Monday 8 February 2021

Review: A Sky Full of Stars by Dani Atkins

He'd have done everything differently if he'd known she'd be gone so soon...

When Lisa married Alex, she gave his life meaning. She was a professional astronomer: a stargazer. And when she gazed at Alex, she saw that behind his tough exterior was a man she could love.

Alex, Lisa and their young son Connor made a happy little universe. But when Lisa dies suddenly, their universe is destroyed. Alex is shattered by loss, and overwhelmed by the difficulties of being a single father to a six-year-old boy.

Then Alex meets four strangers. Two men and two women, who never met Lisa, but whose lives changed profoundly because she died. As Alex hears their stories, he begins to realise the world may not be as cruel and senseless as it seems. Perhaps, after all, the future is written in the stars...

Review: I just don't know how Dani Atkins can bear to put her characters through so much in every single novel. It must be exhausting. But even though she makes me cry until i am severely dehydrated with each and every word she writes I still love the characters and the worlds she creates and the stories she weaves. A sky full of Stars was such a wonderful read and I enjoyed every moments, even the ones where I had to step away for a moment to get a new box of tissues. 

Be warned, this book does start off with a lot of really weepy events. It's no spoilers because you know going into a Dani Atkins novel that you're going to need tissues but She doesn't normally get you so early on. You will need tissues for the first 25% of this book. There is a lot to get through in terms of bad new for people in that first quarter. After that though I loved the fact that we got deeper into the storyline and deeper into the relationships between these characters. 

This book is told in a dual narrative format (my favourite). We get to meet Alex and we get to meet Molly. Molly is a primary school teacher so I instantly warmed to her. She is a similar age to me and she has a wonderful outlook on life. I really love the fact that her best friend is also a work colleague. That is so often true for those of us who work in schools because it is very hard to try and have a life outside of school to bravo to Dani for writing that so true to life. 

Alex is such a complex character and because we get to see the narrative from his point of view as well as from Molly's we get to see how he is feeling after Lisa. I love that he is really open and honest with himself about his feelings and he has the most precious relationship with his brother. I really don't feel like I have read about such a brotherly bond in this kind of novel before and I found it fascinating to follow. 

There are so many unusual features in this novel and even though it made me cry so much at the beginning and I spent the rest of the book worrying about these characters I just couldn't stop reading it. Like most Dani Atkins novels I read this in less than 24 hours. I felt such a bon with these characters and I loved the story that this author created. This is definitely another hit for Dani Atkins and I highly recommend this truly special book!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

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