Grace, Love, Healing
As The Light Fades by Catherine West is a powerful contemporary story about family, love, trust and new beginnings.
Once again Catherine West has produced a delightful set of characters who warm the reader’s heart. None are perfect. They are realistically flawed making them easy to identify with and to love.
Families are complicated affairs. Some members gel, others don’t. Children should always come first, when their needs aren’t being met by those who should love them the most, the reader’s heart breaks.
There are marriages in trouble. Marriage is a partnership and it takes work. The reader celebrates when the atmosphere revives.
The setting is important. Nantucket represents love, care, security and healing and is in contrast with big city living. Characters come to Nantucket to heal from whatever ails them.
We all have a past. There may be things that we have done that we are ashamed of. We cannot change our past but we can choose not to be held in chains by it. We need to find someone we trust to confess our past to, someone who will show us grace and love us.
Within the story there are difficult to read scenes of abuse. Trust was betrayed. Love was twisted. The result is two scared females suffering from emotional trauma. I “deserved the abuse because I let it happen… I didn’t get help. I stayed.” Oh how my heart broke. No one deserves abuse. The guilt felt is another form of control. Help is needed to move from fear to life. “I want to sleep without the lights on. I’m so tired of being afraid all the time.”
There are themes of alcohol addiction and self-harm. One needs to want to get better or the cycle continues.
Catherine West has realistically portrayed a character with Alzheimer’s. Part of the novel is written in the first person so we ‘hear’ the workings of a mind with Alzheimer’s, desperately grasping for memories. “My leaky mind lets me down again.”
As The Light Fades is a marvellous novel. Catherine West is not afraid to present real issues that people struggle with, either openly or in secret. The characters are well rounded and realistic, feeling more like friends than flat characters in a novel. I was most impressed with the passages depicting the struggle with Alzheimer’s where a character is trying to cling on to the life he has known. It was all very moving, bringing a lump to my throat.
I adore all Catherine West’s novels. Her characters always lodge in my heart. Pick up a copy of As The Light Fades today and escape to the quieter pace of Nantucket life for a while.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.
JULIA WILSON
Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for As the Light Fades by Catherine West, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: As the
Light Fades
Author: Catherine West
Release Date: September 10, 2019
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Sometimes we’re placed in the strangest of circumstances for the most important reasons.
After her carefully constructed life crumbles, Liz Carlisle finds herself back on Nantucket, picking up the pieces. With the family estate under renovations, the solitude she craves seems out of reach.
Matthew Stone intends to steer clear of his new tenant. She’s carrying a load of baggage, but as long as she pays the rent, he’ll let her be. He’s got enough to deal with caring for his wayward niece, Mia.
Liz doesn’t have time for teenagers and her track record with men is abysmal, but an unlikely friendship forms between the three.
When her former boyfriend is charged with assault, Liz is called to testify against him. But he knows the darkest secrets of her life—secrets she’d hoped to keep buried forever, and he’s ready to reveal them. Telling the truth is the right thing to do, but it may cost her everything she’s worked so hard for, and all she’s come to love.
PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catherine West is an award-winning author of contemporary women’s fiction. When she’s not at the computer working on her next story, you can find her taking her Border Collie for long walks or reading books by her favorite authors. She and her husband reside in Bermuda, and have two adult children and two beautiful granddaughters. Catherine is the winner of the 2015 Grace Award (Bridge of Faith) and a two-time winner of Romance Writers of America’s Faith, Hope & Love Reader’s Choice Award (The Things We Knew, 2017 and Where Hope Begins, 2019, and a Carol Award Finalist for Where Hope Begins. Her latest novel, As the Light Fades, releases September 2019.
Catherine loves to connect with her readers and can be reached at Catherine@catherinejwest.com
CONNECT WITH CATHERINE: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
GIVEAWAY
(1) winner will receive a $75 Amazon gift card from the author!
Be sure to check out each stop on these tours for more chances to win. Full tour schedule on this tour shown below. Giveaway begins at midnight September 11, 2019 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on September 18, 2019. Winners will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US/CAN only. For our giveaway rules and policy, click HERE.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
*NOTE: This post contains affiliate links.
Sounds like great book.
Awesome read, cool tour.
Your book sounds like a great read and thank you for sharing it with us.
Gorgeous cover