Today I’m joining the blog tour for Never Tear Us Apart. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour.

Blurb:

Fate has brought them together. Will time tear them apart?

2025

Named after a star, war correspondent Maia knows how to find the brightest stories – the tales of survival and strength – hidden amongst the dark realities of combat.

Now, travelling to Malta to visit her estranged father, with one more chance to build a relationship with her last remaining relative, she’s here to find her own story: never having found somewhere – or someone – she can call home, she’s desperate for answers that might show her where she truly belongs.

But when she arrives on the beautiful mediterranean island, she realises her long-lost family is full of more secrets than she could possibly have imagined. . .

1942

Maia wakes up to find herself on an island under siege, a city in ruins – and knows she must have been sent here for a reason.

Who has she been sent to save? Or is it Maia herself that needs saving? And just when she’s finally found what she’s been seeking . . . will time separate them forever?


Perfect for fans of Lucinda Riley, Santa Montefiore and Dinah Jefferies.

Review:

I’ve read a few previous books by Rowan Coleman and I’ve always been amazed by her wonderful way with words that not only describes the surroundings in a story so well, but also gets right to the heart of the emotional elements of the novel so that it touches the reader in an immensely profound way.

Never Tear Us Apart is narrated in first person by Maia. She’s describing a situation that is difficult to imagine but her narration holds such conviction that it’s impossible not to be swept along on her journey, however improbable it may seem. She’s kind and compassionate and I really hoped that she would find the answers she needed to be happy. The character of Sal is also a complex and beautifully constructed character. I loved his relationship with Maia and felt the love he had for his family radiating from the page.

There are large sections of the novel that are set in 1942, and I was really interested to learn about the effects of the war in Malta – something I’d never studied before. Rowan Coleman has done some wonderful research to bring the setting and period to life and I really felt transported to the place and time about which she was writing.

The plot of Never Tear Us Apart is complex but incredibly well structured and it was an absolute joy to follow. Rowan Coleman knows how to keep her readers engaged and I was captivated through every turn the story took, until the very end.

Never Tear Us Apart is available from Amazon.

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