Making Peace in Aussie Readers

Feb 06, 2018 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: aussie-authors, contemporary-fiction, 5000-books, read-on-kindle, net-galley, 2018-release, own-read, arc

Hannah Ainsley had spent the past year in a fog - the grief over losing both her parents and her husband in an accident on Christmas Day was something she didn't think she'd ever recover from. But slowly her life started to come together. Her adoption of Holly and her kittens, Lucky and Squeak had had a lot to do with that. The unconditional love from those three furry critters went a long way to helping Hannah heal.

Working with her artistic best friend Sam, who was going through troubles of her ...more

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Apr 13, 2018 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, australian, contemporary

This is the sequel to Finding Hannah but it could probably stand up well enough read alone in most ways. It’s been a year since the tragic incident that changed Hannah’s life – a year of grieving intensely and now it seems that Hannah is ready to put a foot forward and although she’ll never forget what happened to her or those she lost, her life must go on. She’s still very young (32 I think) and has a lot of opportunities ahead of her.

Hannah finds herself caught up in her best friend Sam’s cris This is the sequel to Finding Hannah but it could probably stand up well enough read alone in most ways. It’s been a year since the tragic incident that changed Hannah’s life – a year of grieving intensely and now it seems that Hannah is ready to put a foot forward and although she’ll never forget what happened to her or those she lost, her life must go on. She’s still very young (32 I think) and has a lot of opportunities ahead of her.

Hannah finds herself caught up in her best friend Sam’s crisis and I think she probably embraces the fact that now it gets to be her that is the strong one. Sam and some of Hannah’s other friends provided strong shoulders for Hannah to lean on during her tragedy and now she gets to repay that in a way, by being there for Sam and helping her out. Not only does Hannah be a sounding board for Sam and a support base but she’s also a motivator. Sam is a gifted artist but lacks confidence in her own work. Hannah and their other friend Jasmine get to really push Sam, trying to make her see her talent and embrace it, wield it with confidence. She could really make something of it, if only she could believe in herself and her abilities. But Sam’s self-esteem has taken a pretty severe beating and that seems to be leaking into all areas of her life so Hannah has to take it upon herself to step up for Sam and help encourage her and push her to live up to her potential.

One thing that really came through in this book for me was the whole “build your tribe” thing. It’s become a bit of a hashtag on social media etc but it’s an idea I’ve always liked. Hannah had some of her tribe taken from her but she still has some other real core members, such as Sam and Jasmine (the wife of her boss). In this book, Hannah finds more people and befriends them, building relationships with them and bringing them into her tribe. It creates a group of women who are unfailingly supportive of one another, who would drop anything when one of them needed something and who can always be counted on for a sympathetic ear (but also a bit of a kick in the pants when required) or a good catch up. Hannah has an incredibly forgiving nature, something which is expanded upon greatly in this book. She has a capacity to see the whole picture, even when it’s about something that altered her entire life and her generous heart is definitely a huge part of this story. It probably also greatly enhances her ability to be able to move forward and begin to heal, even as she’ll never forget. Hannah does occasionally feel a bit too forgiving….in ways where she gets a bit too involved with things that don’t really concern her…but it all seems to work out very well. This is a very positive book in that pretty much all of the interactions and events are beneficial and there are not any real conflicts or setbacks, other than the one that Sam experiences, which even though she is a victim of, it’s not really about her as such. It’s part of the other main component of this novel, which is the ripple effect.

I did struggle a little with Finding Hannah and the quietness of the story, I kept looking for more. But with this one I thought I was more aware of how the story would go so I didn’t have those expectations and I was able to enjoy this a lot more. It’s a journey of healing and friendship and creating your own destiny. Hannah is obviously a much more confident person in this book, time has helped her even though what occurred is always going to leave a permanent scar. It was good to see Hannah providing support for others and strengthening her circle of friends, creating her own family. The title of this book is very apt. ...more

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Feb 08, 2018 Christy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

Fiona McCallum has got another amazing story to share. Her love of writing and storytelling is apparent in this beautiful book.

Making Peace is the sequel to McCallum’s Finding Hannah, but may be read as a standalone novel.

It’s been a year since Hannah Ainsley lost her husband and parents in a tragic Christmas Day car accident. She has spent the last year still reeling from that loss, yet supported by an amazing group of friends, and her new pets Holly and her kittens Lucky and Squeak.
She has ...more

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