Today I’m pleased to be taking part in the blog tour for When You Were Mine. My review is written with thanks to Rachel Gilbey at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me on the tour and for my copy of the book via Hera Books through Netgalley.

Blurb:

Life is a love song when you find the right notes

Maggie and Ibby make up a happy – if unconventional – family. After meeting at university, they now live in the village of Applecroft on the beautiful West Country coast.

Okay, so Ibby’s gay and prone to disastrous dates, while couples’ counsellor Maggie spends her days helping people with their relationship problems despite having no sex life of her own. Nevertheless, they’re devoted to bringing up teenage daughter Amelia – the result of a drunken one-night stand when they were students – in a stable and loving family.

Until a face from the past – in the form of hard-partying rock star Jordan Nash – disrupts their quiet lives. As Jordan struggles with his personal demons and old secrets are revealed, can Maggie and Ibby stay strong? Or will bringing back the past threaten all that they’ve built in the present?

A feel good, heart-warming novel about about first loves and second chances. Fans of Holly Martin, Dani Atkins and Heidi Swain will be captivated.

Lisa Swift is the pseudonym for bestselling women’s fiction novelist, Mary Jayne Baker.

Review:

Maggie, Ibby and Amelia are an unconventional family and I will admit that it took me some time to work out how it all came together. However, I loved their relationship, both as a threesome and with each other and they were characters I really felt able to root for throughout the novel. The family are also surrounded by some wonderful characters: Nicki and Other Max and of course, Jordan Nash, and I found them all very realistic and easy to relate to.

In When You Were Mine, Swift explores a number of issues, such as addiction, homophobia and adolescence. I felt that Swift wrote about these in a really engaging way that gives the novel extra depth that makes it stand out from others in the genre.

I didn’t see the twist coming, but it adds some extra tension to the climax of the novel and I could not stop turning pages to see how it all worked out.

When You Were Mine is available from Amazon

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