Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you.

This memoir of Caro Giles is written in such a tone that you can't help but fall in love with her family, the moon and the landscapes of Northumberland. Set over the course of a year and charting her life as a single parent raising her four daughters, Twelve Moons is a stunning debut novel. Twelve Moons is one of those stories - a book about finding yourself, your voice and a sense that even in the dark of the night, we are never truly alone. However, that being said, considering this is Giles' first book, Twelve Moons is a debut masterpiece. It is here they can be truly themselves; the book felt just as much a love letter to the natural landscape as it did to her daughters.An incredibly beautiful book, simultaneously a love letter to Northumberland and a seasonal portray as life as a woman/parent/carer. Caro’s world revolves around caring for her eldest, who is autistic and recovering from an illness which has temporarily robbed her of the use of her legs. Caro Giles lives on the far edge of the country, with her tribe of daughters: The Mermaid, The Whirlwind, The Caulbearer and The Littlest One.

They are beautifully drawn and highlight the necessity of place in allowing fullness of life to take place whilst providing restoration for all the protagonists. The familiar certainty of its stages helped provide a certainty and reassurance in contrast to the unpredictability of life. Five stars are not enough for this amazingly powerful book: how mental health of children, the author's own health following recent divorce unravels their lives inn the time of covid. A passage in which the author describes having to de-register one of her children from school by the age of six was particularly emotive and hard-hitting.I actually moved away from the North East in the middle of reading this, and found myself so racked with homesickness for the wild coastlines of Northumberland, that I ended up putting it down for five months before I had the strength to pick it up again. Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook). For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. Each word is chosen with care to vividly portray the landscapes, and to express the varying emotions experienced by the author.

I also enjoyed the references to the lunar cycles which were interwoven throughout the narrative, and provided structure. TWELVE MOONS follows a year spent caught between the wild sea and the changing moon of the wide Northumberland skies. I know life isn’t always happy resolutions from personal troubles, but I still wanted that from this kind of book. Throughout the quiet turn of each month she charts the sea swimming, rock pool immersing, hill running to calm her busy brain, and of nature weaving it’s magic, grounding, nurturing and holding the whole family safe as she reclaims herself from the sadness and scars left by shattered hopes; rediscovering and unearthing the woman concealed by motherhood.

I hadn’t thought to look for it, to decide to make time for it, to recognise it in a world that is so busy. I really felt the love and dedication the person shares for their children and family unit which was really lovely, but I really wanted some kind of resolution for the author or a more clear personal growth story but it just never arrived. An exquisitely and bravely written memoir following the lives of a single mother and her four beautiful daughters, during a year of the pandemic.