Published: 8th March 2018
Publisher: Self Published
Pages: 202
Format: Paperback (purchased)
RRP: $1.27 (AU for the ebook); $15 for paperback
4/5 Stars 
When you’ve got nothing left to live for you’ve got nothing left to lose.
In one tragic moment, Cameron Lewis lost everything. His fiance. His unborn child. His perfect life.
Now, he does what needs to be done in order to get by. Work hard. Play it safe. They’re his mottos, and he’s not going to break them.
Until a beautiful woman with the ocean in her eyes and freedom in her soul comes to his rescue. She’s never known the kind of tragedy he has–and that’s what makes her so damn appealing.
But can Cameron finally let go and risk that last piece of himself? Will honest love be enough?
Having read almost all of Lauren K McKellar’s books before, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into with Honest Love. I knew there would be superb writing, gut wrenching stories, characters that feel like your very own family, and a story that will haunt you long after you turn the last page… and yet I still was not ready for this book.
Honest Love is an aftermath book, and thus one of my favourite kinds of books to read, as we get to see characters reacting to events that would floor the best of us and leave us a heaping mess.
Written from the perspective of Cameron Lewis, a man struggling with his new found fatherhood and a Airbus of emotional baggage, McKellar is able to take the reader through 202 pages of emotional trauma, uplifting hope and the scandalous of revelations. As the name suggests, Honest Love is a raw and emotional read that packs a truckload of heavy punches and leaves no room for the reader to question the characters antics. It’s a narrative that is so real and honest, it could have happened to anyone of us, which makes it all that more powerful and earth shatteringly devastating. It’s a book that tore me to shreds, and offered a glimmer of hope while doing so.
I struggled to find my feet in the opening of this novel, so I implore anyone struggling with the same thing to bear with it and keep reading; it all makes sense in hindsight!
Honest Love is set in Newcastle and the Central Coast of Australia. It was both a weirdly exhilarating and bewildering experience to read a story set in amongst your own backyards. I am so used to reading American collage stories, and fantasy universes, that it both delighted me and took me by surprise. There is just something refreshing about reading books set in areas you know and love, with places you recognise not just from books and TV Shows, but from your own personal experiences and memories.
Honest Love is the first book in a duology, so make sure you have Bitter Truths on hand as soon as you finish Honest Love. Because, boy are you going to need it!
To learn more about Lauren K McKellar, visit the following social media pages:
Lauren’s Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads |
To purchase a copy of Honest Love, visit the following online retailers:
Amazon AUS | AMAZON CA | Amazon uk | Amazon US |
The Never Ending Bookshelf 