Wow, I could not put this book down once I started reading. Emotional, moving and in some ways shocking, the story of what makes a family will stay with you. Nell’s father Bill is dying, and his last words to Nell end up leaving her with questions about herself. Strained relations between Nell and her two sisters are exacerbated as their Mom descends into dementia. The two timelines are in the present as Nell tries to uncover some difficult truths, while the timeline of her parents’ childbearing years will tear you apart. I highly recommend this book, but it might be too much for those going through these situations. My mom has dementia, and I felt it illuminating how it impacted Nell and her sisters. Thanks to NetGalley for this well written, truly moving book.

A sympathetic portrayal of family secrets and hidden grief. I enjoyed the dual narrative and thought that Annie's story, in particular, was engaging and brought something fresh to the discourse about motherhood and maternal feeling. Four stars as it was a little slow at times.

Firstly apologies for coming late to this book and thank you netgalley for the ARC.

Wow-what a rollercoaster of emotions loved every page! Rarely have I read such expert revealing of facts- just enough to keep you engaged but not enough that you could accurately guess what was to come. I haven't read any other work by this author but so glad I read this. Wish I had got around to it sooner - hope it is getting the reception it deserves

A beautifully told emotionally charged story about family secrets that have been hidden for too long. When Nell’s father makes a deathbed statement that opens up past feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Her suspicions about the family’s past only deepen when her mother, Annie, who is losing her memories to dementia, starts making cryptic comments of her own. Thirty-five years earlier, Annie’s own life was upended by a series of traumas. The decisions she made at the time were motivated by love, but she knew even then that nobody could ever understand what she did.

Full of the power of love and regret at past choices, this is a wonderful story to be savoured, and would be a brilliant book club choice, lots to talk about and debate.

The story is of one woman's journey to learn her history that was unexpectedly triggered by something her father says to her the last time she sees him before he dies. It is pushed along by a number of comments her mother who is suffering from dementia makes. Random comments that don't seem to apply to anything unless you combine them with what her father said and some things she finds as they are cleaning out her parents house in preparation for her mother to move into a care facility. From the very beginning of the book, the author skillfully takes you down one path and you are convinced you have figured out what the truth is only to have a twist thrown in that heads you in another direction altogether. This was a very enjoyable story that held my attention to the very end.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a slow moving story that sometimes gets a little tiring because it goes back and forth from the present to the past, but the reader needs to "hang in there" and finish the book. It wasn't disappointing but heart wrenching with a good ending.
Thanks NetGalley!

hank you to netgalley.com for the ARC.

This is a very well written book but it is a tough one to read. All sorts of sad things are tied into it...death of a parent, loss of a child, dealing with a parents Alzheimer's disease so it's not a light read. But it is well done, switching between timelines and keeping you guessing so you have to keep reading to find out what happens next.

I recommend this book...but make sure you are in the right space to read it.

The Impossible Truths of Love is a particularly apt title for the work which is a novel but one which deals with realistic and tough subjects which families are dealing with all the time. Not that I am suggesting that we come across such deep and dark secrets in all our families, but we often come across dementia, distorted memories and favoured sibling issues in real life. Having read this book you may well find yourself reflecting on your own situation and in particular, the legacy you leave behind! A thought provoking read as well as a good mystery drama.

The Impossible Truths of Love explores various aspects of grief, secrets, family dynamics, illness, women not being believed, the sacrifices people make for those they love and the consequences of them.
I think many would find some aspects of this story very relatable, and although it deals with quite emotionally provoking issues (dementia, death of a child), it does so in a sensitive way. The mystery surrounding what happened all those years ago and Nell’s ‘true’ identity was gripping and had me hypothesising various scenarios and racing through the book.

I can honestly say I love reading books like this. I always feel like you are getting a little peak into another families world. This family has many secrets and lots of lies have been woven to help everyone move forward. As the two stories unravel all you can feel is the love behind the lies. Every story, every decision was based of the love they shared.

I really enjoyed this book. It tells the story of Nell whose father, on his deathbed, says something which hints at a secret which Nell knows nothing about. Unfortunately her mother has dementia so she cannot simply ask her. The book tells the story from the perspective of 'then' and 'now' so effectively from Nell's mothers point of view and then her own. The story kept me guessing and a few times I thought I knew what was coming but I was wrong. A lovely story with an interesting twist. I'd definitely recomend.

3 1/2 rounded up.

“You need to know that I’ve always loved you even though you were never really mine to love.” This is the cryptic line we get to work with throughout this book.

Nell is the youngest daughter of Annie and Bill. She was always treated with kid gloves and usually over-protected and not given the freedom to roam. She was always extremely intelligent and outperformed her peers and her sisters, who were quite a bit older than her. She never understood why her relationship with her sisters was strained, but focused on her own goals and life. She became successful and moved across London to her own area. She rarely made the 45 minute commute to see her parents and sisters because of her busy life.

Bill is sick and on his deathbed leaves Annie with that cryptic sentence listed above. Annie is in a fast-moving state of dementia and there is little Nell can do to get the answers she desires. As we bounce between current day and the time around Nell's birth, we slowly watch the heartbreaking story of where Nell came from and why she feels such a disconnect from her family.

I loved that I was left guessing until the end. There were a few ways it could have ended and I really didn't see how it would end! It was awful to see how Annie was ignored and shamed for her postpartum depression. And it makes you appreciate how our medical system has improved! I don't know if I ended this feeling any better, as it really can't have a happy ending, but I certainly got the answers I needed!

There is death and loss, so if that is new for you or a trigger, please tread carefully.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely adored this beautiful book. The writing was sublime, the story was engaging and the characters were believable and relatable. My only slight criticism is that I felt the last third of the book was a little drawn out and laboured.

We move between then and now, building on the story of Nell. Her beloved father is dying and his last words to her unleash a torrent of questions about who she is. Cleverly answering these questions by travelling back in time, I thought the story developed seamlessly, but also gradually in such a way that the plot was revealed piece by piece to keep the reader engaged until the last page.

A really wonderful story about family, biology and the nature of grief.

I really loved this book!! It had so many twists and turns. It kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next!! This was my first book by this Author, and it won’t be the last!! Quick read!! Highly recommended!! You won’t be disappointed!!

On his deathbed, Nell Hardy’s father Bill makes a mysterious declaration to his youngest daughter Nell. He says:

‘I want you to know that I’ve always loved you […] You need to know that I’ve always loved you even though you were never really mine to love.’

Shortly after, before Nell has an opportunity to ask him what he means, Bill dies. Perhaps her mother Annie knows, but she has recently been diagnosed with dementia and communicating with her is challenging.

The story shifts between the present, where Annie is coming to terms with her father’s death and her mother’s dementia, and the past where Annie is overwhelmed by a series of traumatic events. In the present, Annie and her older sisters Clare and Laura are packing, preparing their family home for sale as Annie will move into care. And Nell wonders about what her father said and what it could mean. The three sisters are not close: Nell is 11 years younger than Clare, and 7 years younger than Laura. Nell has had opportunities that her sisters have not, and Clare in particular seems to resent this.

In the past we meet Annie and Bill as a young married couple. Clare and Laura are young, and Annie wants to have another child. What follows is a series of tragedies and secrets, devastating events which ripple through many lives into the present.

‘Grief, she is learning, is love’s echo: it is not possible to have one without the other.’

I found this story moving and wondered how I would deal in a similar situation. I admired Bill’s resilience, felt sad for Annie, and wondered where the truth would lead Nell.

Sometimes a novel will surprise me with the force of it’s emotional hold. The Impossible Truths of Love is one such novel and I have to say, it stirred up a lot of mixed emotions and has left its mark upon me in a way that now has me waving it around as a must read.

Grief and trauma bleed into a situation where Annie is made to feel as though she is an unreliable narrator of her own life by those who love her and professionals who should know better. The situation as outlined within this story gives credit to the argument that once a person has been diagnosed with a mental illness, this will forever weigh in against them, discrediting them and dismissing their concerns, even long after they have been pronounced well. The way in which Annie was treated after the birth of her fourth child was shameful, even more so on account of its plausibility. I have to say, her husband’s lack of faith in her and his eagerness to just go along with the nurses and doctors instead of stopping and listening to his wife was worse even than the dismissal and patronisation she faced from the medical staff. I was angry at him for his assistance in the creation of a situation that could have entirely been avoided. I can see why things were never really the same between them thereafter.

‘Grief, she is learning, is love’s echo: it is not possible to have one without the other.’

This whole family was broken. Nell was treated very badly by her eldest sister Clare, who even when I (in hindsight) considered the family dynamics and what was going on at key times throughout Clare’s upbringing, I still found her to be a thoroughly unlikeable and entirely unpleasant woman. Laura, the middle sister, was a lot more grounded and easier to like, which just goes to show that two people can have the same unsettled upbringing but turn out entirely different in terms of the effect it has on them. I liked Nell as a character, enjoyed travelling this journey with her, and I really sympathised with what she uncovered about her own history and the decisions she was consequently faced with as a result. It’s not something anyone would ever dream of having to deal with and consequently, it’s impossible to really know how you would handle such a situation yourself if ever faced with it.

The Impossible Truths of Love is one I highly recommend to those who enjoy reading thought provoking novels that really dig deep into their themes. It’s also a great one for showcasing characters who act in ways that we might deem wrong while still totally understanding why they have done so. This was a terrific novel, with its many shades of grey, and I will certainly be reading more from this author.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

This quiet, tender and beautifully written book is quite difficult to discuss without spoilers.

Written across 2 timelines ‘Now’ and ‘Then’, it traces the lives of Nell and of Annie and Bill, looking at love within families: parental love, filial love and the challenges of siblings and of grief.

A beautiful book that deals with difficult subjects sensitively and wisely. Highly recommended.

This book begs the question: what does it really mean to be family? Is it genes, shared experiences, or something more? While on his deathbed, Nell’s father makes a pronouncement that makes Nell question her entire life up until that point. And unfortunately for Nell, her mother, Annie, is suffering from dementia and losing her memories by the day. Nell goes in search of answers while her mom continues to add to her confusion with more cryptic comments.

The Impossible Truths of Love alternates between Nell’s search in the current day and Annie’s trauma thirty five years in the past. As we follow these two women’s lives, the reader moves more closely to the truth of the events that brought these two together in the first place.

I found this to be an incredibly quick read and I didn’t anticipate how it would end. Author Hannah Beckerman seamlessly switches between the perspectives of the two women while framing the nuances of what we do to protect those we love most. Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.

The Impossible Truths of Love is beautifully written. The characters are thoroughly believable and the storyline is engaging. I stayed up late to finish it because I felt completely absorbed in the story and invested in Nell's story. It's raw and emotional at times and the tension builds nicely. I was a bit disappointed by the abrupt ending, otherwise it would have been a solid 5-star rating.

A book about family and secrets, full of powerful emotions and thoughts!
I struggled at times with the emotional aspect, very confronting and heavy.
Overall a gripping story to immerse yourself into, very thought provoking!

Thanks so much to Amazon Publishing and Hannah Beckerman for the opportunity to read this book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.