All Our Missing Pieces by Sophie Ranald offers an atmospheric and character-driven story set within the crumbling walls of a Georgian house filled with secrets. As Orla inherits her grandmother’s home, she opens its doors to three lodgers, each bringing their own complexities and emotional baggage. The slow unraveling of Orla's long-held secret creates an undercurrent of tension that carries the narrative forward.

Ranald does a lovely job building the house into a character itself—its creaks, hidden corners, and layered history add richness to the story. The evolving relationships between the housemates are tender and believable, and the themes of found family, healing, and forgiveness are handled thoughtfully.

However, the pacing feels uneven at times, and some of the character arcs could have been more deeply explored to deliver a stronger emotional punch. While the mystery element is intriguing, the resolution may feel a bit predictable for some readers. Still, All Our Missing Pieces remains an enjoyable, quietly compelling read for fans of domestic fiction and slow-burn family dramas.

A reasonable read, set in a house in London. Orla has inherited a house, but it needs a lot of renovation. She takes in two lodgers and is then joined by a third. All seem to have complicated lives, Beatrice is adopted and looking for her birthmother, Luke has recently split up from a girlfriend with whom he shareda flat and Livvie has problems with her parents and in a flatshare. The book documents their lives as they live together and is told from 3 points of view. I spent the first few chapters trying to sort out who the narrator was at that time and it changed mid-chapter, though that became easier to distinguish as the book progressed. I did not really feel that all the characters were fleshed out either. Luke was too two-dimensional for me and Beatrice seemed to undergo a personality transplant .Orla is fairly mysterious, there is a secret which is revealed during the book and exchanged for another. I suppose feelings are fairly well described but I am not sure about some of the reasoning.
I thought the book got better as it progressed and I started to enjoy it more too. A good holiday read, though there is a more serious side to it.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC

This is the first book I have read by this author. This was just an okay book for me. I felt like the story did not mesh well and it was difficult to figure out which character’s point of view I was reading until I was well into the chapter. The ending was not managed well and ended without there being any resolution for the cast of characters. That definitely takes away from my pleasure in reading a book. So me, this one was a meh, but I think there are enough positive reviews that you may want to explore whether you would enjoy the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

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Family

Thanks @netgalley , the author & publisher for the ARC.

This book is about 4 people, who are strangers who end up living together and the secrets that change their lives. I started off enjoying it, but then by the second half, it just felt like it was being dragged out.
It's a dual storyline from multiple perspectives, which for me I just found a bit too much to keep up with, as well as a bit strange that some chapters were 3rd person, some were 1st person. It all felt a bit haphazard/disjointed, which having read this author before, I know her writing not to be. Had this not been an ARC, I personally think I would've DNF'd it and maybe gone back to it at a much later date.

Loved the sound of this story when reading the blurb. Unfortunately the story is slightly disjointed with all the different pov and dual time zones left me confused as to who is which pov and storyline.
I finished the story wondering how I’d have felt if this was my life

This book had me a bit confused in the first bit. As we were still learning the main few characters, it felt confusing to decipher who each chapter was about. It felt a tad slow in the beginning but then the story became a very beautiful story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book so much that I read it in one sitting. I loved the characters and their growth. I also enjoyed the storyline and the "friendly" ghost. I would definitely recommend this book.

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book and I think these characters and this storyline had some real potential! Unfortunately, the story as a whole did not work for me. I was most thrown off by the structure of the book: each chapter rotates through the perspective of 3 out of the 4 main characters (we never get one character's point of view, which I was curious about and would've added something quite interesting to this story), but the chapters aren't labeled with the characters' names, so you have to figure it out from context clues or from the constantly changing POV. One character's story was told through 3rd person POV, one through 1st person, and one was 1st person but through journal entries? As a reader, this was quite difficult for me to follow. I enjoyed the British setting, especially around Christmastime in the book, and there were some humorous moments between these characters/roommates. Overall, I felt disconnected from the characters and confused by the disjointed plot and narrative structure. I'm glad I got to read an ARC of this book, and I would consider reading something else by this author to see if her other books are more my style.

I thought this book was interesting but could have been a little bit more. One of the characters, Orla had had to give up her baby at birth due to the social pressures at the time in Ireland, and we’re not talking 1950s, but mid 1980s. This is the mainstay of the book but I felt could have been given more depth. The baby, Beatrice, now an adult sets out to find her birth mother. I don’t know whether it was Sophie Ranald’s intention, but I didn’t connect or like Beatrice and therefore found it difficult to connect with the story.

This author is new to me and I found I did like the book for the most part, especially since it didn't end exactly the way I thought it would. However, there were parts of the book I had issues with, like undeveloped characters and some events just seemed a little preposterous. The author did leave room for a follow-up, but I don't know that the plotline would sustain another whole book.

One thing that makes the story a little difficult is that the chapters are told by the three females' points of views and it's not immediately clear whose voice it is. Also, when a character is thinking or relaying a conversation, it isn't illustrated by italics or punctuation and this is such a pet peeve of mine.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read and review a digital copy of this book. All opinions expressed are mine and freely given.

This is a 3.5 star book for me.

I am usually a huge fan of Sophie Ranald and was so grateful for the advanced copy of ‘All our missing pieces’ , I was so excited to dive into this! Unfortunately I found this book really quite confusing and difficult to get into and I found myself really having to push myself to persevere and continue with it. I did eventually finish it but wasn’t particularly amazed by it and didn’t think it was the best story of Ranalds I’ve ever read.

1⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an advanced copy of All Our Missing Pieces.

Orla has inherited her grandmothers home and to make ends meet she takes in roommates. They are all in search of something in their life.

This book was so hard to get into and it was just all over the place. I was not a fan.

This book was not a very good book. I did not really enjoy it at all. For me it was very difficult to really get into and to follow along. It is probably great for other people but really didn’t keep my attention. Thank you for the opportunity to allow me to read this book.

All Our Missing pieces was a decent book. It did take me a little bit to get in to it, but overall, I did enjoy it.

- 5/5 Stars 🌸
- 1/5 Fade to black 🌶️
- Content: Adoption
- Dual timeline, multi POV, found family, family secrets
- “Only I hold the answer, the truth. And I do not know what I will do with it.”

🌸 My brain was constantly working while reading this one, just the way I like it. There were hidden secrets just waiting to be found, and they appeared at some of the most unexpected moments. I loved catching all the tidbits of info and piecing them together along the way.

The four main characters had such beautiful growth and development along the way. I fell in love with all of them in one way or another. I laughed with them and also hurt with them (especially the bomb drop in Ch. 55 🤯). The relationships between all of the four MC’s grew and developed and changed drastically throughout, which gave such insight into who these people are. Each one had such unique stories and they all complemented each other in ways I never expected.

I found myself going back after reading certain chapters to previous ones to make sure I was actually piecing it all together properly, and that’s the best to me, when I always want more. I didn't expect it to end on SUCH a cliffhanger, but it definitely has me wanting another book to continue their stories, but in another sense, it ended just as it should.

If you like secrets, trying to figure them out before its over, as well as some wonderful character development, this is 100% for you.

🌶️ Very tame here 🤗only light inference of certain themes!

This book was absolutely wonderful, it was my first from Sophie Ranald, and I am so very impressed. The story was told so beautifully and still has me waiting for more. She has become an auto-buy author for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC of this book!

When Orla inherits an old house from her grandmother, she ends up living there with three other people—Beatrice the American, Luke the handyman and Livvie who wants a new start. The point of view changes with each chapter, without notice, I might add, so it was confusing because you don’t know what character you’re reading about. It was hard to get into the book; usually, different points of view let me get into the characters’ heads, but I had a really hard time connecting with any of them. It was hard to find their unique voices.

Then there was the erratic storyline. The plot was formative. I was ticking off all the tropes used in my head as I read along. This story is about friendship, healing and starting over, which I appreciated, but I lost interest halfway through. I didn’t care what happened to these people. This is supposed to be a heartwarming story, and I didn’t find it that way at all. It was boring and predictable.

This is a very character-driven tale, but the characters are underdeveloped, and there isn’t enough emotional depth for my liking. I did like the fact that this book shows that you can have a family without being blood-related. The ending felt very rushed and unfinished. Like the title, there were missing pieces.

The third Sophie Ranald book I have had the pleasure of reading and quite a departure from the previous two books. This book used as it's background adoption and the effects and issues for an adopted child. The usual humour is thus watered down and it's place is a much more emotional book that I read in a day with great enthusiasm and enjoyment. Thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

Beatrice was adopted and lived the best life possible. But she goes on a search for her biological mother. I get that. However, there was not much to like about Beatrice in my opinion, and I found it hard to get into the story because of how unlikable she was. There was a somewhat interesting twist at the end regarding her family, but overall I was rather underwhelmed by this story.

Absolutely brilliant! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy, I will definitely be recommending it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of All Our Missing Pieces by Sophie Ranald, in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this captivating and heartfelt story of the choices we make and those made for us, of heartache and hope, and love and forgiveness.

The twist at the end could lead anywhere!

I look forward to reading more by Sophie Ranald!