The Single Dad’s Handbook

You know it’s gonna be a five star review when you’ve read a whole book in a day!!!!

This book is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!!!!!!!! I loved every single page of it and Evan is my hero! 

@lynseygram has created a beautiful masterpiece that is up there for me with “PS I Love You” it is just exquisite. I love how Claire has left letters for her husband to navigate him through this tricky world that is parenting and Lynsey has dealt with it in the most beautiful way. Her writing style is gorgeous and I’m frantically buying more books of hers on my kindle!!

Gorgeous, gorgeous book 💕

Wow what a story.

This is a sad yet at the same, time happy book. I love the father daughter relationship between little Violet and Evan.

The reason the book was called this is apparent fairly early on and its lovely and sad at the same time.

It's good that Evan realises he needs a bit of help sometime. I think families with children where both parents are around is diffident enough but when you're parenting on your own that must be so hard, not knowing if what you're doing it in your child's best interests etc.

This is a wonderful story the author has cleverly injected humour into what seems to be a very difficult subject. Grief and loss affect everyone differently. Even little Violet feels it in her own way.

I really liked that Evan was building up courage with the help of his Late wife Claire. He just went and did it and thought about it afterwards. You really get a sense of how Evan is feeling through the words in the book and I always think that's amazing think, to evoke such emotion with written word, it's like magic.

Fantastic, will recommend this to my friends and family.

Evan is the single dad referred to in the title.  Two years previously his wife Claire died of cancer and he has been left bereft and trying to raise his daughter on his own.  He has good friends and his mother is a life-saver but fundamentally it is down to Evan to get it right.  One problem,  two years on and he is still mourning the death of Claire and feels guilty because he knows he needs to do better in the care of his daughter, Violet.

‘Time to move on’ is the current theme of family and friends – but he cannot.  He is stuck, tired and stressed.  To top it all his best friend, Hannah, who had vowed to be with him every step of the way, decided to go travelling and so she did – leaving him lonely and angry with her.  Now she has returned but he wants nothing to do with her – bearing a grudge.

Claire was obviously lovely because she was aware of how it would be for Evan and so she prepared a ‘handbook; a series of letters to Evan that will help him to raise their daughter, and know how she would have handled certain situations.  Like ‘first day at school’.  I am sure you will get the picture – because we have seen these kind of structures before.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It is really sad in places, but very funny in others.  The balance is perfect and although it may be considered predictable – so what?  It is comforting.

By-the-way, did I mention that Evan runs ghost tours in Edinburgh now that’s not predictable at all!

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Well this book sucked me in from the start.
I know, with it touching on cancer and death, this can be a hard read for some people but believe me when I say it was done with great care and attention. Very subtle mentions of it and very delicately. 
The main characters are Evan, Claire, Violet and Hannah
All I can say about Violet is... I love her! She is such a funny, quirky, cute and caring little lady. She had me laughing out loud!
Evan is a great guy who has lost his way a little bit and Hannah is his best friend. His wife has died of cancer before the book starts so no spoilers here!
All in all a solid 5 ⭐ for me 
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers and the author for the privilege to read this book for my honest opinion

Evan is struggling. His much loved wife, Claire died two years ago of cancer. He is left to bring up his now five year old daughter. As she is about to start school he has to admit that everything is getting too much. Before Claire died she wrote him a number of letter to be read as different circumstances arose. Although he had been reluctant to look at them he finds comfort in them & in writing letter to Claire. Can they really help to drag him back to life- not just for his sake, but for Violet too?  Claire sounded such a lovely person I found I was almost grieving her death too!

This could have been sickly sentimental but it wasn't. It was a sweet story with both laughter & tears. Evan was very lucky to have such a strong support group that had the sense & compassion to help him find his own way forward. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book. It is one I won't forget in a hurry.

What a journey this has been  such an incredible story of life, loss and love 
I laughed and I cried and I had to step away few times si I can recharge batteries and start again 
This is definitely a five star for me and if it were not for life getting in the way I would have read it in one day 
Evan is my hero!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy. 

A very well told story, of Evan. His wife, fed, of cancer, 2 years ago. He’s left taking care of their daughter. Even though, he’s trying to hold things together for them, it’s not been easy. 

Claire, before she passed away, wrote a series of and now, Evan refers to these .

It’s a story that’s full of emotions, grief, given the storyline, along with that there’s also some funny moments and difficult times.  

Reading this you go through what Evans going through. Around him, are a good people to help him and his daughter.