After losing her husband to an opioid overdose, Marren climbs Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Even though they were known as a "golden couple" in their small town, Marren and her husband kept a secret. Due to an injury, her husband had to retire from baseball. Due to an injury, her husband had to retire from baseball. Even before his fatal overdose, their marriage was in tatters.
Marren isn't getting much support from the town, which gossips about the circumstances of his death and asks how she's grieving. Marren realizes that in order to move on with her life, she has to be able to stand up for herself.
What better place to get perspective than the top of the world's tallest mountain?
She meets new friends like the mysterious and attractive Chris, who show her that new experiences are still waiting for her.

This book kinda started out a bit slow at first, but once it sped up I really enjoyed it! It was a very compelling story and all in all, a good read.

What a refreshing take to have a big mountain book written by a woman. Men have had a monopoly on writing about big mountain adventures, and I loved Holli Fawcett Clayton adding a woman's perspective to these incredible adventure stories.

I also enjoyed the change from nonfiction to fiction in the big mountain setting. Yet, this book is more about grief and love and self-discovery more than it is about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro itself. A romance set in such a grand geographical location is unique among other romances, and among other adventure books.

I cheered for Marren during her climb, and enjoyed some of the side characters' stories as well. Overall, a unique read and a good debut novel. I look forward to more from Clayton in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love the cover of this book. That made me look at it to see if I wanted to read it. I loved the blurb about the book. I DID want to read it! Marren loses her husband to addiction. She's in a small town, full of judgement, full of memories, full of all the people she's ever known and all of her life's experiences. She starts to dream about Mount Kilimanjaro and decides that her late husband wants her to climb it. She uses the expedition as a chance to learn about herself and to push herself to move forward. Her expedition crew is amazing and she comes to love them and possibly find a second chance at love. But things aren't quite what she believes them to be. I love that the author ties up the loose endings at the end of the book.

The writing is good, the story flows well, and you can't wait to find out the end. I think some of the elements of the story could've been fleshed out better and had potential to add more to the story, such as her dreams about summiting the mountain.

If you are looking for a feel good story with a happy ending, this one is for you. TRIGGER WARNING: There is substance abuse, physical and mental abuse, and overdose portrayed in this novel. It is not graphic, but it is there.

Somewhere Above It All
by: Holli Fawcett Clayton
Greenleaf Book Group, Greenleaf Book Group Press

In her debut novel, Clayton introduces readers to Marren, who searches for a fresh start in life by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. As Marren works through grief of the loss of her husband, she finds new strength and courage. This book is sensitive and poignant, with a well written story of overcoming obstacles and facing adversity, both in life and in nature.

Thanks to Net Galley and Greenleaf Book Group, Greenleaf Book Group Press
for the advance reader's copy and opportunity to provide my unbiased review.
 #SomewhereAboveItAll #NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley for a free eARC of Somewhere Above it All in exchange for my honest review.
Still reeling from her husband's opioid-related death, Marren travels to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Despite being known as a "golden couple" in their small hometown, Marren and her husband had a dark secret. Following an injury, her husband was forced to retire from his promising baseball career. Before long, he was taking pills to cope with his grief over the lost dream. Their marriage was in tatters even before his fatal overdose. Instead of supporting Marren, her town turns against her, questioning whether she was grieving appropriately and gossiping over the circumstances of his death. Marren realizes that in order to move on with her life, she would need to learn to stand up for herself. And what better place to gain perspective, than the peak of the world's tallest freestanding mountain.? There she meets new friends, including the attractive and mysterious Chris, who show her that the world still has so many new experiences open to her.

I loved the descriptions of Mount Kilimanjaro and the explanations about the more technical aspects of the climb. I love reading books that take me to new places, and I think this is the first book I've ever read that revolved around a hike up a mountain. I found myself thinking.... "that doesn't sound so bad!" which is probably not what I should have been taking away from the story considering I usually ponder fainting after running for more than 20 minutes at a time. Maybe I'll start with a smaller mountain.

I found myself wishing that more of the book took place on the mountain, as about halfway through the setting shifted back to Marren's hometown. I would have liked for more of her conflict to have been fought while doing the hike (kind of like Wild), rather than the main conflict occurring after she got home.

In Somewhere Above it All we follow Marren on her self-discovery journey - her goal: to summit the Kilimanjaro and come to terms with her husbands death from opioid abuse.

Debut author Holli Fawcett Clayton quickly grabs your attention for this book with her beautiful writing style. For me getting to know the Kilimanjaro crew before really getting to know Marren and her past was really nice to read and I really enjoyed this book right from the start.

Her descriptions of things were very detailed which made the story very interesting.

Although this book covers some really heavy topics like grief, toxic relationship, drugs and abuse it also covers topics like friendships, falling in love, the beauty of nature and self-discovery which often got me very emotional but in a good way because it was nice to see how Marren found herself again during and after the biggest adventure of her life.

There‘s only one thing which I unfortunately didn‘t like about this book: I didn’t like Chris and I just couldn’t connect with him - most of the time I wasn’t sure if he was acting because his character always felt a bit two-faced. And I also didn’t feel the connection between Chris and Marren.

I would still recommend this book as it gave me so many things to think about and so many beautiful quotes and I’d definitely pick up another book by Holli.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read it before it is finally coming out on February 8th.

In my boredom this week, between breathing treatments and reading, I decided to join Netgalley. My first read was Holli Fawcett Clayton’s debut novel Somewhere Above it All. This adventure-driven romance novel was an encouraging first read!

Clayton’s novel follows Marren up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Through the climb, flashbacks are used to show readers how Marren got to the point of needing the climb this mountain. Marren’s high school sweetheart Brody tumbles into an opioid addiction after a career-ending injury. Just months before her climb, he overdoses. Readers learn the intricate details of their relationship in between chapters of Marren literally climbing this 19,341ft mountain. In present day, the climbing of the mountain, Marren is struggling with understanding the addiction that leads to her loss. She confines in her climbing group and Chris, the only single one (other than her) on the climb. But like every love story, their relationship isn’t constant fireworks and Marren arrives home alone, questioning her ability to truly be. Through self-discovery, strength, and determination Marren does find her happy ending.

I truly enjoyed the plot of this story. Brody’s addiction not only leaves him a druggie, but also abusive, this is abuse shines through in her character. Marren overthinks second guesses and is obsessive. She is in her head most of the story. The first-person point of view gives readers an interesting insight into how truly broken she is. Through much of the story, Marren wants someone to save her, it’s not until she becomes her own savior that she is allowed to move on. Marren figuratively and literally had to climb her mountain to find her serenity. The literal and figurative representation of climbing a mountain in relation to grief was unique and was one of my favorite aspects of the novel.

Though, much of this story was told to the readers instead of shown. Clayton’s writing style left me annoyed and almost not finishing the book. It felt as though she didn’t trust her readers enough to be able to put clues together and instead spoonfed us how she wanted us to think of Marren, what would happen, and left little to the imagination. This left the book predictable. What kept me reading was the plot, I knew Marren would get over her fears but I wanted to witness it for myself. Marren and her climb kept me reading. I hope in the future Clayton can show more than tell.

Overall, if you are looking for a love story with a spicey adventure, I do recommend this novel which will be released in February! Those doing the #monthoflovechallenge this would be a great read for a book set in a different country!

Rating: 3.5 stars

Favorite Quote: “I’ve come to prove something. I’ve come to prove that I can do hard things. That I can survive. I can climb a mountain. All by myself.”

As someone who has loved someone that has struggled with opioid use, this book hits home. I love premise and the idea of getting away from it all.

A story of grief and the (literal and emotional) journey to heal. I love the concept of this story, that of a woman who seeks to achieve the goal of a lifetime and bring herself back to life after the loss of her husband. The writing wasn’t my favorite. It felt like reading a journal - which did allow it to effectively express emotions - but didn’t succeed in creating strong individual voices for the key players. The plot as a whole feels like something that would be written by Nicholas Sparks, but lacked the electricity to match. The relationship between Marren and Chris lacks believability at times, and I struggled to trust him after the first half of the book (as Marren does at times), which ultimately lead to a dissatisfying ending for me.

The redeeming quality of this book is the depth of the main character’s emotions. As a counselor and the spouse of a recovering alcoholic I felt that Marren was a very realistic character whose emotions ebb and flow in a believable way. Also, the trek up Kilimanjaro was stunning and inspiring; if I hadn’t read the acknowledgements I never would have known that the author has not been there (yet)!

I look forward to seeing how this author’s writing grows and evolves in any novels that she writes in the future.

This breathtaking debut about one woman’s journey of self-discovery to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro as a way to cope with the death of her husband was utterly captivating from the first page to the last. A beautiful portrayal about the power of human connection and the resilience to overcome the unthinkable. This book almost read as nonfiction which is a testament to the research that the author put into creating this well crafted and poetic story. Many thanks to the netgalley for providing me a copy of this book along, I can’t recommend it enough.

A real, raw story of one woman’s journey with grief and the growth she endured to move past a very hard time in her life. This was such a great read. I was not expecting it to be as deep and real as it was, but I felt connected to the main character and invested in her journey to healing and moving forward. A quick, beautiful read that feels like a true story. The short chapters made me fly through this in under 24 hours and I couldn’t wait to see where Marren ended up!

My only issue was the pacing. I could have honestly used more of her at the end and the growth and work to moving forward. Otherwise, this was truly great.

Marren Halleck has the perfect life, she’s married her high school sweetheart and worked to build a great life with him. Only, it’s not as perfect as it seems. Her husband has an addiction and it quickly stole his livelihood and eventually his life. Now Marren is trying to process, grieve, and overcome the battles going on in her head. She decides to prove to herself, and those around her, of her strength but climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. She expects it to be hard, she expects it to be mentally freeing, but what she doesn’t expect is the connections she will make on the trip. Does she even have the strength to move past her troubled past and begin to trust again? Maybe the actual climb isn’t the hardest part after all…

Somewhere Above It All is a story about grief, finding yourself, and doing hard things. Unfortunately, this is one of the more poorly written novels I have read and reviewed this year. The dialogue was cheap and unconvincing, the storyline was melodramatic and unmoving, and the pacing of the story was strange. It started out strong but slipped further and further into tropes that are unappealing. There's nothing worse than insta-love, and this book has it in aces. It was hard to get through.

Thank you to NetGalley and Greenleaf Book Group for the ARC!

1.5 stars. Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me. I loved the premise of the book, as it is about grief and finding happiness after the death of a loved one. However, the execution of the book was a miss for me.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing style, as it was primarily telling instead of showing. The writing was a little choppy at times but still readable. There was a lot of back and forth/ changing timelines in the book which made it difficult to follow at times.

This book is very insta-lovey and while I usually don't mind insta-love I felt that it was out of place for a book about grief (especially since the book itself is very short and is very fast-paced). I couldn't connect to the main character at all and I found myself getting frustrated with her many times throughout the book. I wasn't a huge fan of the love interest either, and I didn't feel the connection between the two. This book also has the third act breakup trope which again I normally love but I couldn't see why the main character took the love interest back, especially when you learn about her past/ past relationship.

The side characters were decent, but in my opinion, they didn't serve much of a purpose and could've been developed a bit more.

Overall, I think that while that others may enjoy this book, it was not my cup of tea and I will personally not be recommending this book.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: January 11, 2022
Summarized review to be posted on Indigo.ca

Additional Information:
TWs: Domestic Ab*se, Death, Addiction, Suic*de
Genre: Fiction, Romance
Spice? No
Cheating? No
OW/OM? No
HEA? Yes