This book was equally hear-breaking AND heart-warming. Oh, the feels! This is a good "make you cry" book, I enjoyed it, and look forward to reading more by Vivien Brown.

Twenty years ago, Kate became pregnant. She and her husband Dan had been struggling to start a family for years, and thanks to the wonder of IVF they finally did it! But at the time, neither of them realised what price they had to pay for making that wish come true. Family secrets, betrayals and five unforgiveable things tear this family apart over the next twenty years.

My first book by this author, but the book sounded so captivating that I just had to read it! I just had to find out what the five unforgivable things were! I love books with lots of family secrets, something you can really get involved in, and this was certainly one of those books! Initially, it took a bit of time to get to grips with the characters as there are quite a few of them but once I’d worked out who was who I really got into the story and became hooked. Kate was the most likeable character and I felt so much for her throughout the story.

It was a gripping story of relationships, love and family, but not all in a good way! There was plenty of heartache and pain and the book had me in tears at various points throughout! The storyline was strong and it had me thinking long after I’d finished the book that you don’t realise what you do at the time can have so many repercussions in the future and affect so many people.

A heart-breaking, yet heart-warming story of families, secrets and forgiveness. I would definitely recommend.

Loved this book, even when I was not reading it I kept thinking about it and couldn’t wait to pick it up again and I finished it in a day. Would definitely recommend to others and can’t wait to read other titles from this author.

Highly recommend!!

Perhaps I'm daft - perhaps I am reading way too quickly that maybe I'm skimming over the parts that have to do with the tag line on the cover that "she wanted to make a family, not break one," but what I'm getting out of this book are Three Unforgivable Things - and they weren't done by Kate but rather Dan.

The chapters that focus on the children in present day would have been enough to be a typical chick lit book - the tale of 4 brothers and sisters finding their love and path somewhere in London. Every chapter but the last from Kate's point of view are so bitter, so angry, so resentful that its hard to read. In the first sibling's POV chapter they make their Mum sound like a hippy-dippy free love woman trying to find herself out on a communal retreat - nothing like Kate of her chapters.

While there may be some forgiveness at the end.- I'm not sure if its out of pity, guilt or love.. I was just so fricken happy the book came to an end,.

Loved this book from beginning to end. I didnt want to put it down. It broached some difficult subjects. It brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion
I would recommend this book to every woman.

One family. Five members. And five unforgivable things that lead to tearing a couple apart.

Thirty years ago, after many years of struggling, heartache and pain, Kate and Dan created their own family. With the help of IVF treatments, the two of them managed to have children. After that, it should have come to a happy ending for everyone. But it never did. Because there were five unforgivable things that happened between them. Five things that lead to the dissolving of a family that was created through pain.

Now Natalie, their daughter is getting married. But while everyone else prepares for the big event, her father announces that he won't be there. With everyone heartbroken and bitter, can anything be done to transform the broken pieces into a family again?

Five Unforgivable Things is a story of love, hardship, loss and persistence. It is the chronicle of two people that almost never met, and, had fate not intervened, would never have been with each other. It is the story of two people struggling to become parents, a documentation of everything they went through in order to achieve it, and the changes this struggle brought to their dynamics. The reader follows along as Kate and Dan come close and drift apart, again and again, and still try to keep together the family they worked so hard on creating.

But above all else, this is a story of forgiveness. It is a story of mistakes being made, of anger and of letting all hard feelings go. Through heartbreaking scenes filled other times with love and other times with sorrow, we arrive at a great life lesson, even if it isn't bluntly stated: in the grand scheme of things, is it worth it to hold grudge and bitterness in your heart for the rest of your life?

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really wasn’t sure where this was going to go, I think I wanted it to be a very different book – so it’s not really the books fault that I didn’t like it. However, none of the motivations made any sense. It almost seemed like these characters were just trying to be self-destructive for no other reason than just to have drama for this book to resolve, if you call that ending a resolution. Meh. This is more of a melodrama and less of a psychological novel.

Family dynamics from different points of view and how a decision can change the course of relationships.

A different type of book from those I normally read but I was intrigued by the 'blurb' on the back.. I enjoyed the telling of the story from different characters and how it developed as you read the book. I thought it was an interesting reflection on family dynamics and relationships rather than gripping but again that may be my particular tastes.