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Tuesday 13 July 2021

✿ The Other Side Of Beautiful ✿ Kim Lock ✿

 

Lost & Found meets The Rosie Project in a stunning break-out novel where a vulnerable misfit is forced to re-engage with the world, despite her best efforts.

Meet Mercy Blain, whose house has just burnt down. Unfortunately for Mercy, this goes beyond the disaster it would be for most people: she hasn't been outside that house for two years now.

Flung out into the world she's been studiously ignoring, Mercy goes to the only place she can. Her not-quite-ex-husband Eugene's house. But it turns out she can't stay there, either.

And so begins Mercy's unwilling journey. After the chance purchase of a cult classic campervan (read tiny, old and smelly), with the company of her sausage dog, Wasabi, and a mysterious box of cremated remains, Mercy heads north from Adelaide to Darwin.

On the road, through badly timed breakdowns, gregarious troupes of grey nomads, and run-ins with a rogue adversary, Mercy's carefully constructed walls start crumbling. But what was Mercy hiding from in her house? And why is Eugene desperate to have her back in the city? They say you can't run forever...

Exquisite, tender and wry, this is a break-out novel about facing anxiety and embracing life from an extraordinary new talent.

 
Copy received from Harlequin Fiction for an honest review

The Other Side of Beautiful is my first read by Kim Lock, and what an enjoyable read it is.

This is a beautiful story of making the most of life.  When lemons are thrown at Mercy, she makes the mos beautiful lemonade you could image.

Ms Lock shows us the intricacies of mental illness, of anxiety and panic attacks.  As someone who deals with depression on a daily basis, I could feel Mercy's panic through the pages,

But this is not a debbie downer book at all. So not that.

It is a joyful road trip that will have you wanting to hop in the car and go where you least expect.

Yes, there is a bit of drama but nothing OTT melodromatic. And whose life doesn't have a bit of drama now and again.

Beautiful imagery had me seeing things through Mercy's eyes and has me looking forward to my road trip in a few weeks time.

I look forward to what Ms Lock brings us in the future.