Lina McKenzie was the life of the party and also the glue that held her somewhat dysfunctional family together. Hours spent talking to Leni through a psychic hotline may be bringing Belinda comfort but deep down surely she must know that this is not real at all?

And part of me would like more depth to her character and more of her story, rather than the drip feeding we get. It’s grieving to the fullest, following all stages from denial to coming to terms to their new reality. Alice, her sister is angry, she’s lost a friend, and more so they were at odds with each other in the run up to Leni’s death.Everyone is keeping secrets and the thing about secrets is that they will all be revealed in the end.

I loved that the supporting characters (Jackie, Ray, Jacob etc) really complemented the story, and I liked that characters such as Jackie and Ray were actually nice and weren’t made out to have that evil step parent vibe! There are also some twists and turns throughout the story, which add a little bit of intrigue into Leni’s story.

A bittersweet ode to the highs, the lows, and all the shades of living in between, The Best Days of Our Lives is Lucy Diamond at her absolute best.

She does make a brief appearance at the beginning, when the story takes the reader back to her birthday party before the accident but after that she’s no longer with us, at least not in person.This leads to all sorts of complications as the months progress the family become ever more fractured. Alice her sister discovers things that lead to more questions to be answered and life starts to get complicated.

I appreciated the honesty throughout and although the characters are each fractured and torn apart by their loss they have to learn to come to terms with the fate that has befallen them. Tony, their dad, who is divorced and remarried, is dealing with the feelings of becoming a father again. Her marriage is over as her husband can’t cope with what she has turned into and all the solid structures once in place in her life are gone.Evolving from distant and uninvolved to becoming Father of the Year over the course of a book is an impressive feat. Indeed, neither of them had once given a thought to what they would do without the other, and particularly if that special sibling bond were snatched away in the midst of a time of simmering vex and underlying jealousy. But thankfully this story wasn’t all misery, anguish and sadness as it could have easily descended into this vein.