This beautiful romance brings you into the life of Holly, who was recently widowed. From the first page on, Cecilia will have you gripped into this tragedy. You can see the slow change in Holly (the main character) as she grieves for the lover and best friend she’d lost to brain cancer; Gerry. It opens with a heart wrenching scene of the young (29-year-old) widow alone in the house she’d shared with Gerry, being depressed and trying to grasp the fact that she’d never again embrace him. As the synopsis gives away, she receives a package from Gerry when her mother calls to say a rather important-looking letter entitled “The List” had been in their home awaiting her. Holly quickly remembers that she and Gerry had joked with their friends mere weeks before his death about writing a list of things Holly should do in order to survive without him (such as remember to turn off the bedroom light… and not to bump into that pointy edge of the bed). Nervously, she goes to pick up the package in the hopes that Gerry had carried out his promise of giving her a list. It is, indeed, from him.

With her hilarious friends Sharon, and man-eating Denise, together with a family full of diverse - and completely dysfunctional - people, plus, of course, lot’s of help from Gerry’s monthly letters, she slowly learns to live without him. What I respected about this book, is that when a main character is dead, their lover usually describes their relationship as perfect, but in this, Holly clearly states that they did argue, but they always patched up in the end, stronger than ever. Her struggles in widowhood often lapses back into severe depression and spells of crying in just about every known bathroom in Ireland.

The writing is beautiful, and subtly genius. Holly’s random spirals in and out of depression are not in any way unnatural or forced, so that’s great. P.S. I Love You will have you laughing one page, and bawling your eyes out the next. As you’ve already guessed, I absolutely loved this book! I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good long read.


Spoiler




The life of Delia Hopkins is near to perfect - she’s got the job, the kid, and the best friends. Except, for the fact that her mother is dead. But other than that, the life Andrew Hopkins - her father - has built with her has been a perfect one. So, when one day, a policeman arrives, and charges Andrew with the kidnapping of Bethany Matthews, who used to be Delia, she is shocked and unraveled. Delia flies to Arizona, where Andrew is held in a jail. Eric; father of her daughter, and one of her two best friends, is a lawyer, and agrees to be Andrew’s lawyer soon enough. But when the question of why Delia was kidnapped comes up, the answer is a huge blow to Delia, and suddenly the perfect mother she’d always imagined in turned into and unfit mother. To top it all off, Delia suffers from the repressed memory of everything before the age of 12; everything except a faint memory of a lemon tree.

Something about Vanishing Acts keeps you from going crazy with all the suspense, and yet, it has you gripped. It's a book that makes you wonder… Disappointment (of the characters, not the writing) will meet you along the way, which is something that brings the characters even closer to your heart. Not the best book I've ever read, but it still makes it to the top.