The Beginner's Guide to Loneliness - Laura Brambrey

Title: The Beginner's Guide to Loneliness
Author: Laura Brambrey
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 406
Date read: December, 2021

Tori Williamson is alone. After a tragic event left her isolated from her loved ones, she’s been struggling to find her way back to, well – herself. That’s why she set up her blog, The Beginner’s Guide to Loneliness, as a way of – anonymously – connecting with the outside world and reaching others who just need a little help sometimes.

When she’s offered a free spot on a wellbeing retreat in exchange for a review on her blog, Tori is anxious about opening herself up to new surroundings. But after her three closest friends – who she talks to online but has never actually met – convince her it’ll do her some good, she reluctantly agrees and heads off for three weeks in the wild (well, a farm in Wales).

From the moment she arrives, Tori is sceptical and quickly finds herself drawn to fellow sceptic Than, the retreat’s dark and mysterious latecomer. But as the beauty of The Farm slowly comes to light she realizes that opening herself up might not be the worst thing. And sharing a yurt with fellow retreater Bay definitely isn’t. Will the retreat be able to fix Tori? Or will she finally learn that being lonely doesn’t mean she’s broken . . .


Talk about finding the right book at the right time. I picked up this book yesterday (knowing nothing about it, but just liking the back blurb), started it 10 minutes after purchasing it, and had finished it 24 hours later.

It was just... sweet. Not exceptional enough for me to give it 5 stars, but just very, very sweet, and I loved every moment of it. The characters were so well written and seemed real to me. Tori, Doreen and Rowan especially. I love seeing people grow and come into their own, and that growth was handled beautifully here. It almost made me want to go visit the Farm myself ;-)

I also liked the acknowledgement that online friendships can be every bit as real as "real life" ones.