Anyone who has ever been confronted with watching a loved one battle a life threatening illness can relate to the straws at which one will grasp in an effort to extend that loved one’s life.

Luke Allnutt's debut novel, We Own the Sky, is written with fresh passion and purpose as it chronicles the roller-coaster of emotions that one family goes through when their 5 year old son becomes seriously ill, and how they eventually heal.

The detail Allnutt infuses into photographer Rob Coates recounting of memories and observations overflow with emotions that occasionally spill into the saccharine, though this usually feels warranted when one considers the subject matter.

Ultimately, this is the story of one man’s journey to open his eyes to the world and himself.

3.5 stars A very touching story about family, hope, love and loss.

Rob and Anna Coates are happily married with a young son named Jack. Tragedy strikes their lives when a devastating illness is diagnosed. This novel follows Rob through the aftermath of this diagnosis. It is an honest, emotional, raw and sincere look into the face of family tragedy and grief.

The author, Luke Allnutt, writes from the heart. His own personal battle with cancer sparked the idea of writing this heartfelt story. My emotions swirled throughout this book – I felt for this family and shed more than a few tears at what they experienced and endured.

For the majority of the novel, I felt a strong connection, however, I did find there were parts where my mind wandered. For me, there were a few sections that seemed like extra detail that wasn’t necessary but it didn’t take away from the story as a whole. Overall, I really enjoyed this journey.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin and Luke Allnutt for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is a beautifully written and heartbreaking book. As it begins, we don't know why Rob is so overwhelmingly sad but we can feel his pain. As details come clear, we understand the heartbreak he feels - and we feel along with him.

We Own the Sky is a touching story of a man who truly loves his son and faces heart wrenching obstacles to see that he made a difference in his son's life and his own. Reading the author's introduction gives meaning to the story; drawing you into the reality of his words. At first, I struggled through the story wondering if it was worth my time, but I felt I owed this writer my efforts because of the great pains he took to express his own experiences. In the end I am glad I continued. The tears I shed for this family caused me to ask questions. What would I do if I was in this couple's situation? Would I go beyond the words of experts and put faith in a strangers to save my child? I hope I never have to face this situation, but in reading this story, the questions linger in my mind causing me to appreciate my family and our good health; to be compassionate and understanding of people who are struggling with illness and loss.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this remarkable story.

This is one book that will stay with me for a long time. It's a parents worst nightmare and for this reader it hits close to home, I think that is why some books resonate more with some. When you can (and have felt) the same wide range of emotions the characters and circumstances become real.

Told from the POV of Rob this is his journey from love and loss to despair and healing. Though it might have been nice to hear from his wife, it was his journey. It is well written and nice to get a male perspective for a change. The synopsis above outlines nicely the book and I struggle with saying too much. The author used his our experience with hospitals and illness to write an authentic story. It's a sad reminder that life is precious and can change so quickly.

Thank you to TLC Tours for the opportunity to be part of this blog tour.

Luke Alnutt writes a compassionate story about a father, Rob Coates, who has a fierce love for his son. The reader learns the entire story about Rob, Anna and their son Jack from Rob's point of view. After many tries, he and Anna finally have a child, Jack, making their world complete. But happiness for the family of three comes to an abrupt halt when they receive the dismal diagnosis that Jack has a brain tumor.

Rob is determined to do everything he can to find a cure for Jack. Unfortunately, the anxiety caused by the illness, concern for Jack’s health, and Rob’s search for a treatment create a rift in Rob and Anna’s relationship. And in the aftermath of everything, Rob struggles to find a way to make sense of his life. It is finally through seeking comfort in his and his son’s love of photography that Rob begins to feel whole again.

This story is about suffering great loss and about having the ability to overcome it. It is about the power of love and what one might do to hold onto it. The book reminds us that nothing is forever; that what we have now can slip away without warning. And finally, Rob’s story demonstrates to us that one can find a way out of the depths of despair through time and healing.

In his debut novel, We Own the Sky, Alnutt writes with sincerity and emotion about a difficult and sensitive subject. The story he relates takes the reader on a journey that is at the same time both heartbreaking and fulfilling.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this title.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Park Row and Luke Allnutt for the opportunity to read and review his debut book - stunning. This book will tear at your heart and is so beautifully written.

Rob and Anna are two parents who aren't unfamiliar with loss or sadness. But they aren't prepared for the diagnosis they received for their son, Jack. This book follows that journey but is so much more. It's a love story - between parent and child, especially between dad and child, and between husband and wife. How far would we go to save someone, to have just one more minute of hope?

It's hard to believe that this is Allnutt's first novel but when you read that he is a cancer survivor, you know this is written from a place of truth. All of the characters were so real and the situations so realistic.
I loved the beginning notes of some of the chapters, which you won't fully understand until the end. Highly recommended but have tissues nearby!

If you have loved a child, this book will shake you to your soul. Simply put, it is the story of the last days of a young boy diagnosed with a brain tumor, and the two good people who are his parents. Although told from the perspective of the father, we are given enough detail to allow the reader to empathize with the mother as well. The setting in England but the emotions are universal. I read the second half of the book, as we experience the inevitable tragedy and aftermath, practically holding my breath the entire time. Yes the story is heartbreaking, but the love that radiates from every page makes it a tribute that will touch the heart of anyone with a child in their life.

“I wish it were me, I just wish it were me,” she said, and I put my arm around her and pulled her closer, and she rested her head on my shoulder and we stood like that, her tears wet on my shirt listening to the sounds of the city, the sounds of other people’s worlds.

I, too, carried Jack in my heart. This novel is a lump in the throat story about the love between Rob and his wife Anna, the passion that lead up to their relationship and the creation of their beautiful son Jack. Deeply in love, through hope and losses, just when the world seems perfect a devastating diagnosis turns their world to dust.

Friends rally around the couple, every one has advice, knows of similar cases that turned out just fine. But for Rob, the life he felt blessed passes through his fingers, and he is alone photographing all the places he and his son visited, dousing himself with memories from the time when everything was as it should be. His son and wife are no longer with him, though he longs for them to the very marrow of his bones. Slowly, we learn why he unraveled, where the bitterness and resentment towards his beloved Anna was born.

It is a raw look at the blame we feel through tragedy, shame and guilt towards ourselves and our loved ones. Someone has to shoulder the blame of unbearable loss, who better than the one who prevented the miracle. How can a man stomach the person he blames everything on? It is the dangerous lengths we will go to in the name of hope, salvation for our loved one.

The hardest part of the novel is when Rob believes he has found a cure for Jack, and everything that happens after. It evoked so many emotions hope, fear, anger and shock. There is betrayal, and the reader is as lost as both Anna and Rob. As we slowly witness Jack’s decline, everything seems to get worse and worse, and there is a breach in the love Anna and Rob shared. We, just like Rob, think we know who is to blame.

Sometimes, a father collapses and he feels just as much pain as a mother, but its not often written about. This is every parent’s nightmare, it’s painful just reading about another family suffering through their child’s illness, fictional or not. There is a rupture in Anna and Rob’s world, and they are both displaced, they lose each other. Can they ever overcome what they’ve done to each other, be a family again? What about the rest of the world, and all it’s promises? How soon we realize what’s important, who is really true in our lives. But who do you trust when you are desperate, when everything has failed, you find you will do anything, try anything to save a life!

This is a weeper. I felt deeply connected to Rob and understood everything he did, even in the blindness of his hope and the poison of his grief. It is the father, just as much as the mother, who bonds with his son. It is a cruelty that the world seems to believe only a mother can be deeply connected to their child. Time to pick my heart up off the ground.

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Harelquin

Park Row

Hard to read, but oh so good! Hard to put down as it ripped my heart out.

I selected this book to read next when I saw the Harlequin imprint thinking, oh good - I could use a romance right about now, not realizing how much Harlequin has changed since the years Harlequin was synonymous with romance, when my mother would read one a night before bed. Perhaps it started that way with Rob and Anna so in love with each other and their beautiful child whom Rob sometimes called Beautiful instead of Jack, but it became something else as Jack’s illness was diagnosed and quickly progressed.

I found it almost unbearable to continue reading yet was buoyed by the hope and compassion offered by others and through the online help group. I had to finish the second half today; I needed a resolution, to know what happened. The writing is lovely and the story is simple. How do parents survive their children? The author wrote this after his own harrowing cancer experience and perhaps that’s the source of his authentic voice. The author left me with a fresh appreciation for the power of forgiveness and to reaching out to help others. This is an unforgettable book. I highly recommend it.

We Own the Sky is a beautifully written novel about love, loss, and family.

Luke Alnutt delivers a very raw and emotional read about a family Anna and Rob struggling with their son Jack's brain tumor.

Interesting fact about myself... during graduate school I did bereavement counseling and that was a very eye opening experience. One thing that I learned you can't judge someone based on how they grieve or don't grieve with loss. Relationships and people are affected differently as they try and cope the best that they can.

I think this novel portrays so well how life can so easily fall through your finger tips. One moment you feel like you're ready to give up on life... and the next by some miracle it's the beauty of healing.

I felt conflicted rating this novel... it had so much beauty especially the significance of the title and the cover. But, I just felt like it was just missing something. I couldn't connect with the characters in the way I wanted... and almost like I was looking into a microscope (without being able to grasp the content).
Anna also felt a little cold to me and I wasn't too fond of her.

The ending with Anna and Rob was a bit over the top and cheesy for my taste.

Overall, I enjoyed this one but not my favorite.

3.5 stars for this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin for the advanced arc.
Publication date: 4/3/18
Published to GR: 4/3/18.

Favorite Quotes:

Oh those Facebook mothers. The way they talked, as if they had invented motherhood, as if they had invented the womb, telling themselves they were different from their own mothers because they ate quinoa and had cornrows in their hair and ran a Pinterest board on craft ideas for the recalcitrant under-fives.

Her eyes are like lizard tongues, darting toward me when she thinks I’m not looking.

There was a strange musty smell in Anna’s parents’ house: it reminded me of Werther’s Butterscotch or the jasmine-scented handkerchiefs old people put in their drawers.

Too soon. He was seventy-four. He’d had his three score and ten. David Frost had probably spent more time on the toilet than my son had been alive.

I should have listened to my dad. He liked a drink, but hated drinkers. It’s all about them, son, he had told me, boring old bastards, always droning on. All them clever thoughts, son, but the boy could hardly stand. Because it gets you like that, the booze. It makes you think you’re unwrapping the world. But you’re not. The world is unwrapping you.

My Review:

This book gutted me, but in the best way possible. Cleverly written with wit and observantly insightful detail that tapped all the senses, I was engaged and invested throughout this tragic yet uplifting and transformative journey. I was staggered by the knowledge that this stunningly crafted work was Mr. Allnutt’s debut. I was quite taken by his well-honed and smooth writing style, which pulled me right into the vortex of a loving and desperate father’s cranium. I felt and absorbed his jubilance as well as his disequilibrium and misery. The premise was relevant and moving while the prose was heart squeezing and emotive. I fell in love with the adorable little Jack.

Thanks to Harlequin Books and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this heartbreaking story. Reading about cancer is never easy and when you see children suffering it is even more difficult. In this story a young boy develops a brain tumor and the ways his treatment decisions and his death affect the relationship of his parents. The story is told from the POV of the father who is a computer genius. There are excerpts throughout that have no capitalization or punctuation. I found them distracting until I got to the end of the book. Some of the character interactions in the book seemed crude and unnecessary to the story.

Thank you Net Valley for the free ARC.
This book is about the lengths that you will go to in order to save your child from terminal disease. Heartbreaking.

Luke Allnut practically wrote my review for me in his letter to Readers at the beginning of the galley: "I have tried to be honest about how people respond to tragedy. our thoughts are often dark; our actions unsavory. But I also wanted to show just how resilient people are. And that kindness sometimes comes from surprising places. Hope and love and compassion, above all. I hope that's what you'll get from the novel, as well." He's done exactly what he set out to do, with grace and imagination.

I received a digital copy from NetGalley.

Grief over a loved one's death manifests itself in varying, unpredictable ways. When the loved one is a child, the pain must be immense, nearly too great to bear, and often marriages do not survive the trauma. In We Own the Sky, the reader follows the struggles of one couple and their terminally ill young son. The story unfolds through chapters that are either set in the present or the past. I found the timeline easy to follow.

I liked the first part of the book better than the difficult sections farther along. The ending (view spoiler). On the whole, it's decently told, though I never really bonded with the characters, or fully understood their motivations for some actions. One weird thing that bothered me was the notion of releasing balloons into the sky. Maybe Facebook just shows me too many links to the horrors of helium balloons after they come back to earth, but I couldn't help but wonder why people are still doing that with balloons.

Overall a good, but not great read. Those who have personally struggled with issues similar to the characters might find some empathy and enjoy the book more than I did, and for that I'll recommend that my library purchase it.

A beautiful book of loss and hope, love and life. This debut novel makes me excited to see what else he will write. If anyone (all of us) has ever experienced loss I would recommend this book.

Although a difficult topic for anyone who has young children, this debut by Luke Allnutt balances a fine line between the grief and sorrow of losing a child, and the joys, hopes and memories that go along with such an event. The characters were fully realized, the dialogue realistic and the emotions just resonated throughout the book. Really well done. It will be a bit more challenging to recommend this one as a librarian, but it will stay with me and come up at just the right time, for the right reader. Thanks!

From the publisher: Rob Coates feels like he’s won the lottery of life. There is Anna, his incredible wife, their London town house and, most precious of all, Jack, their son, who makes every day an extraordinary adventure. But when a devastating illness befalls his family, Rob’s world begins to unravel. Suddenly finding himself alone, Rob seeks solace in photographing the skyscrapers and clifftops he and his son Jack used to visit. And just when it seems that all hope is lost, Rob embarks on the most unforgettable of journeys to find his way back to life, and forgiveness.

We Own the Sky is not my usual kind of reading. It’s contemporary fiction with an issue. I accidentally requested an electronic advance reader copy from Netgalley, and since my goal is to read and review every e-ARC I request, I read it.

I’m glad I did. It’s hard to believe it’s a first novel. It’s well written and easy to read. Anna and Rob are characters with depth. Both have traits that made me like them and traits that aren’t particularly attractive. Jack was not as well drawn.

Some of the story is told through forum messages, and I found those a little tiresome at times. Also, the technical details of how Rob hacked into a forum and an email account were probably not necessary. But those are minor complaints about a great story.

The narrative moves back and forth in time – we watch Anna and Rob’s courtship, their struggle to have a child after miscarriages, and their relationship with their child. The book is sad, moving, and believable.

The author wrote this book after being diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 36, and he successfully channeled his feelings of fear, frustration, and loss into his book. If you enjoy contemporary literature, you may enjoy We Own the Sky. It is scheduled to be published on April 3 and will be available at the Galesburg Public Library.