About The Book
With a high-flying job, a beautiful apartment and friends whose lives are as happy as her own, Vivienne Shager is living the dream. Then, on the afternoon of Vivi’s twenty-seventh birthday, one catastrophic minute changes everything.
Forced to move back to the small seaside town where she grew up, Vivi remembers the reasons she left. The secrets, lies and questions that now must be answered before it’s too late. But the answers lie in thirty years in the past…
Shelley Raynor’s family home, Deerwood Farm, has always been a special place until darkness strikes at its heart. When Vivi’s and Shelley’s worlds begin to entwine, it only takes a moment for the truth to unravel all of their lives.
My Review
With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. One Minute Later is a book that I wouldn’t usually read but every now and again I need something a little different. The first half of it is dual narrative, Vivi, who has been diagnosed with a life changing illness in modern day and Shelley whose narrative starts in the 1980s and moves forward towards modern day. It was Shelley’s story I preferred. I liked the family’s efforts to make their farm a success, the hectic family life and the people in general. Vivi I couldn’t warm too, I found the way she was with her mother quite difficult to read.
The second half of the novel focuses on Vivi more and the way she has to live with her condition. I found her more likeable here, she has a better relationship with her mother, and I enjoyed reading about her relationship with Josh, the way she was accepted by his family and her finding out the truth about her father. But the most important factor to this part of the novel was the way it highlighted the importance of organ donation. It doesn’t force a reader to sign the register as such, more it shows how many lives could be changed and the way the person who needs a transplant has to live their lives.
Coincidentally, a real life character in the novel, Jim Lynksey, was on a breakfast news talking about his wait for a heart and how important the register is.Â
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