Emily Bleeker has been a long time favorite author of mine, and in her latest, you can see her entire heart on the pages. Good Days Bad Days is told through a dual timeline packed with secrets and emotions. As a daughter reconnects with her estranged parents, Bleeker skillfully weaves multiple threads to tell a compelling story with just the right conclusion. The characters jump from the page in such a way you feel as though you know them. I loved this book!

If I could describe this book in one word, it would be……. Brilliant. Good Days Bad Days is a soul searching, gut wrenching, beautiful masterpiece.

As a teenager, Charlie was taken from her parents’ home by social services with a promise from her father that he and her mother would purge the house filled with hoarded items and come for her. A broken-hearted Charlie waited and waited, but that day never came.

Nearly three decades later, Charlie is all grown up. A wife and mother herself, she is the cohost of a home repair reality tv show called Second Chance Renovation with her husband Ian. When she receives a call from her father telling her that her mother is in a memory care facility and asks for her help fixing up the house so he can bring her home, Charlie, who is in the middle of her own marital troubles heads back to the place she swore she would never return to.

The story weaves between past and present as we learn the remarkable story of Betty (just wow!) and gain a deeper understanding of what led to the person she has become while delving into the world of dementia and navigating the struggles associated with it. It also focuses on the reconstruction of the relationships in Charlie’s life. As if that is not enough, this is also a love story. One that is the depth of love that we all hope for.
The characters and relationships are so rich and well developed you can feel them come alive on the pages and the descriptive prose paints such beautiful scenes that the reader is transported in time.

Heart wrenching yet heartwarming, Good Days Bad Days is full of twists. There are so many lessons to take away from this book. I laughed. I cried. My heart was full. My heart was broken, A truly gorgeous masterpiece by Emily Bleeker that should read and reread.

Thank you so much to Emily Bleeker for the ARC and the ALC of this book. This is one of my most treasured reads and I cannot wait until this book is released so I can gift copies to all of the readers in my life. The audio version of this book was equally well done. The narrator duo of Aasne Vigesaa and Eric Altheide was perfection. They did an amazing job bringing the characters to life. The cool part is that when you read and listen, the story is equally wonderful, but it feels like two completely separate and special experiences.