To The Moon and Back

By Jill Mansell

The hardest part of love is moving on…

It's been a year since Ellie Kendall's husband, Jamie, was killed in an accident, but she's still grieving. In fact, she finds herself talking to him regularly.

At the urging of Jamie's successful actor father Tony, Ellie moves to London's glamorous Primrose Hill, where nobody knows her past...

But even in her new home—and with her hardworking new boss, Zack McLaren, and Jamie's best friend Todd to distract her—Ellie can't seem to leave Jamie behind.

Will Ellie let her grief and her past consume her? Or will she realize the man of her dreams is flesh and blood—and right in front of her eyes...

British women's fiction and a great romantic book, To The Moon and Back has a wonderful cast of supporting characters and tender romance.

Fans of Meg Cabot, Sophie Kinsella and Eloisa James will delight in this poignant, funny contemporary romance.

What reviewers are saying about To The Moon and Back:

"a tremendous look at friendship, hope, romance and second chances. An unforgettable, entertaining novel! 4 Stars."

"Exquisitely told... Compelling. The book was IRRESISTABLE."

"A powerful and witty story about fresh starts... To the Moon and Back, to put it simply, is BRILLIANT."

"She's like...Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jill Barnett, Eloisa James, and Diana Palmer all rolled into one."

"A sweet romantic contemporary about love, loss, and second chances. Mansell's dry wit, comical romantic entanglements, and crazy characters are back in force..."

"Absolutely, positively AN OUTSTANDING STORY". 5 Stars, Reviewer Top Pick

What everyone is saying about the queen of British chick lit, Jill Mansell:

"Fans of chick lit — if you haven't read Mansell yet — what are you waiting for!?"— A Bookworm's World

"Pick this up at your peril: you won't get a thing done till it's finished." — Heat magazine

"A romantic romp full of larger—than—life characters." — Express

"Fast, furious and fabulous fun. To read it is to devour it." — Company

"Expect to run the gamut of emotions, as this book is both laugh—out—loud funny and tear—jerkingly sad. Basically, you won't put it down." — New Woman

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Release date: Sep 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781402269288

Jill Mansell

With over 10 million copies sold, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Mansell writes irresistible and funny, poignant and romantic tales for women in the tradition of Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella and Jojo Moyes. She lives with her partner and their children in Bristol, England.

Reviews for To The Moon and Back

[eesti23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book and was surprised that the author had got me liking the charachters enough to be upset in the first few chapters. The story is a bit predictable at times but in a nice way.

[mlake_22 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was the perfect chick lit easy to read fun characters happy ending weekend read!

[fantasia655 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very good read. Lovely characters and the premise of her talking to the ghost of her dead husband was enticing.

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Watching Ellie move through her grief over the loss of her husband - making new friends, beginning that process of opening herself up to love again - was funny and poignant. There is a good dose of your typical romance novel format - obstacles to be overcome, serendipitous meetings, etc - but the underlying story was a good one and the characters felt fully fleshed out.

[blodeuedd_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I know what I get when I read a book by Jill Mansell and I do like that. Since this one takes place in London the same quaint English village feeling is not there, but everything else is there.

Ellie is happy and in love, but then her husband dies and everything changes. The book sure starts with a heartbreaking beginning. The book continues 15 months later and she is dealing with the loss and she still talks to him. She is afraid to let go and move on. But everything is about to change when her father in law shows up, sets her up in his house, and she gets a new job.

I did like Ellie, she felt real and I wished she would be happy and fall in love again. Her father in law Tony was great too, a really sweet man who also gets a love story in this book. Then we have Todd, who was in the car with Jamie when he died. Ellie still blames him and like with all Mansell books Todd will find happiness too. Then we have Ellie’s new friend Roo who was a breath of fresh air, and she is dealing with her own relationship trouble. And at last, Ellie’s new hot boss Zack who has fancied her ever since he saw her at a restaurant and he could not forget her.

As always a great cast of characters and Mansell does not leave you disappointed. There are HEAs everywhere to be found. It will take a while for all to find them, but they will. And that is why her books are so great because people find happiness, but I also like that before that happiness comes along they meet the wrong people, make the wrong decisions and slowly let the love they do find grow. It takes time to fall in love.

I never know where to place these books. I would not see them as chic-lit as they are something more, they are not contemporary romance since, well, I do not know. I always feel that she is in a genre of her own.

If you like her books then you will enjoy this book. If you are a newbie to her books then give it a go. It has a bit of everything, romance, heartache and it is just sweet.

[mrsdanaalbasha · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If I say I just loved this book I would be lying! This book was more than amazing, it was funny, romantic, made me drop a tear or two, and made my heart thudding wishing how it will all wrap up! And I am not just talking about the main characters, I cared for every other character in the book. They all seemed real and they all were very human, for a few days this book was all I thought about. It has a bit of P.S. I Love You in it but 10 times better. I loved Jamie, Zack and Ellie. I loved Roo and Todd, I loved Martha and Tony. Even Geraldine and the old man. Every bit of this book... Especially that it was set in England. I have to get all the books for this author soon and read and read. I loved this book to the moon and back!

[48pages · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When you need a happy quick read that makes it ok to be sad too, this is a easy one. Predictable yet funny......sometimes that is all you are after!

[ethel55_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ellie Kendall was deeply in love with her husband, Jamie. After his death, Ellie struggles to find her way back to that part of her life. Ellie is a great character, a dog lover and new employee of the very handsome business man Zack McClaren. But, as with any Mansell novel, it's the ensemble cast that shines. From Roo, a former pop star who lives across the street in Primrose Hill or Ellie's former father in law, actor Tony Weston jetting back and forth from LA, these are the additional stories that add such richness to the whole. This is my third Mansell book this year and my favorite so far. I am still rationing the titles so as not to run out!

[twink_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I would say that Jill Mansell is my favourite chick lit author. I've read every North American release of her books and just finished the latest - To the Moon and Back.Ellie Kendall's husband Jamie was killed in an auto accident. They were desperately in love and Ellie still has not come to grips with his being gone. In fact she 'sees' Jamie almost every day and talks to him. When her father in law insists she move to a decent apartment in Primrose Hill, she reluctantly agrees. Maybe with a change - new home, new job and new friends, she can start to believe Jamie is really gone and move on.As always, it's impossible not to love the lead character in Mansell's novels. Ellie is warm, loving, completely guileless and just a little bit quirky -someone you would love to have as a friend. Her new friend Roo has been searching for love in all the wrong places. And Ellie's new boss Zack, isn't looking for love, but it finds him when be meets Ellie. The supporting cast of To The Moon And Back are no less engaging. I especially enjoy how Mansell includes an older couple into her stories, often grappling with the same issues as her younger characters.Mansell's writing is always entertaining, filled with lots of humour, but she also works a serious theme into the story. This time it's dealing with the loss of a spouse. It's handled with both candor and thoughtfulness, never detracting, but only adding to a great book.There are no great surprises in Mansell's books. Lots of missed cues and misunderstandings and many times I want to give the characters a bit of a shove in the right direction. But I can't and I wouldn't - because Mansell has the direction already planned - a happy ending. And a happy reader.

[liabee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Genuinely funny, fast-paced and touching.

[bookishbat · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sucked in by one of the daily deal prices on the blog Dear Author, I started reading the blurb at Amazon and totally got sucked in. "I really don't like chicklit" I told myself, but then after reading a chapter I wanted to know what happened next. Having it set in the London area was something I couldn't resist either - I've had a love affair with the city since I visited it in the 80s.

The death of Ellie's (our heroine) husband is hard stuff to read, and happens in the first few chapters. I get weepy over certain scenes (even if they're tropes) at the drop of a hat - so I was easily along for the empathy. But after reading the sample I did want to know more about how Ellie held up afterwards. (Thus the "oh dammit, I have to buy this, but it's on sale.") Because she gets into the habit of talking to her dead husband - not that he's present as a ghost - no, she clearly knows he's not there and that this is something she's doing to herself to cope. And she realizes it's not a good thing.

However so far it's not at all a serious book full of angst and such. I'm still giggling over the first time the hero (or I assume he's the hero or why else would he just pop into the story at that point)Zach gets a glimpse of Ellie on the street (she doesn't see him, so its all one sided longing on his part - foreshadowing!):

[5%, p 20] "...the effect she'd had on him was extraordinary; he couldn't stop looking at her. Whoever she was, he wanted to know more. Heavens, what a weird feeling; he'd never experienced anything like this before."

It was at "heavens" that I had to giggle. I somehow don't hear this coming from a man - it reminds me of something ladies a generation ago would say. (I have been teased for saying "goodness!" as this also sounds archaic. So I really shouldn't be laughing.) However, keep reading, and the banter between Ellie and a character you meet later - Roo - will redeem this.

Still reading, more later.

[22%, 91] Ellie, describing her father in law: "More like fairy godmother, the way you've been sorting out my problems."

Which is exactly what I'd dubbed his character earlier, when he helped her with her housing dilemma.

...Did not see secondary love story coming - I was looking for it to happen elsewhere. Nice.

...Still liking secondary story. Boy there's a hellish amount of guilt everyone's feeling in this book, for various reasons. Some a bit over the top, yet here and there it feels realish - in the sense that yes, I've known of people having to go through this. Or the parts where Ellie tries to get herself to stop crying - everyone knows the "I will now talk to myself and make myself stop crying" inner monologue thing.

...Now at part where Ellie is ill, yet Zack is still all moony over her. I was with the book on its "love from afar/friends while together" thing, until the illness. People with the flu are not people to pine over. No matter how much you love helping the person. Having frisky thoughts about someone with the flu = SO wildly not reality. Speaking as someone who's been ill a lot, I know this to be true. And it's even less likely that you will have frisky thoughts about your caretaker, no matter how cute, if you are well and truly ill.

You will gather from this that I rolled my eyes a lot during this part.

...Ok I really like Martha - the way she's described and the way she speaks. I'd quote her speech about how she's feeling on p 344, except spoilers. And also it would probably seem more melodramatic than real if taken out of context. But it really made me feel "this author knows something about losing someone in real life."

...May have to rethink my "it's not a serious book of angst" statement earlier. There's a lot of crying going on, for understandable reasons. Death and infidelity aren't just things you can brush off and claim don't matter or hurt. At the same time, it's not all misery, and these are serious problems that you don't just suddenly wake up the next day to find resolved.

Still am enjoying it simply because there's always plenty of hints that things will eventually be happier, and I do like some of the characters by this point. Now to see if the ending fulfills that hopefulness...

....I really like that there are characters of various ages - that it's not another story full of 20somethings.

...And yes, all ends well.

Originally I was going to rewrite this up to read a bit more like a coherent review, but bah, I'm leaving it this way.

I will add that this reminded me why I usually read historical romances - I'd rather be in non-contemporary setting to be in a truly escapist type of fun-read. While I enjoyed the settings and some of the characters, issues like the loss of a loved one and aging are things that come way to close to events in my own life, and thus the read is much less an escape for me.