Today iI’m joining the blog tour for The Last List Of Mabel Beaumont. My review is written with thanks to Rachel Gilbey at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me on the tour and to Boldwood Books for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

Mabel Beaumont’s husband Arthur loved lists. He’d leave them for her everywhere. ‘Remember: eggs, butter, sugar’. ‘I love you: today, tomorrow, always’.

But now Arthur is gone. He died: softly, gently, not making a fuss. But he’s still left her a list. This one has just one item on it though: ‘Find D’.

Mabel feels sure she knows what it means. She must track down her best friend Dot, who she hasn’t seen since the fateful day she left more than sixty years ago.

It seems impossible. She doesn’t even know if Dot’s still alive. Also, every person Mabel talks to seems to need help first, with missing husbands, daughters, parents. Mabel finds her list is just getting longer, and she’s still no closer to finding Dot.

What she doesn’t know is that her list isn’t just about finding her old friend. And that if she can admit the secrets of the past, maybe she could even find happiness again…

A completely heartbreaking, beautiful, uplifting story, guaranteed to make you smile but also make you cry. Perfect for fans of My Name is Ove, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, and The Keeper of Stories.

Review:

When I started The Last List Of Mabel Beaumont, I wasn’t really sure what to expect but what I got was a life affirming, uplifting, simply beautiful story. Laura Pearson is brilliant at bringing out the emotions in every scene, even the abstract feelings and the ones we don’t have names for, and I loved every minute that I spent with Mabel and her friends.

Although the mysterious element of The Last List Of Mabel Beaumont kept me invested in the story and eager to read until the very end to find out what happened, it is the characters that really make this story shine. Our protagonist, Mabel, has been protected by her husband for six decades, but I loved seeing her come out of her shell as she grew closer to her new friends and began to try new things. Occasionally, Laura Pearson takes us back in time to when Mabel was in her twenties, and this really helped me to build a stronger picture of her personality. She is surrounded by a wonderful supporting cast of characters who are kind and vibrant and help Mabel learn to laugh again, but they are all vulnerable themselves too, and I loved the way that the author explores their stories in such a gentle and sensitive but thought provoking way.

Despite most of the characters having little in common with me in terms of age or life experiences, I felt that the themes within the novel were universal and it was interesting to look at them from the points of view of the characters, who themselves are very different to each other. I will be thinking about Mabel and her friends for a long time to come.

The Last List Of Mabel Beaumont is available from Amazon.

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