Beneath these Stars by Hannah Ellis

Length: 385 pages

Please note that the cover image leads to a universal Amazon buy link for the book

What they say: Perfect couple Lucy and Adam have it all: a home in the picturesque village of Havendon, budding careers and a sparkling future. Life is exactly as it should be.
But when tragedy strikes and Adam becomes the guardian to his two young nieces, their idyllic life is turned upside down. Suddenly, they face an entirely different future.
Grief-stricken and disoriented, the four of them battle to build a new life together.
Can Adam and Lucy’s relationship survive being pushed to the limit? And can a devastated family find a way to get through such testing times?

Although this is the second book in the Lucy Mitchell series, it can also be read as a standalone.

The Review: You’ll know by now that I’m a big fan of Hannah Ellis’, that her books generally make me smile, swoon and nod along, and within a few pages I’m hooked, and loathe to put the book down until its gorgeous conclusion. I could leave it at that, but, well that’d definitely be short changing you, because this book has aspects that are a little bit different.
The book starts out by telling us that Lucy who we met in Beyond The Lens, book 1 of The Lucy Mitchell Series, review here), has only recently moved in with her boyfriend Adam in the little village of Havendon. The prologue sets up the current day with a nice reminder of the backstory, which I would have read in but is by no means required and then leaving us with a sense of intrigue
“We had no idea that our relaxed day in the sun would be the last time we were all together as a family.”

We’re thrown straight in at the deep end in chapter 1 on finding out that Lucy has taken on the role of substitute mother to Emily, Adam’s niece, whose parents have died. There’s a lovely mom lit feel to this as we see the role of a mother where irrational irritations get in on you and begin to drive you nuts and boy could I relate. It was a tribute to the author that although she had these issues to deal with, I still didn’t find her to be a negative character. Actually as always I jumped at so many characters in the book, there were a number I remembered and others I warmed to straight away. I got chills at part of the book when I began to realise why our lead was disappearing at night and my eyes misted up at other parts. It was quite the book for stirring emotions actually, as at times both Adam and his mum made me angry on her behalf as they reminded her that although she was charged with looking after Emily and Hayley, she had no rights in terms of decision making for them. All in all a light and innocent yet tough read (emotionally) with the trademark Ms. Ellis warmth, fun and romance, peppered with suspense and sadness. Thanks so much to the author for the book in return for an honest review.

Rating: 4.5/5

Previously on this blog:

Friends Like These (Friends Like These Series book 1 review here)

My Kind of Perfect (Friends Like These Series book 3 review here and extract here)

About the author

Hannah Ellis is originally from Sheffield, England, and spent time living in America, Australia and Ireland before finally settling in Munich, Germany, where she now lives with her husband and two little boys. She self published her first novel ‘Friends Like These’ in 2015 and then went on to write two more books in the series: ‘Christmas with Friends’ and ‘My Kind of Perfect’. Hannah can often be found tapping away on her laptop, trying to ignore the two small children swinging on her hair as she attempts to write more books!

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