A beautiful story of a woman learning to live her life again. Mercy suffers with PTSD and panic attacks due to a traumatic incident that happened, now Mercy is having to learn to navigate the world and simple tasks over again while strengthening her own mental health one step at a time. I really loved the support surrounding Mercy, it was heartwarming.
Enjoyable story.

Mercy hasn't left her house in two years when it burns down.
Crippled with anxiety she has no one to turn to except her ex-husband, but quickly discovers she isn't welcome there.
Desperation takes her to buy an old Hijet van which, with her sausage dog, she decides to drive across the middle of Australia and to the other side. It seems Mercy decides that if she can't hide from her problems she can try and run away from them.

Mercy is a great character, as are the grey nomads she meets on her trip. I loved the descriptions of outback Australia and also how Mercy's story gradually unravels.

Recommended for those who enjoy character-driven fiction and a road trip ;)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Quirky and at times laugh out loud funny, this book, like its protagonist, is a whole lot more complex than first appearances might suggest, it might bring the reader to ponder on the notion of chance, and its random, lasting effects on our lives.

Mercy Blain is an intelligent, professional 36 year old woman living in Adelaide, Australia, who’s life has taken more than its share of sudden serious blows.
In fact, two years ago she had come to such a critical point in her life where she’d had one blow too many in such quick succession that it forced her to retreat into her shell, so much so, that she hadn’t left her house in those two years…until now.

Mercy had inadvertently become a recluse, doing all of her shopping and essential business online and with only a minimum of contact with her…“almost-ex-husband.” She managed her days in the company of her sole companion…her beloved little Dachshund sausage dog, Wasabi.

When her house suddenly catches fire one night and is burnt to the ground, fate literally forces Mercy back out into the world…clutching her little dog to her chest…the prospects are immediately terrifying and Mercy is paralyzed with fear.

With only her beloved Wasabi and the clothes she is standing in, Mercy is left floundering like a fish out of water in the dark street amongst inquisitive neighbors, fire, and ambulance people.
On the verge of disintegrating into a full blown panic attack she has no choice but to accept the help of her “almost-ex-husband” who offers short term accommodation.

Almost immediately Mercy finds her new situation unbearable…not least because of the new living arrangements which her “almost-ex-husband” now enjoys with his new young partner…but her very nature and lifestyle are dictated by her anxiety and cannot be controlled in such circumstances as these.
Every minute here seems charged with anguish about what she is going to do now, without a home to go back to and no other options, her problems seem insurmountable.
In a moment of suffocating panic, Mercy finds herself out in the street again, this time in the broad early morning daylight.
Spinning around in full flight mode, she suddenly finds herself momentarily distracted by a for sale sign on the windscreen of a classic old campervan across the street.
She is inexplicably drawn to it and finds herself looking closely at it when a voice startles her from behind.
The owner is an old man who chattily tries to convince Mercy of the virtues of this quaint old vehicle, and how she appears to be the perfect candidate for its purchase… beneath a row of tiny painted flowers on the side of the van were the words…“Home is wherever you ARE.”
Before she’d made a conscious decision either way Mercy suddenly found herself driving onto the highway out of Adelaide in a vintage campervan of questionable roadworthiness, her only tangible baggage being the borrowed clothes she was wearing, her phone, and her beloved Wasabi…and with the words “Home is wherever you ARE” looping a rhythm in her head.
Nobody, least of all Mercy herself, knew where she was headed…or even that she’d gone.
Here begins an eventful journey like no other.

This is a gem of a story which gives some truly insightful glimpses into the debilitating torment and anguish that are a way of life for sufferers of anxiety and panic attacks.
Hopefully readers will find a new measure of understanding and compassion for such people.

I’d love to know more about the origins of this story, it is just so credibly incredible.
I loved it so much and look forward to reading more from this author, Kim Lock.

5⭐️s
*Many thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy to read and review

Kim Lock has a gift for writing emotions so that the reader can feel them. Mercy's fear and overwhelming anxiety were palpable throughout The Other Side of Beautiful and I found myself both identifying and empathising with her.

Lock perfectly captured the beauty and isolation of travelling across the Australian outback and the unavoidable (and righteous) fear Mercy often felt as a solo female traveller. I may not have driven from Adelaide to Darwin, but having driven solo from Hedland to Karijini National Park (and back), I had many of the same thoughts as Mercy, particularly when she had to park one night alone in a remote rest stop. From running through the famous serial killers preying on backpackers, to considering the dangers of kangaroos and stray cattle, and then trying not to think about what would happen if I had car trouble in an area with no mobile coverage, it can easily turn terrifying. And for me, that was just a day trip! I'm not sure I'd be capable of tackling Adelaide to Darwin on my own. Plus, road trains are no joke - I can't imagine coping with one of them passing me. The absolute helplessness of being surrounded by red dirt and bush, knowing the next closest town is hundreds of kilometres away, and just hoping that everything goes to plan is a vivid reality in The Other Side of Beautiful.

A direct counterpart to the intense fear and anxiety, Andrew and the grey nomads lighten the story, bringing a sense of normalcy to Mercy's crazy idea to just drive. I enjoyed the evolution of Mercy's ability to interact and associate with first Andrew and then Burt and the other grey nomads as she distanced herself from Adelaide and her history. I found Mercy's struggle with guilt and anxiety to be honest and relatable; ***SPOILER***there's no magical cure, and the story is left open-ended enough not to feel clichéd***.

If nothing else, The Other Side of Beautiful will undoubtedly inspire a desire to traverse the outback (preferably with a copilot in a vehicle with working air conditioning), but there are many factors which made this a surprising and engaging read.

Meet Mercy Blain, whose house has just burnt down. Unfortunately for Mercy, this goes beyond the disaster it would be for most people: she hasn’t been outside that house for two years now. Flung out in to the world she’s been studiously ignoring. And so begins Mercy’s unwilling journey. A cult classic campervan, her sausage dog Wasabi, and a mysterious box of cremated remains, Mercy heads north from Adelaide to Darwin.
You know when you pick up a book at the perfect time, and it just feels right?
I picked up The Other Side of Beautiful just before I embarked on my own mini Aussie road trip. The descriptions of landscape, the vastness of rural Australia and the characters of the road (I.e. the grey nomads - so great!), made me so excited to get on my way. A great escape.
Mercy is such a vulnerable and real character. Representing anxiety with an accuracy and honestly that is rare (becoming less rare) in Australian fiction.
A wonderful novel about finding yourself, taking chances and facing your truth.

This book teaches you more than just the story on the pages, it takes you on a journey (literally) about the self discovery of someone living with anxiety. It’s an uplifting memorable read and I loved that this book is set in Australia and that Mercy is from my hometown in Adelaide!

Lovely heart warming read - showed a woman's real struggle with anxiety and panic attacks.
Was lovely to read her journey and find inner strength that we women sometimes seem to forget that we possess. Mercy and her dog Wasabi certainly enjoyed a memorable journey and met some great characters on the way. Enjoyed this book and hope to read more from this author. Thankyou for the advance copy.

This glorious book takes you on a journey through outback Australia as protagonist Mercy runs away from a major trauma in her life. After the house that has been her keeper for the past two years burns to the ground there are no choices left for Mercy but to grab her assistance dachshund Wasabi and flee. Together, this unlikely pair road trip up the rugged centre of Australia as Mercy deals with her anxiety and the traumatic events that have caused it.

I threw myself into this book and was totally enveloped by the splendid writing style of Kim Lock. It was my first book of hers, but I will be looking into her back catalogue with interest. The Other Side of Beautiful is a wonderful feel-good voyage that handles metal illness with compassion and explores coping mechanisms that many may find helpful. The character development was perfect and I fell in love with Mercy and Wasabi, together with a plethora of people she met along the way, enter the Grey Nomads who feature quite heavily.

A book of love, loss, hope and overcoming fears, The Other Side of Beautiful is as perfect as any contemporary fiction book I have ever read. Australians are so spoilt with such brilliant authors and Kim Lock is no exception. Thank you to NeGalley and Harlequin Australia for this ARC.

Somehow I seem to have affixed the adverb "<i>just</i>" to the term "panic attack", as in  "it was <i>just</i>a panic attack".    Being fortunate to never have had a panic attack I had the impression it was a bit of a scare, a period of discomfort, maybe an inflated heart rate for a few minutes and then it passed.    I would, of course, have been wrong about that as I now know thanks to the terrific book <b>The Other Side Of Beautiful</b>. Author Kim Lock opened my eyes and my mind to the reality of panic attacks, the intensity, the severity, and the debilitating impacts they may have on a person.  This was no dry, medical tome however.   It was a tremendously readable, highly engaging novel and was one of those where I was conflicted between wanting to rush to finish it to see how it ended whilst wanting to slow down so I got to stay in this story for longer. 

The story opened with Mercy Blain being attended to by paramedics outside her home which was being ravaged by flames.   We soon learn Mercy had been housebound for two years  but the reasons for this are only gradually revealed as the story progresses.     At first we get just a hint - a few words that intrigue rather than inform.    Each hint becomes a little more expansive, and as we get to know snippets of Mercy's life it all comes together.   I'll refrain from touching upon this aspect as the book does this so well and I'd hate to spoil it for other readers.

There were many themes running through the book.    Naturally panic was up there but another strong theme was grief.   Relationships another - parents, partners, relationships that ended suddenly, friendships that were thrown away and the tentative steps into developing new ones, and let's not forget the gorgeous Wasabi her companion dog.   There was also some very pointed commentary worked in about online commentators, opinion writers who sensationalise issues, incite readers without any regard for the facts nor the way their words might harm others.   The Australian Outback was the backdrop to all of this and Kim Lock painted a magnificent picture and I loved her inclusion of the cast of Aussie retirees, aka Grey Nomads, hitching up vans to their vehicles and setting out to see this great country of ours.  

I haven't mentioned the writing but I absolutely appreciated it and found myself highlighting great chunks of text.  Kim Lock wrote with a truly authentic, contemporary Australian voice and her Author Note at the start of the book set the tone perfectly.   She wrote with such candour about her own nervous breakdown, acknowledging this term is no longer used but that she believed it perfectly described the physical and emotional experience of it: a breaking.    She so clearly wrote what she knew and I thank her for   incorporating those feelings and experiences into a fabulous story with Mercy at its centre.

My thanks to Kim Lock, HQ Fiction andNetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.

“Looking for the next Eleanor Oliphant? Meet Mercy Blain”. That’s how this heart-warming contemporary novel was brought the my attention, but I enjoyed it so much more!

Mercy, an Australian obstetrician, finds herself at a crossroad where she can no longer continue the life she’s living and leaves it up to fate to decide which path she will take. Anxiety has confined her to four walls for two years after going through the most tragic week of her life. Unable to face her fears and process her grief, Mercy felt that staying inside was the better alternative …until it wasn’t. Mercy goes on a journey to get away from her past life and her past self. She meets a great bunch of Aussie characters that are willing to give her a helping hand. And she finally faces her ultimate fear.

Mercy is a very likeable character. I was able to sympathise with her right throughout the book. As someone who has also struggled with anxiety, the author captures the difficulty of doing simple tasks perfectly. I’m so glad that Mercy wasn’t the next Eleanor. Mercy’s story was so much more enjoyable to read, I was never left feeling frustrated at her like I was with Eleanor.

Highly recommend to lovers of contemporary or Australian fiction!

The Other Side Of Beautiful is the fourth novel by Australian author, Kim Lock. The day after her thirty-sixth birthday, two days after her house has burnt to the ground, Mercy Blain leaves: “In a tiny beat-up van that was almost as old as she was, with her Dachshund beside her and the wind in her hair, Mercy’s whole world was rattling north along a rural South Australian highway, with only the borrowed clothes on her back, cheap thongs on her feet and adrenaline pulsing through her veins. She had absolutely no idea where she was going, or what she was going to do.”

Her not-quite-ex-husband had come to her immediate rescue with a place to stay, as she stood on the nature strip in front of the fire but, despite his undeniable care for her, remaining in his house is intolerable. The Daihatsu HiJet with its hand-painted epithet (Home is wherever you ARE) presents a solution: “For two years Mercy had not left her home but now she had a home she could carry with her. Like a hermit crab. Or more accurately, given her speed on the road, a snail.”

Driving with a vague aim to reach the country’s northern shores, when she discovers a box of cremains (Jenny Cleggett) in the sparsely outfitted van, Mercy decides to return to Adelaide, but a certain huntsman spider spoils that plan; she continues northwards, appreciating the company of her loyal dog, Wasabi, and encountering quirky Grey Nomads, intimidating road trains, a rather attractive touring Scot, and a certain journalist who contributed to her pain two years earlier.

While the unenviable circumstances of her marriage break-up might have been to upset anyone’s equilibrium, and it certainly destabilised her, this wasn’t the sole impetus to withdraw from the world, but Mercy scrupulously avoids discussing, and even thinking about, what happened, so the reader pieces the story together bit by bit as Mercy eventually opens up to the kindness of strangers.

Mercy’s lack of preparation will have the heads of veteran nomads shaking, but provide amusement, as do Mercy’s haircut with a paring knife, escape through a toilet window, drunken phone call, beer-garden dancing and much of the dialogue:
“‘What’s the collective noun for a group of caravans?’
Andy pondered it. ‘A swagger.’
‘A gloat?’
‘A boast.’
‘A grandstand.’
Andy asked, ‘What’s the opposite of an apology? A confession?’
‘A flagrant?’
‘An entitlement?’
This went on for a while, back and forth, until Andy finally suggested, ‘An ostentation. An ostentation of caravans,’ at which Shiraz came out of Mercy’s nose and the subject was settled.”

Lock manages to cover some potentially sensitive topics with humour and insight, and wraps them all in marvellous descriptive prose. Her portrayal of panic attacks is both highly credible and informative, as “moments of fear strung together like beads on a wire of anticipation” and “Besides the terror, the sense of doom and the pounding heart, one of the things she found most trying about panic attacks was how tiring they were” illustrate. Funny, heart-warming and uplifting.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and HQ Fiction.

Just over two years ago Mercy was working as an Obstetrician at the local hospital, living with her husband Eugene and generally happy. In the space of one week she suffered three life changing losses which were simply just too overwhelming for one person to cope with. For the past two years she has pretty much been housebound trying to live with crippling anxiety.

Mercy has enough shit to deal with each day when the unthinkable happens and her house catches on fire. She loses everything, except herself and her beloved sausage dog called Wasabi. Now she has no choice but to face the confronting world outside of the four walls that gave her comfort and security.

‘She had taken her comfort and security for granted. Now it was gone.’

After her temporary residence becomes just too unbearable, she makes an impulsive decision to buy a second hand Hijet van with the basics needed for camping and decides to set off from Adelaide to Darwin. Wearing just the borrowed clothes on her back Mercy navigates her new normal which now includes going into stores to make purchases and encounters with the various people she meets at the camping grounds she stays at.

‘When Mercy thought of her old self from before it had all happened, she wanted to go back in time and shake herself for taking the simplest tasks for granted.’

Mercy faces her fears head on and I was really proud of the way she dealt with the many occasions she was completely out of her comfort zone. One of the travellers she meets along the way is Andy from Scotland, this ends up developing into a wonderfully warm friendship that was completely unexpected but something they both needed.

Mercy is not completely alone in her travels, she is also carrying the remains of a human cremation and a huntsman spider who has taken residence in a hidden space of her van. She is focused on getting to her destination whilst dodging calls from her ex about a pending court case she knows is looming.

I am an avid romance reader but felt like reading something a bit different and this story was definitely the right choice.

This was a heartwarming read. I really enjoyed the characters in this book. Mercy's journey was fascinating and as a reader I enjoyed being taken along for the ride with her sausage dog in tow.

#331 The Other Side of Beautiful by Kim Locke. I read an advance copy of this courtesy #netgalley @netgalley & @harlequinaus and I reckon this is going to be a popular novel with readers when it’s released in July. Quirky, funny and full of heart - Mercy (with an anxiety disorder) and her sausage dog Wasabi are going to take you on a completely fab road trip. Five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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While dealing with some very serious topics, this book took a lighter approach to overcoming trauma and grief. Across the road trip, mercy begins to open up both to the reader and to other people. I liked the unexpected (but also predictable) reappearance of Andy, and as the nature of camping - the carefree attitudes of everyone she meets along the way. Definitely makes me want to go see the sights around australia!

"There is a difference between pain, you know, and suffering. The former is a fact to surrender to, the latter is a choice."

The other side of beautiful was a slow burn for me however I persisted and I am glad that I did. It was hard not fall in love with Mercy and the pain and struggles that she has endured were so relatable and left me wanting to know how her story was going to end.

The book gives an accurate insight into what it is like to live with anxiety and touches on topics that are so relatable. And what a fun read it was to be part of adventure that was happening here in Australia!

Dr Mercy Blain's house burns down, and is totally destroyed. That's made worse by the fact that she's had a breakdown, and has not left the house for two years. Now she has no choice, and must face life and other people once again.

On impulse, Mercy buys an old Daihatsu campervan and takes off with her dog Wasabi, desperate to get away from Adelaide and go to "the other side". Small disasters await her at every turn, and she is frequently reduced to tears, but she gradually starts to overcome some of her fears. As her trip progresses, we start to learn more about Mercy's past, and just what was behind her original breakdown.

This is a really readable and well-written book. Kim Lock captures the countryside and the climate of the Australian outback very well, and she manages to avoid making caricatures of the characters that Mercy encounters. In a foreword, Lock reveals that she too had a mental breakdown before writing the book, and that experience seems to make Mercy a believable and highly empathetic lead character.

The Other Side of Beautiful is a wonderfully engaging contemporary novel from Kim Lock.

“It was almost midnight. It was the eve of Mercy’s thirty-sixth birthday. None of these things—not the orange flames nor the agog neighbours, not the birthday nor the deafly ringing ears—were Mercy’s biggest problem, either.”

Watching her home burn to the ground, her pet Dachshund, Wasabi, cradled in her arms, Mercy Blain fights to hold herself together. Panic attacks have prevented her venturing further than her driveway for two years, and now she is standing on the road, surrounded by neighbours and emergency service personnel, her sanctuary destroyed. Desperation forces her to turn to her not-quite ex-husband as a temporary refuge, but his new live-in boyfriend is not exactly welcoming, leading Mercy to impulsively purchase a vintage (read small and dingy) camper van. With no desire except to be anywhere else, Mercy impulsively decides to leave everything behind, and drive from Adelaide to Darwin.

“She wanted it to be over—she wanted to be on the other side of it all.”

While Mercy’s journey is an impulse, it’s a brave move to drive the 3000km+ from southern to northern Australia, anxiety or not. Having left Adelaide with not much more than the clothes on her a back, Wasabi, and, rather unexpectedly, the boxed cremains of a stranger, she has no choice but to endure the stress of interacting with strangers to source supplies. The route is also popular with ‘grey nomads’ and other travellers, and though the camper van, adorned with a message ‘Home is wherever you are’, provides Mercy with privacy, she’s rarely truly alone. Her road trip ‘companions’ are charming, kind and persistent, and eventually Mercy responds when they reach out.

“A panic attack was her body preparing to run for its life. Digestion halted, all rational cognitive function ceased and she became a helpless passenger in a runaway body.”

Panic disorders are often misunderstood. When not in the middle of an attack, Mercy, a doctor, is aware her fears are irrational but she feels powerless in its grip. her crippling ordeal with anxiety, triggered by three traumatic incidents which occurred in a single week, has an authenticity which is borne of the author’s own experience. I found Mercy to be a very sympathetic character, especially as I learned more about her circumstances, and I was invested in both her emotional and physical journey.

“Or she could find somewhere in that great in-between, that place of nuance and clarity and balance. That place where she could do her best, do what she needed to do, and not let the fear of pain and hurt, all the infinite what ifs, crowd her mind until she could do nothing….”

Written with heart, humour and compassion, I enjoyed being a passenger on this journey through Australia’s stunning interior landscape, alongside a character I really came to care about, and her sausage dog. The Other Side of Beautiful is genuine, gracious and entertaining.

"Exquisite, tender and wry, this is a break-out novel about facing anxiety and embracing life from an extraordinary new talent" - could have been my review in a shell.

I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the voice, the language, the dynamics. I found the subject - anxiety, panic attacks, withdrawal from the outside world - trying and interesting, gooey and soul-scratching. Author did a nice job with my heart - interest, and my brain - finding out what's next, how the character is going to behave.

Mercy finds herself at the mercy of her mind. The Other Side of Beautiful is a long journey out of the black hole. It is very demanding but very interesting read.

I really enjoyed this book by Kim Lock. My first read of this author and won't be my last.

Mercy is both a likeable and relatable character. At times we all feel the need to just hide away from the world for a while, but for Mercy it has become more than that. Once a successful and functioning member of society, after experiencing a series of traumatic events in her life, she hasn't left her house in 2 years until one fateful night, she is forced to.

This story follows Mercy on her journey not just from one side of the country to the other, but from one side (the dark side) of an emotional state to the other side. We watch her work through her fear, panic and pain as she tries to slowly emerge on the other side of it where she might once again be able to build her life again someday. What actually happened to her is a bit of a slow reveal over the course of the book, but well worth the wait.

The book was well written and gave good insight into one of the very real effects anxiety can have on a person's life and highlights that anxiety doesn't discriminate based on age, sex, gender, career, finances or level of success - it can happen to anyone.

By focusing on Mercy's journey to overcome and take steps to reclaim her life, this book manages to avoid being a depressing read about the burden of anxiety and instead remains light enough to be an enjoyable read.

I enjoyed the cast of supporting characters just as much as I enjoyed Mercy - these are people I would love to run into out on the road.

I received an ARC for my honest review of this book.

Am I glad I read it - definitely
Was it a waste of my time - not at all
Would I sit down and read it all over again - yes, I certainly would
Would I read more by this author based on this book - absolutely. In fact I've just looked up what else she has written so I can pick my next book.