OMG I don't even know where to start this book is heart breaking and one of my favourite reads of this year. I am not even sure I can do it justice in a review as I loved it that much!

As soon as I picked this book up I knew I was in for the long haul and I read it in under a day over two sittings.

I love a book that gives you all of the feels and this book gave me a barrage of emotions throughout. I shed my first tear around 50% and at 80% had to break a box of tissues out.

This book is so heartfelt I could literally feel the words jumping off the page and was so absorbed and emotionally invested in the wonderful characters from beginning to end.

Massive praise to Laura Pearson on this amazing book and all of the feels it bought with it. This is one of those rare books where 5* just isn't enough!

Dear Edie, I wanted you to know so many things. I wanted to tell you them in person, as you grew. But it wasn’t to be.

Jess never imagined she’d be 21, with a newborn. She also didn’t imagine she’d be dying. A life that should be just beginning is interrupted by worried looks, heavy conversations, and the possibility of leaving her daughter to grow up without her. Jess knows that she needs to tell her daughter everything. How to love, how to lose, how to forgive, and, most importantly, how to live when you never know how long you have.

Possibly one of the saddest books I’ve ever read. It absolutely broke my heart. But I honestly couldn’t put it down. It was amazing. A book of absolute heartbreak, that reminds you how short life can be, and to embrace life to its fullest. Jess goes through the process of coming to terms with having breast cancer, and dying, while reconciling lost relationships, all while writing letters to her daughter in the hope to share insights into her life and offer support about the many things life has to throw at it. So eloquently written that I just couldn’t stop. Highly recommend (if you’re ok with bawling your eyes out).

Ooft. I read this in one sitting and cried with increasing intensity from Chapter 3 to the last page. It's not an easy read emotionally but it's beautiful and brutal in equal measure.

This was a quick, sweet read that really tugged at my heartstrings.

Jess is a single mother with a young baby, and the last thing she ever expected was to be diagnosed with breast cancer. With time working against her, how can she tell her daughter everything when Evie is too young to understand what is really going on? Through letters. Jess pours her heart out, teaching her daughter about life, love, loss, and forgiveness, and along the way I think she learns a few things herself.

It’s definitely an emotional story, and I was quite moved by the author sharing her own experience in the beginning of the book. I do wish there was a little more at the end, maybe an epilogue with Evie, but I can see why the author wanted to end it where she did.

Highly recommend!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2965434133

Amazing. Grab a box of tissues for this one because you are going to need them. Young, single mom with cancer pens loving letters of life lessons to her baby girl all while navigating treatments, the complicated relationships with her mother, father and the father of her child. This one will rip your heart out and make you want to hold dear to those you love. Five stars.

Having read, and very much enjoyed, Laura’s previous novel, Missing Pieces, I was looking forward to her latest – I Wanted You To Know. It did not disappoint, especially as the subject is close to my heart.

Jess has been a mother to Edie for only a few weeks. She is so young herself and has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Jess is more than a mother; she is a daughter, friend, lover. What she is not, until now, is a cancer patient.

I Wanted You To Know takes us through Jess’s cancer experience...from disbelief, anger, confusion, understanding to acceptance. Her relationships with the important people in her life are explored and the different emotions she has with each of them are described with excruciating honesty.

Jess is a very likeable character and I particularly enjoyed the depiction of her relationship with Gemma, her best friend. It’s a book that made me cry, laugh and reflect on the unfairness of life. Despite the subject matter, I found the novel very easy to read and difficult to put down.

Please don’t be put off from reading this novel by the subject matter. It’s ultimately an uplifting story of a young woman’s love for her daughter and the lengths that she goes to in order to ensure that she knows that she is loved.

This was a really sad story. A proper tug at the heartstrings one. It was a lovely read, and very thought provoking. It touched on a mother's greatest fear - how her children will cope without her. It was very well written and an enjoyable, if tearful read.

A beautiful and heart wrenching story you can definitely see this was written from the heart. Fabulous and tear jerking. What a wonderful story x

No words I write will be able to do justice to this beautiful book.

A heart breaking story about a single 21 year old mum who has breast cancer. While she is going through her treatment she reflects back on her life through letters to her baby daughter for her best friend to giver to her when she is old enough.

A beautifully written book which I won’t forget for a long time.
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Really beautiful writing about an extremely sad theme. I'm really torn as I read the whole thing but was in tears for about three quarters of it. So it wasn't "enjoyable" really. It's not just a "cancer story" but a real expression of mother child love. How would you react if you realised you might not see your child grow up? So well written, but overall a painful read. I'd love to think its unrealistic but unfortunately events like those in the story happen all too frequently (trying to avoid spoilers). Just don't read it in a public place!!

This book has great heart. At first I wondered how it would take an entire book to tell the story but I got involved in the story and the characters. The story centers on 22 year old Jess and her battle with cancer. Jess a new mom and single faces not only her own feelings but those of the significant people in her life. She pens a series of letters to her daughter Edie and those letters fill in the history of Jess's story and the inner workings of Jess's mind.
Definitely worth a read to spend time with Jess on her journey.
I received an early copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful story, heartbreaking but wonderful handling of a sensitive subject. Gives a fantastic sense of perspective, I will be recommending this widely. I really look forward to reading more by Laura Pearson, a highly talented young writer!

Thank you to NetGalley and Agora Books for a copy of this book to read and review ahead of publication.

It was the title of this book that really piqued my interest. When I read the author's note at the beginning, I was even more intrigued.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a relatively easy read, and I finished the book in just a few days.

That said, I did feel it got a bit too dramatic at times, and just moved from one point to another a little too quickly. I don't want to give too much away, but wish the ending had been slightly different. Especially since the book is written in third person.

That said, I enjoyed this book enough that I will go looking at other books by Laura Pearson and give them a read as well.

Jess is 21, a single parent with baby Edie and living with her mum. She also has a terminal illness. This is the heartbreaking story of the letters Jess writes to Edie for when she is older, with alternate chapters of Jess’ story frim her younger years through to finding out she was pregnant, and brraking up with her boyfriend. A beautiful book, I cried buckets several times throughout - you'll need tissues before you get tonthe final chapter.

Jess, a single Mum to baby Edie, finds herself at the age of just 21 , facing a battle with breast cancer. Her main concern is for the future of her Daughter and in a series of letters she writes down the things she wants her to know. Things about life in general , things about herself and her relationships and the choices she made in life and most of all , Jess wants her Daughter to know her even though she won't remember her and to let her know just how loved she is.
With a support network of Mum Caroline, best friend Gemma and baby Edie., Jess faces the fight of her short life. I got a real feel for the relationships between these fiour and the characterisation was brilliant.
It would be wrong to say I enjoyed the book but all the way through, it pulled at my heartstrings. I have a terminally ill friend and also a 21 year old Daughter and I felt the cancer issue was dealt with very compassionately and sensitively.
There's lots of books around with a cancer theme but this one had something extra and will stay with me for a long time.

The subject matter is depressing (21-year-old mother, new baby, finds out she has cancer), but the characters, situations and writing all combine for a first-class book and my favorite read of 2019. I laughed, cried and lost sleep...but most of all I marveled at the strength of the young heroine as she internalized and processed the news, communicated it to others, faced & overcame obstacles, made decisions and planned for the future. This is the story of one strong lady...someone I came to admire and look up to as I read the book. It is down-to-earth, believable and realistic. I recommend it without hesitation.

This wonderful book left me uplifted and sad all at the same time, The bittersweet story of Jessica, a young single mum who finds out she has cancer, is engaging and moving. The author delivers weighty subject matter with a real lightness of touch. Jess has recently moved back in with her Mum with her baby daughter Edie and this narrative is interspersed with letters written by Jess to her baby. Each letter starts with ‘ I wanted you to know’ and through them we learn about her relationship with Jake at university, and her unexpected pregnancy. Jake is offered a tour with his band at the same time and the couple split up. Jess’s own father left when she was young and she doesn’t want the same for her daughter, especially when she’s given a cancer diagnosis.

Her relationship with her Mum goes through some rough patches but we never doubt that her Mum loves her and wants to help, even if she does make some terrible mistakes in the way she handles things. Jess doesn’t want to ruin Jake’s tour, but realistically needs to let him know about his daughter, especially if she does not respond to treatment.

However, the most compelling relationship for me was the friendship between Jess and Gemma. This novel is a love letter to female friendship and I liked that this relationship felt the most ‘fleshed out’ in the whole novel. Right from the start Gemma was backing Jess up while juggling a job and babysitting Edie when she’s not working. Where the other relationships gave complications, Gemma seems to know what Jess needs before anyone else. She counteracts Jess’s mum’s tendency to judge and make decisions that don’t include her. Instead she is quietly there all the time, and has an ability to sink into the background when Jess needs time alone or with Edie. This book is a love song to female friendship and highlights how the best friends sustain each other, even in the most difficult situations.

I like that the last words In the book are Jess’s own in the form of a letter to her daughter. I did have a lump in my throat reading some parts of this and I would certainly read other novels by this author.

An excellent read! The characters were developed astoundingly! I read it in one sitting. Lots of crying, but such a great ending.

A heartbreaking read! Have tissues nearby!

Jess and Jake were in love and together. However after an argument. Jess leaves and returns home to her Mum with a bump.

Jess never imagined that she would be a single mother. Growing up without much of a father, she wanted more for her daughter Edie.

But Jess's world is turned upside down when she is diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 21.
A heartbreaking story of what to do with your life when you haven't got long to live it. Make amends? Cherish friends? new adventures?

I requested this book as I was interested in it. My mum went for her first mammogram and they find the tiniest lump of cancer - she is fine and alive.

This book was funny, sad and kept me engaged from beginning to end. Sometimes I felt the pages were too long but it was a great story.

I am having a really difficult time writing this review, because of this book is sad. Sad, sadder, saddest. And you know, going in, that it is going to be sad - if you have read the abstract / blurb, you know it's going to be sad.

That aside, there was something here that didn't work 100% for me. Push the sad, dreadfully sad, subject matter aside, and you will find the book to be slightly.. "off". The way it is written - letters in the first person, then story in third person - seemed to be written by two different people. Perhaps that is the point, I can't know for sure. But I enjoyed the first-person letters so much better than the narrative. If the book had been written entirely from Jess's point of view - as opposed to only the letters - I think for myself it would have worked so much better. So for me, I have to give it only three stars.