REVIEW: You Never Told Me by Sarah Jasmon (ARC)

You Never Told Me by Sarah Jasmon

Genre: Women's fiction, chick lit

Read: 25th June 2020

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

(publication date: 19th March 2020)

★★ 2 stars

I'm not sure how to review this book because I didn't really enjoy it. The premise promised so much more but by the end there were so many questions and loose ends.

A year ago, Charlie had it all - a beautiful house, a lovable dog and an upcoming wedding. But feeling trapped and ignoring all warnings from her family, she left it all and fled to the other side of the world. A year later in Thailand, Charlie has nothing to show for it but a restlessness for home and an empty bank account. Logging into her email at an internet cafe, she sees an email from her sister and calls her. Their mother has taken ill and is in hospital. Charlie needs to get home now. But with no money for her ticket, she panics...until a friend talks her housemates into repaying her for their share of the rent.

Now she is back in dreary England. Stepping off the train and no money left for a taxi, she walks the remaining distance to the hospital...in the rain. She arrives to find she is too late. Her mother has gone. Why couldn't she get here earlier to have just one more moment with her?

The reception from her father and sister is somewhat distant as they return to the family home. The house needs to be sold and their father is moving in with her sister Eleanor and her family. But what is Charlie to do? This was her home once upon a time. She had less than a month to find a job and somewhere to live...because she didn't suppose her boyfriend Max would take her back. She's not sure she would want to go back. But she did want Bella. She missed Bella, her scruffy lovable dog.

But then Eleanor hands her an envelope. Inside are some documents relating to a bank account in Eleanor's name and a key. What's the key for, Charlie asked. Oh, it's for her boat, says Eleanor. Their mother had a boat? A narrowboat or canal boat. So Charlie took herself down to the canal and so began her journey of discovery, I guess you could call it. She met a few people along the way - Bob and Lydia, Dave, Margereta - and even reconnected with Max in a way. But as Charlie steered through the locks, canals and junctions...she discovers her mother had secrets. And she travelled the canal looking for the answers to her questions about the mother she never really knew.

From the premise I had expected YOU NEVER TOLD ME to so much more exciting with the layers of secrets their mother kept hidden but instead it was more a journey of Charlie's own self discovery. Sure she uncovered some of her mother's secrets but we still don't get all the answers at the end. It left everything up in the air with an unsatisfactory end. I even questioned some characters' roles in the story because they didn't appear to go anywhere either.

The only part that had me in tears was the picture painted of poor Bella looking all forlorn on the back step, with just a plastic bed and thin blanket for comfort...chained up in the rain, cold and alone. No dog deserves to be treated like that. I cried buckets for the poor thing and whooped for joy when Charlie rescued her.

I loved the canal boat setting. These narrowboats have delighted me and I would love to travel one should I ever find myself in the UK. There is something peaceful and so tranquil about being on the water. But that is where my interest ended.

I really can't say much else about this book because I honestly felt it was a waste of my time reading it, sadly. I didn't enjoy it and found the ending unsatisfactory.

I would like to thank #SarahJasmon, #NetGalley and #RandomHouseUK and #TransworldPublishers for an ARC of #YouNeverToldMe in exchange for an honest review.