The Best Days of Our Lives by Lucy Diamond is a story about grief and how we all handle the death of someone close to us in totally different ways.
When 35 year old Leni McKenzie falls off her bike and is run over and dies, the whole family is devastated.. Leni was the eldest of three and Alice and her used to be very close. Will, her younger brother deals with her death by going off to Thailand and avoiding mentioning or thinking of her death.
Belinda, Leni’s mum has developed an unhealthy obsession with an online clairvoyant and is spending large amounts on phone calls to her number. Tony, her dad is stressed about becoming a father again, with three failed marriages stacked behind him.
The storyline shows how they all eventually come together to remember Leni with love and fondness, love and laughter.
Highly recommended

The Best Days of Ours Lives is both a beautiful but also heartbreaking read. In Lucy Diamond’s latest novel we are introduced to the McKenzie family who are all struggling to come to terms with a shocking and unexpected loss. We follow them throughout the following year as they to come to terms with their grief. This is a story about family, love, heartbreak, healing, and finding your own path through grief.

Given the nature of this book it may be triggering for some, there is loss of a sibling and the loss of an adult child. There are also issues relating to infertility and complications in pregnancy. Whilst these are very heavy issues Diamond handles them with the upmost care and respect.

Through the novel we follow the four people closest to Leni, her mum Belinda, father Tony and sister and brother Alice and Will. Each is dealing with their grief in very different ways throughout the story. The way Diamond weaves each characters stories throughout works so well. Never do you feel lost or confused by what is happening. This is a story about grief, love and healing and as such the journey the family goes on is very special and yet also difficult. Diamond’s analogies of the butterfly having to fight it’s way out if it’s chrysalis and the way a river will learn to flow around a pebble we’re absolutely beautiful ways to explore how we might move forward after tragedy.

This was a beautiful story that contained so much heart and lightness amongst its tragedy, such is the skill and warmth of Diamond’s writing. Its characters were written with depth and real humanity and as such their grief was raw and palpable and yet this is a novel that still manages to leave you uplifted by the end.

A heartfelt family drama, with plenty of tears and plenty of laughs. A great variety of dynamic characters and a perfect summer read

Grab your napkins and brace yourself for a very emotional, heartbreaking, bumpy road ahead! 'The best day of our lives' is a beautiful story about love (in so many ways), grief, strength and overcoming your pain to build something amazing out of it...

I absolutely loved the author's writing - her words are fluid and poetic, which makes the story engaging and deeply passionate. As for character depth and development, hands down to Lucy Diamond! She's just great.
How can you not love Alice, Will, Belinda, Tony throughout this journey?

I highly recommend it - I'm sure it'll touch everyone (especially those who may have struggled or may have been struggling with grief)

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley and I'm very thankful for having had the opportunity to read such a great book.

It seems I will be in the minority with my review, I score this as 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars.
This is not my usual genre of novel, and I struggled to get into it, as I was unsure where the story was going. It does take concentration to focus on the many different characters, and their convoluted relationships within the ‘Mackenzie family’ circle.
I applaud the author’s intent of describing the pain and hurt felt by all members of a family when a much loved part of that family is killed so suddenly and shockingly. The ripple effect spread throughout Leni and Alice’s immediate and extended family circle, But the narrative felt slow and ponderous at times, there were big chunks where nothing much happened to anyone. It was all about their feelings, which became a bit tedious. I skim read these parts.
I found the closing chapters to be completely implausible. Sadly real life is not like this, with everyone smiling happily at the late Leni’s ‘ birthday’ party, all conflicts resolved lovingly and without any rancour or ill feeling. It was just too saccharin sweet and unbelievable for me,
And what about ‘watching out for the mouse’ ? What was that about? It was never explained, apart from who it was, but not what he was up to?
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

A heart warming family drama with a delightful cast of characters. Highly recommended, and a perfect holiday read.

This is the first book I have read by Lucy Diamond. She is an impressive writer. Her characters are real and very well developed. This book is about the grief experienced by a family when one of them is tragically killed. We delve into each of their stories of how they reacted and coped. It is not without humour.

I’ve read and enjoyed many of Lucy Diamonds novels. This one is a deeper, more intense offering. The loss of a family member is difficult especially a premature and unexpected one. Grief, loss and family dynamics combine into a beautiful and moving story. Highly recommended.

What a book! I'm sure I've loved every book I've ever read by Lucy Diamond, but i think this one has to be my new favourite.

I really enjoyed the format in which it was written; so not only could we see things from both past and present, from multiple viewpoints, we could see their shared exchanges / joint moments in the format of texts etc.

This book took me on a journey because I got to see/feel so many real emotions, as exhibited by the characters within. We also get to see the family working through their grief and finding themselves after such a devastating loss. It really hit home the importance of family togetherness and how it is always good to be open/honest with yourself and others.

I did get a little confused between the introduction and the first chapter, as it took me a little while to realise the sisters / perspectives had switched.

Love Lucy Diamond books and this is no exception. Alice and her older sister Leni are best friend as well as sister than the unimaginable happens when Leni is knocked off her bike. It then tells the story of how her family deals with Leni not being there

This book is all about how a family each get through the loss of their daughter/sister after her shock death in an accident, but I wouldn't call it a sad book, even with that subject matter.

Each family member (Mum Belinda, Dad Tony, sister Alice and brother Will) deals with the grief of losing Leni in their own way. Belinda through consulting a clairvoyant and spending ridiculous amounts of money to 'talk' to her daughter, Will by running off to Thailand to sell tourist 'rubbish' on the beach and Alice by becoming obsessed about Leni's last few days and what she was doing from appointments in her diary that aren't very clear. The only one with any sense was dad Tony.

Belinda and Tony had split up many years ago and had different partners, Tony having had more than one significant other over the years, but now currently settled with a younger partner who is pregnant, so he's about to become a dad again. Tony sets up a WhatsApp group to try and talk to everyone again and get them all talking to each other, which was an actual stroke of genius on his part as things start to slowly resolve themselves. Tony was initially painted as the 'bad' guy a bit in the break-up of their marriage, but circumstances are not exactly as initially portrayed and I really liked his character, and his partner Jackie, who I would have liked to see more of in the story.

Everyone blamed themselves in their own way for Leni's death, even though it was no-one's fault. The only one who annoyed me was Alice, as what Leni was up to in her last days consumed her to the point of obsession and took over her whole life.

By the end though everyone had slowly worked through their grief and guilt and come out the other side as a much closer family, which was really nice to see. A very enjoyable book.

I have read a few of Lucy Diamonds books and this one was slightly different, a lot deeper than my previous reads. A bit of a slow burn at first, I wasn’t sure if I would get into it but I did & it’s an emotional rollercoaster.

Dealing with the loss of Leni the Mckenzie family are all coping in their own ways, this book follows each of them and the stories all intertwine. (Which I am always a fan of)

Thanks to Quercus books and NetGalley for a digital ARC

Deeply moving……The Best Days of Our Lives is beautifully written; the nuances and differences between everyone's grief is sensitively illustrated and Lucy Diamond masters the fine lines from each of their perspectives.

Given the subject matter of The Best Days of Our Lives, the new book by Lucy Diamond, you’d be forgiven for thinking this story would be all doom and gloom and extremely difficult to read. Especially as we all know dealing with the aftermath of losing a loved one can be a challenge and have such a long and devastating impact. But thankfully this story wasn’t all misery, anguish and sadness as it could have easily descended into this vein. Instead, the author provides the reader with a snapshot into the year of a family following the loss of their sister Leni and in doing so provides moments of hope and courage to all who read the book. I appreciated the honesty throughout and although the characters are each fractured and torn apart by their loss they have to learn to come to terms with the fate that has befallen them. Through many experiences and an extensive journey they learn lots about themselves and several secrets are also revealed too.

I’ll be entirely honest and say I found this book too long and it could have done with less chapters in order to condense the story a bit more. I struggled to get through the first half or so but found once I reached perhaps around the 55% mark I finally started to really engage with each individual character. I think because at this point things started to happen and the secrets and issues that each person had been hiding started to come to the fore. Connections were being made and hearts were being opened and everyone was learning to be real and honest otherwise what was the point. Yes, the first half for me dragged but as the family stumbled towards acceptance and in doing so grew and matured and at the same time I felt there was a turning point and the my earlier misgivings began to disappear.

A brief introduction has the reader meeting Leni as she is about to celebrate her 35th birthday with her family. She has constant reminders of what she had but once lost as she sees her family members doing well in life or she thinks. Leni is no longer with her husband and her long held hopes of becoming a mother are just a pipe dream. Fast forward five and a half months later and Leni’s family are deep in the grieving process although they are trying to hide their true feelings from each other particularly her brother Will. This leads to all sorts of complications as the months progress the family become ever more fractured. But this fracturing needs to occur in order for them to try and begin the acceptance process and find their way back to each other again. This is extremely difficult as Leni was taken from them so prematurely when she had an accident whilst on her bike.

What follows are chapters from each family’s members viewpoint, her sister Alice, her brother Will, her mother Belinda and her father Tony. As there were so many characters to get to know I thought things might become quite confusing but it was easy to follow each of their individual storylines and I enjoyed seeing how at some point they were bound to come together. The absence of Leni is felt keenly by her family and by the reader too. You are desperate to get to know her and to read things from her perspective but you know this can’t occur but the further the story develops you do get a sense of who she was and how integral she was to the family and how loved she was.

Since Leni’s death, Alice has fallen apart and it comes to a climax when she quits her job rather than deal with her anger issues as tentatively suggested by her boss. Her marriage is over as her husband can’t cope with what she has turned into and all the solid structures once in place in her life are gone. As Alice says ’The world spun off it’s axis and everything went dark’ and this how every family member feels. I could see instantly that Alice was filled with both rage and regret at what had happened and also guilt the reason for which becomes apparent fairly early on. She feels she didn’t know Leni in her last few weeks of life and so when she finds her diary with some unusual entries she sets about learning more. This was the catalyst for Alice starting some self-healing but really can we ever truly reach that end point in relation to this especially when all we want is that person back in our lives? Leni’s death forces Alice to rebuild things in her own life and I loved the metaphor of the butterfly showing her struggle and the symbolism of the peacock feathers throughout the book. It worked really well and didn’t seem out of the ordinary or over the top.’Sometimes the act of getting through a trauma can give you strength you didn’t have before-strength to fly’.

Belinda is dealing with her grief in a different way and her partner Ray is extremely worried about her. Hours spent talking to Leni through a psychic hotline may be bringing Belinda comfort but deep down surely she must know that this is not real at all? She may be finding short term comfort but long-term acceptance seems very far away. As her ex-husband Tony seems to have had a revelation/wake up call when it comes to his own life situation Belinda starts to realise things from the past which she desperately wanted kept hidden could be about to break through the surface. Can a lid be kept on something she and someone else have been sitting on for years? Or will a new can of worms be opened up?

As for Will, when Leni died he fled. He can’t deal with the emotions her loss has stirred up and instead he spends his days selling knock off gear on the beaches of Thailand. Initially, I got the sense the other family members were willing to leave him off to his own devices as they were too caught up in their own misery and grief. Of course, you can understand this but I felt Will was crying out for help. That the show of doing well in Thailand and enjoying the good life was just that of bravado. Will, needs a little bit of love in his life and to crack open his false exterior and reveal what is truly haunting him. Only then will he begin to travel on the road to acceptance and full family reunification.

I never thought I would be saying this but Tony was my favourite character throughout the entire story. Normally, I don’t overly connect with male characters but there was just something about him that made me very fond of him. Tony is starting a new chapter in his life. Becoming a Dad for the fourth time with his new partner Jackie. He can’t believe this is happening and is not overly keen to get involved with preparations thinking everything will be just as it was when his older kids were born. Tony is sweet and a bit gormless and slowly bit by bit as he starts to wake up and understand that he needs to change he comes to a realisation that the family that he left behind when his marriage broke down, that maybe it’s not too late to make amends with them. He establishes a family WhatsApp group in order to get everyone talking and despite his best intentions it seems that no one is that overly keen to engage with him. But I admired him for his persistence and the fact he admitted to himself that things needed to change and with a new arrival due he wasn’t going to make the same mistakes as he had done with his older children. He is devastated by the loss of Leni but without this occurring I don’t think he would have undergone the transformative journey which I enjoyed following. He tries so hard to repair family bridges and I found myself rooting for him all the way.

The Best Days of Our Lives has a sad and difficult event that forms the core of the book from which all the other events and situations involving the characters evolve from. Despite this, it is an uplifting read and there are many important life lessons to be learnt from it. Overall, I did enjoy the story and found it to be inspiring and helpful. We are provided with a satisfactory ending with many explanations given and loose ends tied up which I was glad we weren’t provided with an ambiguous ending. I would recommend this book as it was enjoyable whilst reading but as for being one of the more memorable books I have read recently perhaps maybe not but I appreciate what I took from it at the time.

This was an unexpectedly lovely read with quite a difficult subject matter. Without spoilers this is a book about grief and family andhow we deal with everything that goes with it. From the guilt of did you do enough to moving on and maybe there is a bit of light at the end and maybe even finding your happy ever after.

I do love a Lucy Diamond book & look forward to new releases.

The book begins with it being Leni's birthday & her family are together to celebrate. So much changes & Leni's sister Alice is trying to get on with her life but it's not easy!

This story will make you laugh & cry. I loved Alice & empathised with her so much. What a wonderful sister!
Enjoy this great book which deals with grief & it's consequences.

This was a great book. Full of emotion and a lot of pulling of heartstrings. I immersed myself in it fully and really enjoyed it. I do love Lucy’s books and this one is up there with some of her others. I recommend this one. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This is my first Lucy Diamond and unsure why i have never picked up her books before! This is a wonderful book and so well written, i really enjoyed reading this and was totally hooked. I would definately recommend this book and cant wait to read more of this author!

An emotional story of how everyone deals with grief differently, especially in the same family.

Although a sad topic it was beautifully written and humourous in places!

I’ve read quite a few of Lucy Diamond’s books & enjoyed them all.
This was a beautiful read that may be a bit slow to start with but stay with it as it will come together.
Alice & her family are struggling to come to terms with the unexpected loss of their sister/daughter 35 year old Leni McKenzie.
Did they know her as well as they thought?
Leni’s sister Alice is trying to piece together the weeks leading up to Leni being knocked off her bike.
She needs answers but one thing leads to another & she has more questions than answers.
Will Lenis brother can’t handle Leni’s death & feels somehow responsible.
He clears off to Thailand after the funeral as he is in bits over her death.
Belinda Leni’s mum has become obsessed with a clairvoyant in order to get close to her dead daughter.
Leni’s dad Tony who is divorced from Belinda is stressing out at becoming a father again while trying to overcome the death of his eldest Daughter.
An emotional read with some hard topics that will draw you in.
Some heartwarming uplifting moments as we hear some of the memories that people share on the internet page that was set up for Leni.
We all deal with grief in our own way & this family is no exception.
It emerges into a beautiful story as they each find their way of coming to terms with their loss.
This was a lovely story that draws you in.