The Flavours of Love - Dorothy Koomson
Published: 07/11/13
Publisher: Quercus
Pages: 440
Dorothy Koomson is without a doubt one of my favourite authors. The Ice Cream Girls is one of the best books I've ever read and as soon as I heard Dorothy's new novel was coming out, I couldn't help but get excited.
The wonderful people from Quercus sent me a copy to review and I'm still trying to stop the tears from flowing now that I've finished it.
Joel, Saffron's husband and father to her children, has been murdered. How is she supposed to carry on functioning normally without the love of her life around to help her? Does she find comfort in Joel's best friend Fynn, in Joel's Aunt Betty or in the teacher who has just informed her that her 14 year old daughter has done something life changing? Or does she find it in finishing the cookbook Joel started to write before he died? Saffron can't seem to find comfort anywhere because her husband's killer is now sending her letters.
What would Joel do? Saffron thinks, what would he tell me to do? And she knows, she knows he'd tell her to carry on because nothing is more beautiful than being alive.
I should know by now that I need a whole box of tissues to read a novel by Dorothy. The level of emotion she manages to pack into the pages of her novels is extraordinary and I cannot imagine any reader not being affected by what they read. The Flavours Of Love is told from Saffron's point of view which I found really helped me to connect with her as a character; her anger, frustration and pure sadness engulfed me as I read. Throughout the story we jump forward and backwards in time, effortlessly I might add, which gave us the chance to see Joel alive and see the relationship between him and Saffron which ultimately made it all the more devastating. We are also privy to the letters Saffron receives from 'A', her husbands killer. They sent chills down my spine as I read them and at many points I had to take a step back from the book and remind myself that I wasn't actually Saffron!
Saffron grows remarkably over the course of the novel and as we see her grow we also see her move through the stages of grief, slowly coming to terms with what has happened. Her two children Phoebe and Zane were interesting characters. Phoebe played a larger role than Zane and she was everything you expect a 14 year old girl to be and more; her behaviour was believable and at times, heartbreaking. Fynn, Joel's best friend, was the one character I always turned to for reassurance and whenever he was around the other characters I felt like they were safe and looked after. He was the star of this book for me, he was the character who impacted me the most.
Lastly, it wouldn't be a Koomson novel without a million and one moral issues and explorations of sensitive topics. Without giving away any of the intricate details of the plot, it covers a wide range of topics from death, grief, teenage angst, abuse, crime...and the list goes on! As always, Dorothy deals with these topics in the most respectful way and you leave the novel feeling just that little bit more aware of issues you had little knowledge of before.
If you enjoyed The Rose Petal Beach or The Ice Cream girls then I can guarantee you will enjoy this one too. In fact, even if you've never read anything by Dorothy Koomson you'd enjoy this! Reading this book has made me so desperate to go back and re-read all of Koomson's novels again, that's how fantastic they are.
A novel exploring what happens when the one you love becomes the one you lost and how the world never stops turning just because the love of your life has gone...
Publisher: Quercus
Pages: 440
Dorothy Koomson is without a doubt one of my favourite authors. The Ice Cream Girls is one of the best books I've ever read and as soon as I heard Dorothy's new novel was coming out, I couldn't help but get excited.
The wonderful people from Quercus sent me a copy to review and I'm still trying to stop the tears from flowing now that I've finished it.
Joel, Saffron's husband and father to her children, has been murdered. How is she supposed to carry on functioning normally without the love of her life around to help her? Does she find comfort in Joel's best friend Fynn, in Joel's Aunt Betty or in the teacher who has just informed her that her 14 year old daughter has done something life changing? Or does she find it in finishing the cookbook Joel started to write before he died? Saffron can't seem to find comfort anywhere because her husband's killer is now sending her letters.
What would Joel do? Saffron thinks, what would he tell me to do? And she knows, she knows he'd tell her to carry on because nothing is more beautiful than being alive.
I should know by now that I need a whole box of tissues to read a novel by Dorothy. The level of emotion she manages to pack into the pages of her novels is extraordinary and I cannot imagine any reader not being affected by what they read. The Flavours Of Love is told from Saffron's point of view which I found really helped me to connect with her as a character; her anger, frustration and pure sadness engulfed me as I read. Throughout the story we jump forward and backwards in time, effortlessly I might add, which gave us the chance to see Joel alive and see the relationship between him and Saffron which ultimately made it all the more devastating. We are also privy to the letters Saffron receives from 'A', her husbands killer. They sent chills down my spine as I read them and at many points I had to take a step back from the book and remind myself that I wasn't actually Saffron!
Saffron grows remarkably over the course of the novel and as we see her grow we also see her move through the stages of grief, slowly coming to terms with what has happened. Her two children Phoebe and Zane were interesting characters. Phoebe played a larger role than Zane and she was everything you expect a 14 year old girl to be and more; her behaviour was believable and at times, heartbreaking. Fynn, Joel's best friend, was the one character I always turned to for reassurance and whenever he was around the other characters I felt like they were safe and looked after. He was the star of this book for me, he was the character who impacted me the most.
Lastly, it wouldn't be a Koomson novel without a million and one moral issues and explorations of sensitive topics. Without giving away any of the intricate details of the plot, it covers a wide range of topics from death, grief, teenage angst, abuse, crime...and the list goes on! As always, Dorothy deals with these topics in the most respectful way and you leave the novel feeling just that little bit more aware of issues you had little knowledge of before.
If you enjoyed The Rose Petal Beach or The Ice Cream girls then I can guarantee you will enjoy this one too. In fact, even if you've never read anything by Dorothy Koomson you'd enjoy this! Reading this book has made me so desperate to go back and re-read all of Koomson's novels again, that's how fantastic they are.
A novel exploring what happens when the one you love becomes the one you lost and how the world never stops turning just because the love of your life has gone...
Laura