What a terribly gut wrenching premise for a book and I write this through tears of sadness for the family within its pages. However, as much as it was a difficult read, it was beautifully written and the letters from Cee-cee the best of that writing.
How I longed for another letter and to be able to lose myself in her words. I felt every blow that woman suffered, emotionally and physically as I’m sure some must have felt as physical to her as they were emotional.
I didn’t want to wait to write this review because it needed to be fresh in my mind. The joy. The pain. The love. The healing. Amanda Prowse, you’ve done it again 🙏🏼

Rachel Croft wakes up on her boat in Bermuda to discover that her 7 year old son is missing.
In the days that follows, what can only be described as heartwrenching, envelopes Rachel and she is broken beyond all measure.

I loved this book even though I did cry alot. This is a book about love, life, loss , grief, and most of all hope.

To wake up and find your child missing,
The story followed Rachel's pain with James their own loss. of the child. The storyline was from Rachel's point of view with some interjections from the housekeeper
I struggled with this book, there were moments where I shook my head in disbelief but then there were moments of complete sadness
This is my first read by Amanda Prowse, and prior to reading this, I read that she is the Queen of Emotions, have your tissues ready.
I love books that take me on a roller coaster of emotions, but this book didn't pull me in.

I enjoyed this book and felt for the characters in their loss. The book highlighted how different people deal with loss and how looking forward can become a burden when you can only think of the past.

James and Rachel Croft, along with their son Oscar, love a charmed life in Bermuda. In an instant, however, the charm is gone. On an ordinary morning, on an ordinary boat trip, Oscar is gone. Although I've read other books with similar premises, I was not prepared for the depth of emotion that this book would evoke. Part of the tragedy is in how quickly it happened, how many questions were left unanswered, and the devastating affects on those left behind.

Amanda Prowse does an amazing job telling the story from multiple perspectives. Rachel, who loses herself in her grief and denies any possibility the Oscar is gone. James who is bereft from losing his son and his wife to her own grief. CeeCee seems in the beginning like an outside character but her own experiences of loss, her love for Oscar and his family, and her letters to Rachel are the beating heart of the story.

The Coordinates of Loss mad me think of how I'd react to losing a child, a mother's greatest fear. It made me think of families who have lost a child and stayed together and those who found that the pieces did not fit together the same way because they were different people. It made me think of CeeCee's words of wisdom and how she learned to understand people, as well as how she had a second chance at happiness. It made me think of those who are your blood family and those who become family. The raw emotion from everyone in the story - Rachel, James, CeeCee, Rachel's mother and father, Oscar's friends and their families, Rachel's brother and his wife, Rachel's best friend - and how people handle situations was written beautifully.

In all honesty, this wasn't an easy book to read, definitely not a light read, but it is one that will stay with me.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Amanda Prowse, and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

This author had the ability to get me involved immediately. As a parent, I can totally relate to the emotional turmoil happening here. I was truly in a grip from the author while reading this novel. Her ability to create emotional reaction was amazing. I will look for more from this author, but I must choose a time when I can sit down and read from start to finish. This author "gets us" in her grip. This is so well written!

An incredibly heart wrenching, emotional book that explores a parent's worse nightmare, and then some. The author did a great job showing the depth of emotion and pain as not only the parents grieve, but others around them as well. To deal with the pain and guilt, Rachel goes back to her family home to heal, leaving her husband back at their island home. While it is totally understandable that a couple would need to separate for awhile as they deal with a child's death, I do think too much time was wasted describing Rachel's journey through grief, which then made me feel sorry for James and how she "abandoned" him, and didn't help him through his grief as well. However, Rachel and her husband have been blessed with a housekeeper who knows too well the grief of a child who has passed away, and through her letters to Rachel, and comfort to James both begin to learn to live again.

This book was incredibly rich with emotion and thought provoking. It's a book you really cannot stop thinking about. My only complaint, is I would have loved to have the epilogue drawn out in more detail, as the process getting there would have been refreshing to read about.

James and Rachel had it all - They had a great love for one another, woke smiling every day. James had a lucrative job with year round surf and sun on the island of Bermuda, where they had a wonderful old house and an awesome caregiver, CeeCee, who showed them respect and absolutely adored their seven year old son Oscar. Until they awoke at sea on the Liberte, their small yacht, to find Oscar's room empty. He was not anywhere on the boat. And the world they knew, the life they had so taken for granted, immediately fell apart.

This is a heart-breaker of a novel, peopled with folks you can understand and admire, who keep you rooting for James and Rachel, that they might find one another again, help one another through the sea of pain they share. Amanda Prowse brings us yet another wonderful tale.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Amanda Prowse, and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

When your husband dies, you become a widow. What do you become when you lose a child? Are you still a mom? Heartbreaking questions asked by a woman who has lost her son, in a terrible way. When Oscar disappears off a boat, Rachel and James don't know what happened to him. Their guilt is immense and that only causes their grief to be worse and never to loosen. When this book opens with the scream of "Oscar, Oscar" you know something terrible has happened. Rachel does not know what happened to her son, but she knows that her life has changed. When Oscar's body is not recovered, Rachel refuses to have a funeral or memorial service, thus never giving anyone closure. When your grief is so overwhelming, it is almost impossible to realize that others are also dealing with the loss of this little boy.

I felt for these parents, I ached to give them comfort. I wanted to reach into the book and give them a hug or something to help them deal with this loss, even knowing that I had no idea what they were going through. This is the beautiful craftsmanship of Amanda Prowse. When she puts pen to paper you just know that you must read this book. She makes the characters real to the reader and that is a great talent. If you have lost a child, this story might hit a raw spot, so you may want to forgo this one. Once again, I was emotionally spent when I finished this book. I know that Amanda Prowse's books are not going to end happily ever after, but they make you think and she brings attention to issues that are real and could touch the lives of anyone. The publisher,

Rachel Croft wakes up on the family boat, one beautiful morning in Bermuda. The sun is shining, and she is happy to start her day. Happy, until she notices that her son, Oscar is not in his bed. After she searches around the boat for him, her concern turns into every parent’s worst nightmare. While she and her husband, James, frantically search their boat, it become evident that Oscar is not on board.

An investigation quickly takes place and in the days that follow, it becomes clear that Oscar is gone, and he will not be coming back. Grief is a tricky thing. Two parents suffer the same loss but will grieve their loss differently. While one parent may not be able to get out of bed, another may throw himself/herself into work commitments. One parent may lose their appetite, one may still be able to eat. Feelings of guilt blame and doubt can emerge. Grief is not a competition, but it is understandable how one parent would think the other is not grieving as much as the other. One may think "I can't get out of bed, I can't stop crying, I can't function at all, and my spouse is walking around, showering and walking the dog. He/she must not be as devastated as I am" I read that approximately 80% of marriages do not survive the death of a child. In this book, James wants he and Rachel to face their loss together, while she thinks everything they had is over and wants to be alone.

Boy what a sad book. Cee-Cee works as a housekeeper for James and Rachel and she lost a child years ago. She knows all too well, what they are going through. She writes beautiful and heartfelt letters to Rachel and helps her to come to terms with her loss.

Every parent’s worse nightmare has come true in this book. It was very easy to feel for all the adult characters in this book: James, Rachel, Cee-Cee. All lost a child. If you are a parent and have ever lost sight of your child even briefly, then you know that intense sharp feeling of dread that instantly hits you. Imagine that dread not going away until it evolves into something else. Read this book with some tissues nearby. This one pulls at the heartstrings and then some. Wonderfully written, captivating emotional read.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this email in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Read more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com

I loved the Food of Love by this author and have read a couple of others., but if I’m honest none have matched up to Food Of Love for me.
This one tackles the very emotive subject of losing a child, the worst thing possible for any parent. I thought I would empathise more than I did with Rachel, but I just didn’t connect with her and her reactions to her loss. I appreciate that everyone grieves differently, however my sympathies were mostly with James.
The writing, as always, is very good but it was just an ok read for me.
My thanks to Netgalley for this copy.

EXCERPT: 'Oscar! Oscar!' she screamed, crying now, her tears clogging her nose and the back of her throat, making shouting harder and blurring her vision. She ducked under, looking as far as she was able at the hull, and then came back for air; nothing. Her hair hung in a heavy waterlogged curtain over her face; she dug at it with her fingers as she trod water, spinning this way and that, looking, hoping and crying, as her teeth chattered in her gums.

She could hear her husband screaming louder than she had ever heard and in a way that was chilling, desperate. His lack of control and fear only fuelled her own.

It was in that moment of realisation that Rachel Croft looked towards the horizon, weakened, weary and with the certain knowledge that her life had changed.

It had changed forever.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: When Rachel Croft wakes up on her family’s boat in Bermuda, it’s to sunshine and yet another perfect day…until she goes to wake her seven-year-old son, Oscar. Because the worst thing imaginable has happened. He isn’t there.

In the dark and desperate days that follow, Rachel struggles to navigate her grief. And while her husband, James, wants them to face the tragedy together, Rachel feels that the life they once shared is over. Convinced that their happy marriage is now a sham, and unable to remain in the place where she lost her son, she goes home to Bristol alone.

Only when she starts receiving letters from Cee-Cee, her housekeeper in Bermuda, does light begin to return to Rachel’s soul. She and James both want to learn to live again—but is it too late for them to find a way through together?

MY THOUGHTS: I think that every parent has briefly tasted the fear, felt the panic, of a missing child. For the majority of us, it has been only that, briefly. The child has turned up, or been recovered, safe and sound. But having tasted that fear, it never really leaves you; the 'what if?'. . .

Amanda Prowse is a powerful writer. She stripped my emotions bare with this story of every parents worst nightmare - the loss of their child. There are no holds barred in her descriptions of the grief, the guilt, the blame, and the shattering of the lives of those left behind.

The title, I thought, was very clever. And I adore the cover; very evocative.

Other than the fact that this is a heart-wrenching read, I really enjoyed the author's descriptions of Bermuda, a destination I have now added to my travel list.

Best read with a large supply of tissues at hand. 😭😭😭😭

THE AUTHOR: Amanda Prowse was a management consultant for ten years before realising that she was born to write. Amanda lives in the West Country with her husband and their two teenage sons.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Lake Union Publishing via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Coordinates of Loss by Amanda Prowse for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

The storyline of this book, is something that no parent would ever wish to live through, when Rachel & James' son Oscar disappears after a family trip on their boat, they are both heartbroken. What they go through & how they learn to survive & come out the other side is compassionately written by the author.

I’ll put right up front that I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Before this I was not at all aware of Amanda Prowse or that she had already written many books. Let’s just say that now I am a fan I will be going back to read all them.

To lose a child is heartbreaking under any circumstances but to not know what happened or how it happens makes it even worse. To not have any answers just adds confusion to the heartbreak and I don’t know people go on with their lives. You can feel the raw pain of the parents as they deal with the tragedy.

I highly recommend this book and I highly recommend having a box of tissues nearby when you read it.

The Coordinates of Loss by Amanda Prowse is one of the books that is difficult to read but you can't put down. It is a profoundly deep book that explores a parent's greatest nightmare, the loss of a child. Rachel Croft, the mother, goes to awake their seven year old son to find he is not there. It becomes quickly apparent that Oscar is gone, as the family is on a yacht.

Set in sunny and tropical Bermuda, the setting contrasts vividly with the parents' grief. With the support of their housekeeper Cee Cee, who has a similar story. Through letters, the two women find a path to healing. Cee Cee is a hero in this book, as she relives her story to help Rachel come to terms with hers.

The writing is beautiful, haunting, soul-wrenching. The characters are well developed and we are exposed to raw, unrelenting grief. This book can be overwhelming, I found I could only read short bits at a time. I would read, sob, read, sob and finally made my way to the end of the book.

Of course, Amanda and her husband James and their marriage become another "character" in the story. We want to know if their marriage can take such a direct hit. With such a loss, it is the way other people react to the situation that adds depth to the story. Rachel's parents feel useless and respond with anxiety and over-protectedness. Friends Vicky and Gino are supportive and understanding. Rachel's brother and wife react in oddly inappropriate ways.

I found the book very insightful and an accurate view of the grief of parents who have lost a child.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Amanda Prowse for the opportunity to read her latest work - have the Kleenex ready while you soak up this book.

Rachel and James Croft are living in paradise - a beautiful home in Bermuda that they share with their 7-year-old, Oscar. Life is perfect. Until they go out onto their boat and wake up in the morning to find Oscar gone and presumed dead. Rachel loses herself in grief and can't share it even with James. Their housekeeper/nanny, Cee Cee, provides healing words and actions as they navigate this road.

A wonderful book and teaches much about the power of grief and how to live through it.

I really liked the description of this book however it was not the book for me. The topic is difficult- losing a child and learning how to grieve and how to heal- I found the book to read very slowly and found it hard to relate to the characters. It was also pretty repetitive at times. Thank you for the ARC copy.

So real, sad, poignant- I loved and hated this book.

The pain of losing a child and, trying to reshape yourself in the aftermath... I recommend this book as being realistic, heart wrenching and reaffirming.

I look forward to the author's next effort.

Loved this book, very moving and definitely pulls at the heartstrings. A story of loss grief and learning to live with heartache. My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rachel wakes up on her family's boat in Bermuda and finds her beloved 7-year-old son Oscar has disappeared. Unable to deal with her grief, she returns home alone. She begins to receive letters from Cee-Cee, her housekeeper in Bermuda, and begins to try and heal her broken heart.
This book was beautiful, heartbreaking and emotionally charged. It shows how everyone processes grief and devastation differently and how it can be difficult, but possible, to come together to heal. I sobbed my way through most of this story!
Thank you to Amanda Prowse, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this beautiful book!