Dementia is an overall term for diseases and conditions characterized by a decline in memory, language, problem-solving and other thinking skills that affect a person's ability to perform everyday activities with memory loss is an example. It's not for nothing that Alzheimer’s and dementia are known as The Long Goodbye. Little by little the spirit, the spark that made someone an individual is stolen away by an enemy that cannot be fought and whose march forward to total annihilation is relentless, resulting in loved ones having to say goodbye to a loved one in increments over a long period of time. The effects of dementia are family-wide, affecting not just the patient, but also the whole family and friends, as the person slowly ‘disappears.’

In Here and Now we are taken through a journey of loss through the eyes of Marigold, who at first finds her memory loss annoying, but nothing more sinister. She is, after all, sixty-six years old, and everyone getting along in age gets a little forgetful, as her spritely mother tells her often enough. Marigold is married to the love of her life, Dennis, who is as besotted with Marigold now as he was a youth when he met her. They live in a charming English village where Marigold is at the centre as the local village shop owner. They have two adult daughters, Daisy, 32, who lives in Italy with her boyfriend and Suze who is 25 years old, still living at home and trying to become a social influencer, both moving on with their own lives. Marigold likes to feel needed, which is why she encouraged her mother to move into her family home, where she can take care of everyone. Suddenly newly single Daisy returns home, making the home feel a little too full and Suze is impatient and sometimes brattish in her behaviours towards her parents, but the sisters can’t help but notice that Marigold is more than a little forgetful. That she just isn’t behaving in a manner they have come to expect over the years, and even after confronting a disbelieving Dennis with their fears, they discover that they now have to protect and oversee Marigold rather than have her fuss over them as a mother hen as has been the expectation. It takes several events and trips to doctors to get the much-feared diagnosis of dementia. What follows is the unravelling of life and the desperate attempts of family and friends to help hold Marigold’s life together and give her a ‘farewell’ worthy of all the love she has lavished on those around her over her whole life.

In this novel, readers are given a ringside seat to the creeping darkness that is dementia and its effects on both the victim (for they are, in every sense victim to this reality) and those left behind. The terror, confusion and the desperate fears are all lived out in the experience of Marigold, better than any clinical textbook could ever describe. The refusal to acknowledge what is happening because of grief is played out beautifully in how Dennis reacts to the suggestion of his wife’s predicament, as is his anguish at losing the spirit of the woman he loves and the lengths he will go to honour his wedding vows and look after Marigold. The reader watches with a horrid kind of fascination as a family struggles to come to terms with what is needed to deal with this crisis and also the way a village comes together to support both Marigold and the family. It looks at the toll such a diagnosis can extract on the family, the guilt and belief that they must give up everything – even to the point of living their own life – to look after Marigold.

This book is not all doom and gloom however, as there is a subtle love story occurring with Daisy and a desperately needed growing maturity that develops in Suze. The ending is sad and yet hopeful, which is probably the most you can wish for when discussing such a crisis. This is not a fairy tale, it is an honest, gentle portrayal of dementia and the manner in which family and friends can support the victim and those most affected by such a diagnosis.

Gripping and beautiful.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Net Galley for the ARC.

The lesson from this book is to live in the here and now rather than looking towards the future and not being present! It tells the story of Marigold, a sixty-six year old woman who has been diagnosed with dementia. Marigold lives in a small English village and is much beloved by her family, neighbours and friends in the village. We go through with Marigold the progress of her disease and how her family copes with her decline.

It was difficult for me to read given that my mother and mother-in-law are in their 80s and 90s, respectively with not so great memory. You wonder if they will decline like Marigold. I found the beginning of the book slow moving but enjoyed the later parts of the book when the story expanded to include Daisy, Marigold's daughter who returned from Italy and found herself helping to care for her mother.

I enjoy most of Santa's books but I found this difficult to read and scary to think that this could be in my future. This is a testament to what a great writer Santa is. Her characters are well developed and so real. As always, Santa's descriptions of locations is phenomenal and makes you feel like you are right there in the story.

I received this book from NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada to read and review. I would like to thank them for the opportunity to read this beautiful book. I was so moved by this book I was in tears. The author created wonderful characters that I felt like I had known my whole life. While Marigold is the main character, each of the other family members and villagers blend into the story, yet they each have their own story to share. I have to say that the Grandmother is a wonderful character that brings some lightness to this serious topic. I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone so I will just say the author did an amazing job of explaining Marigold’s “problem” and I understood the entire topic better than before reading this book. If you are looking for a heartbreaking yet heartwarming book full of family, love and Friends than this is the book for you.

This book was absolutely amazing. It touched on a really good tough subject but the author handled it with dignity and respect.

The characters she devised were well rounded and I came to love some of them dearly. Especially the two main ones.

Being from a small village in Ireland, I believe she captured the true essence of what it means to be part of a village and how neighbors once all the gossip has.died down will rally around you should you need help.

It's.great this will come out nearing the end of Summer as it feels to me a perfect book to snuggle up with while covered with a blanket while you read it out on your patio or at the cottage in the cooler evenings/nights.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing me with the advance reader digital copy. I will definitely be buying this for my book shelf come release day.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary advance reader copy of this book in return for review based upon my honest opinion.

This book should come with a disclaimer, you will need a box of tissues to finish it. What a lovely heart wrenching story about family and community, love and loss and dealing with a family member who slowly gets lost with dementia. The characters in the story were so honest and compelling, they were so easy to identify with and their story just swept me away. I spent most of my time reading this book trying not to cry and the rest of the time sobbing. It made me smile, it made me cry, it is a book that I will think about long after I have read it. So beautifully written, such a lovely read. This author never fails to give a beautiful book.

<I>Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for providing me with an eARC of this novel via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</I>

<U>Here and Now</U> absolutely destroyed me. I think I spent 3/4 of the novel resisting the urge to uncontrollably sob. Dementia is cruel, and watching the progression of someone spiral is difficult beyond words. Montefiore's ability to accurately (and with feeling) describe Marigold's decline and how it affected the people around her was so arresting. As a paramedic one of the calls that breaks my heart the most is dealing with patients who have dementia and thinking about the young, strong, independent people with love and a a life full of choices they used to be. Montefiore captured this beautifully. One of my favourite reads of 2020.