You know you’re in for a tissue-filled ride when there’s a photo album with missing pictures involved…and I was right! Janet, the main character, is happily chatting to her son’s girlfriend, but everything changes with an innocent question.

Alex Banwell, the author, has done a fabulous job with Releasing Janet as she handles so many issues, fears and doubts in one heartwarming story. Benny, Janet’s son who has epilepsy and is spoilt and coddled by his mother, is one of my favourite characters in the story. It’s releasing Benny as much as Janet, I would say!

Releasing Janet starts with the album and Janet’s younger sister who died when Janet was a child. Sylvia. Sylvia was never mentioned again after she died, leaving Janet to struggle and now, the floodgates are opened by Benny’s girlfriend, Nettie. Grief is such a complex matter, and Releasing Janet deals with is beautifully, showing how different people handle grief and how important it is to listen and acknowledge these differences.

Releasing Janet has a wonderful shift when answering questions about Janet’s childhood. The shift between now and the past is done well, allowing you to become closer to Janet as she relives her childhood, looking for answers. But how much truth is one able to bear? And should we leave things be? These questions Releasing Janet handles sensitively, as the characters become closer and take us along their path through the story.

So many difficulties are dealt with in Releasing Janet, and in a warm and easy way, making difficult truths seem easy and practical answers are wrapped in warmth and love. Truth is an underlying issue in Releasing Janet, and the lack of truth has clear consequences. Forgiveness and accepting the truth leads to healing although the story shows that there will be scars and lost time and opportunities.

Releasing Janet is such a moving story, and I loved getting to know the family, and I was cheering Benny on whenever he made the right decisions, and lived out his faith, overcoming his fears. I loved the ending of the story too, no glibness but a slow moving towards healing with a few nice surprises tucked in along the way. Just make sure you keep some tissues handy…

The only downside to Releasing Janet? The fact that I now need to wait for the follow up book to find out what happens next to Benny and Nettie, as well as Emma, Janet and her stoic husband Ola as well as her family. All I can do is hope and pray that Alex will have plenty of time to write and it won’t be a long wait!

I received a copy from Alex Banwell but was under no pressure or obligation to write a favourable review.