Recipes for Melissa by Teresa Driscoll

Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.....

Is it ever too late for the gift of goodbye?

Meet Melissa Dancer, she's a 25 year old journalist who lost her Mother when she was 8 years old. Melissa never got to say goodbye to her and she has recently been given a diary that her Mum wrote over the years when she had discovered that she had cancer, now on her 25th birthday, the age her Mum had Melissa and the age that their story began.  The diary is full of tips and advice, yummy recipes and more importantly secrets that her Mum held so close over the years.   As she smooths open the pages and begins to read her mother’s words, she is instantly transported back to her childhood but returning to her past is painful and memories of her mother’s beautiful face are a cruel reminder to Melissa that she’ll never see her again.

This was a very bittersweet, emotional and heart-warming read, the story flows well throughout the book.  I really enjoyed Teresa's book which I read in a couple days, it kept me turning the pages until the very end. I loved how the story flicks between Melissa, her dad Max and her mum, Eleanor. Between the main characters stories you get to see how everyone is affected by such a horrible illness.  This story had it all a little bit of humor, love, family, loss, protectiveness to more sensitive and hard-hitting issues - I found I had a little tear in my eye at the end along with shedding a few along the way, so grab this book, curl up on the couch and prepare to have a few lump in your throat moments too.  It definitely didn't disappoint.  This is Teresa Driscoll's debut novel and is ideal for fans of Rowan Coleman, Lucy Dillon and JoJo Moyes.  I'm looking forward to reading more from Teresa, no pressure meant.

Now, I'm off to try make that Pavlova recipe as my mouths watering just thinking of it.

Recipes for Melissa is now available on Kindle for only 99p.