Step 1. Help the baker’s ex-wife
Step 2. Find the true calling of the village shop owner
Step 3. Call a truce on a decades-old feud
Step 4. Forgive me . . . ?
The locals of the Cornish village of Polperran are grieving the sudden loss of Bea Kimbrel, a cornerstone of their small community. Now her reclusive, estranged daughter Alice has turned up, keen to tie up Bea’s affairs and move on. But Alice receives a strange bequest from Bea – a collection of unfinished tasks to help out those in Polperran most in need.
As each little act brings her closer to understanding her mother, it also begins to offer Alice the courage to open her clamped-shut heart. Perhaps Bea’s project will finally unlock the powerful secrets both women have been keeping . . .
My Thoughts
Alice Kimbrel suddenly is a reclusive person, who is currently an academic at Cambridge University. When she receives news of the sudden passing of her estranged mother, she is forced to return to a small Cornish village where her mother lived. Once she arrives in the village to sort out her mothers affairs, she is shocked to find that her mother has also left her with a series of tasks to complete too.
As Alice begins working her way through the tasks, she becomes acquainted with the various quirky characters that live within the village. As she tries to change their lives for the better, which is the task her mother has set her, she soon finds her own life changing in ways she could never have imagined.
This is such a beautiful, moving story that really captures your heart from the beginning. The storyline is so wonderfully written and perfectly structured to keep your attention fully engaged throughout. The story boasts a really strong message around the importance of kindness, something that Is all the more important in these troubling times.
This story really did take you through a range of emotions. From crying to feeling as though your heart could burst. The characters were all given strong, well fleshed out personalities, allowing us to get to know them as individuals. The setting was also brought to life beautifully by the author, really allowing the reader to feel as though you are experiencing all that the characters do.
Beautifully written, endearing, and full of emotion, this is a story that will stay with me for quite some time and certainly a book I will be recommending to others.
The Kindness Project is available to buy now: https://smarturl.it/TheKindnessProject
About the Author
Sam Binnie has written for the Guardian, Vice magazine, and Google’s Creative Lab, among others, and was the 2005 winner of the Harper’s/Orange Prize Short Story Competition. The Kindness Project is her fourth novel.
She swims year-round in her local river, and makes the best pink grapefruit cake you’ll ever eat.
Read more at http://www.sambinnie.com
*Thank you to Rosanna Hilyard at Headline Publishing and Sam Binnie for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for my honest review. All thoughts are entirely my own and not influenced in any way.*
Victoria Wilks 
Adding to my wish list right now , sounds brilliant x
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It really is, definitely one of my favourite reads lately! x
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