Never Be Lonely
There was always something missing from her life… Francesca Dudley had always told herself she didn’t care about the father who abandoned her as a child. But when she receives a mysterious phone call, she finds herself on the first plane to Canada to attend his funeral. Having secretly longed for the family she’d never been allowed, she is hurt to discover that he’d gone on to have a whole other family with his new wife. Worse still, the bombshell drops that his desertion of her may not even have been voluntary. Jumping straight on a plane to confront her mother, Francesca is blindsided by the revelation that her mother may have cancer. The timing couldn’t be worse, and she decides to bury her questions for now. But she’s tortured by the constant longing to know who she really is. Her problems only get worse when her teenaged half-sister travels to England and inserts herself into Francesca’s life with abandon. Reluctantly juggling her new family, her mother’s potential illness and her possessive ex-husband all at once, the quiet life Francesca once enjoyed couldn’t seem further out of reach. Never Be Lonely is a moving tale of family and self-discovery.
I had never read anything by Pamela Fudge but this sounded interesting and I was very elated to discover that this book was intriguing enough that I didn’t want to put it down until I was done.
She has created these great characters that were so realistic feeling and charming you could find yourself wishing they were real people. I thought she did a good job in the character development of the ex-husband because without turning him into a caricature she used his inclusion in the story just enough that he helped move it along with it turning into some cheesy soap opera drama like fixation. Her theme of examining the effect, or lack thereof, of father/daughter relationships and their impact on our psycho-social development was captivating.
Her story line kept me turning page after page desperately wanting to discover how this was going to turn out; it was so easy and pleasing to read due to its steady pace. There’s a good twist that will certainly grab your attention and keep you going which I enjoyed. Her books have a surprising amount of substance to them, far more than you would expect from a romance book so it’s definitely not typical fare. I like that she didn’t stick to some prototypical repetitive formula so often seen in the romance genre.
It’s the kind of book you could find yourself enjoying whether you’re curled up on rainy night in front of the fire or out soaking in the sunlight. It’s the kind of book that allows you to take a break from the world around you and gather your strength to face it again.
Thank you to Netgalley and Pamela Fudge for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from netgalley.com