Catching Lightning by Katie Stephens
Publication Date: January 23, 2015
Book Blurb
You never know where or when lightning will strike but when it happens on a trip back to Kenya to bury your parents you know the timing isn’t great.
Mel has spent the past 14 years resenting her parents for abandoning her at a boarding school in England while they went back to Kenya, a country she hates, to run an orphanage and school for their charity. A tragic accident forces her to return to Kenya for her parents’ funeral but meeting the gorgeous, English educated Sam was not part of the plan.
Finding her mother’s diaries reveals a lot of unanswered questions and the discovery of a detailed itinerary of a trip round Kenya that her parents dreamed of making with her makes Mel realize that maybe she had things wrong. Will taking the trip make her fall in love with the man, the country, neither or both?
Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon Global
My Review
Catching Lightning is a heart-warming story filled with important lessons about life and love. I originally thought that I wasn’t going to enjoy the book because it got off to a bit of a slow start, but once things started to pick up and I became engaged, I couldn’t put the book down and wanted to know more. It was a fabulous, enchanting and geographically beautiful story filled with charming and intriguing characters with a few surprises along the way.
The novel was filled with relationships; new ones, old ones and ones that were changed for good. It never fails to amaze me what people will do for love, even if it’s not always the best things for others. One of the most important concepts in this novel was the strength of the human capacity to love, lie and ultimately move on with life. Sometimes it feels impossible but over time the pain will ease and you can move on when you’ve lost loved ones. You never know how short life can be, that’s why it’s so important to take every opportunity and to live your life the way you want.
Another interesting part of the storyline was Mel’s overwhelming guilt. Guilt over not having come to visit sooner, of not understanding her parents’ true feelings about their daughter and Kenya. Guilt over the way she always viewed her parents’ home and the people that lived there. Through her unfortunate loss, Mel goes on a beautiful journey of self-discovery and learns more about herself and her parents’ home and it’s people than she ever thought possible.
I was pleasantly surprised with this book. Like I mentioned, it took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I was captivated by the story. It’s a beautiful story about loss, love and life. About allowing yourself to be happy and asking yourself what you truly want out of life and doing those things. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to realize what’s most important in life and sometimes we don’t know until it’s too late. That’s why it’s important to seize the moment and live everyday by asking ourselves what we want and then doing everything we possibly can do accomplish those things. Five striking stars for this lovely novel.
My Rating: 5/5 Stars
Katie provided me with a free ARC of the novel in exchange for an honest review. Receiving novels free of charge in no way reflects on my honest opinion and no monetary compensation was provided for my review. I encourage you to write reviews and share them on sites like Goodreads and Amazon!
Connect with the Author – Katie Stephens
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Author Bio:
Born and brought up in the Surrey Hills near Guildford, Katie now lives in Camberley with her husband Will and their two young daughters.
Katie’s love of creative writing started at school and as well as writing short stories she found great enjoyment in writing poetry. While primarily writing for friends and family, she has had two poems published in anthologies plus a number of others in event programmes and in-house publications.
In 2008 Katie decided it was time to take her writing up a level and started on a Creative Writing course. During the course she found not only the inspiration but also the confidence to take her writing seriously.
Her first completed book was born from a piece of homework on her course. She spends any spare time she can find sat at her computer and writing and sees this as her escape time.
Katie has worked in PR for almost 20 years. Since 2003 Katie has worked in-house for The AA (the motoring one rather than the alcoholics). Working in PR Katie is able to mix her love of writing and creativity with her career.
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