No Turning Back (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

I only recently read Susan Lewis book Stolen and usually I wouldn't read two of her books so close together. Her last book was a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although she falls into the Chick Lit genre, I think maybe she should just be put under modern fiction as her style of writing and the sort of books she produces are far from romance stories where everything turns out great.

In her latest release we meet Eva who is the main character in this story. I instantly felt sorry for her but also felt she was a little weak and that was portrayed really well. When her world falls apart we see her character change and this in itself made for a very turbulent book when it comes to real emotions.

The other main characters were Eva' husband Don, who if I am honest, never really warmed to throughout the whole story. We also meet Eva's sister Patty and her two adult children Livvy and Jake, as well as Don's daughter Jasmine. The two characters of Jasmine and Livvy were my favourites and throughout the book you see the development of them as both characters and people.

The story itself is fantastic. There are two major plot threads running throughout the story. One of them is quite obvious from the outset and the other is interlinked throughout the whole book. I can't imagine that either subject is particularly easy to write about but Susan Lewis has done just that, with remarkable compassion.

Although I cannot quite put my finger on exactly what it is she does, all I know is she does it extremely well. Her books are lovely to read and although not always the happiest of subjects, they are made real and heart warming. This book in particular I thought was amazing, it was so easy to read and although not always with the perfect fairytale ending, so enjoyable. There are many people who will have experienced something like the character Eva and can maybe relate to her a little. Although her character started off as maybe a weak and insecure person it was nice to see her progress as the events in her life forced her to change.

I would highly recommend this book to anybody. Not your bog-standard chick lit type of book, but thoroughly good!

I have enjoyed Susan Lewis's books previously but I am afraid this did not do it for me. I found the main charactor, Eva, totally wrapped up in herself and what had happened to her in the past. The storyline resembled something out of OK magazine and I could not relate to it at all.Rather disappointing

I really enjoyed the first half of this book, and felt it handled the subjects of loss, trauma, grief and betrayal really well. However, the author's over-excited use of co-incidence to not only solve the adoption mystery but also explain away the anti-hero's nasty behaviour as set out in the beginning of the book, meant that it ended with a completely unbelievable, sugary sweet conclusion.

For me it kind of missed a point around the issue of adoption, which is the conflicting feelings of guilt an adoptee feels when they meet their birth parents if their adoptive parents are still alive.

Still, quite a good read, if you can get past the annoying over-use of texts and mobile phone calls.