Blog tour: Within You, Without You

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Welcome to the blog tour for Within You, Without You by Sara O'Donovan!

More about the book…

Kathryn Johnson’s life is at a standstill. Stuck in a lacklustre marriage, the spark that once burned so brightly within her has since been snuffed out by the monotony of the everyday.

Returning to England after many years of living in Ireland, she is shocked to discover a familiar face on the side of the road one dark and stormy night. But a person can’t just reappear like that. Not when they’ve been dead for twenty years.

Uncovering long-buried memories of first love and its devastating loss, Kathryn returns to the past to see if she can rewrite her present. But love divided by time is a complicated equation to solve.

More about the author…

Sara O'Donovan spent her early years in England, brought up in the worlds of horse racing and show jumping.

She moved to Ireland in her late 20s and now lives in County Cork with her husband and young family.

A former equestrian journalist, she now manages the West Cork Literary Festival in Bantry.

My impressions…

The story of Kathryn and Ed is narrated alternating past and present events, which is something that always works for me – although, in this case, I would have probably preferred more of a balance between the two. I really enjoyed how well the feeling of first love was described. It made me fall myself for the relationship that the two shared. And the ending… well, I would lie if I said I’m 100% sure of what happened there but that sense of openness to interpretation is something I also greatly appreciate in a book. Overall, it was a pleasurable read for me!

Three words to describe it. Nostalgic. Gentle. Warm.

Do I like the cover? Yes, it’s a nice, warm image. Warmth is something I definitely associate with this novel.

Have I read any other books by the same author? No, this is the author’s debut novel.

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