The Beginning of Everything - Jackie Fraser

About the book… 

The Beginning of Everything is the story of Jess and Gethin, whose paths cross in the most unexpected way. Jess is running, leaving all she knows and everyone she loves behind her, with just a few treasured belongings in her rucksack. She’s escaping from the pain and trauma of a bad relationship with a bad man, gone very badly wrong. Gethin’s kindness and care takes her breath away. They become friends. But with so much hurt in her past, can Jess learn to love and live again?

Buy Links: 

Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/8xgZqpe

About the author… 

Jackie Fraser is the author of The Bookshop of Second Chances and The Beginning of Everything. 

She lives in Hampshire with her partner, and when she's not reading, writing or editing (her day job) you might find her climbing over gates to look at stone circles, taking photographs of rusty things, or poking about in antique shops.

Contact Links: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/muninnherself?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JackieFraserWriter/

Instagram: 

My thoughts…

What an absolutely delightful book The Beginning of Everything is. I read this whilst spending time on the Fife coast, with a view of the sea that was ignored as I devoured the pages.

The story centres around unlikely friendships and support in a situation where the full picture wasn’t always visible.  It highlights more than anything that it is always better to seek to understand a person or situation before judging and acting on quick decisions. In life we never see the full picture and it is up to us to take the time to ask questions and discover the why beneath all of our actions both physically and verbally.  

This is the story of Jess and Gethin who meet in unexpected circumstances, Jess living rough seeks shelter in an empty house - shortly after which she is discovered by the new owner of the property Gethin a definite fight or flight situation - fortunately for Jess, Gethin wanted to understand the reasons for Jess needing to break into his new property and offers a gentle hand of support.  

As a reader I absolutely loved both of these characters, their quiet dance around each other as they both open up, learn to trust and grow as individuals.  This wasn’t a one way friendship, from the very start as a reader the scene was set for us, we knew that Jess had a past that led her to live in the way she was but we slowly get to know about Gethin’s past that wasn’t quite so transparent.

I loved the hopefulness that oozed from the pages and found myself quietly praying for each of them when things didn’t always go to plan and see-sewed in the opposite direction.  Trust being the biggest obstacle to overcome, it broke my heart reading several chapters because Jess often couldn’t trust and open up because amongst other reasons she didn’t feel worthy - didn’t think she deserved to live a full life.  Her past experiences having stripped that from her.

I highly recommend this book, it will pull at your heart strings, but warm your heart by the end.  It’s a wonderful example of how friendships, communication, time, openness and trust can repair even the most broken individual to build strong lasting friendships and relationships.  This was a story that made you think about life and our interactions and definitely pulled at my heart strings to begin with and as I turned the last page my heart had done a 360 and left me with a warm fuzzy feeling.

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