Nick and Kerry are high school sweethearts. Nick has plans to go to college, but, as happens so many times, life has other plans. This story is about love..parental, family, friendship and marriage. It’s a beautiful story that begins with tissues and your heart hurting.

Another emotionally charged book by Amanda Prowse. Ms. Prowse delves into the real life issues of working people better than any other author. I love seeing how her characters develop and mature, while going thru their issues. Her descriptions of this blue collar village, where nothing is ever a secret because everyone knows everyone, is spot on. This book resonated with me deeply for so many of the issues and made me look at things from a different perspective. This book can easily be read in one sitting, you just get that sucked in.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone! ( )

What an absolutely wonderful book. It's so beautifully constructed so that each strand is interlinked and full of meaning. I loved it so much.

As the book begins Nick Bairstow is about to lose his wife after she fell ill. Because she'd been ill for a while it feels in a way like he lost her ages ago. Yet the blow is still huge, not only for Nick but for his son, Olly, and their extended family too. The story is about how Nick navigates through the immediate aftermath of his loss, balancing building a new life for himself against mourning for the only woman he has ever known.

I thought Nick was a fantastic character, an all-round good guy. But actually the book is peppered with a great cast. Nick's friend from childhood, Eric, is brilliant and I really liked Bev too, a workmate of Nick's who might just possibly become something more. I also really loved the fact that this book is set in Yorkshire with all the flippin' 'ecks, Yorkshire wit, and down to earth matter of fact way of going about things.

In between following Nick in his grief, we are treated to some sections from 1992 when he was a 10 year old boy. I thought these sections were so good as Nick, Eric and their other friend, Alex, in their desperation for a bike take up a challenge set by Nick's dad. I thought the author wrote the childhood points of view really adeptly.

This is only my second Amanda Prowse book (I know, where have I been?!) but I think she's on a mission to break my heart with every one. There's a simply lovely bit towards the end of this book that set me off with the tears. This is a book that's full of heart, full of humour, full of friendship. It's just perfect. ( )

Although it took me a couple of chapters to settle into the book. author Amanda Prowse skillfully weaves us between years in an effort to help the reader understand how Nick’s present-day life is built from his past. The book begins in 1992 with young Nick and his friends wanting a bicycle. It moves from there to present day, where Nick and his son, Oliver, are facing the loss of their wife and mother, Kerry.

Emotions run raw as the two adjust to her death. Nick feels like he has to walk on tiptoe to keep from upsetting Olly and Kerry’s family. How long should he wait before he shows interest in another woman? What does he need to do in order to be a good father to Olly? How will he adjust to fully being on his own when Olly goes away to university?

I love the friendship Nick has built with his childhood buddies. It is good to see their relationship strengthen as they grow older. Oliver develops into a mature young adult.

This is a story about love and the bonds of true friendship.

I received an Advance Reader’s Copy from NetGalley. Any opinion here is entirely my own. ( )

Amanda Prowse has the rare talent for taking an ordinary, everyday life circumstance and turning it into an extraordinary heartwarming story. She has done it with every one of her books that I have read and she continues this satisfying tradition with The Light in the Hallway.

The story opens with Nick going to the hospital to say a final goodbye to his wife Kerry, who is dying of cancer. They married young when she discovered she was pregnant with their son, Ollie, and she has been Nick’s whole life, certainly at least his whole adult life. Having married my childhood sweetheart I can relate.

It’s been a good life for the most part for Kerry and Nick, but in some ways kind of a life he has settled for, a compromise, circumstances dictate. He can’t imagine life without her. There’s no welcoming light in the hallway anymore to let him know Kerry is home and waiting for him. But he’s young, so there has to be life, HIS life, right? Even if others don’t understand. And others never understand. Your children don’t understand what your relationship is or was, the good and bad of it, no one does, they just see you as a unit. But they judge you anyway and you feel guilty. And you already feel guilty so it just compounds it. And that’s where Nick is right now, wondering what the next half of his life is going to be like. More of this overwhelming loneliness and uncertainly about every decision he makes?

We follow Nick through his grief, Ollie through his, and the support, interaction and interference from friends and family, some of whom mean well, and some, not so much. Nick takes one tentative step after another, until his steps aren’t quite so tentative. He’s a good man and loved Kerry very much, and now it’s time for the next chapter.

Interspersed throughout the story are peeks back into 1992, when Nick was 10 and spending the summer with his best mates Eric and Alex, still his best mates today, building Half Bike. These chapters are charming and tell us a lot about Nick and the man he has become.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Light in the Hallway. A friendship of three boys has turned into a solid friendship of three men, but life for all three of them is much different than expected. That’s the thing about life, and the thing Amanda Prowse always portrays so magnificently. Things always change. They don’t turn out like you think they will. Even good surprises are still surprises. There might be a Master Plan for your life floating around somewhere, but the older you get the more you learn that you are not really in charge of that plan. That’s what happened to Nick and the others. Life.

Thanks to fantastic author Amanda Prowse for providing me with an advance copy of The Light in the Hallway via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. ( )