Wow what a journey. So many feelings. Loved it so worth the read and will buy it for my bookshelf as will definitely want to read it all over again. Cracking book

Toffee is a Powerful novel told in verse and really makes you stop and think about how difficult life can be at times & this book does a great job at showing that through verse. It’s clear that Sarah Crossed is a talented writer.

Allison Daniels is looking and searching for a place to stay and she finds what she thinks is an vacant house with a shed while trying to find her former Stepmom; who is the only person that understands the abusive and adverse environment inflicted upon Allison. However the property is not as vacant as she thinks. Allison is a family violence survivor, her father a neglectful and abusive man since the passing of his wife moments after delivering Allison.

Marla is an elderly woman with dementia and owns the neglected property. Lonely and confused, she mistakes Allison for her childhood friend Toffee and despite Allison insisting otherwise, she understands the fragility of Marla's condition and allows her to believe she's the childhood companion Marla desperately needs. 

Throughout the book Allison and Marla become friends and although at times Marla is bewildered at the new living arrangements, they begin to care and cherish one another's company. Its such a unique situation to find yourself in but this story is beautifully told

The audio book version of this is brilliant. It’s the first time I’ve listened to an audio book so fast, I didn’t want to press pause and get on with every day life. So moving and heart warming and I just fell in love with Marla. Note: I did listen to it on 1.5x speed because I found the narrators reading a bit too slow for my liking.

I received a galley of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book has content warnings for domestic abuse and dementia. I didn't connect with this book at all. There wasn't really a plot to this book and the characters felt a bit one dimensional. I felt a bit bored reading this book. I also had a hard time which part of dialogue was said by which character most of the time and I didn't really understand the ending. It just seemed like a weird conclusion to the story. I don't get how the people around this woman didn't freak out at all when our main character showed up all of the sudden. So yeah, this was dissapointing.

2.5

Intense, quick and emotional, this book is everything Key words: poetry, young adult, contemporary fiction, abuse, mental health, family, friendship I am positively surprised by how much I loved this book. Like I knew I was going to like it, but I didn’t know I was going to love it that much. It is my first book written in verse and it was such a great experience, I’ll definitely do it again. This poetic format made it very easy to read the book. It felt like the story was flowing. At first, I didn’t really know how to read it, like how to control my desire to read all the sentences without taking a break and everything but once I got into it, it was hard to get out of the book. The story in itself is also really lovely. Sarah Crossan talks about mental health and abuse and tells the story of a friendship between a teenager and an elderly woman. I found it really touching and emotional. Books about domestic abuse are always quite intense and hard as it always kind of bring a feeling of frustration and anger. The characters felt real and I could easily picture them. Also, I am quite satisfied by the ending. I recommend this book and I will definitely be reading more by this author in the future. 5/5.