Cover Image: The Love of My Life

The Love of My Life

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Member Reviews

How well you really know the person you are sure you know the best of all people?
This is the question this novel deals with and maybe we all should explore this idea from time to time. Because there might be some blind spots, secrets untold from various reasons or even the things we do not know because our own hurts/behaviour/character prevents the other one to tell us. Or the secrets might simoly be too big, too overwhelming to tell anyone.

This novel explores the fascinating subject in very readable way. I well understood both the wife and the husband and even the side characters well. I could not help but to admire the wife’s strength, even if I would strongly recommend some counselling, because this would surely break her sooner or later (even if the novel does not deal with this aspect muchly).
I’d say much deeper look at the characters would be needed for this to be exceptional novel, but it is not a shallow story, neither - this is above average novel as it deals with very real and raw situation intelligently.

The narration is fine and enhanced the readability of the story nicely.

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I didn't download this in time so I waited to get it from my local library.

Emma, a marine biologist is married to Leo, an obituary writer and they have a daughter, Ruby. Emma has had a recent cancer diagnosis which is concerning everyone. Leo is devoted to Emma and his family. Emma is a hoarder and one evening Leo discovers a bag of papers in a room in their house that forces him to start questioning his wife and her past.

The audiobook was narrated by Imogen Church, and Theo Solomon and listening to it was a terrific decision. I thought it was narrated really well. Very clever and highly recommended. 😊🤞🎧

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I read a book by the author quite early in my blogging journey, and although it is not highly rated online, I found it brilliant. I read that in the physical version and loved the suddenness of things. I wanted to try this book out solely due to my prior experience with the author.
The author has a distinct writing style. She blurs the lines between a thriller and a 'women's fiction' for the lack of a better word to use. It is entirely obvious that the story narrated to us is not the whole truth. The question then is if an unreliable narrator is being used or if it's just the facts presented in that manner.
My biggest problem with this book was the length. I heard it on audio, and the narrators did a splendid job of setting the mood. Emma has an interesting career path. She is a relatively new mother, and her husband is extremely devoted to her. His career as an obituary writer was something new as well! Emma has had a repeat health scare in the beginning, and things start to spiral out of control with regard to the secrets that she has been holding close. Information is drip-fed to us over multiple days, and as things get from bad to worse, I was able to quite accurately guess the final twist. There are several, and I must admit one or two hoodwinked me till their reveal. The narrators' voices and their style, along with the general writing style of the author, are what carried the book for me. The final reveal was more than a little dissatisfying for someone like me (I so badly wanted to be wrong). I would not recommend this book over the other, but I will be picking up anything else the author writes.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my reading/listening experience of this and another book by the author.

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Great audiobook, really enjoyed it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

I really enjoyed this book jusg like I did this author authors

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Lovely story of somebody with a secret past life who is battling an illness and a secret life about to be exposed
3/5

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An interesting novel that makes you think about how much the secrets you keep from your partner affect your relationship.
Leo thinks Emma is the perfect partner for him, they have gone though so much together and their relationship is stronger then ever up until he stars noticing the little things in his wife's past that don't really make sense...
This is the perfect book for you if you're looking for a cozy and mundane family mystery/drama the stakes aren't high but the you can really feel the tension building up.
A special thumbs up to the audiobook actors, they really helped in conveying Leo and Emma's emotions with their performance.

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I just adore Rosie Walsh!
I loved the man who didn’t call and became completely absorbed and obsessed with this one too. I listened to this on audiobook and it just made the experience even more special. This gave me a serious book hangover.

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Emma is incredibly happy in life. She has met the man of her dreams, and together they have a cute little daughter and a fun dog.🤩
But Emma's past will come back to haunt her and she will have to face it and explain everything to Leo if she does not want to lose everything.😱

This mystery had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.😰
I had so many theories, and none of them were (completely) correct.😅
I was so intrigued and just wanted to keep on listening to get to the answers.🤓

There were a lot of instances where the end of a chapter had a "dun dun duuun" effect, and if this is used to often, it just becomes cheap in my eyes.😬
The use of cryptic sentences can bore quite quickly.🤨

I also quite enjoyed the audiobook version.😄
There are 2 narrators to voice the main characters.

This is a recommendation from me. If you can get your hands on the audiobook, go for it!💙

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The Love of my Life by Rosie Walsh was a winner for me. I was a big fan of The Man Who Didn’t Call which was Rosie’s debut, so I was sceptical about this one I won’t lie 🤔 Good job I enjoyed it hey?!!😂

This book focuses on married couples Emma and Leo, a long with young daughter Ruby. Emma loves her husband but she is basically one big lie 😅 When Emma’s past life comes knocking, she must show Leo that she is the woman he fell in love with, but what will he do?

I loved the page turner element with this one. Who is Emma? So many twists in this story which kept me on my toes. I had a love/hate relationship with Emma throughout the book. Do we really ever truly know the people we fall in love with?!! Gosh that’s deep and depressing so let’s move on…🙈😂
This book has suspense for sure, but its full of emotion and romance too. What a combo! It was a really thought provoking story and parts really did break my heart 💔 Gosh the ending got me…No spoilers! Such a well written book with plenty to talk about so would be a great bookclub choice I think.

The Love of my Life is out now and I recommend for fans of romance/mystery, if there is such a genre 😂

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#Theloveofmylife by #rosiewalsh is a love story and a mystery in one. It was difficult to predict due to all the twists and turns. It wasn’t as gripping as I would have liked, I kept pausing it and coming back to it having read other books in between.

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Just beautiful! I lapped up every second of the Audiobook version of The Love of My Life. The narration was perfect and the book itself broke my heart!

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The Love of my Life is a Romance and Mystery/Thriller mix which keeps you guessing throughout. With many a twist and turn and some important subjects make this an interesting and emotional read. Recommended.

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I really liked The Man Who Didn't Call so was delighted to find that Rosie Walsh had written a new book. This is the story of Leo and Emma and told in a dual narrative. Emma is a marine biologist, she has a young daughter and seems happy in her life although has had a recent cancer diagnosis which is playing on everyone's mind. Leo writes obituaries for a living and is devoted to his family. Emma is a bit of a hoarder and one room of their house is completely filled with junk and random odds and ends. One evening Leo discovers a bag of papers which starts his mind racing and causes him to question his wife and her past.

I won't say too much more about the plot. You'll know a little more from the blurb and the rest you'll find out as you read or listen yourself. I listened to the audiobook over a few weeks on my commute. The story is easy to get into and the narration is pleasant and nice to listen to. I really liked having alternative perspectives on the story and I like how there is suggestion to give you a chance to try and work things out without giving away every detail. I found some parts I had worked out but others that I wasn't expecting.

This is a very heartfelt story and is quite emotional in parts. It made me reflect upon a lot of aspects of motherhood and also sense of individuality outside of being a parent. I think this story would be a nice choice for a book group as there is a lot to talk about but it isn't so heavy going that would be off-putting. I thought it was a great read and I await the next book from Rosie.

Thank you for my ARC to listen to!

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Emma and Leo have been together for 10 years, they have a young daughter and are very much in love. Leo writes obituaries for a newspaper and when his wife has a health scare he is tasked with writing her stock obituary. As Leo investigates Emma's past he discovers she has been keeping secrets, secrets that could tear apart their relationship.

This is an emotional roller coaster and will appeal to readers/listeners of family dramas. The story begins well, told by two different narrators, Theo Solomon and Imogen Church. I really enjoyed having a male and a female narrator as it made it far easier to latch on to each characters part of the story.

Beginning on a high in the storyline you can feel the positive relationship between Emma and Leo. When Leo begins to investigate his wife's background you can understand his confusion and mistrust. Everything he thought he knew about Emma may be a lie. Leo continues to dig into Emma's past and I felt that the story began to drag a little at this point. With such a strong relationship mentioned at the beginning you just want Leo to talk to Emma and hear her explanation.

The story really picked up again in the final quarter of the story as we begin to piece together what happened in the past. Not only do we discover why Emma has so many secrets we also find out how other characters impacted on her life. The storyline isn't a comfortable one but it is handled with empathy.

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The writing itself is undeniably beautiful, and the relationship between Leo and Emma is wonderfully depicted, but this book just wasn't for me. Perhaps it was because I was going through a challenging time in my own life and felt a bit down, but the distinct lack of brevity in the book meant I started to feel a dread every time I picked up my headphones. I also couldn't pin down who this book was aimed at; in fact it felt as though the author struggled with this too. I listened to the audio book - on double speed and even then it felt ponderous.
At 40% in I gave up, but I would like to thank the publishers and NetGalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

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Emma and Leo are the perfect couple; everyone says so. They'd do anything for each other and their young daughter. But everything Emma has told Leo about herself is a lie.

After Emma, a well-known marine biologist, is diagnosed with a serious illness, Leo leans into what he does best. As an obituary writer, he writes about people's lives so he can't stop himself from doing the same for his wife. But the further he investigates, the more he unravels of Emma's life. The woman he loves doesn't exist; not even her name. When the darkest details of her life come to light, Emma has to tell him about the love of her other life.

I don’t know anything, other than it’s only when something’s damaged beyond repair that we realise how beautiful it was. 94%

There isn't a single character in this book that one doesn't care for, understand or empathise with. It's the driving force of the story and pulls at every single heartstring.

It begins with a secret that few know which is skirted around by many. Thankfully it's well-paced so quickly starts sharing details, meaning that, by the end of the book, it has delivered a beautifully well-rounded story. It respects the messy nature of people and explores the depth of the consequences of actions, no matter how understandable the intentions are. As such, one feels desperate to give these characters both a hug and a slap.

The narration is brilliant from both Church and Solomon. There are some difficult subject matters but they complement Walsh's writing style well, finding a balance between the sweet, silly humour and the gut-wrenching sadness.

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* I have added content warnings for this story at the end of my review, but some are inevitably spoilers so please proceed with caution *

Emma and Leo have a seemingly perfect marriage, even though they've been through fertility issues leading to IVF and the birth of their daughter, then a cancer diagnosis for Emma. Leo, a writer of obituaries, has been insistent on preparing one 'just in case' to file away and hopefully not be used until long into the future. But Emma, a marine ecologist, has a secret past. One that begins to merge into her present as her lies are revealed.

I really loved this book. The storytelling was compelling and the POVs all worked extremely well to build the suspense. I was hooked almost immediately and really enjoyed hypothesizing the outcomes of several twists and turns. I did ultimately guess the main ones but they were no less impactful. I found both Leo and Emma incredibly likable and authentic, which only made their POVs more emotional. I cried a LOT in the second and third parts. The supporting characters were also well-rounded. There's so much else I would love to say about this story, but almost all of it would spoil the book. I received an eARC plus an advanced copy of the audiobook. I found the narration of both Emma (Imogen Church) and Leo (Theo Solomon) extremely compelling. In particular, those events at university were voiced in an incredibly visceral way, and if you get the opportunity I would highly recommend the audiobook.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to leave an honest review*

Overall rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Heat Rating: n/a

Emotional Rating: 🥰😬💔😭😭💔💓

cw: detailed descriptions of mental illness, post-partum depression, bereavement, alcoholism, suicidal ideation, and infertility

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The love of my life

Wow! What a breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreaking story. I was left speechless and with tears streaming down my face.
I cannot begin to tell you the rollercoaster of emotions I went through whilst reading this.
My feelings toward every character changed nearly as often as I turned the page. In particular, I went from not liking a character to feeling my heart shatter for them. And in the same breath, my feelings toward another changed too.

It’s a story of true love in all its forms and the inner struggles we all go through when trying to protect, not only the ones we love but ourselves from the trauma and pain that our past holds.

I loved being able to listen to the story via audio as I felt like I was this unseen presence in Emma, Leo & Ruby’s lives, watching silently whilst their lives begin to unravel with the resurfacing of a past long forgotten.

But was it truly forgotten or just buried deep?
Will their lives ever be the same again? Or is it the beginning of the end?
You’ll only know if you read this spectacular book.

A real page-turner with a plethora of twists and turns and revelations. I was completely enthralled.

I can promise you one thing, your heart may ache, but there is also an abundance of funny, loving and tender moments that will soothe that ache with a healing balm of hope.

Thank you, NetGalley & MacMillian UK Audio, for the gift of the audiobook in return for an honest review.

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This was my first one by this author , but I am going to look for the previous book.
I listened to the audiobook and once I started, I couldn’t stop and I finished it at 3am this morning as I couldn’t settle until I knew what happened.
Oh what a tangled web we weave! The story just grew and grew to a beautiful ending.
I loved how it was written, it was just like someone was telling me their life story as it was so good.
Perfect whilst ill with the dreaded Covid.

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