#BookReview | One Minute Later by Susan Lewis | #OneMinuteLater

You think your life is perfect.
You think your secrets are safe.
You think it’ll always be this way.

But your life can change in a heartbeat….

[ About the Book ]

Vivienne Shager has it all. A highflying job. A beautiful apartment. Friends whose lives are as perfect as her own. But on the afternoon of her 27th birthday, Vivi has a heart attack.

Now Vivi’s life shrinks back to how it begun, as she moves back to the small seaside town she grew up in. With her time running out, there is one thing she wants to know the truth about.

Some secrets are best left in the past…

Thirty years earlier, Shelley’s family home, Deerwood farm, bursts full of love and happiness. Until her husband dies in mysterious circumstances. But one family member has hidden a secret for all these years. Until Vivi comes home demanding answers, and it takes just a moment to unravel the lie at their heart of their lives. And Vivi’s …

Published by Harper Collins on 21st February 2019

[ My Review ]

One Minute Later by Susan Lewis is a book of fiction, but it is a very important book, raising the issue of organ donation. Carrying a donor card on you at all times could result in the saving of nine lives. When we die, our organs can mean the difference between life and death to many others who still have hope, who deserve a second chance. Please carry a donor card. You could save the lives of many….

Susan Lewis based her story around a fictional character, Vivienne Shager, a young high-flying executive with the world at her fingertips. Life is great for Vivi. She has the career, the boyfriend, a great circle of friends, but she also has a health issue that she is completely oblivious to. On her 27th birthday, Vivi experiences catastrophic heart failure, sending her life into a spiral, into the very frightening world of organ failure and organ donation. Vivi has to leave behind her apartment, her job and all the trappings of the life she had become used to, returning to the small seaside town she grew up in, back to her mother, Gina, and to her childhood memories. Vivi had grown up with her younger brother in a home where they were always loved and welcomed, but it oft times felt that Gina was restrained, holding part of herself back. Over the years Gina struggled in maintaining long-standing relationships and Vivi wondered why? What secrets was her mother keeping close to her chest?

One Minute Later is a dual timeline tale taking the reader back thirty years previously to Deerwood farm , the home of Shelley and her family, a home filled with optimism and love. Deerwood farm was a very happy environment for the family until tragedy struck, changing the lives of all forever. Shelley’s story is one of terrible pain and heartache yet also hope for a better world, a better future, a better place. But something happened back then, something hidden beneath lies and mystery that had a far reaching impact for generations to come.

When Vivi arrives home she starts to ask the questions she should have asked years ago. As Vivi sees her future disappearing before her eyes, she decides it is time to finally expose the secrets of the past before it is too late. Vivi is weakened by her illness but with the support of her family and friends and an excellent medical team, Vivi makes every minute count.

The two stories finally become knitted together as the past and the present are expertly intertwined and the dark secrets of the past are revealed. Susan Lewis creates a beautiful environment within the pages where the love and the passion spills over.

One Minute Later is a tragic and affecting tale, a book that will pull at the heartstrings. It is a novel that highlights the importance of living the best life we can and maintaining a positive attitude for our future.

But One Minute Later is also much more than Vivi’s story. Susan Lewis introduces us to a character in the book, Jim Lynskey, a young man with a mechanical heart pump who is waiting on a heart transplant. Jim Lynskey is real. Jim Lynskey is currently the youngest person alive in the UK with a mechanical heart. He is an NHS Organ Donation Ambassador and is the founder of the website https://www.save9lives.com/

An organ donation campaign, Save9Lives vibrantly advocates their message that one organ donor could save or enhance up to nine lives through transplant.

“The recovery and mental strength to get up from this set back is still a challenge, but I am more determined than EVER to drive this frustrated energy into Save9Lives and to bring the importance of organ donation into the mainstream.” – Jim Lynskey

Susan felt very strongly that Jim should be mentioned in her book so she craftily used Vivi’s story to bring Jim and his campaign very much alive for all her readers. The uniqueness of this approach to writing a novel really touched me and I am sure it will touch the heart of all who pick up a copy of One Minute Later and realise the significance of the message being carried.

“Save9Lives has been incredibly well received and recognised on a national level, partnering closely with NHS Blood and Transplant, as well as with many charities associated with organ donation. Jim is aiming to promote Save9Lives as widely as he can, particularly through sport and music, to increase his long term survival chances, as well as for the 6,500 other patients awaiting a transplant in the UK.” – Courtesy of Save9Lives.com

[ Bio ]

Susan Lewis is the bestselling author of over forty books across the genres of family drama, thriller, suspense and crime. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the moving memoirs of her childhood in Bristol during the 1960s.

Following periods of living in Los Angeles and the South of France, she currently lives in Gloucestershire with her husband James, stepsons Michael and Luke, and mischievous dogs Coco and Lulu.

Website ~ https://susanlewis.com/
Twitter ~ @susanlewisauthr
Facebook ~ https://www.facebook.com/SusanLewisBooks/