Anywhere for You: A Novel

Written by Abbie Greaves

Narrated by Julie Teal

“A stylish and confident new voice—readers are going to love discovering Abbie Greaves.” — Louise Candlish, internationally bestselling author of Our House and Those People

A poignant and thrilling love story about one woman’s decade-long search to reconnect with the love of her life who disappeared without a trace—a stirring and heartfelt page-turner from the critically acclaimed author of The Silent Treatment. 

The straphangers of Ealing Broadway station are familiar with Mary O’Connor, the woman who appears every day to watch the droves of busy commuters. But Mary never asks anything from anyone. She only holds out a sign bearing a heartrending message: Come Home Jim.

While others pass her by without a thought, Alice, a junior reporter at the Ealing Bugle, asks Mary to tell her story. Many years ago, Mary met the charming and romantic Jim Whitnell. She was certain she’d found her other half, until one day he vanished without any explanation. But Mary believes that Jim isn’t a cad, that he truly loved her and will return—especially because she’s recently received grainy phone calls from him saying he misses her.

Touched but also suspicious, Alice quietly begins her own investigation into Jim’s disappearance, unraveling a decade-long story filled with desire, heartbreak, and hope. With Greaves’s signature warmth and charm, Anywhere for You is a romantic and immensely moving novel about the enduring power of love and finding happiness in unexpected places.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Apr 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063070455

Abbie Greaves

Abbie Greaves is the author of The Silent Treatment. She studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge. She worked in publishing for three years before leaving to focus on writing. She lives in the UK. abbiegreaves.com Twitter: @abbiegreaves1 Instagram: @abbiegreavesauthor

Reviews for Anywhere for You

[plumcover3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mary O' Connor holds a sign pleading Come Home, Jim, every day at the train station. Her quiet life holds no answers for the crowd who ignores her, until getting roughly bumped unnerves her and her meltdown makes it to social media, and causes more loss in her life. Enter Alice, a journalist, who sees in Mary a chance for resolution her life has not held. Alice digs into Mary's past, despite Mary's wishes, and discovers all issues in life cannot be resolved.

[twink_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There's something about reading a first chapter and thinking 'I've stumbled onto something really good here..." Well, it didn't take a full chapter to know that I was going to love Abbie Greaves' new novel, Anywhere for You. I was hooked immediately.Mary O'Connor finishes her shift at the grocery store every day and heads to Ealing Station. There, she stands in the same place day after day, holding up her sign that reads 'Come Home Jim'. She's kept this routine for seven years....Okay, my curiosity was peaked - I needed to know more about Mary, why is she looking for Jim, who is Jim, where has he gone? Alice, a young reporter who needs a story to save her job sees the answer to her problems in Mary's story. Maybe she can even find Jim...Greaves tells Mary's story in alternating chapters from present and past. I love this style of storytelling - it's guaranteed to keep me up late reading one more chapter as we slowly get to know who Jim was and what he meant to Mary. What a brilliant lead Greaves has created. My feelings for Mary ran the gamut - sad, happy, worried and more. All of the other players are just as well portrayed. Alice also has her own chapters and she too has 'baggage' - and a good heart. The supporting cast is made up of Ted, Olive and Kit - all volunteers at the local helpline. (I adored Kit.) And they too are harboring their own heartaches.The journey to Jim's whereabouts is so very, very good. Greaves' writing is wonderful. I was caught up in the story from start to finish, I genuinely cared about the characters and the message woven into the book is true, timely and more. Anywhere for You is by turns heartbreaking, heartwarming and life affirming. Definitely recommended.

[fastforward-46127 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Searching for a long lost love is a fairly common premise so it's always neat when an author is able to come up with a somewhat unique story. I enjoyed the book and think it would be a great book club selection. Each person might take away something different from the characters and story which usually makes for a lively and opinionated discussion.Mary O'Connor met Jim Whitnell and they fell in love. One day he vanishes without an explanation. Years later, Mary hasn't gotten over Jim's disappearance. Desperate for him to return, she hangs out at Ealing Station on a regular basis. For hours at a time she holds a sign with a simple message, "Come home, Jim". A reporter named Alice believes there is a story here that might help save her job so she begins investigating what happened to Jim.The story alternates between the past featuring Mary and Jim's relationship and the present day where you see how drastically Mary's life has changed in his absence. The mystery of Jim is really what sustained my interest more so than the romance elements. Alice has a key role in the book but at times it felt like Mary was regulated to the backburner.The pacing was slow in some parts but the book was a worthwhile read. I will check out more books from this author as she has shown she is capable of taking me on an interesting reading journey.

[beachbaby1124 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a love story and sorta mystery that centered around the mental health of a man and how that affected those around him. Mary meets Jim and knows he's "the one", then after years together he disappears without a trace and trace, but she can feel it in her heart he is not dead. Instead she waits everyday at the tube station with a sign that read "Please come home Jim". Alice, a junior reporter, about to lose her job sees Mary and starts her own investigation to get to the truth. Heartbreaking but wonderfully written.

[techeditor_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Don’t get me wrong. ANYWHERE FOR YOU is a book I would have liked very much when I was in eighth or ninth or even tenth grade. But nearly 50 years later my taste has evolved. Now this is not for me.I won this book through librarything.com, but I don’t think I requested it, at least not deliberately. Sometimes, with my iPhone, I accidentally press buttons that I don’t mean to. That’s what must have happened because I would not deliberately request a romance book, which I think ANYWHERE FOR YOU is. But I’ve won so many great books through librarything.com, I felt I owed it to them to read and review this one, too.Turns out, this book is a mystery as well as a romance. Mary and Jim have been living together for six years when he suddenly disappears. Why and where did he go? Is he alive? Even after seven years, Mary still hasn’t given up on him. But her friends Alice and Kit believe she deserves an answer so look for him.If I had been Mary, I would have assumed that Jim had either died or did not love me anymore. But, if I had thought he was alive and still loved me, I would have gone looking for him myself. But, if my friends had looked for him, I could have predicted everything that happened.Although the romance in this book isn’t for me nowadays, the mystery is. Or, at least, it would have been if it wasn’t so darned predictable.

[msnick_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mary is an enigmatic soul who stands vigil nightly in a London tube stop holding a sign that simply says “Come home Jim.” She is barely noticed until a video of her yelling at someone goes viral, creating interest in her story. Why wasn’t the great love between Mary and Jim enough to make him stay, had he left of his own volition? Or has something worse happened to Jim? Mary’s friends search for the answers and the closure they think she deserves. But is knowing always better than wondering?

[rglossne · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Two women's lives collide at Ealing Broadway Station in London in this lighthearted novel that explores themes of love, loss, abandonment, and mental health. Mary has stood vigil every day at 6 PM for 7 years, holding a sign that says COME HOME JIM. One evening, Alice, a journalist in her 20s, witnesses Mary losing her temper in a crowded line up at the station, and she becomes curious. Who is Jim? Where is he? Why does Mary think this could bring him back? It turns out that Alice's father disappeared when she was 12, and that connection, and her journalist's curiosity, lead her to dig into Mary's story. Lives are changed, relationships deepen, and some closure is found. A fun read.

[mm_jones · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to Early Reviewers for an opportunity to read this new novel. Second book by the author, but new to me."There are no guarantees that any relationship will last"It starts as a mystery, Mary holding vigil for the perfect man who walked out of her life seven years ago. Then we're introduced to Alice, who for complicated reasons, insists on finding Mary's missing person. They both get an opportunity for romance incidental to the story's main plot. It all wraps up as neatly as real life ever allows with more than a bit of mental health advice tucked in.Charming if a bit overly long.

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mary O’Connor, originally from Belfast but now living in London, lived with Jim Whitnell for six years. She met him in 2005 when she was 27 and he was 36. She was instantly smitten, and it seemed to be mutual. After just two months he asked her to move in with him in Ealing, in West London, and she agreed. Not only did she feel deliriously happy when she was with Jim, but he told her he wanted to be there for her, “always.” She in turn promised him she would be there for him, “to the ends of the earth, or Ealing. Always.” She told him, “I will always be your safe place to come home to.” The story moves back and forth to 2018, when Mary and Jim have been apart for seven years. Mary now spends each evening at the Ealing Broadway subway station holding a sign “Come Home Jim.” She is not so much homeless, she says, as “without the one person who should be her home.”Mary works as a clerk in a supermarket during the day, and twice a week after her Ealing subway shift she volunteers at NightLine, a local crisis call center. Jim’s loss left a void in her life, and she couldn’t bear to spend a lot of time alone in her flat. She gets along well with the head of NightLine, Ted, who is 50 and widowed for two years now. For a while there were just two other volunteers besides Mary - Olive and Kit. Then Alice Keaton asked to join them.Alice, 26, is a struggling journalist who needs a big story or she will be laid off. After seeing a viral video of Mary’s vigil at the station, she decided that finding Jim and learning the story behind it could be her big break. She doesn’t let on why she has joined NightLine, but in fact, like the others, there is also a reason behind her drive to help at a crisis center, even aside for her quest for something to publish.The novel delves into the relationship between Mary and Jim, and among the volunteers at NightLine. Gradually we learn what happened to Jim, as well as the problems each of the characters struggle with day to day, and how they try to help each other with varying degrees of success.Mary finds she “isn’t the only person who is happier to live in an uncomfortable hinterland of doubt than to deal with the blinding pain of confirmation.” They all learn that “if there is one certainty in love, it is its very uncertainly.” And they come to understand that their identities are rooted in their losses, rather than looking for ways to reinvent themselves.Discussion: In many ways this is a novel about people with mental health issues that tend to be hidden from view, including chronic depression, long-term inability to deal with loss, and obsessive-compulsiveness. What does it look like in real life and what does it do to relationships and the possibility of future relationships? All of the main characters in this book struggle to cope and to find a road to happiness in spite of conditions that cause them heartbreak.The obsessions of the characters may seem irrational and tedious to those who aren’t suffering in a similar way, but they will strike a familiar chord to readers who have also battled with mental issues; with finding ways to cope when reality is cruel; with fear and loneliness; and with putting heavy expectations on the power of love to overcome all adversity.Evaluation: It may sound as if the story is sad, and it certainly has those moments, but it ends in a way that is as upbeat as it probably can be to retain a sense of reality. It is worth reading, and offers much for a bookclub to discuss.

[thebooklover2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Everyday Mary O’Connor goes to the commuter station and holds out a sign with the message: Come Home Jim. Alice, a junior reporter at the Ealing Bugle, decides to write a story about Mary and asks her to tell her story. One day her boyfriend vanishes without any explanation. You would think that Mary would just give up, but recently she has received phones calls from Jim and he says that he misses her. Alice decides to look into Jim's disappearance and thus begins an emotional story of enduring love and hope. I loved this book as much as I did "The Silent Treatment," so it is a must read if you like Abbie Greaves previous novels!

[kmjessica · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just finished reading the book and still have tears in my eyes. What a beautifully written story. I think everyone wishes for the kind of love that takes place in this story. Mary is the perfect sort of character for the story to work its magic on you. Love how Abbie Greaves writes this story to make it kind of a mystery, make you want to keep turning the pages. I read so fast to get to the end. But when I did, I wished it would go on for longer. Loved it!

[hubblegal-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I thought this was a perfect book to read on Valentine's weekend. I thought I would be moved by this story. I actually thought I might be brought to bittersweet tears by the end. But none of that happened. Instead I struggled through the book and I never could find any type of connection to the characters or the story. I think something I had read prior to choosing this book had led me to believe there was more depth to the story, more literary quality. But unfortunately, this is not a book I can wholeheartedly recommend.

[lesliewilding-774028 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I had a difficult time really enjoying this book because I found all of the characters so pitiful and pathetic. It was difficult for me to muster empathy for any of them. The ending was 100% predictable.

[loried_5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was delighted to win an advance copy of this book. I had heard about the author's previous book and had intended to read it, but hadn't had a chance yet. Now I'll be sure to read that too as I loved this book. I flew through the book, staying up until 1 AM to finish it. The premise is unique, and the author did a great job building up suspense as she alternated between two time periods and the perspectives of two of the characters. I think this book would be a great choice for book groups as it covers a lot of issues about relationships and friendships that would be interesting to discuss. I highly recommend this book.

[susan.h.schofield · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a touching book by Abbie Greaves about love, loss and friendship. It was sad at times - I just felt so bad for Mary and wanted her to move on with her life - but uplifting in the end. It was well written and I look forward to reading more by Abbie Greaves. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.