Blog Tour: A Love to Last a Lifetime by Clare Swatman

Genre ~ women’s fiction

Featuring ~ dual timeline ~ now (1st person POV) and then (3rd person POV), musician, music therapy, amnesia, dementia, love triangle~ish, emotional cheating

POV ~ 1st & 3rd person

Publisher ~ Boldwood Books

Release date ~ January 23. 2023

Page count ~ 315

Audio length ~ 9 hours 10 minutes

My rating ~ 3⭐

I am delighted to be on this blog tour ~ thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for organizing.

⤵ check out what my fellow bloggers thought of this one ⤵

My review:

Erin has been married to her 2nd choice Greg for 13 years. Their marriage is already rocky due to a big betrayal from Greg. The tension mounts when her old flame and love of her life, Adam comes back to town after 18 years.

Should Erin take it as a sign that Adam is back in her life and risk her marriage to help him? She is so drawn to him that she just can’t help herself. Can’t say I’m a big fan of the sneaking around.
Honestly I wasn’t really rooting for either man ~ I didn’t care for either one of them in the past or the present. Erin wasn’t very likable herself either. And it was bugging me that she kept saying that she knew Adam ~ girl you haven’t seen him in 18 years! That’s an awfully long time to be apart and still think you know someone and they only dated for like a year too. I liked bff’s, Sam and Rose ~ they were good friends to Erin.

Music plays a big part in this story. Not only is Adam a musician, but Erin uses music therapy to help dementia patients try to remember. She uses her skills to help Adam with his amnesia as well. All of the chapters are titled with a song too. It was interesting that just hearing a song could bring back so many memories for Erin ~ like how she was able to know where she was and what she was doing when she heard it last, that’s a good memory right there.

Her mother has early onset dementia and I thought that was written well. Reading the pages when she visited her really yanked the heartstrings.

Overall, this was okay, but on the slower side with some repetition. I did figure out how it would end and I am happy with the choice she made although it was rather abrupt.

Side note ~ don’t tell me you’re working towards paying off your debt while you are on your 2nd bottle of wine of the night and you’re heading to the pub every week. Put that money towards your debt dudes! At least they were eating at home and not eating out every other night though.

*Thanks to the author, Rachel’s Random Resources, Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the ARC. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*

Add to your never ending TBR  ~ goodreads

I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read it.

Book blurb:

The one that she wants…

Adam Bowers; handsome, funny and with the charm of a rock star, from the moment she laid eyes on him, teenage Erin was smitten. But first loves don’t always last, and after a whirlwind romance, Erin and Adam go their separate ways. Yet, Erin never lets go of the feeling that Adam may have been her soul mate…

The one that she needs…

Greg fell in love with Erin in their first week at university. Solid, trustworthy and hopelessly devoted to Erin, he knows he’s better for her than the feckless Adam, who is forever leaving Erin broken-hearted, before winning her back with his charm. As far as Greg is concerned, it’s easy to promise the world, but it’s harder to love someone for a lifetime.

The one that got away…

Years later Greg and Erin are married, and although life hasn’t always been easy, Greg’s love for Erin has never dimmed. But when Adam comes back, in desperate need of Erin’s help, everything changes. Erin starts to wonder whether fate is trying to tell her something…

Will Erin risk it all for the man she had thought was ‘The One’?

Purchase Link – https://amzn.to/3fmBzOa

Author Bio –

Clare Swatman is the author of three women’s fiction novels, published by Macmillan, which have been translated into over 20 languages. She has been a journalist for over twenty years, writing for Bella and Woman & Home amongst many other magazines. She lives in Hertfordshire. Before We Grow Old, was published in January 2022.

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