Very clever writing. Could not get past 50% for some reason. I feel like it was dragging & I just didn’t care to continue. Maybe next time!

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Another winner from Ms. Rosie Walsh! I adored Ghosted, and I was excited to see what she came up with next. Luckily I was just as swept away with "The Love of My Life"; exquisitely paced, and characters that you can really get behind and feel that you get to know.

This page turner is the story of a somewhat eccentric British woman, her husband of 13 years and their 4 year old Ruby. This innocuous story takes a sharp turn after a well known actress disappears. Her husband Leo (a professional obituary writer) quite innocently discovers some papers about his wife which throws their lives for a loop.

This was a very fast, enjoyable book. I read it over the course of a weekend. It is part romance, part mystery but ultimately a love story. Emma and Leo are living a dream life with their young daughter when a serious medical problem throws their life into new territory. How much do they really know about each other? Both Emma and Leo are so likable and I felt invested in finding out what happens. I would recommend this book to friends who like Liane Moriarty.

I am having trouble getting in this one. I have put it aside and will read it later on when I am in a better frame of mind to enjoy it.

It is a case of it's me, not the book.

The mystery part of this novel is really wonderful. The author doles out the clues so well, almost from the beginning, that a lot of anticipation and dread build up even as parts of the mystery are revealed. Excellent plot and character development!

Thanks to NetGalley and Viking/Penguin Random House for the ARC to read and review.

I'm mesmerized by this general thriller/poignant love story. This is impossible to put down. It is about the secrets we keep from the one we love the most and the price we pay to keep them. Told in two POV's into past and present, it will give you so many twist, turns, heartbreaks and a secret hidden so well you will not see coming. The way the story is written captures the characters with love, laughter and heartbreak for those we protect. Their second guessing comments and thoughts were real and sometimes humorous. I could not get enough.

There is lovable Emma, a marine biologist and TV presenter, living comfortably with the love of her life, Leo and their young daughter, Ruby. For a living, Leo writes before-death-obituaries for people in the public eye. When Emma finds out she has cancer, Leo researches to write her obituary. He connects with people in her past that shed a different light on his wife than the one he has known for the past ten years. The more he digs the more incriminating the evidence. You can feel the weight of it that leaves him shocked, disappointed and crushed.

The setting drives the story with her study of a rare crab and the connection it makes to her past. A beautiful life may soon be torn apart when Leo uncovers it all. An actress from the Rothschild's family goes missing, and Leo discovers a connection between the two. What is she hiding? Emma goes missing when he begins to connect the dots with the evidence from her past.

Thanks NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for this title in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book -- there were a lot of twists and I didn't see main twist coming, at all. It was quite a ride, and the pages kept turning. It's a no-brainer sell to fans of Lisa Jewell or Liane Moriarty, it has that same domestic drama and bigheartedness, plus thriller-level twists. The book drew me in with the cancer survivor premise, so I was a little disappointed that that didn't really arc or develop much. But, it drew me in enough to root for the most complicated character in the book, and to stay on her side even when you find out compromising information about her. Thank you for the lovely read.

Emma is very happily married to Leo and they have a little daughter named Ruby. Emma is a well-known marine biologist, who also appeared as a presenter on two documentary specials. Her husband, Leo, is a celebrated obituary writer. They inherited a nice home from Emma’s grandmother. Emma beat bone cancer this past year. In fact, everything about their life seems rosy.

Unbeknownst to most, many obituaries of well-known people are often written up before their death. Leo decides to write up one for Emma so it will have the personal touch. Instead of peppering Emma with questions, he believes he can find out the answers with a little investigating. He remembers she keeps some personal papers in the filing cabinet in her study, but when he searches there, he can’t find them. They are also not in their bedroom. Perplexed, Leo searches throughout the house.

He finds them in quite a surprising place, buried in among other things left over from Emma’s grandmother’ s life. Leo finds the usual things … passports, birth certificates, graduation certificates. As he looks over the papers, something odd catches his eye. There is a letter that says Emma did not complete her undergraduate work at the University of St. Andrews as she had told him. He flips back to examine the passports. There is a current one with her name and a second expired one with the personal information removed.
Leo keeps digging, finding even more discrepancies including the fact that Emma isn’t her name. He concludes that his wife’s whole life is a facade. He feels broken and empty. Did he ever really know her?

This book is about the depths of ones love and how much can be forgiven. This book touched my heart. I felt for both Emma and Leo and the predicament they found themselves in. This is not my usual read but I’ve been selling books for decades and think people who like Jodi Picoult or Liane Moriarty would find this an evocative read.

Robyn Heil, Buyer for Brodart Co.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an early read of The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh. In it, we meet Emma and Leo at a scary moment in their lives – they are about to learn if Emma’s cancer is in remission. They are taking it day by day, caring for their young daughter Ruby, and trying not to think of the possible outcomes. Leo is an obituary writer, and one of the ways he deals with his stress is to start writing Emma’s obituary – which she specifically asked him not to do. He soon learns out why – as he does an innocent search to confirm a detail from her university days, he finds out that she has lied about her degree. Unable to help himself, he starts looking for other things and discovers more little lies and starts to wonder about this woman that he married. For her part, Emma is also worried about this being the end, so she seeks out a mysterious person, who she refers to as "the love of her life", wanting to reach out and connect even though she has been forbidden contact. Emma’s diagnosis is very positive – her treatment works and her cancer is in remission. While very happy news, this does not stop what Leo has put in motion with his questions. The narrative goes back and forth between Emma and Leo, slowly leading the reader to a surprising reveal, one with so many shades of gray that I think this would make an excellent book club title. If you liked The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave or Girl A by Abigail Dean, then you might like The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh.

The Love of my Life by Rosie Walsh is a standalone novel. This story revolves around Emma, our heroine, who is a marine biologist; she is happily married to Leo, our hero, who is an obituary writer and they have a baby girl, Ruby. Emma has lymphoma, and is waiting to see the results after her treatments were completed. At work, Leo secretly begins to do a draft of Emma’s stock obituary as a tribute, knowing he must face her mortality; which was his therapeutic way of dealing with her possible death.

As Leo delves into her life, he begins to find things in the past that do not add up. Even though the results of her blood work were positive, and happy news; he starts investigating things Emma has told him about her life before they married, and learns quickly that she has lied about many things over the years, including her real name. When he starts looking in their house for papers that may give him clues, Emma notices the Leo is searching for papers, and worries that everything she hid of her past is slowly falling apart.

I will say that the first third of the book was slow, with details that we didn’t understand, until closer to the end. However, in part two, which is a 20-year flash back to Emma’s (Emily) younger days, we learn more about what she went through, and why she hid things. The trauma she suffered, which she fully remembers, and still bears responsibility for those horrifying things of the past, which she shares fully with her best friend, Jill (who is also part of the present). Another couple played a big part in Emily’s life, which comes out in the present time.

In the present time, Leo begins to discover the truths, as he goes out of his way to meet those people that Emma knew before she met him, and slowly he learns more about the woman he loves. Emma will try to reason with him, without giving too much information, but a number of twists will change things, and Emma will learn more about the hidden truths that she never knew.

The Love of My Life was an interesting story, that had many twists and turns, which in the last third of the book, we saw all the pieces falling into place. When the very darkest moments of Emma's past emerge, she will step up and prove that despite those lies, she proves that she still loves Leo, who is the love of her life. Will Leo forgive Emma? The Love of My Life was very well written by Rosie Walsh.

Leo is an obituary writer, happily married to Emma, a marine ecologist. When a cancer diagnosis makes her future uncertain, Leo secretly starts writing her obituary as a form of therapy and tribute. But when he researches the details of her past, everything he knows about her seems to fall apart under scrutiny.

This book is part domestic drama, part compelling mystery. It was little bit slow to get started, but by the end I was flying through it, unable to put it down. In the first section, POV switches back and forth between Leo and Emma. We slowly get little clues about what Emma is hiding, starting with oblique references in Emma’s POV sections, then bleeding over into Leo’s as he starts to discover Emma’s lies. The second section is a flashback to twenty years ago, and the third section is back to the present, again in rotating POV. In each section, the complex web of secrets the author has created is revealed bit by bit, which keeps things interesting – but every time you think you know what’s going on, along comes a twist that turns everything upside down. I never fully knew what was coming, which I absolutely loved.

I honestly had very little sympathy for Emma at the beginning, but the flashback section changed everything. She still bears responsibility for many of her actions in later years, of course, but finding out the backstory and the truth behind the lies puts things into perspective and makes her character far more sympathetic.

CW: Cancer, first-person depiction of mental illness, gaslighting

I adored Rosie Walsh's Ghosted, so I was very excited to see this new book from Rosie Walsh! And it did not disappoint!!
To me, Walsh writes page turners that keep you guessing as you are flipping. Just when you think you have it figured out, she drops another nugget of information that changes everything. While this one might be bit more predictable, the story keeps moving forward to keep you engaged and interested.

Emma and Leo have a beautiful life together. Emma has just received a clean bill of health, they have a beautiful daughter, and can just enjoy their life together without health hanging over their heads. Except, Leo pulls as a thread that could unravel everything he thinks he knows about his life. Emma has things she has wanted to tell Leo...but once the opportunity was lost she never had another chance to come clean. What will happen when Leo finds out the truth?

This one will be easy to recommend to readers who like a little suspense, but not too many thrills and chills.

Are second chances really possible? Sometimes wishing with all of your heart it seems as though they might be... but for Emma, even though she is totally in love and invested in her current family and life, it's just not feasible. Her past is going to catch up to her at some point,.and unfortunately, her husband is going to find it before she can explain it. I was captivated by how much this couple loved each other and loved their life together, and tried so hard to work through the shock and lies by omission.

Thank you to NetGalley for the digital advance reader copy of this book. I loved Ghosted, although it was a bit slow to get started, and will read anything Rosie Walsh writes. The Love of My Life is much quicker to enthrall it's reader. The reader must know where the story is leading and thus pages are turned quickly. While some of the story regarding the marriage and not trusting one another seems a bit far fetched, Walsh convinces the reader it is possible. Love the twists and turns of the story.

Rosie Walsh's The Love of My Life reeled me in with just enough information to engage with the characters but enough mystery to keep me reading. I will definitely recommend it to my book club.

This story was a push-pull of feeling like I understood everything happening and then finding out I'd been terribly wrong. This story really does live up to the description as a "love story wrapped in an up-all-night page-turner with a secret at its core"- it's part mystery, part aching love story. While I found the pacing at the beginning a bit slow, by the time I was 10% or so in, I was really captivated by this story and where it took readers. These characters are complex and the story is really well told.

This book was quite a surprise. Heartwarming romance with thriller-worthy twists. It is well written, the characters are interesting and engaging. We will definitely add this to our library collection.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh.
Rather than give too much away with plot points, I'll just sum up that this was a really, really quick read. It starts out making you think it's going to be one type of book then does a complete about face and become something else entirely (plus some red herrings thrown in for good measure).
Interesting book that covers themes like love, loyalty, truth, missed opportunities, motherhood, and friendship.
I would definitely recommend this for an enjoyable weekend or vacation read.

Emma and Leo are perfect for each other. Their young daughter Ruby is precious to them and life seems perfect until Emma receives some devastating health news. As a famous marine biologist, Emma is well-known and as her illness progresses, Leo, who writes obituaries for a living, decides he needs to prepare for her possible death by writing his wife's life story. Unfortunately, Leo discovers that Emma is not Emma after all; in fact, her name is false, her background is a lie and there is another man that he knows nothing about. Will Leo's pursuit of the truth destroy everything they have together?
Interesting premise, how well do you know your "soul mate?" Can secrets destroy a family? Is the cost of finding the truth worth the price? Good character development and the settings are described so that the reader can easily visualize each place. Enjoyable.