Readers' Reviews

It makes Sarah’s day to hear from her readers. If you’d like to share your thoughts with her, please send an email.  Reviews are updated here on a regular basis and we’ll check with you’re happy to be included before using yours.

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Barbara Sullivan, 58, PA working for the City of San Francisco

'I was recently on a vacation in Croatia and as with many hotels, they had a casual library where guests would take and leave books.  I saw One Moment, One Morning and picked it up - having no idea what the storyline might be. As I read it, it became a very important book to me for personal reasons.  My brother, who was two years younger than me passed away a year ago at age 56 due to pancreatic cancer.  He left behind two boys - a19-year-old and a 4-year-old.  So many of the things in your book rang true for what his wife and sons are, no doubt, going through. They are feelings I share in having lost this wonderful brother and person.he relationships between the women in your book were also very dear to me; having a few good friends as I do, I know how they serve as a foundation for me in my life. I have also lost several friends - very close friends - in the past few years, as well as my mother, so loss and grief have quite present in my life recently.  Your book helped to again touch those feelings with a sense of gratitude, not only of loss. I have never written to an author before, but wanted to tell you how close to my heart your book was. I will be taking the book to the library to donate and I hope the next readers will embrace it as much as I did.'

Gemma Peacock, 23, Macmillan Support:

'I would just like to say how amazing I think your novel One Moment, One Morning is. I started up a Reading Group two months ago and yours was the second book we read. We all loved it. I couldn’t put it down, I think it could possibly be the quickest I ever read a book. It was so emotional and true to life. I could really get myself involved with the characters. I also loved that one story was told from three different points of view. It was very interesting being able to discuss the book with the rest of their group and hear their opinions on it, especially as one lady has experienced a similar thing to Anna, with Steve’s alcohol problems. I won’t keep you any longer, but I will say thank you for writing such a great and enjoyable book and I am looking forward to reading your other books very soon.'

Joanna Watson, 39, Education Officer:

'I really loved One Moment, One Morning! I felt like it held together really well and I was very sad to finish it as I was attached to all the characters. Such a challenging topic and it is a real page-turner. I thought the opening was brilliant – trundling along in the train carriage – such a familiar scene, then…BANG!  It really blew me away. I also cried several times - I was so affected by it, it kept haunting me when I wasn’t reading it. There’s a great build-up of the characters – I cared about them all and enjoyed the short chopping of the storylines. My favourite scene was Lou meeting Karen for first time - just seemed spot on, so sensitive and connected. And although I was worried that it might all be too tidy at the end, thankfully it was really realistic and just poignant and real.'

Jonathan Greenhow, 61, Independent Domestic Abuse:

'I hope this is complimentary and not patronising. Thank you for writing One Moment, One Morning. I was encouraged to add it to my 3 for 2 bundle at Waterstone’s as a promotion for having spent more than a tenner. Bless the young woman, working hard to impress her manager before she escapes back to Uni (I’m guessing)!

This story raised tears for me more than any other I have read in my 61 years. I enjoyed the emotional intelligence a lot. How people (mainly women) support each other is put into words such as many men would gain an insight by reading this. I shall use this as a reference in my own work as you weave well into the plot a description of why women stay with an abuser longer than is good for their own safety. This is a great strength of the novel.'

Jax Donnellan, 49, Charity Writer

'As a very avid fiction reader, One Moment, One Morning is the kind of book I go into bookshops looking for, only to exit empty-handed. I don't want to read ditsy fiction-lite books with pink covers about shopping or the school run. Nor, unless I'm in book club mode, do I want to struggle with a worthy attempt to transport me to a 13th century Mongolian leper colony, or an entire novel devoted to orchids/cod/patisserie. I just want an intelligent, rattling good story with characters I can relate to, issues that move me and, I'll be honest, a setting I can engage with. A gripping premise, 'real' and believable characters who feel like friends you want to get to know better, and a narrative immediacy that puts you right there beside them - this is just that novel. Congratulations!'

Lorna Alexander, 64, retired Civil Servant

'Hi Sarah, I e-mailed you after reading One Moment to tell you how much I'd enjoyed it and you said you'd be interested in what I thought of your other books (which I’d ordered on Amazon). Well, I've just finished The Other Half and loved it. It was lighter reading but it still kept me lying in bed all morning to find out how it ended! The characters were so believable and I liked them all, even Jamie! I've ordered Getting Even and I'm really looking forward to reading it too.'

Andrew Barnett, 45, Financial Consultant

'Just to say I finished One Moment, One Morning last night and thought it was excellent. The characters were so well described and the pace of the book was just right – 400 pages just flew by. The way you managed to intertwine the three main issues with one timeline was very well done – making a fascinating and moving read. I am not sure who your "target market" is but I am a 45-year-old male and I would personally recommend this book to anyone.'

Rachel Wright, 38, full-time mum

'Hi, just wanted to say thank you! I purchased your book One Moment, One Morning and I absolutely loved it! I started it on Wednesday and I just could not put it down. We were actually on holiday when I started reading your book and I can honestly say that when I was not reading it, I wished that I was in a cosy armchair reading it!

I do love it when I can 'escape' into a book and with yours I really could.... I cried and laughed alongside the characters and truly felt I was with them throughout the pages. So a big thank you and I am going to purchase one of your other books straight away. Are you going to do any book signings in the future, as I would really like to meet you?'

Sally Dowling, 57, Travel Writer and GP’s Receptionist

'Hi Sarah, We met briefly in Waterstones, Cirencester last Saturday. I just want to say how much I am enjoying One Moment, One Morning. I haven't even finished it – I am savouring every page – but I couldn't wait to get in touch. My sister lost her husband suddenly a few years ago and the process you describe is similar in every way, especially the emotions that you go through in the first few days. I am wondering if you are drawing on a real life experience as you write so knowledgeably...? It is a really cleverly written book and I eagerly await the next one!'

Lisa Harper, 43, Administrator

'Hi Sarah, I read One Moment One Morning in the summer in the garden sitting on my stripey deckchair. I live five minutes from Wivelsfield station in Burgess Hill and also visit Brighton frequently mainly to shop and eat in Donatellos. I just wanted to tell you how much I loved your book. It was emotional - I cried a lot - thought provoking and a pure page-turner. I didn't want it to end. I loved the characters, they felt like real people, and the fact it was based in the area in which I live. The best book i've read this year. Two of my friends have read it also and loved it too.'

Hattie Gordon, 36, Mother and Writer

'One Moment, One Morning had me gripped from page one. The authenticity of the daily commute from Brighton to London, then the puncturing of routine with such drama – I had to know how this story would play out. I very much liked the format of cutting between the three inter-related characters, revealing their sensibilities and life stories incrementally yet deftly weaving the three lives together. I feel this is one of the novel’s strongest points, as it is reflective of real life – huge drama unfolds for one person – in this case bereavement – and it seems the world should stop, yet everybody else’s lives continue with their particular complexities. In terms of the writing itself, what consistently struck me was the ability to observe terribly complex emotions and dynamics, and distil them in a line or two. The issues raised – addiction, sudden death of a spouse, and hidden sexuality – are pertinent to so many. Each reader will surely identify with one of the themes in some way or know of such experience second-hand. I found the story to be rich with life and its occasionally brutal truths regarding loss and the necessity of letting go. But fundamentally for me it was a story about love; in new relationships, in the history of a husband and wife and their children, and, ultimately, in friendship.'