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Lost Luggage by Samantha Tonge {Book tour review}

Good morning, I hope you all have lovely plans for your Sunday ahead. I would like to kick start your day of relaxation with a review of the lovey Lost Luggage by Samantha Tonge. This book should fill you with inspiration to make fabulous plans for the future! A huge Thankyou to Rachels Random Resources for providing me with an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. If my review sparks interest in this book you can purchase it using the following link https://amzn.to/3bgCnBC


๐ต๐“๐“Š๐“‡๐’ท

Brand new from the bestselling author of Under One Roof.

One lost suitcase. Two strangers. And a notebook that will change lives.

For almost fifty years, sisters Dolly and Greta have lived together โ€“ getting each other through the good times and the bad.

Except this year, Greta isnโ€™t there and Dolly is feeling lost and alone. In memory of her sister, Dolly heads to the lost luggage auction where she and Greta go each Christmas. But her bid reveals a gift she never imagined.


Amongst the clothes is the notebook of a reclusive woman who has hardly been outside for an entire year, but who isnโ€™t ready to give up on life. The notebookโ€™s contents resonate with Dolly. With the support of her neighbours, retired Leroy and eleven year old Flo, Dolly decides to take on the year of firsts Phoebe had planned.

But, can you have a year of firsts when youโ€™re seventy-two? And is Dolly ready to discover the notebookโ€™s secrets, or are some secrets better left lost at the airport?


๐‘€๐“Ž ๐“‰๐’ฝ๐‘œ๐“Š๐‘”๐’ฝ๐“‰๐“ˆ

This was such a gorgeously uplifting story full of love, loss, strength, self discovery, grief, and dancing. The whole book kept me smiling from beginning to end, even when I was gasping with surprise! I loved the character of Dolly, she had gone through so much in her life and even though she had given up on a lot of life when she moved in with her sister she hadn't felt like she was lacking. It was right for her at the time. What I loved though was that she found the gumption to change and break herself out of her grief spiral. She saw the value of choosing life (with the help of the notebook and her friends) and took opportunity as it came to carry out her evolving journey of self discovery.


Her supporting cast were just so fabulous, I loved Flo. I find the relationships between children and the older generations in stories just so life affirming. The natural ease with which they conducted their relationship was a joy to read and the innocence and quirky nature of Flo and her love of insects was infectious. I learnt so much about insects that I didn't know, I mean did you know that butterflies taste with their feet and a slug can stretch up to twenty times its length? I kept relaying the facts to my husband as I was reading! ๐Ÿคฃ


"๐šˆ๐š˜๐šž ๐šœ๐š‘๐š˜๐šž๐š•๐š ๐š‹๐š˜๐š›๐š›๐š˜๐š  ๐š–๐šข ๐š•๐šŠ๐š๐šŽ๐šœ๐š ๐š‹๐š˜๐š˜๐š” ๐š˜๐š— ๐šŒ๐š‘๐šŽ๐š–๐š’๐šŒ๐šŠ๐š• ๐šŽ๐š•๐šŽ๐š–๐šŽ๐š—๐š๐šœ, ๐š’๐š๐šœ ๐š๐šž๐š•๐š• ๐š˜๐š ๐š’๐š—๐š๐šŽ๐š›๐šŽ๐šœ๐š๐š’๐š—๐š ๐šœ๐š๐šž๐š๐š, ๐š•๐š’๐š”๐šŽ ๐š๐šž๐š›๐š’๐š—๐š ๐š”๐š’๐šœ๐šœ๐š’๐š—๐š ๐š๐š‘๐šŽ ๐š‹๐š›๐šŠ๐š’๐š— ๐š›๐šŽ๐š•๐šŽ๐šŠ๐šœ๐šŽ๐šœ ๐š๐š‘๐š’๐šœ ๐š•๐š˜๐šŸ๐šŽ ๐š‘๐š˜๐š›๐š–๐š˜๐š—๐šŽ; ๐š’๐š ๐š–๐šŠ๐š”๐šŽ๐šœ ๐šข๐š˜๐šž ๐šŠ๐š๐š๐šŠ๐šŒ๐š‘๐šŽ๐š ๐š๐š˜ ๐š ๐š‘๐šŠ๐š๐šŽ๐šŸ๐šŽ๐š› ๐šข๐š˜๐šž'๐šŸ๐šŽ ๐š๐š˜๐š ๐šข๐š˜๐šž๐š› ๐š•๐š’๐š™๐šœ ๐š˜๐š—. ๐š†๐šŽ ๐šœ๐š‘๐š˜๐šž๐š•๐š ๐šŠ๐š•๐š• ๐š”๐š’๐šœ๐šœ ๐š๐š‘๐šŽ ๐š–๐š’๐š›๐š›๐š˜๐š› ๐šŠ๐š ๐š•๐šŽ๐šŠ๐šœ๐š ๐š˜๐š—๐šŒ๐šŽ ๐šŠ ๐š๐šŠ๐šข. ๐™ด๐šŸ๐šŽ๐š›๐šข๐š˜๐š—๐šŽ ๐š–๐š’๐š๐š‘๐š ๐š•๐š˜๐šŸ๐šŽ ๐š๐š‘๐šŽ๐š–๐šœ๐šŽ๐š•๐šŸ๐šŽ๐šœ ๐šŠ ๐š‹๐š’๐š ๐š–๐š˜๐š›๐šŽ"

๐™ต๐š•๐š˜


Leroy encompassed every emotion I think people have gone through when it comes to heartbreak, the devastation and wondering what you did wrong, to the wanting to reinvent yourself to make yourself more worthy in the eyes of the one you lost. I loved his journey too and the choices he made. I think everyone needs a Leroy in their life, to give tight hugs, drink rum and dance the night away with!


I won't say too much more about the other characters as that will give away a key part of the story however needless to say they all play an important role in Dollys journey and there were some great twists throughout. I really did gasp In shock a few times!


This heart warming tale held my attention, I flew through it in a day, eager to find out what was going to happen next. I hope that when I am 72 I am as healthy and positive as Dolly is. I might start my own year of firsts! I shall leave you with a quote from the acknowledgments which I think sums life up....


"๐Œ๐š๐ฎ๐ซ๐ข๐œ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐…๐ฅ๐จ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฌ๐š๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ก๐ž๐ซ, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ก๐ฎ๐ฆ๐š๐ง ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐๐ฌ, ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐š๐ซ๐ž๐ง'๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐จ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ฅ๐จ๐จ๐ค๐ฌ ๐จ๐ซ ๐ข๐ฆ๐š๐ ๐ž - ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ง ๐ข๐Ÿ ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐จ๐ซ๐ง๐š๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐š๐ฅ ๐›๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ž๐œ๐ข๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐…๐š๐ง๐ง๐ฒ ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ ๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ž๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ . ๐๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฒ'๐ซ๐ž ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐จ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐ฅ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ๐ญ๐ž๐ง ๐ญ๐š๐ค๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ - ๐ฅ๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ง ๐ซ๐š๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ง ๐ฐ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ซ, ๐š ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐Ÿ๐š๐œ๐ž ๐ง๐ž๐š๐ซ๐›๐ฒ.... ๐š๐ง๐ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ณ๐ž๐ง ๐ฉ๐ž๐š๐ฌ"


๐’œ๐’ท๐‘œ๐“Š๐“‰ ๐“‰๐’ฝ๐‘’ ๐’œ๐“Š๐“‰๐’ฝ๐‘œ๐“‡

Samantha Tonge is the bestselling and award-winning author of over 15 romantic fiction titles published by HQ, and most recently Aria. Her first book for Boldwood, Under One Roof, was published in February 2022 and her move to Boldwood marks a broadening of her writing into multi-generational womanโ€™s fiction. She lives in Manchester with her family.

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