I found this book intriguing but a little simplistic. I wish I could give it 5 stars but I was irritated by the business side of the story - opening a business then leaving it so soon and all was well, really?? However overall it was a good holiday read.

Kerry Lonsdale, captures her audience with a well written and engaging story of young romance, promises of future happiness, heartbreaking loss and finding peace with choices made. I cried and laughed with the main characters and held my breath when Aimee discovered James was alive and well with complete amnesia.
James' new life, new memories, and fabricated history were constructed to protect him and keep him safe from harm together with Aimee's realisation of who she is and what she wants for herself makes a great read and very difficult to put down once started.

I really enjoyed this book! It kept me interested & had me guessing (wrongly I might add), about how this would all play out. Also... That ending? I truly didn't see that coming! So happy I have book 2 on my Kindle already! Thank you to NetGalley & Lake Union Publishing for an e-copy of this book!

I really enjoyed this story. The characters were well developed and well thought out. I liked the story and the pace. Very well written and I wanted to stay up all night reading it to see where it was going. First novel so looking forward to more form this author!

Hi, I'm really sorry but I couldnt read the book, there was something off with the format. Thakns for letting me review it anyways :)

An unsettling read. If you like predictable plots, fairytale endings and everything clearly explained then this is probably not the story for you.

This was the first book that I have read, written by Kerry. Really glad I got approved as the blurb and the front cover really drew me on. Thoroughly enjoyed it from the first page and it kept me wanting to find out what was going to happen next. Thoroughly enjoyable read.

Chick-Lit meets a Thriller.

The novel opens with the funeral of Aimee’s fiancé James: lost overboard from a fishing boat in Mexico. His body has been brought back to California in a closed casket for his burial. After the funeral Aimee is approached by a woman called Lacy who claims that James is still alive. Aimee refuse to believe her but a nagging doubt remains.

The story continues with how Aimee begins to rebuild her life with the support of her close friends Nadia and Kristen. She also meets the attractive photographer Ian and become torn between her loving memories of James and her developing attraction to Ian.

Aimee continues to wonder about what Lacy told her and this leads her to visit Mexico in search of the truth. It is difficult to say any more without creating spoilers.

This is a well-paced novel with good characterisation. It is a little ‘Chic-Litty’ with the descriptions of Aimee’s mourning, the support from her friends and the relationship Aimee has with her fiancé’s family but the mystery adds a spice to the tale. It’s what I would describe as a good beach read and as that I would recommend it.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

Other people may enjoy this book more than I did; but after reading the funeral scene and not being moved at all, I decided this book was not for me. I just couldn't engage with Aimee, and gave up at 17%.

What a great story!! I couldn't put this down! Well developed characters and story line with a few twists and turns I didn't see coming.

Aimee finds herself surrounded by family and friends in a church on her wedding day. It's supposed to be the happiest day of her life. But instead, she finds herself at her fiance's funeral. And if that wasn't heart-wrenching enough, a woman approaches her in the parking lot afterwards with a business card saying that she's a psychic, specializing in missing persons. "James is alive, " she tells Aimee, and suddenly Aimee doesn't know what to believe. 

While she's dealing with her grief over losing James, she also finds out that her parents have been struggling in their restaurant where Aimee works as a sous chef. When an offer came up to buy the restaurant, her parents couldn't refuse. Their decision to retire has left Aimee without a job. No job, no marriage, no idea what to do next. 

It takes time and lots of support from friends and family, but slowly Aimee starts to put a new life together. She envisions a new cafe, with specialty coffees and fusion dishes. She meets an artist who calls her when he's in town between trips to take his photographs. She starts to move forward and see a future for herself again. 

But then she starts having visions of James. Is it possible that he wasn't killed in Mexico, and if that's true, can Aimee find him? Or is she just running away, scared of her new future and the possibility of falling in love again? 

Kerry Lonsdale's Everything We Keep is a moving story of moving on, of the resilience of the human spirit, and how family helps us heal from even the worst wounds. Even if the story has the feel of a soap opera at times, it read likes butter, and the story does keep you turning the pages until the end. This debut novel is incredibly readable and a good sign of things to come from author Kerry Lonsdale. 


Galleys for Everything We Keep were provided by Lake Union Publishing through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.

Aimee has James funeral on the day they should have married. Moving on with life she has doubts that he has died and sets out to find the truth.

Opening line:
"On our wedding day, my fiance, James, arrived at the church in a casket."

WOW! What an opening line!

Aimee had her life planned out from marrying James to what she wanted to do but those dreams got turned upside down when her fiance disappeared then his body was found. There are a lot of secrets and secret keepers in this book. A lot of dishonesty and lies that Aimee has no idea is happening around her. Until she starts to get clues to the possibility that James is alive. Is he or isn't he? That is the crux of this story and kept me reading (or listening, as was the case) until the end.

It's a good debut. I can't, in good conscious recommend it though due to the "F" bombs and two sex scenes (not graphic in detail).

Thanks to netgalley for the early review.

I found this book to be somewhere between OK and good. I was interested enough to finish, and I will try to follow up with the sequel (as long as it doesn't become to hokey or unbelievable). There were parts of this story that I enjoyed quite a bit, but I also thought that some of it was frustratingly hard to believe.
My favorite part of the book was the first half before Amiee (cute or irritating spelling?) heads off from her new business to chase down James in Mexico. Prior to that, I felt sorry for Amiee having to bury her fiance on the day that was supposed to be their wedding day, and yet I was encouraged by her independence and talent in making a go of her dream of opening a special coffee shop/eatery. Her interactions with Ian felt reasonably believable for the circumstances, yet there was the hope of future involvement outside of just friendship.
The trip to Mexico brought about by the continued prompting of information from the mystery psychic advisor, began the real problem part of the book for me. There were so many coincidences and tidy explanations that didn't really make sense or even seem reasonable. The ending left loose ends, and the epilogue in my ebook edition is actually the first chapter of the sequel book. It sounds like the problems that were conveniently wrapped up are coming back to haunt us in the next book. I'm willing to give it one more try, but won't put up with a rerun in an attempt to recreate mystery or suspense.
I thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Romantic mystery of love lost, grief, and learning to love again.
What an intense mystery! One of those that are hard to put down! It is full twists, and turns......some quite disturbing. Others were thought provoking. Did not see that ending coming, but a couple of story lines just stopped.
Was that intentional on part of the author? Will there be a sequel coming?
Why did the psychic hand her business card to Aimee? Hope we get to find out.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.
This is chicklit at its worst - a romance thriller, but darned if I just couldn't put it down. Was it worth several hours out of my life - probably not but I learned about a mental condition of which I had not been aware and I did enjoy the characters, ditsy as most of them were. A great book for the beach or for when you just need a mental health break. It moved from a little awful to very awful but it wasn't so long that one becomes annoyed enough to throw it into the sea.
2.5 stars generously rounded to 3.

Gripping, fascinating. A fitting sequel to the previous novel.

Everything We leave behind is the sequel to Everything We Keep, and i definitely do not recommend reading them out of order. The beautiful story that begins in Keep concludes so satisfactorily in Leave behind. Kerry Lonsdale took an amazing premise - having to attend the funeral of your fiancee on the day that would have been your wedding, and also having to continue your life, and absolutely kept the promise of that premise! Her settings are beautifully detailed, and the pacing of the books is steady. I quickly became accustomed to her writing style, and the narration was simple to follow. I most appreciated the complexity of her characters. They were deeply layered with clear voices and I truly cared about the outcome of their stories. This set would make the perfect choice for a lazy vacation read.
I highly recommend the set.

I would like to thank Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley, and Kerry Lonsdale for the copy of "Everything We Left Behind" by Kerry Lonsdale. I enjoyed reading the continuation of "Everything We Keep", as I loved the characters and twists in the story. This book is told in the voices of James and Carlos while healing and moving forward though piecing his life together with glimpses of memories and journal entries. Less eventful than the first book, yet honest and heartfelt nonetheless.

I loved this book and blew through it in one night! I stayed up until midnight to finish. Just a well written gripping storyline with flawed characters! I had to find out what happened.