#Review “Pink Ice Creams” by Jo Woolaston

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4/5 Stars!

Kay Harris’ life is in shambles.

Brought on the endless bad decisions she makes.

Fueled by her overindulgence in alcohol.

Which she uses to quiet her demons, stop the nightmares and bury the guilt she feels over her six-year-old brother’s disappearance twenty years ago.

But people have had enough of Kay’s drunken outbursts and empty promises, and a temporary holiday becomes permanent. She finds herself alone in the seaside village of her childhood… and the place where her brother disappeared.

Kay decides to piece her life together and move on but before she can leave the village, she’s kidnapped because of another callous act she was part of and that was fueled by alcohol.

However, it’s while she’s a hostage that clarity arrives to Kay Harris.

Blurred mental photos from the past come into focus as Kay realizes the recent disappearance of a young boy could be connected to her brother’s, even though this boy was returned safely to his parents.

Is she right? Can she prove it? If she can stay sober and stop making brash decisions, Kay has a chance to help bring a killer to justice. But those are two huge IFS for her.

I understood Kay. It couldn’t have been easy carrying that much guilt around for so long and I applaud the author’s characterization because she made me feel empathy for Kay… without liking her not even a little bit. The first part of the book is spent on Kay’s remembrances and bad behavior and did nothing to endear her to me even though it made me understand the why of Kay’s life.

To be fair, with the exception of Nan and Fag Ash Lil, there are few people to like and support in this hodge-podge of perfectly flawed characters.

Several themes make up Pink Ice Creams, but I believe its family dysfunction will draw readers of contemporary fiction as well as Kay’s reckless determination to find the truth because only then can she forgive herself.

Enjoy!

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Intent on fixing her broken marriage and the alcohol-fueled catastrophe that is her life, Kay Harris arrives at her grim and grey holiday let, ready to lay to rest the tragedy that has governed her entire adulthood – the disappearance of her little brother, Adam.

But the road to recovery is pitted with the pot-holes of her own poor choices, and it isn’t long before Kay is forced to accept that maybe she doesn’t deserve the retribution she seeks. Will the intervention of strangers help her find the answers she needs to move on from her past, or will she always be stuck on the hard shoulder with no clear view ahead and a glove box full of empties?

Pink Ice Creams is a tale of loss, self-destruction, and clinging on to the scraps of the long-lost when everyone else has given up hope.