Book Review: Where The Light Gets In.

“You know those cracks in your heart, Lorna, where things didn’t work out, but you picked yourself up and carried on? That’s where the fear gets out. And where the light gets in.”

By the time of this quote, I was already in love with Lucy Dillon’s Where The Light Gets In – and my Kindle tells me it’s only about the 2% mark.

This wonderfully written, incredibly emotional and thought-provoking book was hard to put down.

It tackles some big, tough subjects – relationships, growing up and dying to name a few – but it is still a very readable and enjoyable story.

Here’s the blurb:

It was Betty, defiant to the end, who sent Lorna back to Longhampton. If Lorna’s learned one thing from Betty it’s that courage is something you paint on like red lipstick, even when you’re panicking inside. And right now, with the keys to the town’s gallery in her hand, Lorna feels about as courageous as Betty’s anxious little dachshund, trembling beside her.

Lorna’s come home to Longhampton to fulfil a long-held dream, but she knows, deep down, there are ghosts she needs to lay to rest first. This is where her tight-knit family shattered into silent pieces. It’s where her unspoken fears about herself took root and where her own secret, complicated love began. It’s not exactly a fresh start.

But as Lorna – and the little dog – tentatively open their cracked hearts to old friends and new ones, facing hard truths and fresh promises, something surprisingly beautiful begins to grow around the gallery, something so inspirational even Lorna couldn’t have predicted the light it lets into her world…

All of the characters felt so well developed, especially Lorna, but it is artist, Joyce, who stole the show for me. Her feisty personality was perfectly pitched and I really enjoyed learning her story and seeing her relationship with Lorna, centred around their shared passion for art but about so much more than that, develop. She felt very real to me.

There should also be a special mention for the dogs, Rudy and Bernard. Lucy captures the relationship between human and animal perfectly.

There’s plenty of drama, which helped keep things moving, and means you don’t dwell too much on the hard parts.

I cried at the beginning and near the end of this book – although it was more a sniffle at the start whereas near the end it was full on ugly crying (thankfully I was on my own at the time). Don’t let that put you off though because, while is an emotional tale, it is also genuinely uplifting.

Lucy Dillon is another author I’ll be adding to my must read list.

Format: Kindle (released April 19^th).

Price: £7.99.

My rating: Five stars.

With thanks to Random House UK (via NetGalley) for the ARC in return for an honest review.