#BlogTour ‘Because Of You’ by Dawn French

About the book….

The old millennium turns into the new.

In the same hospital, two very different women give birth to two very similar daughters.

Hope leaves with a beautiful baby girl.

Anna leaves with empty arms.

Seventeen years later, the gods who keep watch over broken-hearted mothers wreak mighty revenge, and the truth starts rolling, terrible and deep, toward them all.

The power of mother-love will be tested to its limits.

Perhaps beyond . . .

I am so very grateful to Kealy from FMcM Associates and Michael Joseph Books for inviting me on the blogtour for ‘Because Of You’, and for my gifted review copy of this rather special novel, available now at all good bookshops.

At a time when everyone was looking forward, and the unknown was so exciting, one family have everything in front of them whilst the other has a vast expanse of endless loss.

The humanity with which Dawn paints her characters is achingly true to life that I feel absolutely ashamed to have not read any of her other fiction works. She makes her pages sing with an essential and fundamental truth about the human condition that draws you in and keeps you close. It feels like a great enveloping hug of a book . She pulls apart and puts back together the fabric of families who feel disjointed, unwelcome, disconnected and unloved, and the fundamental truth of the pull of friendship, and love between mothers and daughters ,is inescapable and beautifully displayed.

I am totally unsurprised that this was long listed for the Women’s Prize , it is one of those books you buy for your friends, because you won’t want to let yours out of sight. It deals with uncomfortable issues which touch on the very essence of modern womanhood and is one of the finest novels I have read this year.

*Hugest of apologies to the publishers and author for the delay in reading/reviewing, the copy came a couple of days prior to my tour slot and I have struggled lately to fully push myself into reading and focussing on any book. Anyone following me on Twitter will see I have tried to share my colleagues reviews but have not written any reviews in a while because a half hearted, stab in the dark review, is absolutely not what anyone who manages to get a book published deserves. So hugest of apologies for this delay!*

About the author…

Dawn Roma French is a British actress, writer and comedian. In her career spanning three decades, she has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards and also won a Fellowship BAFTA along with her best friend Jennifer Saunders. She is best-known for starring in and writing her comedy sketch show, French and Saunders, alongside her comedy partner Jennifer Saunders, and for playing the lead role of Geraldine Granger in the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley