#BlogTour ‘Love,Hope’ by Juliet Ann Conlin

About the book…

An unexpected letter. An unlikely friendship. A chance to start again.

Ever since she first picked up a violin, Hope Sullivan dreamed of going to music college, joining an orchestra and travelling the world with her best friend Janey. But when her parents were killed in a car accident on the way to one of her recitals, she gave it all up to look after her younger sister, Autumn. Ten years later, Janey is living their dream on her own, Autumn is flourishing as a doctor and Hope’s life is smaller and less musical than ever.

Arnold Quince had the happiest of lives – until he lost his beloved wife Marion. Once the life and soul of the village, he withdrew into his grief and pushed all his friends away. Now, five years on, he is sick, lonely and just counting down the years until he can be with Marion again.

When Hope and Arnold are pushed into writing to one another, neither has any idea how much their life is about to change.

Published on July 29th by Hodder in paperback, ‘Love,Hope’ is a wonderful novel of fresh starts, self forgiveness and moving on. I am absolutely thrilled to be a part of the Love Books Tours blog tour for this title!

This is such a gorgeous book, it is told in a conversational tone through letters, emails, texts and forms such as invoices, the central figure being Hope.

She is seen from early childhood, her letter writing correspondence begins with her fellow 6 year old , Janey, who is also going to the same musical school as her (Hope playing the violin and Janey the flute)

Through their letters, and, occasionally notes from the two girls’ mothers, we see them grow from burgeoning musicians to life long friends with dreams and aims to become world travellers, and concert musicians.

However, life does not go as planned-only one manages to fulfil her dream, Janey becomes an accomplished flautist whilst Hope finds herself the guardian of her younger sister, Autumn.

She puts her dreams, and her life, on hold whilst she pours all her energies into bringing up Autumn and instead works in a music shop until, having seen Autumn through her difficult teen phase. She is the one who links Hope with a patient of hers, the lonely Arnold who lives in a retirement home. They may be decades apart in age, but have a commonality in grief which brings them together. The letters which she started writing as a child begin again , and there are always more missives as,by the time the letters arrive, even more things have happened!
Adding in friends, the complications of dating (leading to some hilarious stories!) and recalcitrant pets along the way, Hope really feels that she has her hands full.

But what everyone around her, from Arnold to lifelong friends and even the reader can sense is that she needs to have her passion for music re-ignited again. And it happens in the most unexpected way….

This is such a lovely book, I related to Hope so much, she has the biggest heart and just wants the best for those she loves, to the detriment of her own feelings. It is warm, realistic and so very human, you can completely fall into the pages and lose yourself for hours, laughing and crying alongside Hope and Autumn. I loved the mystical tarot and astrological readings which nana Wilma sent from Australia (just how has she got 20,000 Instgram followers?!), the Sachertorte recipe which I am not at liberty to share (closely guarded family secret) and the list of inspirational violin pieces compiled for young learner Maisie.

Love, Hope, is how she signs of her letters and is also the central them of the book for everything about her is hopeful, and carried out with love.

About the author…

Juliet Conlin was born in London and grew up in England and Germany. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Durham. She works as a writer and translator and lives with her husband and four children in Berlin.

She writes in both English and German. Her novels include ‘‘The Fractured Man’‘ (Cargo, 2013), ‘‘The Uncommon Life Of Alfred Warner In Six Days’‘ (Black & White Publishing, 2017), ‘‘The Lives Of Us’‘ (Black & White, 2019), and ‘‘Sisters Of Berlin’ (Black & White, 2020).

Links-http://www.julietconlin.com/notes-from-berlin

Twitter @JulietConlin @HodderBooks @lovebooksgroup @lovebookstours