Book Synopsis:
The right words can change everything . . .
It had been a make-or-break holiday for their marriage, but Natasha and Rob’s rekindled romance is short-lived when their daughter’s beloved soft toy disappears on the journey home. As Natasha comforts her distraught child, she turns to social media for help. Miraculously, the toy is found, but it has become the lucky mascot of a man named Duffy, who is thousands of miles away trekking in Nepal.
When Duffy promises to keep Natasha updated with pictures, a correspondence begins that soon becomes more meaningful. Sometimes, Natasha feels this stranger half way across the world understands her more than the man lying next to her.
But as the weeks pass and Duffy heads deeper into the mountains, Natasha notices a change in him. Then one day, the messages stop. Too late, Natasha wonders why he had ever needed a lucky mascot at all.
My Review:
I’m a huge fan of this author so I was incredibly excited to read this book which was perfect for snuggling up.
The story is told in three timelines -two in the present day following Natalie in the Cotswolds trying to cope with a toddler who’s lost her favourite toy and the other following Duffy as he treks across the Himalayas. There are also flash backs to four years previously which follows Natalie on her hen do.
I absolutely loved the fantastic characters the author has created and enjoyed following them throughout the book. The beautiful descriptions of Duffy’s trip through the Himalaya’s were startlingly vivid and often made me feel like I was actually there experiencing everything alongside him. I’m highly unlikely to trek the Himalaya’s anytime soon so I enjoyed learning more about what it would be like. As a mother myself I really sympathised with Rachel and the lack of sleep she experiences due to the loss of her daughter’s toy. I was blessed with three bad sleepers myself so I know exactly how she was feeling. I absolutely loved Natalie’s fantastic group of friends, especially the wonderful Kel who’d I’d love to have as a friend as she’s so supportive of Nat.
Overall I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to read more from this author in the future. The story progresses at a good pace and was surprisingly suspenseful in places which I wasn’t expecting. Although I did guess the connection between the timelines early on I enjoyed watching the story develop and found the book hard to put down as I had to find out what happened next. My only slightly quibble would be that it ended rather suddenly but I’ve got everything crossed that this means there’s a sequel in the works.
Huge thanks to Chloe from Pan Macmillan for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Karen Swan is the Sunday Times Top Three and international best-selling author. Her novels sell all over the world and she writes two books each year – one for the summer period and one for the Christmas season. Her books are known for their evocative locations and Karen sees travel as vital research for each story. She loves to set deep, complicated love stories within twisting plots.
The Last Summer is the first book in her five-book historical series called The Wild Isle Girls, set around the dramatic evacuation of the Scottish island St Kilda in the summer of 1930. It was partly inspired by Karen’s Scottish roots: her father’s family came from Skye, moving to Fort William where Karen was christened and where many of her family still live. Her childhood memories are full of Christmases, Hogmanay and summer holidays spent in the Highlands and she was married there in 2001.
She lives in Sussex with her husband, three children and two dogs.
Visit Karen’s author page on Instagram @swannywrites, Facebook, and Twitter @KarenSwan1.
Over The Rainbow Blog 
I’ve enjoyed quite a few of Karen Swan’s summer books but not read any of her Christmas ones. This sounds great!
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This was my first Christmas one too! I’m impatiently waiting for the follow up of The Last Summer as I loved that book!
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