I’m delighted today to be helping launch the blog tour for It’s Time to Let Me Go by Cheryl Waters, and sharing my review: independently published, this lovely summer read is now available for kindle and in paperback via Amazon in the UK and US. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the author for my reading e-copy.
An author I haven’t read before, but I have to say that this was a book that really appealed to me from the moment Rachel’s email landed in my inbox – a holiday destination, a cast of older characters, living life to the full and making memories, just perfect! And I can see that it’s not Cheryl’s debut – and I’m rather sorry I missed both When Emma Came to Stay and In My Mother’s Footsteps when they were released because they both look like books I’d rather enjoy too.
Let’s take a closer look…
‘You’re doing what? You can’t go away on your own, Mum. Not at your age!’ It was ‘Not at your age’ that made Audrey decide that she was going away, even if it was the last-damned-thing-she-ever-did. She was a widow, not dead. Life must go on!
Olive has spent the last fifty years married to George, who has made it his life’s work to control every aspect of her day. What they ate. What she wore. Whom she spent time with. So, when her mother leaves her an inheritance, Olive seizes the chance to book her dream holiday. Will she be able to lay some memories to rest or does George have other ideas?
Lucinda, mother of teens, has lost her way since her ex cheated on her. It’s not so much Netflix and chill as Netflix and Sauvignon Blanc. Her loving, despairing widowed father persuades her to take a trip with him to Croatia, where he holidayed with her mother. With no better offers on the table, she reluctantly agrees to go.
As Audrey, Olive and Lucinda begin their holiday in beautiful Cavtat, one person’s misfortune begins to benefit them all. And as they become the most unlikely of friends, they realise that you are never too old to seize the day, to live life to the full and to make memories to last a lifetime.
A sunny afternoon in my garden, and this was a book that entirely engaged me from its opening pages – read in a single sitting, and when I finished I felt I’d been on a holiday of my own and made new friends who I was reluctant to leave behind. What an absolutely lovely read!
I really identified with Audrey, a widow having found the bravery to travel on holiday on her own at 77 – and to Cavtat in Croatia, the same hotel where she’d spent so many happy summers with her husband, meeting up with other couples who always chose the same weeks. There was so much I recognised about her airport and flight experience – the effort involved in ordering a cup of tea (thank goodness for Jack’s intervention – he’s a doctor, on his way to stay with his parents and work in the resort), the sense of pride in managing the boarding pass on her phone. Determined to make the most of her stay – but understandably worried about doing everything alone – she’s really delighted to find a familiar face in Samuel, also now widowed, and on holiday with his daughter Lucinda who was badly in need of an escape from her car crash of a life. And then there’s Olive – trapped in a desperately unhappy marriage for the last fifty years, using an inheritance from her mother to revisit a place that has many memories from her younger life, both happy and sad.
The author takes the time to build the individuals’ back stories, to bring them to life and make them real – and then we share their holiday experience, with a touch of drama, new friendships and a romance or two. The synopsis mentions “one person’s misfortune” – and I won’t spoil the story for anyone by saying more, but I thought it was quite wonderfully handled, with a particular authenticity to the complexity of the emotions involved. And that’s what I particularly loved about this book – every individual is so carefully drawn, a very real person who you grow to really care about.
The setting is so perfectly drawn too – I felt I was really there, sharing the ice creams and drinks and meals, along with a day trip to Dubrovnik where there’s another touch of unexpected misfortune for one of the characters. Emotionally, it’s all absolutely spot on – I really felt their joy in the new relationships, but also their moments of uncertainty, grief or pain. But there’s plenty of gentle humour too, with the whole narrative quite perfectly balanced. And running through it all, there’s the intriguing and slowly revealed story of Olive’s past – beautifully done, and its conclusion immensely satisfying.
I really loved this one – a complete holiday experience between its pages, individuals I really took to my heart, second chances aplenty, filled with warmth, and a central storyline that really kept the pages turning. A summer read I think so many readers – especially those of a certain age, like me – would very much enjoy, and an author I’d really like to read again.
About the author
Born in London, Cheryl grew up in Cheshire. Cheryl married Phil in 1991 and that same year they moved to Scotland where they both worked in Edinburgh & grew a family of two children. In 2011, with the young adults off at University, Cheryl’s dream of living in France became a reality.
Renovating an early 19th-century farmhouse, in 2014 Cheryl & Phil made the permanent move to the Creuse region of southwest France, opening their B&B.
Whilst Cheryl had talked of writing a novel for many years, between the demands of full-time work and all that comes with a young family, there never seemed to be the time.
Moving to France brought the opportunity of a (slightly) quieter lifestyle, and then Coronavirus arrived, pausing the world, halting the B&B and delivering long stretches of precious free time! So, one such time-led day, Cheryl typed an opening sentence into the computer. After eighteen months of writing, re-writing, and learning how to publish later the debut novel, In My Mother’s Footsteps was ready.
What was originally a dream to simply write a book “one day” had become a tangible result. Cheryl is now on her third, book due out this year, and plans to keep writing! If you would like to contact Cheryl, she would love to hear from you.
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