I honestly don’t have the words to describe just how beautiful and moving I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This is. It’s raw and honest, giving a real world view of not only child loss but of any kind of grief that leaves us feeling as if our world has ended.

Clare Mackintosh is open and brutally honest about the devastation she felt after the loss of her son, making the reader feel as though it really is okay to feel any and every emotion when you are in the midst of grief.

But this isn’t only a book about grief, it’s also about hope and how life can and does move forward, all while keeping your loved one with you. Yes, life is now different to how you thought it would be, but it is still life and there isn’t anything wrong with feeling happiness again. It doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten your child, your grandchild, parents, spouse or anyone else you’ve lost.

It really is okay to allow yourself to live - and yes, as painful as it is, it won’t always hurt like this.

Thank you, Clare. Thank you for sharing your story with us and for making us feel so less alone.

An absolutely stunning read that will stay with me always. There aren’t enough stars in the world that could ever do this beautiful book justice.

Highly recommended.

My thanks to little Brown Book Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of “ I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This “ for an honest review.

I must admit it’s taken me a while to start to read this book , as I’ve had 2 family bereavements over the past year and I didn’t know how reading it would affect me.I needn’t have been concerned
.Im a long time reader of Clare MacKintosh,’s fiction books and I know what an excellent writer she is .This book is full of empathy and compassion and very bravely written by her .
This has been really helpful to me and I’m sure it will be very helpful to others who read it.

A book I would recommend for anyone grieving. Written so open and honestly from the heart. I suddenly felt all my feelings were shared and it was like talking with a good friend.

This book made me SOB.
So beautiful, brave and poignant. If you are living with grief, you want to read this, just go into it with a handful of tissues.

I adored this book! As someone who has recently had a bereavement I found it really interesting. I was worried it might be a bit niche but I love Clare's writing and this was just a fascinating read from a non fiction point of view, providing some background information about Clare's life. I found that even if you weren't bereaved, there is still plenty to enjoy and take away from this book!

I Promise It Won't Always Hurt Like This - 18 Assurances on Grief by Clare Mackintosh was a very hard book to read and took me a while to read it as well.......One day at a time, I picked this book up and read some more.
This latest book by Claire was written from her heart and I just want to hug her. Especially as it's a very personal that Claire wrote about her journey of her own grief and how she dealt and still dealing with it now.

Grief happens to everyone and everyone deals with it differently. This book helped me a lot with the sudden death of my Grandad 18 yrs ago which is still painful today and my mum who recently died.

You will need Boxes of tissues when you read I Promise It Won't Always Hurt Like This - But I am so glad I did.

Thank you, Clare Mackintosh for sharing your own story - Sending big hugs your way

Big Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks nonfiction for my ARC.

This book is one that I think everyone should read. We are all touched by grief at some point in our lives. I sadly lost my mum very suddenly in 2021 and even 3 years later the grief is still so raw.
This book is such a heartfelt and honest look at grief, a great step away from “the stages of grief” that make people feel like everything has to happen in order when it isn’t like that in reality at all.
The author has put so much of herself into these pages. A beautiful, moving and honest book.

Just exquisite. Part of my job involves working with bereaved students and supporting them while they grieve; this book offers so much in simple, accessible and comforting ways.
I didn't read this in one sitting, it's not a book to devour but a book that I read and reflected upon whilst contemplating the various people I've lost and grieve for, and realise how much of this speaks to us all.
I've never read anything so personal before, or anything that made me feel so connected to a writer - as though I was sitting across from her, with a cup of tea and listening to her talk. Honestly one of the most beautiful books I've ever read and one that I will keep in my office for anyone who needs to know that they won't always feel like this.

In "I Promise It Won't Always Hurt Like This," Clare Mackintosh delivers a poignant and heartfelt exploration of grief that resonates deeply with readers facing loss. I picked up this book, knowing I was about to embark on a journey of grief myself, Mackintosh's honest and compassionate writing style immediately drew me in.

Mackintosh approaches the subject of grief with a tender understanding, offering comfort and reassurance to those navigating through the tumultuous waves of sorrow. Through her words, she acknowledges the rawness of emotions, yet gently reminds us that there is hope beyond the pain. I found solace in Mackintosh's words. Once I had experienced my loss, her insights provided a guiding light through the darkness, offering a sense of companionship in the midst of my loneliness.

Over the years I've suffered grief in many ways and it left me devastated and wondering why others didn't process grief in the same way as I did.
I Promise It Won't Always Hurt Like This was for me a retrospective way to take my past griefs out and have a good look at them, safe in the knowledge that the book's title is true.
The book is written in an almost conversational tone, so it felt like I was exploring my grief with a friend, whilst preparing myself for future griefs - because they'll come - no one is immune to grief.

Clare put such a lot of herself into this book and I applaud her for being brave enough to do so as so many of her experiences resonated with my, whilst others gave me a depth of understanding/appreciation of the different ways in which grief is processed.

Each promise is beautifully encapsulated in personal memories, honesty, sensitivity and ultimately cushioned in hope.
Beautiful and thoughtful.
Thanks you so much for writing this!

This book is written from the heart, from someone who knows how grief can tear you apart. Many, many people will relate to every single word. Amazing writing.

A beautifully written, thought provoking book. We all suffer grief at some point in our life and Clare manages to explain that we arent alone, and that, yes the pain will ease in time. Some very wise words in this book that will stay with me for a long time

This book is beautiful.
Its emotional, raw and honest, and refreshing to be put in the shoes of someone who can really undertsand the topic becasue they ve been through it, and survived.

I’ve been wanting to read this book as soon as I heard it was coming out. I got a quarter way through and had to stop. Not because of the book but it was the wrong time for me to ready his having recently lost my dad to dementia. I will pick this up again at a better time

The writing so far has no fault

I have always loved Clare Mactintosh's writing. Having lost both my parents - one of those losses being a sudden death from a RTA - I believed I knew what grief felt like. I began to read this book whilst staying with my 47 year old sister in a hospice as she received end of life care for metastatic cervical cancer. I concluded this book in the days after my little sister's death.
This book was so relatable, so intuitive of my feelings and helped me realise I wasn't going mad. I thought I knew what grief was, we'd wakes side by side together before, then my baby sister diex.
I will be buying this book for my niece to guide her Through her loss.

This is such a brave and generous book. Clare Mackintosh writes with such honesty and compassion; it feels like a long, late-night phone call with your kindest, wisest friend - and a book to press into the hands of that friend who is in the eye of the storm, and you can't find the right words for.

I received a copy of this from Netgalley and the publisher Little Brown in return for an honest review, thank you. I also purchased a beautiful personally signed copy too which I received on release day with a special message from Clare.
This book is beautiful. I cried, I smiled, I laughed, and I hurt reading it. But it was something that was needed. Clare talks about losing her twin son at only 5 weeks old, add having to navigate life and grief while still raising her twin boy who survived. And it’s not pretty most of the time. She talks in raw detail about the grief, the sadness, not being able to get out of bed, wondering how she could carry on and love her children while she has so much loss in her heart.
We all have loved and lost, and we will go through it all again. I have lost people, but losing My Grandma back in 2004 when I was 19 hit me the worst of all. It’s something I still struggle with sometimes, but it does get easier with time, it just never goes away.
I can’t even imagine losing a child, my heart broke for Clare reading this, and I cried multiple times. But this book is so honest, I really think anyone can read it and relate to different parts throughout. I highlighted so many parts in the ebook, and one quote that stood out to me massively was this:
A goodbye is more than a moment, and you’ll find the right time – and the right way – to say yours.
Only I know how and why this resonated with me so much, but it’s true.
Clare, thank you for writing this, thank you for sharing your story with us all. I know Alex would be extremely proud of you.

This book will make you cry but also provide comfort and reassurance. I cannot imagine the extent of the heartbreak experienced by Clare Mackintosh; this book seeks to walk alongside the bereaved, and help hold the emotional load. Utterly profound and thought-provoking.

I Promise It Won't Always Hurt Like This is a memoir by fiction author Clare Mackintosh, detailing eighteen promises for the journey of grief, following the tragedy of losing her five week old son eighteen years ago and then her father not long after. If you've read any of her fiction books you will see that she's an incredible author who captures so much emotion and compassion in her stories and this non-fiction is all that and more.

I've not read many memoirs but I knew I needed to read this to see how she coped with grief and if it would help me in any way with my own grief. Most of us have lost someone dear at some point in our lives but how we cope with that loss is unique and there is no 'quick fix', we will always have someone giving well meaning advice or, in their mind, comforting words like 'they're in a better place' or 'at least they're no longer suffering' but they're just words and they didn't help me when I lost my brother nine months ago after a short illness because, yes he's no longer suffering but he's not in a better place, he had so much to look forward to in life and that was cruelly snatched from him and his loved ones. I am so glad that Clare was able to write this book, a raw insight into her loss which has certainly resonated with me, I felt her pain in every chapter and I'm sure it will help many more people for a long time to come, I hope, in time, that it won't always hurt like this. I would urge anyone that has lost a loved one to read this book, and anyone that hasn't, I would still urge you to read it because it may just help you to help someone else.

I'd like to thank Little Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for the auto approval, I will post my review on Amazon and Goodreads.

Like most people, I am no stranger to grief. Both my parents were already dead before I turned 18, and over the following decades I had a miscarriage, lost grandparents, various other relatives and a close friend. I could definitely have done with this book to help me through the worst of the desperately sad and difficult days when the loss/losses sometimes felt unbearable. I have read and loved all of Clare’s previous books, but of course knowing a little of her story, I knew this one would be different, as indeed it was. She writes so movingly of the tragic loss of her son; I could feel her raw, agonising grief on every page. My own son, also called Alex, turned 18 last year; the day after his birthday, a drunk driver drove at great speed into our parked cars. Alex had arrived home from a night out with friends just five minutes before this incident. Our cars were both written off, but nobody was injured; cars can be replaced, as they subsequently were, but people cannot be. For weeks afterwards, I was haunted by what could have been, and at how unthinkably terrible the consequences may have been if the timing had been different. Thank you Clare for this beautiful, poignant, special and very important book that I already know I will be gifting widely in the future.
With grateful thanks to NetGalley, Little Brown Group and Clare Mackintosh for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.