Bused in Ireland, this lovely, feel good book is set around the lives of 2 sisters. Following their journey this gorgeous book will have you dropping everything and curling up for the entirety .
A lovely book and I look forward to reading more from Sally Hanan.

My Heart Went Walking by Sally Hanan
Rating: 3.5 stars
Pub date: 2/5/22
The story revolves around Una Gallagher, a 16-year-old facing the challenges of a changing Ireland, who confesses her pregnancy to her mother and embarks on a journey filled with secrets, love, and family bonds.
I enjoyed the multiple POVs, and the characters feel genuine, making it easy for readers to connect with their journeys. The narrative seamlessly transitions from the small village of Donegal to the bustling city of Dublin, capturing the cultural shifts and challenges faced by the characters.

The heartbreakingly beautiful tale explores themes of survival, love, and redemption, culminating in a reunion under challenging circumstances. While the ending may lean towards the 'too good to be true' side, it radiates warmth and leaves readers with a sense of hope and restoration.

Sally Hanan's writing is not only compelling but also accessible, making the novel a joy to read. The glossary of Irish terms enhances the overall experience, allowing readers to immerse themselves fully in the Irish setting. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and commend Hanan for her impressive debut.

I couldn't get into this novel. Something about it didn't click with me. Probably wouldn't read another by this author

A debut novel by Sally Hanan ,set in a small rural village in Donegal ,Ireland, two sisters fall in love with Cullen, their childhood best friend .

When Una becomes pregnant at the tender age of sixteen she must make the ultimate decision to save her true love and family from the stigma that 1980s Ireland had for single mothers.

This tender tale follows Una to Dublin where she is shown the ultimate kindness by an elderly couple who welcome her as their own.She thrives under their care and begins to make a new life for herself.

Then one day she is shocked to hear a plea on the Jerry Ryan show for missing people urging her to return home. Her family needs her home.Urgently.

For fans of Maeve Bincy and if you are looking for something hopeful and heartwarming that will pull at your heart strings.

"My Heart Went Walking" by Sally Hanan proved to be a fabulous piece of work, and is sure to move the reader to tears. Hanan has a clear winner here for her debut! The story revolves around Una Gallagher, Una's sister Ellie, and Una's more-than-best friend, Cullen. Set in 1980s' Ireland, the story begins with 16-year-old Una disclosing to her mother that she's pregnant, which is quite a stigma in her society and community at that time. Una's mother insists that she gives the child up, leaving Una with no choice but to run away to save her unborn child. Meanwhile, unaware of the dire situation that he has put Una in, Cullen continues to be on friendly terms with Una's family, and develops emotions for Ellie. Weaving amongst three different narrative points of view, Hanan brilliantly helps us understand and empathize with all characters as the plot develops. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, and my thanks to Hanan, NetGalley, and the publishers for gifting me with a copy of this book.

This is a kind of a story that reaches for one thing I do not like: takes me hostage - or rather my emotions - with a plot twist that is really ... not necessary for me to feel something.

Premise and setting was interesting enough for me to pick it up: "Ireland’s changing culture of the ‘80s". I would really like to see it more in a story, but we get something else. It's not novel of manners, not really, it is more a family story with escalating dramas here and there.
I thing there was one plot twist too far (no spoilers). On the other hand - it was a good occasion to write a character who has a deep faith and trust in God. And she was well written.

As You can see, my opinion is very mixed :) Still, it's worth reading when we need family drama -- but kind (seriously :) ) and... set in Ireland of course :)

And I love the title.

16 year old Una finds herself pregnant but the trouble is this is 1980’s Ireland and so the news isn’t at all welcome. Of course she runs off to Dublin leaving her family and boyfriend behind. This book covers quite a few different topics but not in any great detail. Although nicely written, easy to get into with no need to do too much skimming, it was far too sugary sweet for me which is why I’m not giving it more than 2 stars. It is a quick read but I only tackled it in small doses for that very reason. A good debut though!

literary fiction novel that is set in the 1980's in Ireland. A story that drew me in and kept me reading throughout.
The characters are ones that make you really feel for them and the story is immersive too. The author has created well fleshed out characters that make it easy for the reader to get to know.
The story is a riveting tale of a young girl faced with decisions that will change her life, wether for the better or worse you will have to read the book.
A heartwarming debut that I thoroughly enjoyed and will look forward to more from the author.
Thanks to both NetGalley and the author for my copy of the book.

This was an enjoyable read, and I wasn't expecting it to go in the direction that it did. So credit due for being unpredictable. My heart was broken by what faced the characters, and I definitely felt all the emotions reading this book.

The setting in 1980s Dublin felt nostalgic and familiar and I appreciated that aspect too.

This is a debut novel and I feel that shows. However I look forward to seeing how Sally Hanan progresses her writing in her next novel.

In the mid 1980's 16-year-old Una finds herself pregnant after a drunken night with her best friend, Cullen. When she confides in her mother she is told that she will be sent to a convent for the nuns to take care of her and the baby will be given up for adoption. She tells Cullen that the baby is someone else's so he won't feel responsible to marry her and she runs away to Dublin. This is one of those stories where lies are told supposedly to protect people and in my head I'm screaming just tell the truth but what 16-year-old thinks clearly. These characters were so well developed and even though at first I didn't care for Ellie, Una's younger sister, she helped her sister only knowing that she needed help, always finding the good even though at times her situation seemed impossible. Una was fortunate to be taken in by an older couple, Catherine and Des, who were a delight and so loving every kid deserves to have grandparents like them.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Fire Drinkers Publishing for an opportunity to read this.

Set in 1980s Ireland, My Heart Went Walking follows Una. At 16, pregnant Una runs away from her Catholic family rather than bring them shame. She leaves behind the child's father, Cullen, who also happens to be her best friend. With Una gone, her younger sister Ellie slowly develops a relationship with Cullen.

My Heart Went Walking is told from all three of their perspectives. I really enjoyed this writing style and how Hanan weaved two separate scenarios effortlessly into the plot. It's a book focused on family, redemption and how far you'll go for love.

My Heart Went Walking is destined to tug at your heartstrings. While it has its slow moments, the warm and likeable characters, along with the captivating storyline, kept my interest. I also can't deny that I loved the Irish setting.

This book evoked many feelings and emotions, set in Ireland in the 1980’s. Una and her sister Ellie are close in a large Irish family. When Una becomes pregnant at 16, her mom tells her she will have to put the baby up for adoption. Una runs away from Donegal to Dublin, in order yo keep her baby. Una is lucky to find Catherine and Des, an older childless couple who take her in and change her life. Una doesn’t stay estranged forever when her sister needs her, and their relationship is just beautiful. Add in the well defined characters, the heartwarming story lines, and you will enjoy this emotional journey. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC; highly recommend.

My Heart Went Walking: An Irish Tale of Love, Loss, and Redemption by Sally Hanan is a book I found myself fully engrossed in while reading the story that took place in Ireland, beginning in the early 80s. It is the story of a 16-year old Irish girl, Una, that lives in a small village called Donegal. When she finds herself pregnant and unwilling to give her baby to the nuns as her mother suggests, she runs away to the big city of Dublin. Ellie, Una's younger sister, is most distraught over her unexplained disappearance and finds herself drawn to Cullen, the baby's father. Fast forward to current day and everyone being reunited when a family emergency arises and Una can no longer stay away. This is a heartwarming story that I thoroughly enjoyed. Included at the beginning of the book was a guide to Irish names, locations, and pronunciations, which I really appreciated.

It's the 1980's, and in rural Ireland we meet 16 year old Una, who has just found out that she is pregnant. The baby is her best friend's, but she doesn't want to tell him in fear of it ruining the plans he has for his life. Her mum is determined that she will go to a home run by nuns in order to put the baby up for adoption, but Una doesn't want to do this. So she runs away to Dublin, where no one can find her. We follow her as she makes a new life, as well as what happens in the lives of those she has left behind.

I wanted to read this after adoring Tish Delaney's Before My Actual Heart Breaks last year. The premise gave me similar vibes, but in reality this is a much lighter, more commercial version. That isn't a criticism, as this book was fun and enjoyable to read. It did bring up some good points about finding yourself pregnant at a young age too, ones which felt authentic and to which I could relate. But it's also a total fairy tale version of that situation - for Una, things conveniently fall into place. Tough times do happen in this book, for Una's sister especially, but the bitter is tempered with the sweet in a way which, although heart-warming, was a bit too neat for my expectations. Still, this is a nice, cosy read with some very well-drawn characters and a nice sense of place.

Una Gallagher is seventeen and pregnant, the result of a single drunken night with the best friend she’s fancied forever. But she can’t tell Cullen he’s going to be a father. They’re in their final year of school, and he’ll feel honour-bound to do the right thing and marry her and work two jobs to keep them, and that will be the end of his dreams.

Una knows she wants to keep her baby. So when Mam says she has to go and live with the nuns then give her baby up for adoption, she runs away from her tiny home town of Donegal and heads to Dublin, the big city. There she meets an Anglican minister who helps her find a home and a job, and is able to create a new life. But that leaves her family and best friend back in Donegal, trying to work out why she left and where she’s gone.

My Heart Went Walking starts in 1983, and is set entirely in Ireland. I loved the setting, and I especially loved the way the Irish accents came through in the character’s vocabulary and even the way they talk and think. (There is an extensive glossary for those who aren’t familiar with Irish colloqualisms.)

I loved the realism of the story, the way Una compounds one bad decision (to get drunk) with another (to sleep with Cullen) and another (to run away rather than be forever seen as “that girl” in her small town home). As the oldest daughter in a large Irish family, she knew more than most first-time mothers do about childrearing, even if she was only a teenager.

The story was told in first person from three points of view: Una, Cullen, and Ellie (Una’s next-youngest sister, only eighteen months younger). Una and Cullen both have strong and unique character voices, and that’s much of the strength of the novel. If I had one complaint, it was that Ellie’s voice was too similar to Una’s, and I sometimes confused the two.

Sally Hanan is a Christian writer, but I wouldn’t classify My Heart Went Walking as Christian fiction. The strength—that’s the novel is authentically Irish—means the language is a little too raw for the more conservative ends of the Christian market. And while the tagline is “An Irish tale of love, loss, and redemption”, the redemption isn’t a come-to-Jesus type of redemption. It’s more subtle, which fits with the characters, the setting, and the time. It feels all the more authentic for not being obvious.

Finally, despite the fact the main character is a teenager, I wouldn’t class this as Young Adult fiction. Sure, teenagers could read it and may well enjoy it. But I think the true fans are going to be women who remember being teenagers in the eighties (or perhaps nineties), in a time before Facebook and mobile phones, a time when running away to the big city so your family wouldn’t find you was entirely possible and believable.

Writers … If you’ve ever wondered how to use vocabulary and sentence structure to construct realistic dialogue without resorting to nonstandard spelling to show accents, read this book as a text.

Readers … If you’re a fan of Irish authors such as Maeve Binchy or you’re looking for fiction with underlying Christian values but which steps outside the boundaries of most modern Christian fiction, I think you might enjoy When My Heart Went Walking.

Thanks to Fire Drinkers Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Sally Hanan’s sublime debut mixes the prose of Sue Monk Kidd with the dialogue of Maeve Binchy. With captivating warmth, she pulls us in to how it felt to live in Ireland’s changing culture of the ‘80s, and how it often made a woman’s decisions for her.

“I can’t bear to keep walking. But you can’t keep a secret in this town unless you leave with it.”

Sally Hanan’s sublime debut mixes the prose of Sue Monk Kidd with the dialogue of Maeve Binchy. With captivating warmth, she pulls us in to how it felt to live in Ireland’s changing culture of the ‘80s, and how it often made a woman’s decisions for her

Sally Hanan’s debut novel “My heart went walking” is set in the 1980s in Ireland, taking us back to a rural life where things were different for unwed pregnant girls.
So when Uma, at the age of sixteen, is pregnant with Callum’s baby and tells her mother, she is told to give up her child. But Uma can’t, and she takes the difficult decision to leave her family and home behind and make her way to Dublin, where no one knows her and she can build a life for her and her child.
Her sister Ellie knows nothing about what is going on and Callum doesn’t know he is the father, and Uma leaves for the big city, ending up sleeping outside until a family takes her in.
The relationship between her host parents and Uma was – to me – the most beautiful part of the story: A couple who never had children decides to take her in and gain a daughter and grandchild and help her work and learn a trade.
There are, however, complications: When Uma finally decides to go back to Donegal and tell her family the truth, she sees Ellie with Callum. Her sister is now seeing the only boy she ever loved. She gets back on the bus and gives up on a reconciliation with her family.
That is, until Ellie gets sick and really needs her help.
At the end, it is a beautiful story with a happy ending, but just like life, there is a lot to go through to get there and we hear it unfold from Uma’s point of view, as well as Callum’s and Ellie’s. While the triangle between Uma, Callum and Ellie is at the forefront of the story, the supporting characters won me over with the love and care and moved me to tears. They are who made this story really worth reading for me.

Love, love, love this book from debut author Sally Hanan. Set in Ireland in the 1980's, this book beautifully captures the times through the lives of Una, Ellie and Cullen. When Una discovers she is pregnant, she runs away to Dublin in order to avoid having the baby put up for adoption. She tells no one who the father is and makes a new life for herself. and her son. But the pull of family, her feelings for Cullen and her sister's illness bring her back to the people she loves.

My Heart Went Walking by Sally Hanan is a beautiful, well-written story about Una Gallagher, a young girl who decides to leave her Irish town after she finds out devastating news and after deciding to keep this news a secret from those she loves. Una learns that family isn't just who you're born with when she meets a lovely couple who help her out by helping her get a new start on life. This novel of love, loss, redemption, and second chances is a great read!