If Only I Could Tell You [Book Review]

Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction

Rating: 2/5 Stars

Format: Read via NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins for the advanced review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

So this book should come with a big old trigger warning. All the warnings. For cancer, suicide, and miscarriage. They are all talked about extensively and somewhat graphically in my opinion.

I chose this book for the cover and because of the JoJo Moyes blurb. I thought it would be a nice familial drama that made me cry. Since this book has been out in England, there are a lot of reviews that are 4 and 5 stars. I guess some people really liked this book. I, however, am not one of those people. I am rather disappointed with this book because I was expecting a nice good cry, and I ended up with a whole lot of nothing

. I like sad books when the mood is right. This is why I requested this book, a change from all of the sweet romance I’ve been reading the last month. But this book was just a lot of sadness. I want to call it melodrama because the book just didn’t know how to stop being so ridiculous. It just seemed like everything would get worse and worse for the characters. There was not even a little glimmer of hope and happiness, it was just all dreary and sad until the ending. I feel like I wasted my time reading this book.

Jess and her sister Lily have been estranged for thirty years because of some secret. Their mom is dying and wants them to reunite before she is gone. Like it’s just over and over with the secret and you can’t figure it out because the mystery isn’t revealed til later, and it kind of really bugged me that was used as a plot device because it took away from the story. So you get sisters that are not speaking and a mother who wants to make it all better.

Then the book is really sad the entire time. I don’t want to give anything away and it’s impossible to really talk about the book without doing so. You just have a lot of bad events in this family, and then the book is over. The miscarriage scene is hard to read… the suicide is very descriptive… there’s even someone coming out and it’s just handled so poorly…

I ended up skimming the end of this book because I just needed closure. I suppose if you want a sad book with nothing happy at all, this is a good one for you. After this one read, I don’t plan to ever pick up a book by this author… it’s really not for me…

This book isn’t a good thing I’ve ranted about at all.

Until I rant about books again,