"Three isolated people begin to experience the possibilities life can offer in this beautifully warm and satisfying novel."
If you are in need of a comforting slice of feel-good then I can recommend this absolutely charming debut with my heart and soul. Pearl has crippling agoraphobia and hasn’t stepped outside her Dartmoor home in 43 years, Connor has been trapped within his father’s expectations since his mother died, while in London Nate is just as lonely as can be. The prologue creates intrigue by offering the suggestion of a traumatic event, one that will sit in the background throughout the book. While the unknown incident hovers, soothing humour, true empathy, and heartwarming affection surrounded me as I sank into the story. Author Esme King allows time to weave gently to and fro, gradually revealing information, encouraging understanding to grow. The featuring of two locations, Dartmoor and London, creates an initial distance and separation between the two threads of the story, yet the flowering of friendships sits as a central linking theme. One of the highlights for me in this novel is the successful and rewarding friendships that begin to develop between characters from different generations. The characters became known, loved, even cherished as I read, oh, and the crows, I adored the crows! After I reached the satisfying end I just had to include this lovely novel as a Liz Pick of the Month. So gentle and compassionate as it welcomes courage and love, Reasons to Go Outside is an engaging and wonderfully rewarding read.
| Primary Genre | Feel-Good Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
Pearl Winter hasn't been outside in forty-three years.
Since she arrived on Dartmoor as a girl, an isolated family cottage has been her whole world. A place of safety. But now fifty-nine-year-old Pearl is utterly alone - except for the postman, the local crows, and memories of the summer of 1976.
Teenager Connor Matthews feels like a stranger in his own home.
Since his mother's death he's been adrift from his remaining family, troubled by the reality of moving on, and unable to see a future ahead. But when Connor begins a summer job as Pearl's gardener, an unexpected friendship opens the door to a fresh start for them both. If only Pearl and Connor can take the first steps . . .
Reasons To Go Outside features in the following genres: Feel-Good Fiction, Book Club Recommendations, Debuts, Liz Robinson's Picks of the Month, Recommendations, Star Books, Family Drama, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Romance / Relationship Stories, Modern and Contemporary romance, Narrative theme: Social issues, Relating to people with hidden or invisible disabilities / disorders, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Fiction, General Fiction, Fiction: narrative themes, Relating to people with visible or hidden disabilities, impairments or conditions, Relating to specific groups and cultures or social and cultural interests, Interest qualifiers
Reasons To Go Outside is available in Paperback, Hardback
Reasons To Go Outside was written by Esme King and published by Hodder Paperback an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton
Reasons To Go Outside has 368 pages
£8.99
