I received a copy through NetGalley.

This was wonderful, a tale that withstands the motions of time. A novel about the importance of friendship, forgiveness, love, redemption, acceptance, trust, in the course of one's life.

I adored the grandmother's relationship with her granddaughter: They were so close, and Grams shared such beautiful wisdom through the pages of her diary. The diary itself was a valuable gift, it reunited the family in the most genuine of ways and made such a difference in the lives of so many.

The novel inspired such intrigue, that there were points when I couldn't get enough of Cornelia's lifetime. Whilst I am not a Christian, I do believe in God and Jesus, so it still related to me and I felt this urge to connect with God through this. This novel really did offer such precious lessons.

I only gave it four stars because I felt the novel was incomplete in some ways as though a huge chunk was missing: Stuart never found out about Cornelia's other daughter, nor did Jimmy or her father. It was as though she never faced up the courage to do it, whilst the pages of her diary inspire another young girl to do what she wasn't able to, it came across as slightly hypocritical.

I appreciated the tales of loss, I was nearly teary eyed when Jimmy began calling his niece Corny, mistaking her for his dead sister. It became too much. I sympathised with him, but then rejoiced on the concept o r rather the misguided delusion that ignorance is bliss.