My Review
A heart warming debut novel about Danny and his son Will and how they are trying to keep their heads above water following the tragic loss of wife/mother Liz and the aftermath of Will’s recovery.
As you get to know Danny, you realise he is doing all he can to keep a roof over their heads whilst grieving the loss of his wife and trying to contend with Will who has been mute since the accident. Danny is fast approaching rock bottom and is running out of ideas to make enough money to pay the rent and put food on the table.
After losing his job Danny becomes desperate to find a new job and this journey takes him to a whole other world, where he meets new people and eventually learns to start moving on. During this journey he accidentally unlocks the key to getting Will to speak but then he faces new challenges as Will doesn’t realise that he has confided in his Dad.
A story of hope, that will lift your spirits as you keep reading and leave your heart soaring with happiness for them as you reach the end. I really enjoyed this book and found that the more I read the more I was routing for Danny, Will and their unlikely collection of friends.
Book Blurb
Danny Malooley’s life is falling apart.
He’s a single parent with an eleven-year-old son, Will, who hasn’t spoken since the death of his mother in a car crash fourteen months ago. He’s being pursued by a dodgy landlord for unpaid rent and he’s just lost his job. Struggling to find work, and desperate for money, Danny decides to do what anyone in his position would do.
He becomes a dancing panda.
After seeing street performers in his local park raking it in, he spends his last fiver on a costume… but the humiliation is worth it when Will finally speaks to him for the first time since his mother’s death. The problem is Will doesn’t know that the panda is in fact his father, and Danny doesn’t want to reveal his true identity in case Will stops talking again.
But Danny can’t keep up the ruse forever…
Available to purchase here
About the Author
James Gould-Bourn was born and raised in Manchester.
He is an award-winning screenwriter, and has previously worked for various landmine-clearance NGOs in Africa and the Middle East.
Keeping Mum is his first novel
Many thanks to Alainna at Orion for the opportunity to join the blog tour, please remember to like and share to help spread the book love!
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