A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon

Thank you to Veronique at Hodder & Stoughton for the review copy of A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon.

I found A Hundred Pieces of Me to be a slow burner book.  It didn't have me totally and utterly hooked from the first page, but it did interest me and I thought the concept was very clever.  

"Letters from the only man she's ever truly loved.

                                   A keepsake of the father she never really knew.                                   A blue glass vase that catches the light on a grey day.

Gina Bellamy is starting again, after a few years she'd rather forget. But the belongings she's treasured for so long don't seem to fit who she is now.

So Gina makes a resolution. She'll keep just a hundred special items - the rest can go.

But that means coming to terms with her past and learning to embrace the future, whatever it might bring . . ."

It wasn't until quite a way into the book that I became hooked.  Each chapter begins with a flash back to some time in Gina's past.  It doesn't really seem to follow any particular pattern, but it moves almost too seamlessly between the past and the present.  I did catch myself occasionally thinking "right, which era am I reading about now" but after a while it becomes second nature and it works amazingly well.

I loved Gina (inspirational), I loved Buzz (heartbreakingly cautious), I loved Willow (adorable!) and I loved Nick (why isn't he in my life)!!!

The story is life affirming, it's inspirational and hopefully will make you want to live life to the full.  Towards the end of the book, the scene between Gina and her mother had me sobbing!

I'm not entirely honest how I feel about the end.  For the book, and the message that the book conveys, it is perfect.  But part of me was disappointed not to know more.  There are loose ends which are very much not tied up.  However, having looked at the other reviews on Amazon, I notice that Lucy Dillon has a habit of revisiting loved characters in her future books to check in on them and see how they're getting on (I hadn't read a Lucy Dillon book previously so didn't know this).  I hope more than anything, that Gina features (happily) in a future book!

You can follow the author @lucy_dillon or on Facebook.