidi was good: they had two smart, beautiful daughters (Scarlet and Zoe) and a successful upholstery business. When the second one took him from them, in the main street of Poole, they were devastated.

Life had to go on, but Heidi felt distracted, at sea. Zoe had to point out that Scarlet was having relationship problems; and Heidi was having trouble focussing on upholstery projects, although their good friend Max was a great help. Johnny’s last, unsent text had her puzzled: a photo of the main street, right before he died. She recognised the shops, the Blackbird Café…

Johnny’s ashes, in a glazed green pot, sat on a shelf in the workshop, and Heidi talked to them often, but they didn’t offer an explanation. Finally, a visit to the spot, and a chance sighting: could it be? Should she pursue this? Her mother, Rosalind was inexplicably vehement: the matter was done, and she was furious with Johnny for resurrecting the one thing they had kept unspoken in their marriage. It could cause untold harm.

Max was more pragmatic; he believed in grabbing the chance while you can. And he had a theory about Rosalind’s reaction: “‘Perhaps it’s a generational thing or because it reminds her of a difficult time in both your lives,’ Max said. ‘Of course you need to tread carefully, but in my opinion, life is too short to be ruled by your head. (It) might be the most wonderful thing you ever do.’” But the explanation, when revealed, added yet another complication to Heidi’s life.

Heidi told her daughters: “I think your dad planned it this way. He gave us something to deal with, something major, to keep us distracted from our grief. It wasn’t enough to leave me with the business to run!” And from there, a cascade of revelations followed, turning all their lives upside down.

Miller’s portrayal of grief is insightful: “Heidi slipped the phone into her pocket and sat stiffly back in the Chesterfield, putting her hands over her lips. She had to physically hold in her grief, because if she started to cry, she thought she’d never stop” and “She felt suddenly silently furious with Johnny. Him dying meant she was left to bring their daughters up alone. Make the right decisions. Point them in the right direction. Be a father and a mother. What if she got it all wrong? Suddenly she felt the choking weight of Johnny’s absence bear down on her chest” are examples of this.

Heidi is a wonderful protagonist, loving and generous, and the essence of her chosen profession extends into her life philosophy: “Her father Alan taught her everything he knew about upholstery, and working with her hands and seeing the results of hard physical work felt good. Furniture was tactile and practical and beautiful. Over time, her ambitions changed. She wanted to rescue things. Give furniture a new life. She wanted to make tired, sad things beautiful again.”

Miller gives her characters wise words and perceptive comments: “Heidi was struck by a thought about wounds: bandages covered cuts and bruises, signalling to others to offer sympathy. But what about the invisible wounds people carried in their hearts? There were no bandages for those, yet the scars ran deep and lasted a lifetime. If there were physical bandages for emotional hurts, perhaps people would be kinder to one another.”

“‘The more love there is floating around, the better, in my opinion,’ Walter said. ‘You can never have too much of the stuff. I’m close to the end of my life now and I wish I’d loved more loudly, more expansively, just more. Because before you know it, you’ve run out of opportunities’” and “Things don’t always work out how you want them to. People often aren’t who you want them to be” illustrate this. A delightful, funny, heart-warming read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Bookouture.

#TheDayMyHusbandLeft #NetGalley
Thanks NetGalley, my favorite publisher Bookouture and Amy Miller for an ARC to review.
Based on the cover and description I thought this book was going in a totally another direction. 
After Heidi's husband died she was faced by a puzzle to decipher, a shot of a street showing strangers and store fronts! 
An enchanting book about second chances and not giving up on the people you love. A book about forgiving yourself for your past mistakes and learning the hard way that life is too short not to seek your lost chances.

Bittersweet Family Drama 💔

After nearly losing her husband Johnny a year ago, Heidi worries when he doesn't come home after a business meeting, thinking the worst, which is sadly confirmed.  On receipt of Johnnys belongings, Heidi sees a photo he was about to send her, but is unsure why... Heidi visits the area to endeavor to work out why he took it.  This eventually reveals quite a surprise for Heidi, taking her back to an earlier memory... resulting in an emotional dilemma for her.  

The Day My Husband left is an emotional rollercoaster for Heidi and family, unraveling this gift leads to more family secrets being uncovered.  With lots going on, can you really please everybody all of the time?  Bittersweet family drama, which will tug at your heart strings.

With thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest opinion. 
Have read this authors  other books and really enjoyed  them. I felt this book was slightly  far fetched at times,there was 
not much of a story really just secrets  from the past that just kind of rolled out  I found it rather disjointed. Heidi is  rushing in without  thinking twice and getting what she wants with no thought to anyone else.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher.   Good story, good characters but it was just okay.   Have read a lot of this genre lately

The Day My Husband Left Me took me a little while to get into but once I did, I found myself enjoying the story between Johnny, Heidi, Zoe, Scarlet, Max and William. Lots of family secrets came out. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

This was a lovely story about a very engaging, warmhearted character who was struggling with her grief. You will find much in common with most of the main characters as they are flawed but very likable. Mostly I believe they are just like most people you know, happy. sad, angry, confused, helpful, annoyed. I think the author does a good job of building her characters a little at a time until you felt like you knew them personally. All in all, a delightful read.