"With Love from London" by Sarah Jio

With Love from London by Sarah Jio is a new family drama/romance novel releasing today. In this story, we follow a dual timeline. In present day, Valentina travels from Seattle to London after her estranged mother dies and leaves her house and bookstore to her. Not only is Valentina dealing with grief, unresolved resentment towards her mother and a looming sky high estate tax bill, she is also going through a painful divorce. The second timeline takes us to the 1960s London and 1970s Los Angeles, as we follow Valentina's mother Eloise and her troubled romantic and family life. 

Sarah Jio does a great job ending almost every chapter on a bit of cliffhanger, and because the points of view change with every chapter, the reader can't help but continue compulsively reading. In the beginning, what intrigued me the most was why Eloise left her family and completely disappeared from Valentina's life when the teenage girl needed her most. As we unravel family secrets and delve into the past, we discover that everything is not as simple as it seems to be. In Valentina's timeline, we along with the main character discover the mother she did not know, go to Eloise's favorite places and meet the people she loved.

The story is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. At the core of it all is the greatest love of all: that of a mother towards her daughter. There are of course plenty of romantic interests as well. So the release date just in time for Valentine's day is quite perfect. I really enjoyed this novel. 4 out of 5 stars.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com