Last year I read Wreckage by Emily Bleeker, which I quite liked, so I was willing to give When I'm Gone a try. I can get into the occasional sentimental book, but this one was a mixed bag for me. At the beginning of the book, Luke's wife Nathalie dies of cancer, leaving him with three children and a few secrets to uncover. Nathalie had arranged for her best friend Annie to check in on Luke, for 21 year old Jessie to help with the kids, and for letters to arrive on a regular basis with various me...

A special thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Emily Bleeker returns following her debut, Wreckage with another bittersweet story WHEN I'M GONE, domestic suspense; human emotions, family, and secrets between a husband and wife.As the book opens Luke Richardson is returning to his suburban Michigan home, with his children after Natalie’s funeral. Cancer. They have been married for sixteen years and now he is faced with raising the three...

Good god, the only thing missing in this book was a natural disaster. I didn't enjoy it much. Too much on the go. Too many coincidences. Too much flowery writing.

"Are you afraid of death, or are you afraid of leaving your family?"......the above sentence brought tears to my eyes ...( I took in the magnitude of the question). Enjoyed it!Took value from itPlan to explore a few questions for myself I didn't give a rats ass if the writing had a few flaws ( hell, so does life)...overall...I found the entire premises intriguing....I liked the characters that I got to hang out with...I looked inward. My very close friend Barbara, died of Cancer, 26 years ago. M...

I was lucky enough to read an advance reader's copy of this book. I loved Emily's first book, WRECKAGE, and this book was great too. Emily has an ability to unwind a mystery like a coil so that you're always guessing what's going to happen. In WHEN I'M GONE, she does this inside what could otherwise be a familiar plot: a woman's untimely death brings certain secrets to life. Her twist is that the departed wife is actually stage managing what gets revealed and when, and the final twist will leave...

I picked up this audiobook with my Kindle Unlimited subscription. This is the second book that I've read by this author and I have to say that I enjoyed this book quite a bit. As expected, it was a very sentimental read. However, it wasn't the depressing tearjerker that I had imagined it would be.Luke Richardson has just buried his wife, Natalie. He is now a single father, trying his best to hold it all together when he really just wants to curl into a ball and hide. His pain was palpable.Natali...

I stumbled across this book on audible and the synopsis reminded me of one of my favorite movies of all time - P.S. I Love You; so of course, I couldn’t resist. Aside from the similarity of the letters, both from spouses that passed, this is an entirely different story. It's sad and told in a contemplative tone, but somehow still manages to be quite melodramatic in parts. Luke just lost his wife, Natalie, to cancer and he has to find a way to keep it together for their kids. It’s the surprise ar...

Emily Bleeker's new novel, 'When I'm Gone,' is about Natalie Richardson. But the thing is, Natalie is dead. But through letters and secrets slowly being uncovered, she's continuing to control the way her husband and those that she left behind are able to live. Yes, they loved Natalie dearly, but this new information is making it hard to believe that Natalie was the person that they all felt they knew. What would you do if you started to receive letters from someone who had recently passed away?

I am shocked by the positive reviews this book has. It should have been a lifetime movie. I feel dumber having read this trite and tired exploration of grief and relationships. Easily the worst book I have read in many years. This is what I get for choosing a book based on the cover. Skip this one, friends. It's terrible. Dear Luke, I should have stopped reading this book when I realized the characters weren't fully developed, and the plot belonged on Lifetime television, and not even as one of

This book is one I have not only read but digested.Its emotional, its intriguing, its kind of concerning.Emotional because Luke had to bury his young wife who suffered cancer and didn't win.Leaving behind three children for him to bring up.His sadness along with helping his children is an everyday struggle that Annie [his wife's friend] helps him with. But then comes a letter through his letterbox, its a letter from his dead wife.I began to think she had got someone to post this after her death....

I am not going to write an ultra long review about this book. I will say this - I was impressed with the writing AND the story line.A woman writes letters to her husband from beyond the grave. Who is actually sending them and what role did this person really play in her life?Natalie Richardson is the woman. She has been married to Luke for 16 years. She dies from cancer and then the letters start arriving. They will eventually reveal some things about Natalie that Luke does not know.This book is...

I'd rate this 3.5 stars.Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Many thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for making it available.How well do we really know the people we love, those we've built a life with?If you ask Luke that question about his wife, Natalie, he'd say he knows her better than everyone. They dated in high school before he had to move away, and once they found each other again in college, they seemed de...

More of a Lifetime movie than a novel. I kind of hate myself for finishing it.

The first two words that come to mind are 1.) unbelievable and 2.) melodramatic... Let's add 3.) predictable.I noticed another review mentioning 'heart' but unfortunately, When I'm Gone, lacks just that. While the summary was one that clearly made me want to read the book, the actual content was void of character development. The author describes certain things in painstaking detail (i.e. a mailbox & dirt road) while others that are far more significant, are glossed over. The end result is like

Melodramatic at parts, but it has a lot of heart. It is a story about a family working through grief, centered around a mystery. I had a hard time putting it down!Natalie Richardson passed away after a year-long battle with cancer and her husband Luke is now faced with the daunting task of raising their three children alone while they all deal with immense grief. When Luke returns home from her funeral, there is a letter on the floor…from Natalie! It was written on the first day of her cancer tr...

Audio book narrated by Dan John Miller 9h 58 min I am over it! The whole dead wife leaving letters to her husband and trying to manage things beyond the grave like some type of master puppeteer! I often wonder if that is some strange secret desire of married female friends.Update:Well, I have taken two days to allow myself to mull over what worked for me and what didn't. There is no doubt that Emily Bleeker can write an emotionally charged contemporary family drama. Recently widowed, father of t...

Luke and Natalie date in high school, go their separate ways and reconnect in college, getting married with a family and the rest of their lives ahead of them, that is until Natalie’s cancer diagnosis. After burying his wife, Luke Richardson returns home, to find a letter with his name written in wife’s familiar handwriting waiting for him. As he prepares to begin raising their 3 children on his own his wife’s letter is the first of many that keep showing up and they become an obsession with him...

I honestly just kept swiping the screen hoping, praying there were more pages, there's no way the book ended the way it did.This book begins with Luke and his three children returning home from his wife's funeral. Luke just buried the love of his life and his children just buried their mother. Soon after, Luke begins to receive letters from Natalie and almost obsesses over them, they are one of the only things keeping him going.Honestly, I thought this was going to be a predictable book, I began...

This was a nice read. It required allot of patience to read (don't most books?). At points I felt uncomfortable with the way I thought the plot was heading, but then I was easily warmed and intrigued with the story as it unfolded. Once you make it through to the end, I would ask a simple question. Why wouldn't you like this book?