review: love always by harriet evans

As Love Always begins, Natasha’s life is a bit of a disaster. Her business is failing, the bank wants its money back, and her husband has moved out after cheating on her. And now with her grandma’s death, a family secret that will change much of what Natasha thought she knew is about to be revealed; no one ever talked about the circumstances surrounding the death of Natasha’s aunt Cecily at age fifteen, but now certain members of the family will have to face the truth.

Love Always, which is told primarily from Natasha’s perspective but also includes narrative from the summer Cecily died along with Cecily’s diary, is a weighty family drama. While I thoroughly enjoyed Cecily’s diary and how seamless the transitions were, some of Natasha’s sections dragged a bit. It wasn’t that her life was uninteresting; it was that sometimes it was just too much.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Gallery Books.