Reviewed by Emma Crowley
She thought their love story was over.
The world had other plans...
When Magnolia Jones finds her daughter's travel journal, she can think of no better way to honour her life than setting off on the gap year trip that twenty-three-year-old Brontë had dreamed of taking.
It was meant to be Brontë's adventure, but perhaps following her daughter's footsteps around the world is exactly what Magnolia needs to piece her broken heart back together and begin to heal.
As her travels take her further away from home, memories of a long-ago summer come flooding back. Magnolia barely recognises that girl she used to be - the dreams she had, the freedom ahead, the midnight kisses on the beach with curly-haired, brown eyed Jackson.
Maybe, just maybe, in this magical place that is somewhere only they know, Magnolia is about to discover that her journey isn't over - it's just about to begin...
Many thanks to Orion for my copy of Somewhere Only We Know to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
For some reason or another it has been quite some time since I have read a book by Cathy Bramley despite loving her writing style but after reading her latest book, Somewhere Only We Know, I know I won’t be leaving it so long the next time. This was a wonderful read from start to finish with so much heart, compassion and soul poured into the writing. Despite the tough subject matter this was a story that I fell quickly into and I read it in two sittings and I think that’s because I truly felt every bit of emotion that the main character Maggie was dealing with and there was so much throughout the book that I was nodding along in agreement with. Yes, I mightn’t have caught up with every book that Cathy has recently written but I sense that this is her best book to date. It’s deeply personal and will speak to so many people providing comfort, advice, healing, hope and closure.
A brief but informative prologue which sets the scene for what it to come introduces us to Magnolia (Maggie) who is in her 40’s and her daughter Bronte. Maggie has raised Bronte on her own and they share a very strong bond. So when Bronte announces that she has a gap year all planned and mapped out in detail and is putting her new job in the art department of the Saatachi creative agency on hold Maggie is not best pleased. Bronte wants to have her Bali moment like Maggie did so many years before but that didn’t turn out the way Maggie had envisaged and she has been working hard to raise her daughter ever since. Maggie gives short shrift to the idea and doesn’t take the time to listen to Bronte and read more about what she had planned through the wonderful ideas she had written in her gap year notebook. Maggie will regret this as when I turned the page to chapter one life has been irrevocably altered for Maggie. An incident involving a car means Maggie has been left without a daughter and Bronte’s boyfriend Harry was seriously injured. Maggie’s world has been torn apart, and nothing will ever be the same. To be honest this was a kick in the stomach for me as I didn’t read the blurb before starting the book as I knew I wanted to get back into Cathy’s books and knew what the themes usually were. I was as devastated as Maggie for the loss of her daughter and wondered how she could carry on?
As the time approaches when Bronte would have left for her gap year, Maggie is continuing to spiral although to the outside world to all intents and purposes she is working hard in her job in sales and hoping for a promotion but behind it all she is suffering but won’t open up to anyone. Immense guilt takes up lots of space within her that she hadn’t supported Bronte in her plans and she feels there will be no way to elevate this. Moving on is extremely difficult and as she says herself she must keep moving forward because if she stops and is forced to look backwards god knows what would be unleashed that she is not and may never be ready to deal with. This quote really resonated with me ‘I realised I’d been wearing a suit of armour since Bronte died scared, that if I lifted the faceguard all my emotions would pour our and I’d never be able to scoop them back in again’. I think a lot of us can relate to this and how we deal with grief. An incident at work leads to Maggie being forced to take a sabbatical and not having her work, a team to manage or a daughter to mother just who is she? Now is the time in which she will find out as Bronte’s planned gap year is about to come to fruition through her mother’s eyes.
Bronte’s gap year notebook becomes like a talisman and guide for Maggie. Every word written is poured over and dissected although Maggie only reads pages as one part of her journey ends and the next begins wanting to keep everything a surprise until the last possible moment. Starting in Nepal, Cathy Bramley takes the reader on a journey of discovery, character growth, acceptance and of learning to reach an acceptance of loss so that one can continue to live whilst holding the missed loved one close to your heart. The section of the book set in Nepal was fabulous and so vividly described. I loved the mixture of humour amidst some sad moments and this worked exceptionally well throughout the book as Maggie’s journey continued. Maggie realises, ‘Wisdom doesn’t come with age, it comes from experiencing things you don’t always want to do’. She starts to push herself and do things Bronte had outlined in her plans, things which Maggie would never have attempted before but in doing so she feels closer to Bronte and fulfilling her daughter's dreams becomes her one and only goal. Maggie is someone adept at downplaying her emotions but through meeting remarkable people and forging some strong friendships she slowly starts to understand that we only have one chance at life and we have to make the most of it which was what Bronte had wanted to do.
From Nepal Maggie ventured to Australia, again beautifully described and the storyline here to be honest I wanted it to last longer. It could have been an entire book in itself and secretly I wanted something to happen but for the sake of the book as a whole I knew this couldn’t come to fruition despite me desperately wanting it to. Meeting Harry in Australia, who is there to visit his uncle in the Blue Mountains, opened up another strand to the story and allowed for a lot of depth and emotion to spill forth. One thing I particularly liked about this was the beautiful description of loved ones and stars. It will bring a tear to your eye that’s for sure. Scattered throughout the book are chapters detailing Maggie’s time in Bali when she was only 22, a glorious month which she had long saved for despite the difficult circumstances at home which do also have a strong forebearing on the Maggie in the present. I kept thinking why are these chapters included? I’m not overly invested in them and wanted to get back to Maggie and her current journey but Cathy Bramley had everything expertly plotted out and things do come full circle and not in a twee way that has one throwing their eyes to heaven. Instead, it felt natural, real and genuine but also heartbreaking and life affirming all at the same time.
Somewhere Only We Know is an utter triumph for Cathy Bramley. It’s not the usual run of the mill woman meets man, there is a bit of angst and they fall in love. There is a strong storyline behind the colourful cover and the reader is taken on a journey through grief and how to deal with it. Maggie learns to challenge herself, to push herself beyond the limits she had constructed around her since Bronte’s death. She follows a journey that Bronte could never take and does so with dignity and lots of love, fun and laughter along the way whilst facing head on emotions and situations she had kept buried and cosseted deep within her. She learns to seek out a life filled with moments of happiness and to embrace each day as it comes and not to put off for tomorrow what can be done today. ’Don’t be afraid to start a new chapter. Don’t miss out on what life has waiting for you on the next page’. There are so many life lessons for the reader to absorb and apply to their own lives. This is a book that deserves to find its way to lots of readers and I hope that it does so. It’s a little gem of a read that I thoroughly enjoyed, with thought provoking and compelling characters, stunning settings and without doubt come the end of 2026 will surely feature in my books of the year list.
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