All Our Beautiful Goodbyes by Julianne MacLean-review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 25, 2025

1946: World War II is over, and Emma Clarkson is poised to take flight. With dreams of attending university, she’s ready to leave behind the wild beauty of Sable Island, the only home she’s ever known. But when a handsome British sea captain is rescued from a nearby shipwreck, her destiny is forever changed.

Emma falls deeply in love with Oliver Harris, but their romance is not meant to be. Oliver returns to the sea, while Emma vows to forget him and pursue her own ambitions. When a handsome veterinarian arrives on the island to study the wild horses, Emma finds love again, but soon discovers that all is not as it seems…

1995: Mourning the death of her beloved grandmother, Joanna Griffin is shocked to learn that her grandfather once loved a young woman named Emma, but lies, betrayals, and catastrophic events separated them forever. As Joanna crosses an ocean to solve the secrets of her grandfather’s past, she learns that love is a powerful force, even mightier than the passage of time…

A shining thread of hope illuminates this epic tale of lost love and fallen dreams, set in the remote splendor of Nova Scotia and spanning decades.

•••••

REVIEW:ALL OUR BEAUTIFUL GOODBYES by Julianne Maclean is an historical woman’s fiction story line focusing on two time periods (1946-55, and 1995) in the life of Emma Clarkson-Baxter.

Told from several omniscient third person perspectives including Emma Clarkson, ALL OUR BEAUTIFUL GOODBYES begins in 1946, one year at the end of WWII, when a ship wreck near the shores of Sable Island, near Nova Scotia Canada would place Emma Clarkson on a journey towards her future, a future that diverges along numerous paths. Meeting Captain Oliver Harris stirred something in the then twenty-one year old Emma’s heart but Captain Oliver Harris was married, twelve years her senior, and a man whose lived his life circumventing the world. A new man would bounce into our heroine’s life but a man whose secrets are about to destroy all of Emma’s happiness for the future.

Fast forward to 1995, a young woman name Joanna Griffin would begin a search into her grandfather’s history, a history that brings her face to face with Emma Clarkson-Baxter, and the secrets our heroine has kept close to her heart.

ALL OUR BEAUTIFUL GOODBYES is a slow building story focusing on several heart breaks and betrayals, not only for Emma but for the man she once loved. Secrets and lies would pull our couple apart, neither knowing of the other’s life changes, changes that would remain hidden for close to forty years. From birth to death, family and relationships, forgiveness and acceptance, ALL OUR BEAUTIFUL GOODBYES follows one woman through the heartbreak of betrayal, lost love and lies, in the face of renewed hope and revelations.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy