Alice by K.L. Loveley @K_L_Loveley @emmamitchellfpr #blogtour #giveaway

Good morning book lovers and welcome to my stop on the blogtour for K.L. Loveley’s Alice, for which I’ll be sharing my review! Make sure you also visit the fabulous Karen at My Reading Corner who’s hosting a stop today as well. AND! Don’t forget to enter the absolutely amazing giveaway!

Alice is near breaking point. Floods have left her beautiful dream home a damaged mess, her stepchildren’s lack of respect is giving her migraines and, worst of all, her husband is giving her no support to lean on. Her life is slowly spiralling out of control.

When Alice’s daughter, Anne Marie, repeatedly falls victim to aggressive vandals, Alice finally can take no more. She decides to take control of the mess that has become her life, and finally frees herself from the chaos that has been bringing her down.

Freedom, however, isn’t as sweet as Alice first thought it might be. She finds herself yearning for something she can’t quite put her finger on. In her quest to find it, Alice finds herself turning to drink.

After her first husband left her for another woman, Alice’s confidence got a knock. But with the support of her children, she quickly found her feet again and even got a degree. Then she met Robin. They bought a house together and got married and slowly things started to fall apart.

Not only did a flood ruin their dream home, Robin’s children are manipulative, disrespectful and lazy. Not wanting to rock the boat and be the stereotypical wicked stepmother, Alice bottles things up. But her husband is spineless and doesn’t do anything to rectify the situation, out of fear of losing the love of his children.

Many a time I wanted to knock some sense into these characters. I kept urging Alice to get out but when she finally does, things get worse for her. And while I’m not usually an aggressive person, I really wanted to strangle Robin’s children.

This book gives a realistic insight into the decline towards alcoholism. Alice is a confident, working mother, whose daily struggles finally just get the better off her. The desperation she feels is such, that she feels she can only find solace at the bottom of a bottle. Even if it makes her feel like utter crap the next day. Alice’s despair was truly heartbreaking.

There was quite a long build-up but I did feel that was necessary to point out that this could happen to anyone. How quickly one drink to ease the tension, can turn into so much more and how hard it is to fight your way back. Raw and highly believable!

Alice was published in January.

Amazon US – Amazon UK – Goodreads

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!! GIVEAWAY !!

One lucky person will win the following #GoodieBag!!

• Signed copy of Alice
• ‘Mindfulness for the frazzled’ by Ruby Wax
• Mindfulness coloring book
• Staedtler Colouring Pencils, (Johanna Basford Edition)
• Pukka Relax tea
• K.L Loveley mindfulness mug

UK ONLY! Enter by clicking this link right here –> a Rafflecopter giveaway

K.L Loveley is a contemporary fiction author from Nottinghamshire, who writes gritty, realistic novels which tackle medical and social issues.

The author has enjoyed a successful 47-year nursing career with the NHS, during which she acquired vast skills. She has transferred her medical knowledge, and incorporated her excellent human observation skills into writing interesting stories about people affected by social and medical issues.

Her debut novel, ‘Alice’ tackles alcoholism head-on, and presents the reader with an empathetic account of a spiralling addiction and the resulting pattern of hopelessness that many fall into.