Review: Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale 


Goodreads|Amazon|Author Website
Release date: August 1, 2016

Publisher: Lake Union

Genre: Mystery

Goodreads blurb: 

Wall Street Journal & #1 Amazon Kindle Best Seller 

A luminous debut with unexpected twists, Everything We Keep explores the devastation of loss, the euphoria of finding love again, and the pulse-racing repercussions of discovering the truth about the ones we hold dear and the lengths they will go to protect us.
Sous chef Aimee Tierney has the perfect recipe for the perfect life: marry her childhood sweetheart, raise a family, and buy out her parents’ restaurant. But when her fiancé, James Donato, vanishes in a boating accident, her well-baked future is swept out to sea. Instead of walking down the aisle on their wedding day, Aimee is at James’s funeral—a funeral that leaves her more unsettled than at peace.
As Aimee struggles to reconstruct her life, she delves deeper into James’s disappearance. What she uncovers is an ocean of secrets that make her question everything about the life they built together. And just below the surface is a truth that may set Aimee free…or shatter her forever.
Review: 

Man, Lake Union is quickly becoming one of my go to publishers for fantastic and engaging books! I’ve been seriously impressed by the books I’ve read from them lately and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. Everything We Keep has been getting so much hype for months now and after reading it, I can clearly see why. When this book showed up in my Fall Reading Challenge box from Booksparks I was thrilled! Lonsdale is a talented writer who wrote an incredible story with a heroine that I immediately connected with. 

Aimee was one of those characters that you’re instantly drawn to. Her fiancé, James is dead and instead of getting ready for her wedding day, she’s attending his funeral. Heartbreaking stuff and you can feel her pain come through the pages. She is grief stricken and lost with no idea how to move on with her life. Besides, how is she supposed to move on when she still has so many questions about what happened to James? She can’t shake the feeling that he’s still out there somewhere and when questions start to arise she has to decide how far she’s willing to go in order to uncover the truth. 

One of my favorite aspects of this book was learning about how James and Aimee fell in love through Aimee’s memories of their shared past. The two met when she was just eight and the tenderness of their love story was so sweet and endearing. Hearing about how much they loved each other really made you understand the depth of Aimee’s grief. I saw some reviewers that had issues with the way she went back and forth in terms of being able to move on with her life or not. The past kept dragging her back no matter how hard she tried to move forward. But her conflicting emotional upheaval only made her more real and honest to me. I can’t imagine how erratic my behavior would be if I were in her shoes so it was completely understandable to me.

Lonsdale managed to surprise me several times with plot twists and turns which impressed me. Aimee’s emotional journey to the truth was full of betrayal, lies, and secrets and the ending was a fantastic cliffhanger that only made me eager to read the next book in this series. Everything We Keep was a really admirable debut and I’ll be following Lonsdale’s work closely.

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to Booksparks for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

29 thoughts on “Review: Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale ”

  2. rashthedoctor says:
    Reply

    JUST HOW QUICK DO YOU READ ! OMG you are putting me to shame 😱

    Just kidding ! although really impressed by how quick you finish reading and reviewing all these books , wish i was this quick . Anyways Great Review , you are like my best source for finding good Mystery/suspense/ Thriller books 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  4. knovelcafe says:
    Reply

    I enjoyed your review! I wasn’t as big on this book, but I think it was because I listen to the Audio, and didn’t read. I’ve come to the conclusion that reading vs. listening makes a huge difference. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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