Rachel Reviews: The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson

I really enjoyed The Last List of Mabel Beaumont. I wasn't sure what to expect from it at all and wondered if it was going to be a bucket list style fulfilment novel which it is in loose terms - but it also very much isn't.

Mabel is an old woman who lives with her husband, Arthur who is a kindly, patient soul who loves Mabel dearly. Mabel loves him too but from the way that the narrative evolves, it being told in the first person by Mabel, we soon learn that their marriage is not one based on passion and never has been.

When Arthur dies, Mabel is a little lost, their lives being so intertwined and dependent. She finds a list that Arthur left which, for its one entry, says "Find D". Mabel muses on this and decides that it must mean Dot who used to date Mabel's brother as well as being her friend. It was through double dating that Mabel met Arthur. And so we drift back into the past at various stages of the book and learn about Mabel's friendship with Dot and how much she cared for her.

When a carer turns up on the doorstep to visit Mabel, she learns it is Arthur who has arranged it before he died, so that Mabel would have company. Julie is bubbly and Mabel and her soon become friends although from Mabel's view, she is a little reluctant to be too pally, having been reserved for years. And then other females arrive: Patricia who is estranged from her daughter and Erin who is in a same-sex relationship and her parents are less than pleased about it.

I really enjoyed this book. It is about lots of different things: marriage and what constitutes a happy one; friends and how important it is that women support each other; same sex relationships and how the views of these for some people haven't changed despite the idea that society has become more liberal; and love and where it can be found, which turns out to be multiple places and some of those unexpected.

Heart-warming, easy-to-read, a great holiday book which is not too taxing but doesn't veer away from issues either. I would read more of Laura Pearson.

Rachel Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐