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rosalie362819's review against another edition
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Favourite quotes:
"Sarah is my best friend in the entire world, and however much and for however long it kills me, I'll never silently, secretly hold up signs to tell Jack O'Mara, without hope or agenda, that to me he is perfect, and that my wasted heart will always love him."
"All it took was one bottle of wine to lower my guard; for one unwittingly misjudged comment to make me crumble like an abandoned sandcastle when the evening tide comes in."
"Despite the fairy-tale snowstorm out there, this isn't Narnia. This is London, real life, where hearts get kicked and bruised and broken, but somehow they still keep beating."
"There's something about living in a different place that allows you to be whoever you want to be."
"I think we're both living in denial, completely unprepared and unwilling to return to the world we belong to. But who's to say that you have to belong to somewhere forever, anyway? Why do I have to belong to England, when everything there is grey and confusing and difficult?"
"I find myself wondering again whether I'd even have spoken to him if I'd met him anywhere other than on a beach, where all bodies are more or less equal."
"There comes a point where you have to make the choice to be happy, because being sad for too long is exhausting. And that one day, you'll look back, and you'll not be able to remember exactly what it was you loved about that person... But I also said that sometimes, rarely, people can come back into your life. And if that happens, you should keep those people close to you forever."
"You tread lightly through life, but you leave deep footprints that are hard for other people to fill."
"I'm treading water. In fact, that's how I'd sum up my whole life right now. It's strange-- you'd think that in the upheaval of separation, the stability of work would be welcome. It's actually had the opposite effect; it's made me want to throw all my cards up in the air and see where they land. I'm treading water, but what I want is to swim."
"It's strange but you never stop caring about someone, even if you don't want to be with them anymore."
"I jumped in feet first when I arrived and lost myself in the work and the women, and now at last I've surfaced and I'm sucking down fresh, sweet air into my lungs. At first it seemed that I was gasping for breath; it burned my chest. Now, though, I breathe easy and I sleep through the night. It's just me and, for now, I'm good with that."
"'Sometimes you just meet the right person at the wrong time,' I say softly. 'Yeah,' he says. 'And then you spend every day afterwards wishing that time could be rearranged,'"
"Sarah is my best friend in the entire world, and however much and for however long it kills me, I'll never silently, secretly hold up signs to tell Jack O'Mara, without hope or agenda, that to me he is perfect, and that my wasted heart will always love him."
"All it took was one bottle of wine to lower my guard; for one unwittingly misjudged comment to make me crumble like an abandoned sandcastle when the evening tide comes in."
"Despite the fairy-tale snowstorm out there, this isn't Narnia. This is London, real life, where hearts get kicked and bruised and broken, but somehow they still keep beating."
"There's something about living in a different place that allows you to be whoever you want to be."
"I think we're both living in denial, completely unprepared and unwilling to return to the world we belong to. But who's to say that you have to belong to somewhere forever, anyway? Why do I have to belong to England, when everything there is grey and confusing and difficult?"
"I find myself wondering again whether I'd even have spoken to him if I'd met him anywhere other than on a beach, where all bodies are more or less equal."
"There comes a point where you have to make the choice to be happy, because being sad for too long is exhausting. And that one day, you'll look back, and you'll not be able to remember exactly what it was you loved about that person... But I also said that sometimes, rarely, people can come back into your life. And if that happens, you should keep those people close to you forever."
"You tread lightly through life, but you leave deep footprints that are hard for other people to fill."
"I'm treading water. In fact, that's how I'd sum up my whole life right now. It's strange-- you'd think that in the upheaval of separation, the stability of work would be welcome. It's actually had the opposite effect; it's made me want to throw all my cards up in the air and see where they land. I'm treading water, but what I want is to swim."
"It's strange but you never stop caring about someone, even if you don't want to be with them anymore."
"I jumped in feet first when I arrived and lost myself in the work and the women, and now at last I've surfaced and I'm sucking down fresh, sweet air into my lungs. At first it seemed that I was gasping for breath; it burned my chest. Now, though, I breathe easy and I sleep through the night. It's just me and, for now, I'm good with that."
"'Sometimes you just meet the right person at the wrong time,' I say softly. 'Yeah,' he says. 'And then you spend every day afterwards wishing that time could be rearranged,'"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Alcohol, and Infidelity
Moderate: Death of parent, Infertility, Car accident, and Child death
larareads's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: Child death, Car accident, Addiction, and Grief
liciaaaaa's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Infertility
Minor: Pregnancy and Car accident
baileyjanetee's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Death of parent
bwaymadeline's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
hope that donna summer’s “on the radio” plays at their wedding
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Sexual content and Child death
sarahmae531's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
A sweet book, I felt like there could’ve been more Jack and Laurie time, but that also made the moments of them we did get more sweet. Liked the prolonged timeline style of writing, felt like I grew up with them as the book went on.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, and Car accident
Minor: Grief and Pregnancy
janetteb12's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
I was more interested in the plot than the characters until about page 100. And then after that, every missed connection between Laurie and Jack felt like another knife to the heart, with how invested I’d become in them. You definitely root for them to finally connect, and the journey along the way can be a little frustrating at times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Pregnancy, Car accident, and Infidelity
Minor: Car accident, Infidelity, and Pregnancy
katsbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
“There comes a point where you have to make the choice to be happy, because being sad for too long is exhausting.”
“Sometimes you just meet the right person at the wrong time.”
“It’s strange, but you never stop caring about someone, even if you don’t want to be with them any more.”
I have an incredible amount of mixed feelings about this book. The emotional infidelity is so real and it is literally the point of the book. I hate cheating and the feelings Jack and Laurie have for each other really turned me off. It didn't help that their entire romance hinged on one moment where they saw each other but never spoke. That being said, I get that the point was the idea of fate and true love but, I don't know, there were times when I just couldn't buy it. I will say that it made the mutual pining excellent and my heart broke a little every time another missed opportunity cropped up. I think the romantic side of me and the practical side of me are just at war over our feelings for this story 😂. I really enjoyed the relationship between Sarah and Laurie and their heart-to-heart scenes were definitely the most emotional to me. I also, weirdly, enjoyed Laurie's relationship with Oscar. It felt like it had more depth and nuance than her relationship with Jack. Ultimately, this is a solid winter romance and definitely an easy read if that's what your in the mode for.
“Sometimes you just meet the right person at the wrong time.”
“It’s strange, but you never stop caring about someone, even if you don’t want to be with them any more.”
I have an incredible amount of mixed feelings about this book. The emotional infidelity is so real and it is literally the point of the book. I hate cheating and the feelings Jack and Laurie have for each other really turned me off. It didn't help that their entire romance hinged on one moment where they saw each other but never spoke. That being said, I get that the point was the idea of fate and true love but, I don't know, there were times when I just couldn't buy it. I will say that it made the mutual pining excellent and my heart broke a little every time another missed opportunity cropped up. I think the romantic side of me and the practical side of me are just at war over our feelings for this story 😂. I really enjoyed the relationship between Sarah and Laurie and their heart-to-heart scenes were definitely the most emotional to me. I also, weirdly, enjoyed Laurie's relationship with Oscar. It felt like it had more depth and nuance than her relationship with Jack. Ultimately, this is a solid winter romance and definitely an easy read if that's what your in the mode for.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, and Infidelity
Moderate: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Sexual content, and Child death
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Car accident, and Medical content
nila's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Not my cup of tea, I usually like the "random assortment of meetings over a longer period of time"-style romance, but it had so many other tropes I don't like, so it's a miss for me. I felt the main character, Laurie, had no agency of her own, until her life moved to a place where she could no longer be with Jack. And the "obstacles" to their relationship (friends and exes etc etc) were all magically solved, so that they were free to be with each other.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Death of parent and Child death
Minor: Infidelity and Vomit
josefiend's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This is a very sweet read and I practically inhaled it over a 48 hour period. The narrative moves quickly and I never lost interest in where the story was going.
It does touch on some more serious topics which helped ground the character arcs, although I’m not entirely sure if the structure of the story really worked with the heavier moments. The entire story is told through different chronological vignettes, and though this style helps with pacing, I think it can be hard to follow a character’s emotional progression. There’s also far too much telling instead of showing, which works against the “snapshots in time” structure.
What I found most disappointing was the ending — it feels like we keep climbing and climbing towards a conclusion and then suddenly, the story just ends. It’s just over. We spent so much time reveling and wallowing in the dramatic lows that we really feel deprived of experiencing that final, ultimate high. I was so excited and thirsty for that satisfaction that I truly felt robbed when I turned the page to find it empty.
It’s especially upsetting when the ending is rushed in a romance novel and it’s why this one in particular isn’t given a higher rating.
It does touch on some more serious topics which helped ground the character arcs, although I’m not entirely sure if the structure of the story really worked with the heavier moments. The entire story is told through different chronological vignettes, and though this style helps with pacing, I think it can be hard to follow a character’s emotional progression. There’s also far too much telling instead of showing, which works against the “snapshots in time” structure.
What I found most disappointing was the ending — it feels like we keep climbing and climbing towards a conclusion and then suddenly, the story just ends. It’s just over. We spent so much time reveling and wallowing in the dramatic lows that we really feel deprived of experiencing that final, ultimate high. I was so excited and thirsty for that satisfaction that I truly felt robbed when I turned the page to find it empty.
It’s especially upsetting when the ending is rushed in a romance novel and it’s why this one in particular isn’t given a higher rating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Child death and Infidelity
Minor: Domestic abuse, Addiction, and Vomit