Loving Lucy by Noelene Jenkinson

Let’s make this simple – I really enjoyed reading Noelene Jenkinson’s book Loving Lucy. The pace was just right, the story engaging and I felt like I could read beyond the ending of this book, follow the characters into their lives and find out more about them and their futures.

Loving Lucy is the story of Lucy McCarthy, a wonderful woman who gives her time generously to those in need in Indonesia, working with UNICEF. Lucy has to leave her life in Indonesia to attend her father’s funeral. She travels to Mundarra, Australia thinking she can put her unloved childhood behind her but there are a few hurdles she needs to jump before she can move on. Lucy is confronted with the news that her father is not really her father. Answers start to fall into place as to why her childhood was less than loving. As if that is not enough to shock, Lucy is informed she has been disinherited and the benefactor is a brother she never knew she had, not only that, this brother is illegitimate. One soon realises this will not be a straightforward saying goodbye to the past.

Now, add in a Mr Flynn Pedersen, Lucy’s former high school boyfriend. They dreamt of a future together but their timing was not right. Flynn still resides in Mundarra, which Lucy will soon be thankful for. Whilst Lucy is contending with her ‘father’s’ funeral, her disinheritance, her illegitimate brother and her quest to find her real father Flynn is a support she couldn’t do without. But with so much on Lucy’s plate will she seek to reignite this old flame?

Loving Lucy sees Lucy delving into emotions she has learnt to keep at bay in her present life. The past is confronting to say the least and the future all of a sudden becomes unknown – how can one know what they want from their future when their past which they thought was true turns out to be anything but? Lucy needs to decipher the questions of her past and deal with her present in order to even think about what her future holds.

I loved being a passenger in Lucy’s soul searching journey. I wanted her to be at peace with her past and make the best possible future. I wanted Lucy to find the structure she needed, the answers she wanted and the life that was rightly hers to have. Noelene Jenkinson has done a wonderful job in making the reader feel like they were one of Lucy’s closest friends, wanting to give her advice and eager to see her progress with a life she wants, leaving behind the baggage which has no right to define a person’s future. I will end it by saying I most definitely will be keeping my eye out for further works from Noelene, she has the ability to transport readers into a reading pleasure.

I must say thank you to Noelene and Goodreads, I won Loving Lucy through a Goodreads giveaway and I am grateful for being introduced to Noelene and her writing. Thank you!

To read the blurb for Loving Lucy click here