Pieces of Camden by Yessi Smith

A long-time advocate of the quality of the work produced by Yessi Smith, I could be accused of being repetitive by saying yet again, Ladies please do yourselves a favour and pick this book up.

This is an author that simply refuses to accept anything less than perfect. She doesn’t sugar coat reality, she doesn’t hide in the fluff and nonsense that so often surrounds all that is love and romance, No, she stands her ground in the here and now, firmly entrenched in the grit and grime of real life. Up to her eyes in the angst and attitude that living in the here and now brings not only to the characters but also to the world they live in.

Camden is the sort of character that will find your weakness and force his way under your skin and what’s more, you’ll let him.

He has lived his whole life on the wrong side of acceptable, struggling every day for the most basic of things but what he has never been without, is the love that he has for the girl that has been the only positive constant in his miserable existence…Yanelys.

His family destroyed not only themselves but him as they tore themselves apart and it was the realisation that no matter the magnitude of the horror that surrounded him, she would always be by his side that led him to take the most momentous of decisions without discussing it with her. He couldn’t allow her to throw everything she could possibly be away because of him and in a moment of honourable madness he took off and left her behind.

I understood what he was thinking, did I agree with him? in some respects, Yes I think I did but that didn’t mean I wanted him to go because I knew what it was going to do to Yan and my heart broke for her.

Years later and he’s back. He has been to hell and back but have his feelings changed?

Has Yan changed? 

Can she see through the veil of self-loathing that he has blanketed himself in to find the man that she loves?

Can she see that her broken boy is now nothing more than a shadow of a man, desperate for her to see what she means him…she is the reason he breathes, the reason he puts one foot in front of each other each day.

But Yan knows that for them to work, he has to get to realise that he has to do all of those things for himself, because he needs to see that no matter how much he matters to her, he needs to matter to himself.

Can he accept that he is worth every single tears that she has shed over him?

I have read so many books that have pulled at my heartstrings and have left me a sobbing mess in the corner.

I have read countless books that have left me completely confused and bemused by the feelings that they have extricated from me…but this…heck this torn my heart out, stamped all over it and then stood me in the corner with a gaping wound in my chest as it tried to stuff the remnants of my heart back in.

This is destructive but in a beautiful way because as hard as it is, it is handled with the deftest of touches and for exactly the right reason. I could spend the rest of the year on my knees trying to pick up the pieces of my heart now that I have finished the book and I don’t believe for one minute I would ever find them all, this has left its mark, I feel shredded but thankful.

This is unconditional love at its very best and it is a book that might initially make you sad but will leave you safe in the knowledge that you have read something very special.