Dear Edie, I wanted you to know so many things. I wanted to tell you them in person, as you grew. But it wasn’t to be.
Jess never imagined she’d be navigating single motherhood, let alone while facing breast cancer. A life that should be just beginning is interrupted by worried looks, heavy conversations, and the possibility of leaving her daughter to grow up without her.
Propelled by a ticking clock, Jess knows what she has to do: tell her daughter everything. How to love, how to lose, how to forgive, and, most importantly, how to live when you never know how long you have.
From best-selling author Laura Pearson comes her most devastating book yet. Honest, heart-wrenching, and emotionally raw, I Wanted You To Know is a true love letter to life: to all its heartache and beauty, to the people we have and lose, to the memories and moments that define us.
About the Author:
Laura Pearson is the bestselling author of Missing Pieces and Nobody’s Wife. Her third book, I Wanted You To Know, was inspired by a letter she wrote to her children after being diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant. She lives in Leicestershire with her husband and two children, and spends her time writing novels, running The Motherload Book Club, and doing the school run in the rain.
My Review:
This book is being talked about on social media platforms as one of the most powerful, emotional and heartbreaking books in 2019 and whilst I try to avoid sad books in general I knew that I Wanted You To Know is a book with an important message and one that I needed to read.
When you start the book there is an Author’s Note explaining how and why Laura wrote this book, and this in itself is emotional and heartbreaking, so those of you who cry in books – be prepared and stock up on Kleenex in advance.
Jess is our main character and we meet her on one of the worst days of her life, she’s 21 years old, a single mum to a gorgeous baby girl Edie who is a few months old and she’s just been told she has Breast Cancer. Instead of enjoying motherhood and getting to know her daughter she’s undergoing surgery and chemotherapy whilst trying to come to terms with her diagnosis.
Living with her single mum and without a father figure herself, Laura starts writing letters to baby Edie for her to read when she is old enough – things she knows she won’t be able to tell her in person and these beautiful letters are shared with the reader between chapters.
We learn about Jess’ often strained relationship with her mum, her estranged father, her best friend Gemma and Edie’s father Jake throughout the book and even though Jess is only 21 years old, her maturity and life observations are beautiful.
This isn’t a happy ever after book – this is a sensitively written book about cancer and those who are affected during and after diagnosis. It’s beautifully narrated and whilst the reader is thinking “it isn’t fair” and “why Jess?” throughout the book Jess is brave and calm and dignified.
I didn’t actually cry during this book but I think that’s because I’m obviously an emotionless, cold hearted fish, but I know a great book when I read it and this is a great book. Highly recommended and a quick thank you to the author for sharing her story with us and wishing her and her family only good health, happiness and love in the future.
