The Best Days of Our Lives: the big-hearted and uplifting new novel from the bestselling author of Anything Could Happen

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I only thought about this in retrospect, but the book was me processing the ‘what if?’ In hindsight I was trying to figure out, ‘how would I cope, what would I do?’ Lots of us have been through this and have been very scared during that awful time that was Covid-19. I don’t think anyone has been untouched by it.”

This book will stay with me for a long time ,(so much so I won’t start reading another book for a while ) it touched my heart and made me realise that everyone has their own experiences and moving on is entirely individual. The characters in the book were beautifully written, I loved getting to know their stories and how they all pulled together was heart warming.

Overall, a very tear jerking read with some happiness added in for good measure. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now with her 18th, The Best Days Of Our Lives, just out, and the last of her “babies” preparing to fly the nest for university in Edinburgh, Diamond recalls those good-old-bad-old days: “I decided to give the novel a go, but there was no safety net at all. We didn’t have a lot of money. That was in 2002. I gave myself six months.” she tries to put together the last few weeks of Leni's life.......Only to find secrets she did not know about her.

Where I’m most conflicted though, is in regards to the character of Leni. We know that she dies early doors (no spoiler - it’s right there in the synopsis), but there’s not real transformation from her being there to not. And part of me would like more depth to her character and more of her story, rather than the drip feeding we get. On the other hand, the main crux of the story lies on her sister, Alice, trying to uncover the last weeks of Leni’s life, and by keeping us in the dark too, it puts us on the same journey, so I can understand why it’s written like that, but it doesn’t stop me wanting more. The family are really struggling to get over the death of Lena, some of them more than others. There definitely a lot of secrets and a lot of things come to light after her death.Leni and her sister Alice were best friends as well as siblings. But did they know each other as well as Alice thought? In the hope of coming to terms with her grief, she tries to piece together Leni’s last weeks – but her discoveries only lead to more questions. And that’s before the surprise reappearance of someone from the past. Life is certainly getting very complicated … Everyone is keeping secrets and the thing about secrets is that they will all be revealed in the end. Given the nature of this book it may be triggering for some, there is loss of a sibling and the loss of an adult child. There are also issues relating to infertility and complications in pregnancy. Whilst these are very heavy issues Diamond handles them with the upmost care and respect.

No one writes about family like Lucy does. This is a masterpiece in how broken people negotiate and ultimately survive the worst that life can throw at them. It's an absolutely beautiful book * Milly Johnson * The book centres around how each family member copes with grief after loosing Leni to a tragic accident.Leni drives the narrative, making her relationships with the other characters shape them and bring them to vibrant life. I loved meeting them all because they are messy, flawed and human.