Merrin loves her fantastic life, surrounded by her family. She’s about to marry her true love, Digby but on her wedding day events do not go as planned. Heartbroken, Merrin moves away from her beloved family to make a new life for herself, returning only when circumstances require it. The “About the Author” section of Amanda Prowse’s To Love and Be Loved ends with “Amanda’s ambition is to create stories that keep people from turning off the bedside lamp at night, that ensure you walk every step with her great characters, and tales that fill your head so you can’t possibly read another book until the memory fades….” I don’t have to turn off the bedside lamp since I read on my Kindle ☺, and I have already started my next book because that’s what I do☺, BUT this story will be on my heart for a very long time. Multiple POVs (in the limited third person) but none for Ruby. I wanted to know her more. She seemed more real and vulnerable than many others.

The characters were absolutely fabulous! I wanted to know everyone. Heather and Ben are Merrin’s parents. They are salt of the earth. Her older sister is Ruby and her best friend is Bella. Her Gran lives next door. They are such a lovely family. There is great love between the parents and something we all strive for in our lives. There is a little sibling rivalry between the sisters but, Ruby will stand up for little sister Merrin. For the most part this family is pretty near perfect. The timeline throughout the book did get a little confusing at the start, it felt like it was set in maybe the 50’s to start then switched to modern and took me a little while to get used to. The whole book spans 6 years, I think maybe a date or year on some chapters would have been helpful, but if this is the style of Amanda’s books, I’m sure I’ll get used to it as I read more 😊 Merry is from a small coastal town in England. She lives with her sister, two parents, and grandmother. She and Digby, late teens/early twenties, are madly in love. He proposes, and when the wedding day arrives, something unexpected happens. Years later, Merry has left her hometown and started fresh in a bigger city. Her career grows, and she meets someone new, but it's not the same. She misses her family and friends, yet they also weigh her down, as does the stigma of what happened on her almost-wedding day. How can a beautiful, kind, generous, and wonderful young woman ever recover?Merrin was madly in love, with her whole life mapped out with the man she adored, much to the envy of her older sister Ruby. However when he leaves her standing at the alter in her beautiful dress, and runs off, live in her gorgeous fishing village will never be the same. She can't cope with being the girl that everyone gossips about, so she leaves her beloved village and goes to work, and live, in a hotel several hours away. Her parents and Ruby are devastated, as is her best friend, although they do understand why she had to leave and make a life for herself elsewhere. Don't expect a fast paced book, you won't get it. To Love and Be Loved is a meandering and often sad read as Merrin spends a lot of time treading water, surviving rather than living.

It hasn’t been easy, but six years later Merrin has forged a new life for herself far from the sea, burying the impulsive girl she once was. But when tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to return to the village she swore she’d never set foot in again. The sadness and grief is, at times, overwhelming. But it is also punctuated with some beautiful moments in Prowse's trademark style.

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I loved the authentic characters, the immersive storyline, the family drama, the multiple POVs and the beautiful writing and pace of the story. I find the character development so well done. This is one of those stories that would make the reader think about their lives and make them want to leave the toxic things, including toxic people and relationship, out of their lives and start living again amidst heartbreak and fears. A story of family, love, loss, scandals and a wedding day that didn’t go to plan. It’s also about letting go and forgiving people. When Merrin is left at the altar waiting for the groom that never shows she is completely heartbroken. She moves away and starts a new life far from her family and the lovely seaside village she grew up in and loved with all her heart. It is only the death of her beloved father that brings her home. When Merrin has to return to the village for the wedding of her beloved sister, she takes the very handsome Miguel with her, and tried to put the ghosts of the past behind her.

I have read a couple of Amanda Prowse's books but not for awhile, that is not going to change. I read this book as part of my 12 Friends, 12 Books and I remember why I read the other books. Amanda Prowse's writing is heartfelt, descriptive and relatable. To Love and Be Loved is Merrin's story. Born and raised in a small coastal town in England, she's devastated when she is left at the alter. She became a story, the girl left at the alter and everyone in the village pitied her. She couldn't live like that, so she moved away to start a new life. She missed her family, her village and her life as much as her parents missed her. It took 6 years before she was able to return, and only then when her dear father had died.

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Multiple POVs ( in the limited third person) but none for Ruby. I wanted to know her more. She seemed more real and vulnerable than many others. I’ve had some of the author’s previous books on my TBR list for a while. When this one showed up in the Read Now section on NetGalley, I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Not able to face the humiliation, Merrin takes a job away from her beloved home and family. Merrin knows she is hurting her parents, sister, and best friend being away, but she just needs time to heal. Years go by, and Merrin meets Miguel, a perfectly kind and handsome man, but Merrin’s still not ready or able to love or be loved. It takes the loss of someone very dear to Merrin, to make her open up to love once again. Eventually, our h has to come home for a couple of big family events - one happy and one terribly sad. She experiences a romantic relationship, but can't open up or genuinely commit because she has hardened her heart to love, on account of the jilting and all. By the end, she knows she must return to the Cornish coast to live her life in her beloved village. I was hooked on the story of Merrin from the moment I started reading. She was born and has lived in the same Cornish Fishing village of Port Charles, her whole life, and intends to spend the rest of it, there, too.

The only criticisms I would make - minor ones - are that Miguel deserves a happier ending than he gets and also the introduction of a new and significant character in the last couple of chapters. It seems right for Merrin to fall in love again, but it does seem to happen rather suddenly. Saying that, Merrin is ready by then to make the final step away from her grief and embrace a future in which she is free to love and be loved, so maybe it is the right ending after all. Reading Amanda Prowse’s books always leaves me better than when I started. It leaves me with a sense of hope, and just a little more loved. This is how I felt reading TO LOVE AND BE LOVED. The Mortimer family are aloof, in particular the matriarch Loretta, who Merrin blames for what happened, although it is really Digby who is to blame because of his immaturity. Loretta sees this but Merrin does not until much later. MY THOUGHTS: As with all of Amanda Prowse's books, To Love and Be Loved is a very emotional read. I had shredded a great number of tissues before I was a quarter of the way through! If only the worst Merrin had to worry about on her wedding day was the weather . . .Once home she realized this is where she belongs and decides to stay. However along the way she must mend her heart as she once again rebuilds her life and regains her confidence. Only when she confronts those that hurt her so badly and forgives them can she find peace. With a picturesque Cornish setting and strongly developed characters, Amanda Prowse delivers a story that soars through the peaks and valleys of the magnitude of love. Nineteen-year-old Merrin is happy in her beloved Port Charles, with its rugged Cornish coast and cragged shorelines. For generations, the men in her family were fishermen. She loves her special spot of Reunion Point and the village that faces the sea, and she believes in love. When her world suddenly falls apart, she bravely leaves her beloved community to heal her heart and escape embarrassment. Merrin and her family live in a beautiful coastal fishing village in Cornwall. She can’t imagine ever leaving, her roots are tethered to the land she loves. I had a hard time empathizing with Merrin, not because I didn't understand her, but on the contrary. She has a cheerful, sweet and even a little wild character. She has a great capacity to forgive and give second chances to others. But she is incapable of forgiving or loving herself. She is a complex and unpredictable character who leaves us unforgettable moments of reading. Amanda Prowse is one of my favourite authors, so when I saw this new book release, I couldn't say no to reading it!