What Happened to Us? – Faith Hogan (Book Review)

What Happened to Us? – Faith Hogan

Today I am excited to be part of the Blog Tour for What Happened To Us? by Faith Hogan. Thank you to the lovely author for inviting me to take part and to Aria Fiction and NetGalley for providing a copy, which I reviewed honestly.

Please take a look at the Blog Tour schedule and stop by to see what other book bloggers have to say about this fabulous new publication.

 

 

About the book

Carrie Nolan is devastated when she is dumped by Kevin Mulvey after more than a decade without even a backwards glance! On reflection, she has sacrificed her own long term happiness establishing their critically acclaimed Dublin restaurant and pandering to his excessive ego.

Meanwhile Kevin can’t believe his luck. Valentina, their new waitress is a stunner, the kind of girl that turns heads when she walks in a room and surprise, surprise she has chosen him! He is living the dream!

Carrie seeks solace from a circle of mismatched friends who need her as much as she needs them. Jane, who struggles to run the pub on the opposite side of the street, Luke, who has stopped drifting while his father settles in a nearby nursing home and Teddy, a dog who asks for nothing more than the chance to stay by Carrie’s side.

With Christmas just around the corner, all is not quite as it seems and a catastrophic sequence of events leads to the unthinkable…

How far do you need to fall before you learn the true value of family and friends? And is it ever too late to start again…

Buy Here

My Review

Carrie and Kevin were joint owners of The Sea Pear restaurant and long-term partners until Kevin announces that he is having an affair with Valentina, their Columbian waitress. Carrie is devastated when she hears of the affair but she can’t just move on because her life is so tightly interwoven with Kevins through their jointly owned property and highly successful business.

Faith Hogan has created a perfect character in Cassie. She is warm and strong and thank goodness, not going to let her vacuous ex push her out of the business she worked her socks off to achieve. Although deeply hurt she sets out to rebuild her life, make new friends and look to the future. Carrie handles herself with such dignity I wanted to give her a massive high five.

Part of me was so glad that Carrie was no longer romantically involved with Kevin. If he hadn’t had his head turned by the young and beautiful Valentina they would probably have stayed together and ‘Oh Carrie, you deserve so much more!’

I loved the Dublin location but this book is firmly about the characters. Not just Cassie, Kevin and Valentina but neighbours, new friends, and family. All were highly believable and gave the book a refreshing warmth against the winter cold. I can’t leave without mentioning the little stray dog Teddy who Carrie found in the snow on the night her life changed forever. Teddy came along at just the right time and his relationship with Carrie is truly enchanting.

 About the author

Faith was born in Ireland and currently lives there with her husband, four children and two fussy cats. She gained an Honors Degree in English Literature and Psychology from Dublin City University and a Postgraduate from University College, Galway. She was a winner in the 2014 Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair- an international competition for emerging writers. When she’s not writing, she’s an enthusiastic dog walker and reluctant jogger.

 

Follow Faith

Twitter: @gerhogan

Facebook: @faithhoganauthor

  

Follow Aria

 Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction