I was so sure I saw Sophie on the beach that day. But it couldn’t be her. Sophie’s dead…
Ever since we swore to be best friends at school, Sophie was there for me. When she married my brother, she became family. We shared everything.
At least I thought we did.
After she died, I was devastated. Everyone else has moved on, but I can’t. She was so quiet, those last few months. I’m sure there is something I don’t know…
Now I’m standing on the beach we visited when we were younger, and there’s a woman with long blond hair a few metres away, playing with a dog in the sunshine. She turns, and I see Sophie.
Heart racing, I run after her, but before I can reach her she’s vanished, leaving only footprints in the sand.
It can’t be Sophie… Can it? And do I want to know, if the answer will destroy everything?
A gripping emotional page-turner about the ways we lie to ourselves and how love and hope can heal us. Fans of Amanda Prowse, Liane Moriarty and Susan Lewis will absolutely love The Woman on the Beach.
My Thoughts
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sophie, Liv and Grace have all been friends since school, their friendship remaining as strong as ever even as their lives took them in different directions. When Grace moves to Spain they decide to visit her, and it is on this trip that Grace and Sophie are involved in a terrible train accident where Sophie sadly loses her life.
Grace is unable to cope with the fact she survived the accident yet Sophie died, and she soon begins to withdraw into herself and removed herself from everyone’s lives. This is especially difficult for Liv, as she tries to come to terms with the loss of Sophie and the disappearance of Grace.
When Liv’s marriage begins to struggle under the weight of grief they both carry with them, Liv decides to travel to Spain in the hope of reflecting on her life, and this is of course the last place that she visited with her two closest friends. When she arrives and takes a walk on the beach the wind is knocked out of her when she see’s a woman that looks just like Sophie – but of course, Sophie is dead, so surely it is a trick of the mind?.
Liv is still overwhelmed by the uncanny resemblance the woman on the beach has to her friend, and this forces her decision to leave and return home. The book is then told from various perspectives, alternating between the past and present tense as we explore the fallout of the day that changed their lives forever. We learn more about this group of friends as individuals as each chapter passes, allowing us to form a better picture of who they truly are.
With wonderfully developed characters and a storyline that has you invested to the very end, this is a truly marvellous read.
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About the Author
Julia was born in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, and began her career as a professional singer/dancer. This enabled her to travel the world in her late teens storing up experiences she has since included in her writing.
Following roles as a hostess on The Price is Right and a member of the Beadle’s About ‘hit squad’ in the 1980s, she became a TV Presenter and filmed features for Sky Sports before launching the QVC shopping channel in 1993 where she still presents today. Having always wanted to write, she penned her first book, a memoir sold on QVC, in 2013 and has since written seven full length novels, two novellas and several short stories.
http://www.juliarobertsauthor.com/
https://www.facebook.com/JuliaRobertsTV
*Thank you to Sarah Hardy at Bookouture and Julia Roberts for providing me with a gifted copy of this book in return for my honest review. All thoughts are entirely my own and not influenced in any way.*
Victoria Wilks 