All We Have Is Now in Aussie Readers

Apr 30, 2021 Helen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: review-copy-from-netgalley

I loved this story so much be warned make sure you have a box of tissues at the ready because you will need them, Kaneana May pulled me into this emotional roller coaster so well, I was crying bucket loads and then I was pushing these woman along and feeling not happy with them and that for me is a great story that I am so engaged with the characters, good and strained emotions. I do hope that you pick this one up and get to know Elsie, Bree and Olive, I am sure you will enjoy it.

Three woman mee I loved this story so much be warned make sure you have a box of tissues at the ready because you will need them, Kaneana May pulled me into this emotional roller coaster so well, I was crying bucket loads and then I was pushing these woman along and feeling not happy with them and that for me is a great story that I am so engaged with the characters, good and strained emotions. I do hope that you pick this one up and get to know Elsie, Bree and Olive, I am sure you will enjoy it.

Three woman meet at a well- being retreat and their friendship is instant and grows Elsie, a counsellor, Bree a Pilates coach and Olive a nutritionist start a small well-being clinic Healing Hands in a small country town and five years on they feel the need to expand and find a beautiful federation house and move with high hopes a growing and being there for the community and each other life doesn’t always run smoothly though.

Elise is happily married to Frank and she have a stepson Jonah, she is kind and caring she is so good at what she does and her active craft classes are much enjoyed by everyone who attends but when tragedy strikes, Elsie struggles so much, and wonders whether she will make her way back to normality.

Bree is full of fun and love coming from a farm and great family with two sisters who are all different her youngest sister has lots of problems but Bree is always there for her and everyone who needs her and often puts their happiness before hers is it time to think of herself.

Olive needs to be in control, she is quiet and comes across shy but she keeps deep secrets that look like coming out when and old school friend arrives in town and is hired by Healing Hands, will this be what Olive needs to finally heal herself.

Beautifully written, this moving and emotional story shows what grief, heartbreak and love and friendship can do to people and families how no matter how friendships can crack a little they also can be pulled back together with love and hope. The ending had me cheering these beautiful woman on, I do highly recommend this one, I really did love it so much.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review
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Apr 12, 2021 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: aussie-author, arc-are, netgalley-reviews

All We Have Is Now is Kaneana May’s second novel following her well-received debut, The One in 2019.

All We Have Is Now unfolds from the perspectives of Bree, Elsie and Olive, colleagues and best friends who run a wellness centre, ‘Healing Hands’. The success of their business has allowed them to relocate to larger premises where Bree, the life of any party, is a Pilates instructor; Elsie, happily married and newly pregnant, provides counselling services; and pragmatic Olive, a dietician, runs co ...more

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Mar 29, 2021 Janine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: net-galley, for-review

Thank you to Harlequin Australia for the copy of Kaneana's second book in exchange for an honest opinion. I was so impressed with Kaneana's debut novel The One last year and I must say her writing has stepped up another notch with this great Women's Fiction novel.

Olive, Bree & Elsie are partners in a wellness retreat called Healing Hands and work together so well in their various disciplines however they all have their issues behind the scenes. Olive is dealing with her parents especially her mo ...more

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Apr 11, 2021 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, australian, contemporary, rural-lit, aww2021

I really enjoyed this.

Firstly, it’s set not far from where I grew up, around an hour south for the most part and several of the characters are from a place around half an hour south. So many of the places are familiar to me, it references the place my brother was married, a town we went to for family breaks, a waterfall that everyone who has ever lived in that area has visited, etc. It’s really nice to see my local area represented in fiction, it works very well for it in many different ways (it I really enjoyed this.

Firstly, it’s set not far from where I grew up, around an hour south for the most part and several of the characters are from a place around half an hour south. So many of the places are familiar to me, it references the place my brother was married, a town we went to for family breaks, a waterfall that everyone who has ever lived in that area has visited, etc. It’s really nice to see my local area represented in fiction, it works very well for it in many different ways (it has a lot of beaches, several very large rivers, also slightly inland is a rich farming area, particularly dairy cattle).

Friends Olive, Elsie and Brie buy a beautiful Federation property to run their wellness centre out of. They each have different specialities: Olive is a dietician and offers cooking classes as well. Brie runs Pilates classes and Elsie is a counsellor with a full book of clients. They also add in massage therapist Tom, who knows Olive from when they were in high school and his addition threatens to bring up the past that Olive has kept buried a long time. Brie’s struggling younger sister has shown up but Brie knows it’s only a matter of time until she disappears again and Elsie finds herself awaiting something that she has long desired, only for the worst of tragedies to occur.

I felt like each of the characters were quite well developed and the story devoted time to carefully constructing their backstory and the struggles they were dealing with in the present. What is an exciting and wonderful time for them all is slowly eroded as their personal lives overwhelm them in different ways. Olive is also dealing with a mother who is in failing health and her father’s desperation in clinging to the woman he married, was done so well. I think it would be a horrible thing, to go through what Olive and her father are dealing with, the realisation that they can’t fix this or even prevent it from getting worse. Olive has also buried something from her past down very far and I could kind of relate to her because I tend to respond to grief in a similar way.

Grief is something this book does well (and by that I mean with believable care and sympathy) – it’s showcased in many ways and each of the main characters are experiencing things that are causing it. For Brie, it’s her worry and stress over her younger sister Winnie, who is a recovering addict who often disappears for years at a time. Their parents are constantly in a state of worry over Winnie as well, and Brie hates the fact that Winnie will most likely vanish again, causing them yet more concern at a time in their lives when they should be relaxing, now that years of having tumultuous teenage girls are well past. Brie also has a lot of guilt about Winnie, which is something she has never really dealt with. Winnie was a character that I felt was so complex – in some ways, she’s so frustrating and if she were my sister, it’d be really difficult to turn a blind eye to a lot of her behaviours, especially some that violate Brie’s privacy so utterly. But when the alternative is her disappearing to who-knows-where for up to years at a time, your tolerance is probably much greater. Brie really wants a relationship with Winnie and she really wants their parents to have some security in her safety and presence as well. Brie is a fan of casual relationships with men, keeping things moving quickly but all of a sudden she’s looking at someone she’s known forever in an entirely different light. I loved that part of the story.

And then there’s Elsie’s story, which broke my heart actually. Elsie and I are the same age and we’re also both stepmothers. I really felt the grief and hopelessness and heartbreak that Elsie experienced, her withdrawal from her friends and loved ones, her apathy that nothing really mattered anymore. She went through a very dark time and I also thought Olive and Brie’s frustration at being unable to help her (that there really was no helping her) was well portrayed as well. Also her husband Frank’s grief, which Elsie doesn’t really see, is shown to the reader through her eyes even as she perhaps isn’t seeing it in the same way that the reader is. She’s too caught up in her own pain and has to move through that first, before she can see how others around her are hurting as well.

This was a wonderful story, underpinned by the friendship of the three very different women.

***A copy fo this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more

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May 03, 2021 Nicola Marsh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aussie-authors, women-s-fiction, read-in-2021

Loved this.
Such a tender, poignant read.
Elsie, Bree and Olive are best friends who run Healing Hands, a wellness centre.
Each of them have problems to bear and seeing how their lives unfold makes for a page-turner.
Thoroughly enjoyed!

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Feb 04, 2022 Catsalive rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: aww, 2022

A bit slow at times but quite a nice story about three women who are friends & business partners, living in the small town of Wingham, near Taree. I love the location, I don't think I've read anything set on the mid-north NSW coast before but I had no trouble picturing it all there on the Manning River. There were men of course, but this was mainly about women - lovers, wives, mothers, sisters, daughters. Full of love & life & tragedy.

Some of it was a bit unbelievable & I found the early America ...more

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