This is the best book I have read for a long time, in fact at the end I almost wanted to start reading it again. I loved the way the chapters were organised, each one an explanation about an aspect of life in a convent. The writing is beautifully pure and clear. It was fascinating to know how the day was broken up with various activities. It is peaceful to read how someone could manage without tv or phone screens. This book enables you to retreat for a while from the pressures of modern life as it is at the moment. However, gradually corruption of this purity filters in, which leads to disillusionment and finally departure. This then leads you to reflect that perhaps there can also problems with retreating from the world.

I was always fascinated in the life of a Nun especially since one of my Aunts was a Nun but left and the movie "The Nun's story," with Audrey Hepburn, and this story filled in all the blanks of why women would give their lives up for a spiritual life. I like how the story described the daily life of Catherine a Carmelite nun, that learned what she had to do to devote herself to Christ, and it seems that she found what she was looking for in terms of devotion to God, through silence, solitude and prayers but what made her doubt her path in the church were the people who resided with her and who were suppose to guide her in this particular convent. It seems like with all institutions that involve the human ego, there will be people who rule not with kindness and understanding but with an iron fist with the illusion that they are the ultimate authority, even if it is not true and that is why Catherine leaves. The story was easy to read and follow and I learn a lot about a nuns life. The story was a tragedy, a spiritual journey and a declaration of a life for a woman who was looking for a connection to her father and God and took a road less traveled then most of us will ever think about taking and found what she was looking for when it came to the spiritual road but not in sisterhood part, but according to the story there were other alternative convents but Catherine was discourage from transferring. I don't want the readers to feel that convent life would always be bad because there were descriptions of other convents that had happier outcomes and it seems like the church made it so that one person can't be in charge forever. I want to thank St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of this story about a subject matter that most of us think about but will never experience.

I was keen to read this after hearing author Erin Kelly speak about how gripping she found it, and I was interested in reading about the life of a nun. Some parts about day to day life were interesting, however by opening with the author's 'escape' from the monastery, the book sets itself up with a premise that it fails to deliver upon. One of the issues that becomes apparent in writing about life in a largely silent order is that many of the snubs, slights or personality clashes are very much in the perception of the author and do not lend themselves to a coherent description of events, and I started to think Catherine may well not be a very reliable, or sympathetic narrator. At times it was very much like reading the diary of a highly strung teenager, particularly when her opinion of key personalities would swing without much explanation from manipulative and controlling to saintly and wise. I think my main issue is that narratively it just didn't flow - small incidents are given minute focus, but much bigger decisions and events seem to be skipped over, so ultimately I found it frustrating.