Review ~ Where Love Lies by Julie Cohen.

Title: Where Love Lies.
Author: Julie Cohen.
Publisher: Transworld.
Genre: Women's Fiction.
Publication Date: July 31, 2014.
Source: Netgalley.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

Purchase: Amazon UK

Lately, Felicity just can’t shake a shadow of uncertainty. Her husband Quinn is the kindest person she knows and loves her peculiarities more than Felicity feels she deserves. But suddenly it’s as if she doesn’t quite belong.

Then Felicity experiences something extraordinary: a scent of perfume in the air which evokes memories that have been settled within her for a long time, untouched and undisturbed. As it happens again and again, the memories of a man Felicity hasn’t seen for ten years also flutter to the surface. And so do the feelings of being deeply, exquisitely in love . . .

Overwhelmed and bewildered by her emotions, Felicity tries to resist sinking blissfully into the past. But what if something truly isn’t as it should be? What if her mind has been playing tricks on her heart?

Which would you trust?

Where Love Lies is the first Julie Cohen book I’ve ever read and what an incredible author I’ve been missing out on. This book was simply stunning – a fascinating, gripping plot pieced together cleverly and always heart-wrenching and beautiful to read.

Felicity is married to the seemingly perfect Quinn, who’s loving, devoted and faultlessly loyal to her. But doubts are there for Felicity, doubts which make her feel like her love for Quinn isn’t enough and even stronger than that is a scent, one which gives her the feeling of the deepest love, only not directed towards her husband but towards Ewan, a lover from her past. This was an extraordinary concept and I loved how Julie made me feel for all three of these characters – none of them are built up so the reader is forced to dislike them and it was made so easy to connect with them all and want the best for them.

I sympathised with Quinn because he tried so hard to make Felicity happy and his love was so genuine but this didn’t make me resent Ewan one bit. Ewan’s emotions and his past were written in an exquisite manner – in fact learning his story was one of my favourite parts of this book and I did have a lump in my throat reading bits of it. Felicity herself was such an interesting character and I found her easy to like. Seeing how out of control her feelings were and being left in suspense as to how things had got that way and how things were going to turn out – it was a really thought-provoking concept which gradually became more and more flawless to read.

The novel is written in three parts and we get the story from the perspective of all three main characters. Each part was more spectacular than the one before and although I found it difficult to stop reading this book from the first chapter, by the third part it was practically impossible. Julie’s descriptive writing of Felicity’s feelings and memories and the way she reacted was just a joy to read. The gorgeous, charming writing makes me believe that this is a special novel and one I’ll never read anything like again. It was one of the most captivating stories I’ve ever read and definitely one of my favourites. That I never quite knew where this book was going left me a little broken for each of the characters at individual points but I am still completely in love with this novel.




Review also posted on Goodreads | Amazon UK