An avid fan of E. S. Clark’s extended Fox family, I have been looking forward to reading Josh’s story. DID NOT DISAPPOINT. This is a story which draws you in and envelopes you, it is both draining and yet between the obligatory tissues it is filled with hopefulness.
It is easy to be drawn into Josh’s devastated and immobile world. The unexpected death of his beloved wife Laura dying shortly before going into labor leaves him with a new born son and an irrepressible toddler ‘princess.’ Josh deflects the love and support of his extended family, choosing to endure the emptiness and barely to exist from day to day in his house of sorrow. Only his brother Isaac has stubbornly refused to leave, becoming the nanny and surrogate parent to the children. If you were not in love with Isaac from ‘ONE’ he is destined for sainthood as he selflessly becomes the hands-on dad for the littles as Josh recoils from them. Isaac puts his own life and career on hold for eight months. Nurturing the littles as Josh coasts through the days barely functioning. A chance encounter for Josh with a homeless man brings Josh to a realization that for the sake of the children and his own wellbeing he needs to get away from the overwhelming memories and make a fresh start. Time to be the loving father that Laura would want him to be. Big brother Nate offers his home in Ibiza and a week later Josh and his little family begin a new way of life. Bearing a giant five-foot teddy bear from Nate to welcome the children to the island is Halle. She is a part time bartender and performer at Nate’s club. Halle who never had a family, a desperately unhappy prior life, is devoted to her friends and creating music. Halle is drawn to the moody closed off man. Halle’s voice nourishes something in Josh’s soul but as attracted to her as he is, Josh remains paralyzed in the past. Their unconventional and mostly gentle journey together to find what they can barely articulate needing makes EIGHT a compelling, emotional, and yet beautifully satisfying read. E. S. Carter gives us much to digest, reflect upon, and remember to cherish during this story. She sums up this tale with “when there is an end, you will find another beginning.” The characters will remain in your memory, encouraging many re-reads. As a note, “EIGHT” is a standalone, however, if you are not familiar with the Fox family you will want to meet each one through their personal stories with interactions from the brothers and their best friend Harry.
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Reviews with images
A perfectly imperfect story about life, love, and loss...
**This review will contain minor spoilers**This book was one of my highest anticipated books of this year. I could not wait to get my hands on it! I even squealed when I saw that it had shown up on my Kindle queue. Now usually when you’re this excited for a book, it goes one of two ways. It doesn’t hold up to your expectations or it surpasses them. I’m happy to say, it was the latter.This book was everything and more than what I could have hoped for. We knew going into this book it was going to be a tough pill to swallow. If you have read the prior books in the series, you know that the loss of Laura was hard on everyone, but especially the man she left behind. We finally get to see Josh’s perspective and the hurt and healing he goes through.Loss is a human phenomenon that we all go through at some point in our lives. We can’t truly understand it, but it connects us all in a broken and beautifully ugly way. This book settled deep within my heart and my soul as I felt every strangled breath Josh took. I have never lost a spouse, but I have lost someone I was very close with, and with every page I turned, I felt like I was healing— even if only a little. That’s what books do. They can heal you when you didn’t realize you needed healing. That is what this book does.Eight is the book you didn’t know you needed until you turn to the last page and think, “That was perfect.”Now to the spoilers, so don’t read if you want to go in blindly!“Life is complicated, ugly and often messy, but it’s also beautiful too.”What do you do when the love of your life is gone in the blink of an eye? And not gone to a place where you can chase after her and beg her to come back. Gone. The loss is immeasurable. The loss is the dull ache you feel with every breath. The loss is the constant reminder of what you both had.Eight by E.S. Carter delves into the world of loss in book #6 of the ‘Love by Numbers’ series. Josh has lost the love of his life, Laura. On top of that, he is the dad of two beautiful children. One a blessing. One a curse. Ivy, the sweet child that is trying to understand why her mommy won’t be coming back, and Arthur, the sweet boy whose arrival to this world was the reason Laura left it. Josh not only has to find a new normal without his wife, but must do so while being the father to these two bundles of innocence and joy. Innocence and joy in a world where Josh seems to have forgotten those two things even exist.Josh soon decides he needs to leave his hometown and start over somewhere new, even if for a moment. He ends up in Ibiza with his two little ones and his brother, Nate, waiting to help. Josh didn’t know what to expect. He didn’t really have a gameplan. He definitely didn’t expect what he found: an angel singing on the stage.“How is it this girl, this stranger with a flower in her hair, can sing songs written by my heart? Songs written for my soul.”Halle works for Josh’s brother Nate in his club, and after a little (okay, a lot) of pushing from her best friend, she finds herself being the entertainment for that club. She has a broken past, and would “rather be the girl that coasts than the girl that dreams.” When Halle is wrangled into helping Nate’s brother who has just arrived, she does so only to have the door slammed in her face. She understands being broken, but she won’t let a man treat her like that… again. So she vows to stay away, even if he’s handsome as heck.But her music brings them together in a way neither would have imagined.“Is this what’s between us? A connection that has no name only a melody.”Will these two broken souls find solace with one another? Will they finally find peace in a hurtful and dark world?“You’re still you, the man in love with a ghost, and I’m still me, the girl that has a closet full of them.”E.S. Carter gets better and better with each book, and this one did not disappoint. Anyone who has dealt with loss will read this book and resonate with these characters. You will laugh and cry and love as these two broken people learn what is is to live again, and you won’t want to miss a single second.“I want to embrace the mess, and if I come out a little messy too, at least I can say I lived and not just existed.”
Top reviews from other countries
Lorraine
HEARTBREAKING, HONEST AND TRUE.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 13, 2017
