From the bestselling author of Whisper Me This comes a haunting and lyrical novel about the promises we make and the forgiveness we need when we break them.One tragic twist of fate destroyed Braden Healey’s hands, his musical career, and his family. Now, unable to play, adrift in an alcoholic daze, and with only fragmented memories of his past, Braden wants desperately to escape the darkness of … escape the darkness of the last eleven years.
When his ex-wife and son are killed in a car accident, Braden returns home, hoping to forge a relationship with his troubled seventeen-year-old daughter, Allie. But how can he hope to rescue her from the curse that seems to shadow his family?
Ophelia “Phee” MacPhee, granddaughter of the eccentric old man who sold Braden his cello, believes the curse is real. She swore an oath to her dying grandfather that she would ensure Braden plays the cello as long as he lives. But he can’t play, and as the shadows deepen and Phee finds herself falling for Braden, she’ll do anything to save him. It will take a miracle of forgiveness and love to bring all three of them back to the healing power of music.
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I read a lot. I mean A LOT-a lot. This is a top 10 book of the year for me (and may be only my second five-star review of the year). I admit I am a sucker for a musical story. Combine it with practical magic, all the feels, suspense, and raw, rich characters, PLUS the most well-imagined, original story I read this year? Wonderful and real.
Kerry Anne King is never one to shy away from including adversity in her stories. Somehow she is able to reach down to the depths and develop intriguing characters that bring the reader along on their unpredictable journeys. The focus on music in this story is an original approach as a cello and the music it plays become intrinsic to the plot. This is not always an easy read as tragedy, anger and loss are woven through the chapters. But there is also forgiveness, love and hope and a reminder that life is not always as it is perceived.
If she could die quietly, just close her story as if it’s a book she started reading and decided she didn’t like, she would welcome that. But she has to keep turning the pages; she’s not allowed to quit, because this is her fault and it’s the punishment she deserves.
Sometimes a book comes into your life and you never look at things the same. This is such a book. It’s so well written. So touching. Heartfelt. Filled with so many emotions. It’s like something you never expected. Nothing is the same from start to finish and yet every single word, page, chapter, just fits perfectly. From the death of a mother and son to the lives of a daughter and father. A promise to a grandfather. From alcoholism to drugs. From love to hate and back again. This book is filled with emotions you may not even know you have. Laughter, sadness, death, tears(lots of tears), life, music. Oh the music. You can feel that in your heart. I could at least.
Love is such a fantastic feeling. True love that is from your heart. The language of love. From a woman to a man. A daughter to a father. Family to family. This book has many characters in it and they all feel such deep things. They are all fighting something. Something that is almost to strong to bear. Phee, the luthier, has to made a promise to her grandfather that is almost impossible for her to keep. Does she believe in curses or was that all just something in his head? Allie, lost her mother and brother and blames herself. Braden, a first-chair cellist for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, lost his ability to play and became a drunk. Left his wife and children eleven years earlier. After the death of his wife and son he has to go be there for Allie. He’s always loved her but she hates him so bad. There are other characters, ones who have problems. Drinking problems. They are all there for each other no matter what though and keep each other on the straight way to being sober.
Can anything fix these broken people. Can music be the salve that mends them? This is the story you have been waiting for. It’s going to grab you by the heart and pull you deep inside and won’t let go until you find the answers to every question. Until you read the very last word and believe me the ending of this book will make you weep. I wish I could think of the perfect words to describe how much this book touched me. The love that exists between people. The empathy, the heartfelt true caring of each other. A near tragedy that brings them all together to help mend. A cello that needs to be played. The music that touches you.
This book is one that I will not forget to soon. It’s a pure piece of poetry that will make you so happy you read it. From start to finish you will love this book. You’ll cringe in places too. Hold your breath when you wonder what is going to happen next. Will they make it or will they all turn against each other. It’s just a story that I felt inside. The love, laughter, sadness, heartache and tears. So many feelings. It’s one of those books that give you all the feels. That in my opinion is a great novel.
Thank you to #NetGalley and #LakeUnionPublishers for this ARC. This review is from my heart and told in my own words.
A million stars for this but alas I can only give it 5. I highly recommend this book. A must read by a wonderful author. I look forward to more from her.
Every Thing You Are was the first book I read by Kerry Anne King and I really enjoy the story so much. it had the right amount of angst, love and intriguing moments that will keep you hooked since the very first pages of the story a story about love, hope, and perseverance a story that will captivate you and want to hold the characters close whenever their life was crumbling down..
Braden Healey a very talented and gifted musician that life and circumstances stole that beautiful gift away, making him sober up and take charge of his life and his daughter laugh again.. he wasn’t expecting these life-changing circumstances but life and destiny has a funny way to bring things to us. no matter how much we resist sometimes is inevitable to face our own fears and demons
Allie was very lost, she lost everything in her life in a matter of seconds, she felt like something was missing and nothing was the same, she wanted someone to love her and care for her even if that meant to act like a crazy teenager without any care of the world.. but that was just a facade to hide her own emotional pain and grief.
“Phee” MacPhee was an angel she was the one making miracle happens, she had the key to a lot of answers as well as the key to Braden’s heart.. she was afraid to let her self be vulnerable and show her love but life happens and circumstances make her move and help Braden and Allie to finally have what they need it the most love, a home and a family that will bring them back to life..
it was a good story with good characters, I felt every emotion, I got mad at Allie when she was being so insensitive with Braden but I also understood her pain and how she was translating all this into her life…
This was my first book by Kerry but I’m ready to start another one of her books..
I usually avoid the cliche of “unputdownable” but this book earned that label. I loved the characters, ached over their trials, and rooted for their healing. Beautifully scripted.
Bravo, Kerry Ann King! These characters are so real, I woke up thinking about them two mornings in a row!
Everything You Are
Kerry Anne King
Lake Union Pub, Oct 1, 2019
331 pages
Women’s Lit, Adult Lit, Contemporary Fiction
Amazon Early Releases
The cover is lovely and makes me think of the bouquet of flowers that Phee shows up with when all the other flowers are formal funeral arrangements. Her flowers are bright and cheerful. Phee is always a bit different. I like the touch of the marks that are used on either side of the words “a novel” that look like fs. These same markings are found on musical instruments, such as cellos, which play such a major role in the story.
The story is amazing. I realized that it was being released tomorrow and had stopped at 80% last night when I went to bed. So I finished reading it this morning and sat down to write this review immediately. I want this posted before the book is released so you all know just how wonderful this book is. It’s one of those that will make you cry in places and make you want to shake people at times or maybe give them a good swift kick in the butt. Or at least a good talking to.
Phee is the character that the story starts out with and she is the one who holds it all in place until the end when it swings back to her. But the active story seems to really focus on Braden Healey, a gifted cellist with damaged hands, and his 17-year-old daughter, Allie, also a gifted cellist. Braden and his now late wife were estranged for 11 years while he was an alcoholic, amnesiac, and living totally away from all of his family and friends. Allie was taking cello lessons her father was providing funds for while her mother was trying to get her into pre-med school and keep her life strictly regimented. Phee was maintaining the cello as was called for in the life-long contract Braden had signed at the age of ten with Phee’s grandfather. And this is where the magic part comes in…
Yes, I said magic. The cello has a soul which Braden feels when he plays the cello. Phee feels the soul of the cello as well. She was there in the shop the day he signed the contract, and somehow she got caught up in the loop of magic. She has been in love with Braden and his cello ever since. Even for the eleven years when he was among the missing, or unknown, when he was away from the cello not playing. Allie also feels the soul of the cello now that she plays it.
I don’t want to give away any more of this beautiful story of forgiveness and love. I can’t recommend it highly enough for those of you who enjoy such tales. Damaged people helping people, finding forgiveness and finding resolution, finding love. I definitely give this one five stars and highly recommend it. This is an author I’d like to read more of. Thank you, Amazon for offering this book as an Early Release this month.
Writing sensitively about characters struggling to overcome tragedy and loss, Kerry Anne King has delivered a beautiful, soulful novel that hits all the right notes — especially for music lovers. It will leave you with tears in your eyes and sighs of contentment when you reach the satisfying, emotional conclusion. A richly rewarding read.
An intensely emotional read I couldn’t put down. The music, the cello, the mystery, the unthinkable loss and a hint of occult built like a crescendo that wrapped me in the story and stayed with me long after I finished reading.
This book is a solid five star read for me. Actually, I would give it six, if I could. I was hooked from page 1 and read straight through until I finished the book in the wee hours of the morning. The story includes just enough magic to make it believable. Trust me, this is one you do not want to miss.
“We are not living in the Middle Ages. Curses don’t exist, not real curses.”
A beautiful, poignant novel! One of the main characters and a center in the plot is a “cello”. A cello that chooses her “person”.
Yes, you read that right. But it is so much more!
Braden has played this cello from the age of twelve and signed an agreement with the luthier to always play and care for her until his death. There is a curse for not following this contract.
He marries, has a family, and later in his life; a serious injury of his hands.
His world implodes.
Can it truly be a curse that is torturing him and his family when Braden is no longer able to play the instrument? How will he “right” his own life to save his daughter and himself?
This story has love, guilt, pain, and forgiveness.
It is truly written with so much depth that I could feel the emotion of the cello when she was at one point in the story, abandoned.
I loved this book and would give it 10 stars!
My review of Everything You Are by Kerry Anne King (aka Kerry Schafer)
Imaginative, creative, and eloquent! Kerry Anne King covered extremely difficult topics in a beautiful and compassionate way. Forgiving of oneself is not easy, especially when guilt has surrounded you for many years, yet Kerry was able to open hearts to the true meaning of forgiveness. This was my first novel of Kerry’s, but certainly not my last! I highly recommend this book as it gave me all the emotions I truly enjoy experiencing when I’m immersed in a book. Thank you Kerry!
Music so often becomes a part of a musician’s soul, it flows in their veins and their instrument becomes a part of them. In Kerry Anne King’s novel “Everything You Are” a musician is not only wrapped up in his music, he is bound to it through his instrument!
A touch of magic weaves its way through an emotional family story. A father and a daughter have to wade through each other’s faults & family tragedy to find each other. Will the search lead them to a happy ending and why does this instrument dealer keep pushing her way into their lives?
This tale works its way into your heart and finds all the soft spots! The dynamics between father and daughter tug at memories of one’s own. King brings her amazing talent to a place where some might abandon all hope and then she lifts the spirt to sore to places not realized!
Place this book on top of your “To Be Read” pile! It’s not the kinda of book to lose your attention! It’s the kind of book that captures you whole!
Could not put it down!
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I seen it on the Prime First Reads offerings and grabbed a different one, but this went on my wish list I grabbed it on KU and was able to listen for free.
I listened in one day, I really enjoyed getting lost in all the things. There was so much going on but the narrator did amazing with differentiating. Love, loss, angst, alcoholism, ptsd, amnesia. This book was very well done. It was a bit predictable but I did not see the end coming. Whew. Great job!
Very entertaining. Subplot kept me guessing until the end.
“I think you need to trust that people are strong enough to carry the truth.”
Everything You Are has everything in it, and then some.
The first person narrative alternates between Braden – an alcoholic musician, Phee – a musical instrument store owner, and Allie – Braden’s estranged teenage daughter.
There are several side stories and many supporting characters smoothly interlaced throughout the main plot making this a meaty read.
The storyline flowed and was wonderfully written, but it was so full of despair! The deaths, funerals, guilt, mental illness, and alcoholism that dominated the story overshadowed the music, relationships and lives of the characters. And was, at times, too much to process.
Overall, it was an emotionally draining book for me, and I felt the ending was a little contrived.
This book covers some interesting themes. Grief, Alcoholism, teen angst, and a good old fashioned curse. When Ophelia MacPhee inherits her grandfathers store and workshop she soon learns there’s more to the job than she thought..
As a Luthier she has a responsibility to keep the instruments she makes maintained,. Some instruments require more care than others.
This is where Braden Healey comes in. He owns a cello made by Ophelia’s grandfather.
As part of the extra care, Ophelia needs to meet with Braden to discuss the cello.
Ophelia arrived in Braden’s life when he was very vulnerable. He is getting to know his daughter Allie. He and Allie both have some intense personal issues they need to resolve as well as the management of the cello.
This book is a great read. I give it a solid 4/5 stars.
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest reveiw
Everything You Are was wonderful! I enjoyed the way the characters’ struggles and the relationships between them were portrayed. Phee has been given her grandfather’s instrument shop. And now she is in charge of repairing the instruments. But there’s something else he left her with. Something she struggles with every day. Braden is one of her customers. He lost feeling in his hands after an accident years ago. But he also lost his ability to play his beloved cello and lost music from his life. He’s been immersing himself in drinking for years. Then he receives a phone call that his ex-wife and son were killed in a car accident. And now his daughter Allie is falling apart from her grief and loss. He wants to help Allie but he hasn’t seen her in years. Phee becomes involved with Braden and Allie and she wants to help them. The writing in this book is beautiful and brings the story to life.
Kerry Anne King wrote a haunting story with a fable feel to it. The magical essence was so delightful and engaging, it kept me turning the pages. Full of colorful characters, including a cello that felt alive, “Everything You Are” is touched with whimsical charm and an enticing mystery.
I was absolutely in love with Kerry Anne King’s story-telling! She had me enraptured with her lyrical nature! Mesmerizing!
Read this book and enjoy all it’s brilliance!