Wednesday, 17 October 2018

Blog Tour Review: What Happened to Us ? by Faith Hogan


What Happened to Us? by Faith Hogan
Published:  October 2nd 2018
Publisher: Aria
Pages: 444
Available on Kindle
Order now from Amazon
Rating: 5/5

Blurb
Carrie Nolan is devastated when she is dumped by Kevin Mulvey after more than a decade without even a backwards glance! On reflection, she has sacrificed her own long term happiness establishing their critically acclaimed Dublin restaurant and pandering to his excessive ego.

Meanwhile Kevin can’t believe his luck. Valentina, their new waitress is a stunner, the kind of girl that turns heads when she walks in a room and surprise, surprise she has chosen him! He is living the dream!

Carrie seeks solace from a circle of mismatched friends who need her as much as she needs them. Jane, who struggles to run the pub on the opposite side of the street, Luke, who has stopped drifting while his father settles in a nearby nursing home and Teddy, a dog who asks for nothing more than the chance to stay by Carrie’s side.

With Christmas just around the corner, all is not quite as it seems and a catastrophic sequence of events leads to the unthinkable...

How far do you need to fall before you learn the true value of family and friends? And is it ever too late to start again...

Review
I was introduced to Faith Hogan’s writing earlier this year when I read The Woman I Used to Know, that was a book I adored so I was very much looking forward to reading What Happened to Us and hoping that it had the same beautiful story-telling which I loved from her previous book, which it did in fact this one may just have edged ahead as my favourite.
Carrie and Kevin have been together for ten years and during that time they’ve founded and made a success of their restaurant The Sea Pear. Life is moving along okay for both until Kevin drops the bombshell that he’s leaving Carrie and moving in with younger waitress Valentina who’s just started working at the restaurant. Carrie’s then left alone wondering what to do with the rest of her life, but luck’s her side and she meets three characters who help her to piece her life back together. Little lost dog Teddy takes a shine to Carrie and she takes him home, where the two form a strong bond.  Old lady Jane who lives and works across from The Sea Pear has Carrie down as her emergency contact, so when she’s admitted to hospital Carrie is summoned and the two become closer during hospitals visiting hours. Drifter Luke helps Carrie find her lost key one night, he’s drawn to the Marchant Inn where Jane lives and after seeing her taken to hospital he vows to find out if she’s okay.
Carrie, Jane and Luke quickly form a close friendship and discover that fate has a funny way of bringing you exactly the right people into your life at the right time. The journey these three go on was a delight to read about as their all characters which are easily relatable. Carrie was a lovely character and I warmed to her immediately. She’s warm, loving, caring and very down to earth and despite having her heart broken by Kevin, she’s still civil to him while working at the restaurant even when it emerges that Valentina might not be as perfect as Kevin thinks.  Jane and Luke have their own demons to work through and Faith Hogan has dealt with their issues in a sensitive and charming way making it very easy to be immersed into this book.
I’ve loved reading What Happened to Us it’s a wonderful story of forgiveness, second chances and love and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who loves a character driven novel.

About the Author


Faith was born in Ireland and currently lives there with her husband, four children and two fussy cats. She gained an Honors Degree in English Literature and Psychology from Dublin City University and a Postgraduate from University College, Galway. She was a winner in the 2014 Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair- an international competition for emerging writers. When she’s not writing, she’s an enthusiastic dog walker and reluctant jogger.

Follow Faith
Twitter: @gerhogan
Facebook: @faithhoganauthor

Buy links

Follow Aria

Twitter: @aria_fiction
Facebook: @ariafiction
Instagram: @ariafiction



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