How to Walk Away: A Novel

Warm, heartfelt with depth and substance. Likeable, fully developed characters. I loved how the author didn’t sugar up Margaret’s situation. While her situation was more life altering than most experience, the theme is universal - learning to live (and thrive in) the life you have. Beautiful.

Through tragedy we find our true self. A lovely story of over coming life hurdles. Well written and love having the Scottish influence!

Do you have an author that you say is a favorite author, but then you realize you haven’t read all their books? That is me with the exquisite Katherine Center. You must have read all of their books to be called a favorite, right? What if their backlist isn’t that good?? #1 this year I’m doing something about it and #2 I have found that here is no need to worry about the quality of her past books.As a part of #backlistbooks24, I chose to read How to Walk Away by Katherine Center, which was written back in 2018. It is divine. It is deep. It can be dark. It is funny. It is touching. It is perfect. I went into it so incredibly blind, like pitch black, and I was SHOCKED at where we went in this book. It is not a light rom-com but even if those are what you lean towards (like me), you won’t care. It is a beautiful book.I hesitate to give any hints. I did not read the summary, blurbs, or reviews and I really liked it that way. I will only say, pick this book up to join Margaret Rosemary Jacobson on a JOURNEY.At the end there is a short story read by Katherine Center that feels like a bonus. Both this book and the bonus are linked to Things You Save in a Fire. I already read that book and I can confirm that reading them in either order is fine, although you may as well do it in the “correct” order, IMO.Thérèse Plummer is a superstar narrator and I’m so thrilled to be seeing more of her, recently in Love, Theoretically and Bride. I recommend How to Walk Away on audio because Plummer is fantastic, but you have to also get it in kindle because there will be so many quotes you will want to highlight and keep forever.5/5 starsClosed door11 hours 28 minutes on audioLocations: Austin, Texas and Brugge, Belgium

Loved the writing. Beautiful story and a very good motto towards life is included. Will definitely recommend it. I could feel each and every character in this book.

Good book, there were moments that bored me to tears but other moments that I needed MORE. This book wasn’t too serious, just scratched the emotional surface. It was enough.

How to Walk Away is the fictional story of a woman’s journey of recovery after a tragic accident changes her life completely.This was the second book I have read by this author and I did enjoy it, though I must say I liked The Bodyguard better.It was interesting to read a novel written in this particular setting and I could tell that the author did her research and consulted with medical professionals who helped inform her timeline and descriptions of things. I appreciated that, as it made the story feel more realistic than some novels I have read in the past. She did a great job creating an interesting story within a more limited group of settings than many novels have.Seeing the characters each go through their own journeys of healing was also interesting. There are likeable characters here, despicable characters, and characters you want to root for. The narrative never became boring to me and the ending was satisfying.I routinely take a star off of my ratings for the presence of language in a book (particularly if it is strong language, as it is just not my thing), so do note that without that, my rating would have been 4 stars of 5.

Audiobook review!!!• Single POV• Medical Romance• Recovery after accident• A broody Scottish MMC• Slow burn• Cute sister relationship rekindled• Emotional“It’s the trying that heals you. That’s all you have to do. Just try.”This book will forever be a comfort read for me! I've lost count on how many times I've read it. With pure Katherine magic, she delivered one heck of an emotionally beautiful read!!Margaret's life changed in a flash. And not in a way she ever expected. One minute, her boyfriend is proposing to her in a plane, and then the next thing she knows, she's being pulled out unable to feel the lower half of her body. Living just became a whole lot different for her.The audio for this book is perfect. Im usually not the biggest fan of single narrator audiobooks! But Thérèse Plummer put on one heck of a performance!!! Not only did she nail the female FMC's emotions, but her Scottish voice for the MMC is unreal!! It's perfect. Not once did it even seem like a single POV book. She had me completely hooked!I don't feel like this book gets the hype that it deserves for how freaken fantastic it is! I'll continue to recommend it as one of my favorite books!"Because that’s all we can do: carry the sorrow when we have to, and absolutely savor the joy when we can.Life is always, always both."

As with every Katherine Center book, I LOVED it! Brutally honest, funny, and romantic with a little life advice thrown in. Read it- you won’t regret it

This is the first book I've read by Katherine Center and it definitely won't be the last one.I like how the story emphasizes on unexpected feelings and involvements. I like how negative feelings are described and put into perspective.

I highly recommend this book. It’s a great pick-me-up, and full of wit and sage advice. Congratulations to the author—I can’t wait to see this book transformed into a script for the big screen.

Katherine Center just gets better and better. I loved Happiness for Beginners, and thought there was no way she could top it. Well, she equaled it, but she went in a different direction this time: Maggie, the heroine in this story, has to fight her way back, physically and emotionally, after a crippling accident. Her perfect body and life were destroyed in the rubble of a plane crash. As Maggie slowly starts to heal from her injuries, she learns to make life choices that will make her happy, as opposed to fitting in with the expectations of her family or boyfriend. Maggie often made me laugh, but you never doubted that Maggie was going through her own personal hell. There is a ring of truth to this story. Center always makes me wonder if she has actually personally experienced the events in her novels - the descriptions and the emotions seem so vivid and real. Highly recommended!

How to Walk Away took me by surprise. A wonderful surprise, filled with tears and laughs, heartache and chuckles. Margaret had her life planned for the next 50 years – the perfect guy and job, and she was ticking off all the boxes that society tells you to if you want a “successful life”. Until life itself decides to awake her, in the worst possible way.An accident throws away what Margaret thought she knew about what she wanted and who she was. Painful, poignant but full of hope, How to Walk Away is a stunning and emotional testimony of how find happiness in places you never thought you’d find yourself in. With her own issues, a crazy family (aren’t they all??) and a sexy but taciturn Scottish physiotherapist, Margaret finds her true self, and disovers new horizons. This book moved me in ways I wasn’t expecting, and I cannot recommend it enough. No sugar-coating here, but a true and raw testimony of the shock, the pain, and the little moments of life that lift you up despite everything. This novel is inspiring, fun (yep!), moving, and full of life.Katherine Center’s writing is down-to-earth, authentic just like her characters, and beautifully hopeful.

A great story of resilience