Knowing You
by Samantha Tonge
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An abrupt change; a new friendship; a dark secret…
Kind-hearted Violet has never fitted in, but despite being bullied at school is now content. She is dating ambitious Lenny, has her dream job in publishing and runs a book club at the local retirement home.
However, when her relationship with Lenny begins to falter, Violet, hurt and alone, seeks the advice of her new flatmate, Bella. She changes her image and with her head held high aims to show that she doesn’t need Lenny in her life to be happy and successful.
Her long-term friends Mable and Farah worry about Bella’s influence and slowly Violet starts to distance herself from them. When she was a child, her closest confidant and companion was a boy called Flint. Her mother didn’t approve of their closeness and he suffered a terrible end. She won’t let the same thing happen to Bella, no matter what anyone says…
Knowing You is about friendship and knowing who to trust with your deepest secrets; it’s about taking control of your life and not being afraid to stand out. Perfect for fans of Ruth Hogan, Gail Honeyman, and Amanda Prowse
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
My first love was an assistant manager at the local bookshop where I had a Saturday job. It was then that I realised the most attractive thing about a man was the width of his reading list.
Uncle Kevin got headhunted. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Makes me think of my favourite Horrid Henry story about cannibals. It means he got offered a job in America, the place where people eat bacon with pancakes, do cheerleading and own guns.
I need help persuading Farah that there is no health scare big enough to warrant switching to soya milk.
I have a habit of calling on people at the worst moment. Like when Gran’s in the middle of putting on her tights or my brother has just plastered his face with shaving foam.
If she were an item of stationery, she’d be a stapler. Uncomplicated and unassuming but holding everything together.
I try not to think about it. But when I look in the mirror, I worry. I worry that the woman staring back isn’t me. She’s a stranger and I can’t find an instruction manual.
My Review:
Knowing You was an exceptionally engaging and thoughtfully written tale. I was intensely absorbed and quickly entranced by the ever enticing and smoothly fluent flow of the writing as well as the captivating narrative. Ms. Tonge’s emotive and nimble writing style deftly hit all the feels while peeling back an elegant vulnerability of the highly sympathetic character of Violet at different ages and timelines. Her poignant storylines were ingeniously paced, cunningly crafted, vibrantly detailed, and adroitly evocative. I was so impressed I raced to Goodreads and added her entire backlist on my TBR.
In addition to a new favorite author to fangirl, I also garnered two new additions to my Brit Word List with bedsit – which appears to be what I know as a studio apartment, and collywobbles – which appears to have several meanings such as nervousness and/or a queasy stomach.
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About the Author
Samantha Tonge lives in Manchester UK and her passion, second to spending time with her husband and children, is writing. She studied German and French at university and has worked abroad, including a stint at Disneyland Paris. She has traveled widely.
When not writing she passes her days cycling, baking and drinking coffee. Samantha has sold many dozens of short stories to women’s magazines.
In 2013, she landed a publishing deal for romantic comedy fiction with HQDigital at HarperCollins and in 2014, her bestselling debut novel, Doubting Abbey, was shortlisted for the Festival of Romantic Fiction best Ebook award. In 2015 her summer novel, Game of Scones, hit #5 in the UK Kindle chart and won the Love Stories Awards Best Romantic Ebook category.
Links
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamTongeWriter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaTongeAuthor
Website: http://samanthatonge.co.uk/
I love Samantha’s books so I really need to read this one. Great review.
Excellent review. I think I may have this in my TBR.
Glad you enjoyed this book!
I love books that make you instantly need to have everything the author wrote. If she’s got you eager to read everything else, this definitely sounds like a keeper!