Today I’m delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for Nothing Else. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the blog tour.

Blurb:

Heather Harris is a piano teacher and professional musician, whose quiet life revolves around music, whose memories centre on a single song that haunts her. A song she longs to perform again. A song she wrote as a child, to drown out the violence in their home. A song she played with her little sister, Harriet.

But Harriet is gone … she disappeared when their parents died, and Heather never saw her again.

When Heather is offered an opportunity to play piano on a cruise ship, she leaps at the chance. She’ll read her recently released childhood care records by day – searching for clues to her sister’s disappearance – and play piano by night … coming to terms with the truth about a past she’s done everything to forget.

An exquisitely moving novel about surviving devastating trauma, about the unbreakable bond between sisters, Nothing Else is also a story of courage and love, and the power of music to transcend – and change – everything.

Review:

Like pretty much every review I have ever written for one of Louise Beech’s books, I’m beginning with a disclaimer. My review will not do justice to her storytelling, her exquisite way with words and her ability to capture all the emotions. Nothing Else is simply beautiful and you need to read it for yourself. 

Nothing Else is the story of two sisters, Heather and Harriet and their story tugged right at my heartstrings. The novel moves between past and present and switches between the perspectives of Heather and Harriet. This helped to piece their lives together and get to know them. I really took them to my heart and I was completely invested in their story the whole way through. I did not want to leave them behind after I had finished reading. 

Louise Beech is not an author who shies away from difficult subjects and, once again, there are parts of the novel that are not easy to read but as always, the issues are handled with wonderful sensitivity and emotional awareness. The emotions shine through brilliantly. Louise Beech is yet to write a book that hasn’t made me cry – maybe one day! 

There is a Spotify playlist that accompanies Nothing Else and I really recommend listening to it while you read. It has some really lovely pieces on it that are mentioned by name throughout the course of the novel, so it helped me to add context and created a wonderful atmosphere in which to read. 

Nothing Else is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: