This is a love story about Sil and Ollie. And Alex and Lucy. And all their kids and grandkids and their parents, too. But mostly, its about Sil and Ollie.

Silvia is a teenager, sent to boarding school by her grieving father. She is immediately taken in by a group of friends, including twins, Oliver and Alexander. The story takes you through their lives from the time Silvia first meets Oliver, the love of her life, to Oliver's last breath at age 85, and there isn't a dull moment all through it.

The book chronicles Silvia's life, her anger at not knowing her mother, who died to young. Her anger at a father who didn't know how to parent two young girls after his wife, the love of his life died, and how Silvia felt he had let her down. It shows the way Oliver's family annexes Silvia as one of their own and the love she finally finds, the family she finally feels part of, and the family she creates with Oliver. It's about arguments and reconciliations, coming to terms with dead and dying parents and accepting that life isn't always what it appears to be on the surface. A brilliant, in-depth, three-dimensional look at different views on the same life event that every person should stop to consider when they are lost in their own throes of personal loss or pain.

I saw the reviews on this and hesitated because of all the emotional content, which made it sound like a Nicholas Sparks novel, and yet I felt compelled to read this debut novel and I was not disappointed. The story is heart-warming, heart-wrenching, life-affirming and there isn't a woman alive who won't identify with someone somewhere through the course of this book. It's about relationships and life stages. I laughed, I cried, I wanted my daughter to read it, I wanted my mother to read it, I wanted my sisters to read it.

There are some copyediting inconsistencies, but overall, a brilliantly crafted story I loved cover to cover. Well done, Melodie!