*Blog Tour: Before My Actual Heart Breaks by Tish Delaney

Today I'm on the Blog Tour for the fantastic Before My Actual Heart Breaks by Tish Delaney*. I received a complimentary copy of the book to enable me to take part in the Tour.

'IF I COULD GO BACK TO BEING SIXTEEN AGAIN, I'D DO THINGS

DIFFERENTLY.'

When she was young Mary Rattigan wanted to fly. She was going to take off like an angel from heaven and leave the muck and madness of troubled Northern Ireland behind. Nothing but the Land of Happy Ever After would do for her.

But as a Catholic girl with a B.I.T.C.H. for a Mammy and a silent Daddy, things did not go as she and Lizzie Magee had planned.

Now, five children, twenty-five years, an end to the bombs and bullets, enough whiskey to sink a ship and endless wakes and sandwich teas later, Mary's alone. She's learned plenty of hard lessons and missed a hundred steps towards the life she'd always hoped for.

Will she finally find the courage to ask for the love she deserves? Or is it too late?

Tish Delaney was born and brought up in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. Like a lot of people of her generation, she left the sectarian violence behind by moving to England. After graduating from Manchester University, she moved to London and worked on various magazines and broadsheets as a reporter, reviewer and sub-editor. She left the Financial Times in 2014 to live in the Channel Islands to pursue her career as a writer.

My thoughts?

I found the story a little bit slow to begin with but very soon I was totally engaged in the story and the characters within its pages and I found I couldn't put the book down!  

Sixteen year old Mary Rattigan lives in rural Carncloon in Co. Tyrone and the story is set against the troubles in Northern Ireland and religious divides. Catholic and pregnant her mother arranges a shotgun wedding with John Johns, the farmer next door.

Mary is torn away from all that she knows and is appalled to find no electric light or an inside toilet at the farm. Her saving grace is John's mother Bridie who keeps her on the straight and narrow and is like a mother to her. Her own mother, Sadie belittles her at every turn and her dad turns a blind eye and so Mary has no self-worth. She does have her Aunt Eileen and her funny friend Lizzie back in her life (which adds some laugh out loud moments).

Mary and John rub along in the day to day tolerating each other. They only truly connect in the bedroom and passionately, going onto have five children together. We hear of the tragedy in his past and we are there for Mary when things change. 

I absolutely adored the story and the characters but especially Mary. Highly recommend.