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Charlotte is the perfect wife. She bakes, she scrubs hard water stains from the sink, she cooks gourmet meals for her family and never, ever says any of the resentful things that she can’t help but think, more frequently, now, as she feels her relationship with her husband Dom crumbling, no matter how hard she struggles to please him.

After all, isn’t it “a wife’s duty to cater to her husbands every need”?

Faced with an impromptu move from England to Switzerland (for Dom’s job, Charlotte, you don’t expect a choice here do you?), Charlotte packs up her two boys, does her best to stifle the tremendous sense of loss she feels, and prepares to set up a new, and equally loving, home for her family in this exotic (and foreign) locale.

Charlotte’s life in Switzerland, and her story told here, is, in equal parts – heartbreaking, maddening, terrifying, compelling, and lovely. No spoilers here (you have to read the book to see where the parts fall!)

It’s fair to say this story challenged me. Like her best friend Ruth, I often longed to shake Charlotte, and found my compassion streaked through with frustration.
Even at her most exasperating, however, it was crystal clear that Charlotte’s intrinsic kindness, – her fears, hopes, and love for her boys – served as the only beacon providing her guidance.

Charlotte’s story, her journey to finding, and holding true to a love for herself and her own lost soul, in the face of many who would take advantage of her, is not an easy one. “Just an ordinary woman who’d tried her best to be kind, and adored her children,” her life is hauntingly recognizable in the lives of others we may know, and perhaps, if we look deep enough, even ourselves.

This story charmed me. Part odyssey, part awakening, part cautionary tale, at the end of the day, it is really one-hundred-percent heart.

A great big thank you to the author for an advance review copy of this novel. All thoughts presented are my own.