UK Publishing Date: 24 Nov 2015. 317 pages.
There aren’t many books that make me cry on the train but this was one of them. In Butterfly Dreams A Meredith Walters had created an emotional roller coaster of a ride that just can’t fail to touch your heart. If you were a fan of John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars then this will probably strike a chord.
Corin Thompson is going to die. She knows that she will die early and not live a full normal life. This could be from a brain tumour, or cancer, or maybe even a heart attack. Except that Corin is perfectly healthy. Two doctors have told her so but she can’t and won’t believe them.
Losing both of her parents at a young age to illness has left Corin with a morbid fear of death and acute hypochondria. So much so, that she suffers from debilitating and frightening panic attacks that feel like evil butterflies threatening to smother her from the inside out.
Corin is alone. Left only with an older and uncaring sister the girls choose to lead separate lives only communicating when there are bills to pay on the family home that they now rent out to strangers. Her only friend is her business partner with whom she runs a pottery studio in town. An old school friend, he understands Corin and her isolation. It doesn’t mean that he is happy with the situation but he tries to be a good friend.
Convinced by the panic attacks that she is actually suffering from serious heart issues Corin joins a support group recommended by the doctors practice. Mended Hearts is a group of people that are recovering from and live with the ever present threat of heart attack or heart failure. Here, Corin meets Beck. An ex Jock who lived a daredevil existence until his heart attack forced him to re-evaluate his life.
Unlike many books on the market at the moment Butterfly Dreams gives you a chance to get to know the characters and for them to get to know each other. It may be a slow read for some but it builds into the most beautiful slow burn romance. Beck balances out Corin and it is a completely believable pairing.
I won’t spoil the story for you by giving away the ending but this is a beautiful story that is both heartwarming and compulsive reading. Corin’s struggle with her day to day life is completely believable even when the illnesses are all in her mind.
Supplied by Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
You can find the book here: Butterfly Dreams
Categories: 5 Stars Book Review
angelnet69
Prolific reader, enthusiastic theatre and movie-goer and ex-Olivier Awards judge who spent twenty years working in the music industry in London. Sharing my house with a gorgeous cockapoo called Harry who has taken over completely.
I love sharing my favourite books with friends - nearly always spoiler-free as I hate reading a synopsis of the whole book in other reviews.
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