I’ll be extremely honest since I was given an eARC (well.. audiobook more like it) but I knew within the first 5 minutes that somehow the narrator didn’t felt like a voice match (to me) for the story. It was read too slow (sure, you can speed but it does alter the tone) and it had me DNF’g at around 40%. Made me wonder if I would’ve stuck to it had i had the physical copy /:

This started off slow for me and then there was a lot going on. Daisy had a mother who left her as a young child and is still dealing with that as an adult. Her found family and the bakery they all run together has many issues. Her losing her job and ending a relationship. Her getting a journal and finding out a lot of information from that. I will say listening on audio all the people in the journal were a bit confusing. I wanted to know the story of Susie but there were a lot of extra characters for me in the journal. This story was about a woman finding herself and I enjoyed it.

4.25⭐️
It’s always interesting when a book is republished and you can look back at reviews from the original.
This book was initially published in 2013 and one of the biggest criticisms was the casual use of swear words. It makes me want to get an old copy to see the differences to see how much the book was updated and edited (which it was).

I expect it may have used the feedback and reduced the amount of using the swear words because while they were present it wasn’t gratuitous or in excess. But I do wonder how much was reduced or if most was kept but looking at it with 2025 sensibilities that it’s not a big deal? I mention that because reading reviews can seem strange on a republished book since some folks may look to compare pub dates.

Anyway… I consumed the audiobook and the narrator Moniqua Plante did a good job with her performance. It was a touch slow at the 1x speed where it didn’t come off as natural speech. Sort of drawn out a bit and sleepy. But thankfully you can adjust the speed and doing so made it quite enjoyable. It could easily be listened to at 2x and was perfectly understandable and allowed it to be consumed in under 5 hours. She also did a good job with the different characters voices. She was consistent in the characters as did a great job with children’s voices.

The story was a mix of uplifting and heartbreaking depending on how you looked at things. While there was a romance component, I would definitely describe this book as a Women’s Fiction as it explores the FMCs life as she learns about herself, her family and comes to terms with her place in life. This book would make for a great book club read as there is a lot that could be discussed. I also loved the historical parts by the way of letters and research and how things connected to the present.

This book rereleases on June 24th, 2025. It’ll make for a great summer read!


I am thankful to have gotten a complimentary audio ALC from Brilliance Audio through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

Very heartfelt and precious!
Started off a bit slow but it understandable because it covers a lot back story from why her mother left, finding herself and fitting in to her new found family after so many years. It gives you hope of no matter what your past circumstances were or how your life falls apart you can always find where you belong!