Walking Back To Happiness by Lucy Dillon

One of my favourite books which I read in 2010 was by a new author to me, Lucy Dillon with her award winning book Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts. The way she brought the reader into the story made its mark on me. One of my Christmas presents was Lucy Dillon's new book Walking Back to Happiness which I knew by the style of the front cover was Lucy Dillon's book. I was hoping it would be just as good as the previous book.

****PLOT****
The story is mainly based on Juliet whose husband Ben has passed away at such a young age and Juliet just wants to hide away from the world but her mum and sister Louise have other plans and try to coax her out of her home each day. Diane, Juliet's Mum, gets Juliet the job of dog walker for her neighbour but word soon gets out about Juliet and she finds herself with a list as long as her arm of people who need their dogs walking. Juliet begins taking small steps to become a part of society and to start living again with the help of her family and the love interest Lorcan, who lives next door. Lorcan makes small steps to help Juliet get the run down home she shields herself in back to a liveable condition but can he also fix Juliet?
There is also a few chapters in this book which are from Juliet's sisters point of view which adds a small storyline to a main storyline which was quite a nice touch. We see that although Juliet thinks that Louise is the world's perfect wife and mother things are not always quite what they seem.

****CHARACTERS****
JULIET:- We see Juliet's character grow throughout the book and as her character grows we warm more to her character as each chapter comes along. I found that each little step that Juliet takes you just want to give her a pat on the back and say "Well done, everything is going to be ok !"
Lorcan:- I was a little uncertain of his character when he first arrives in the book. He was a little mysterious and was a little wary but as the story came along and he became more involved you really connected to his character and like the gentle approach he was taking in helping Juliet.
Louise:- This was one character which I didn't really connect with. We see that Louise is struggling coming to terms with the changes in her life now she is a new mum, and she finds herself falling out of love with her husband and falling for another man who seems to understand her more.
Diane:- Juliet and Louise's mum is your typical interferring but lighthearted mother and you can see that everything she does she is taking her daughters into consideration.

****MY OPINION****
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found I could not put this book down. I think the way the story is brought to us is unlike any book I have read before it was full of hurt and emotion and as the reader you actually feel as if this is happening to someone you know as you connect with the story right from the first page. Although it is a very sad book I did not find it depressing. I did find it was a little bit of a shame that we didn't actually get to meet Juliet's husband Ben before he past but this is made up for with many references about their relationship throughout the book.

This book had one similarity with the previous and that is the use of the dogs in both books and they also do the same job in helping their owners to start again. The love interest is beautifully written in this story. Without giving too much away there are to paths that Juliet can take and until she actually chooses the reader can not predict which way she will turn.

This story has everything you can want from a good read, a lot of emotion along with a little sense of humour, a sprinkling of romance, and a big cup of suspense!
I would recommend this book highly I cannot say a bad thing about this book it ticked all of the boxes for me. Give it a try!!!