To Have, Not Hold by Carina McEvoy *Review & Giveaway*

Description: Embrace a healthy attitude towards sudden outbursts of laughter; oh and maybe grab some tissues as you escape into the lives of three remarkable friends, as they each navigate their own catastrophic mess. Discover the strength of friendship while you submerge yourself in suspense, fury and humour. Let the drama unfold… 

Emma’s doing her best to raise the adorable Amy while hanging on to the ghost of her past. But is she really the crazy, deranged woman she eventually feels compelled to be? 

Beneath Siobhan’s picture perfect exterior, the struggle of deception is exhausting. However when life slaps her in the face with an unforeseen twist, will she be able to salvage any of her future, perfect or not? 

With mounting money problems and an unwanted visit from his expertly suppressed past, Jack must confront his inner demons for once and for all. Can he defeat them and emerge as the true person he really is?

Publication Date ~ 7th August 2016

Published by ~ Carina McEvoy

Today is my turn on the To Have, Not Hold’s blog tour and I have a competition to win a paperback copy of the book. Find out how you can win at the bottom of this post. 

My thoughts: This is Carina McEvoys debut novel and what a cracker it is. To Have, Not Hold is a story about friendship, love, loss and I must admit I did shed a couple of tears. Saying that though the authors Irish wit shone through and there were quite a lot of laugh out loud moments too. 

The author has done a fabulous job of making the characters come alive, they felt real and I could really relate to some of them. I loved Emma the main character with her very poor baking skills and her very witty daughter Amy, who had me in stitches. Emma has a lot to deal with but has a great group of friends and family to help support her but as we are introduced to them we find out they all have their own dramas to deal with too. 

To Have, Not Hold deals with some sensitive issues such as grief and I found this to be portrayed perfectly, everyone deals with it in different ways but I could really relate to some of the feelings shown in the story.

As I was reading I could really picture the characters and settings in my mind and it was almost like watching a tv drama. I really want to go to Lily’s cafe for cake and a cuppa yum. 

If I had picked up this book without knowing I would never have believed this was a debut novel. It’s filled with emotion and love and there were a few times I thought I’d just read one more chapter but it ended on a cliffhanger and I had to keep on reading. This is a fabulous book that I’ll be highly recommending and I look forward to reading more from Carina McEvoy in the future. 

My thanks go to Carina McEvoy for the copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Now for your chance to win a copy of To Have, Not Hold all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what your favourite kind of cake is. It will be open until Sunday evening and I’ll announce the winner on Monday morning. Good luck everyone x