This Beautiful Life by Katie Marsh #BlogTour @marshisms @HodderBooks

What happens when you get the second chance you never expected?

Abi is living her happy ending. She's in remission and is ready to make the most of her second chance at life. But during Abi's illness her family has fallen apart. Her husband John has made decisions that are about to come back to haunt him, while her teenage son Seb is battling with a secret of his own.

Set to the songs on Abi's survival playlist, this is the story of what happens next as Abi tries to rebuild her family. Can she bring the people she loves most in the world back together again... before it's too late?

This Beautiful Life is a deeply moving and poignant novel which reminds us why life, and love, are worth fighting for.

This Beautiful Life by Katie Marsh was published in paperback by Hodder on 27 July 2017 and is the author's third novel.

I was delighted to be asked to host the Blog Tour for This Beautiful Life as I have read and loved both of Katie Marsh's previous novels. I've reviewed them both here on Random Things:  My Everything (August 2015) and A Life Without You (July 2016).


Abi is in remission. She's had the chemotherapy and the nausea and the terrifying moments when she thought she wouldn't see her son Seb leave school, make his way in life. She's not yet forty and had experienced the worst disease, but she's officially over it, and now she wants to forge ahead with her life.

However, life seems to have a strange way of kicking you when you are not only down, but also when you are picking yourself back up again. Things have changed in her family, there is a strange tension between her and her husband John, and her darling Seb seems to have lost his way in life too.

With music tracks that are special to Abi as a backdrop, Katie Marsh cleverly and compassionately reveals a story that is both heartfelt and painful at times. This author creates characters that are so realistic that I really did think that I actually knew Abi, in real life .... I'm sure I do! I recognise someone who looks back through music, who can remember where they were and what they were wearing when they first happened upon a track that will become so important in their life. Not only do I recognise Abi, I think that she is a bit of me. The wonderfully developed relationship that Katie Marsh has created between Abi and her mother is oh so familiar. The illicit smoking out of the bedroom window, the DMs, the music festivals .... the arrogance of youth; thinking you've pulled the wool over your parents eyes, and then being told, as an adult, that they knew exactly what you'd been up to!

Just as in her two previous novels, Katie Marsh takes ordinary people leading fairly ordinary lives and examines the impact of life-changing events on them. These characters could be any of us, the events could happen to all of us. Her extraordinary writing is full of warmth and honesty, she examines the power of love in great depth; showing that whilst the power is great, it is also so very fragile and has to be nurtured to survive.

This Beautiful Life is wonderful. I devoured every page, and whilst I admit that her first book; My Everything remains my favourite, this is absolutely superb read. Highly recommended, an utter delight.

My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review and invited me to take part in the Blog Tour.

Katie lives in south-west London with her family. Before being published she worked in healthcare, and her novels are inspired by the bravery of the people she met in hospitals and clinics across the country. Her first novel 'My Everything' was picked by the Evening Standard as one of the hottest summer debuts of 2015, and her second 'A life without you' was a huge e-book bestseller. Her third novel 'This Beautiful Life' is out now in e-book and audio, and the paperback is published on July 27th. 

She loves strong coffee, the feel of a blank page and stealing her husband's toast. When not writing, she spends her time in local parks pretending she's as fast as her daughter's scooter. 

You can contact Katie on Twitter (@marshisms) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/katiemarshauthor), or via her website (www.katie-marsh.com).