Reviewed by Amy Sheehan
Since I Don’t Have You is based on a sad premise. Rachel, Mariel and Jenny are best friends who share everything, and their children Emma, Catherine, and Daisy are best friends too. The women make a promise that they will look after each other’s daughters if anything should ever happen to one of them. It never crosses their minds that tragedy could strike elsewhere.
Then the unthinkable happens and Rachel’s life is changed forever. Unable to continue in her marriage to husband Oliver, she leaves him and her friends behind to start a new life on the Greek island of Santorini. There, with the help of new friends Eleni and Ingrid, she slowly starts to rebuild her existence. At the same time, she keeps in contact with the past by hiring a private investigator, Johnny Palmer, so she can keep watching over Catherine and Daisy, and secretly intervene in times of crisis. The interaction between Rachel and Johnny was especially touching and beautifully written.
The book reminded me quite a bit of Cecelia Ahern’s PS I Love You, apart from the writing being more mature; and instead of Rachel receiving guidance in the form of letters from a guardian angel, she is the one guiding others, acting as guardian angel to the children she left behind. Throughout the book, the reader also learns why Rachel chose Santorini of all places for her retreat, as well as about her family’s history with the island, especially linked to the earthquake there in 1956.
Like PS, it has a hopeful, if bittersweet, ending, and the descriptions of Greece are beautiful. This and the gentle, relaxing pace of the book would probably make it a good holiday novel. It’s not just a book about grief and coming to terms with loss; it’s about searching for your path in life; celebrating friendship, and finding out ways to be happy. It’s a very moving, well-written, inspirational read.
Rating: 4/5
Like this? Try My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson
