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A review by beate251
Meet Me on the Bridge by Sarah J. Harris
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC. This was also an Amazon First Reads choice for May 24 and is now on Kindle Unlimited.
Julia is unhappy with her life. She hates her boss, thinks her boyfriend is cheating, her Mum has abandoned her at the age of five, and her beloved Gran Sylvie is in a care home with dementia. Oh, and she has narcolepsy which has became worse once she turned 25. One night in one of her dreams she encounters Alex who she feels an instant connection with. He tells her to meet her the following day on Hammersmith Bridge, but when she actually gets there, she finds flowers for an Alex who died here a year ago saving two people from the river. Then her Gran gives her a pendant and suddenly she can travel back in time and try to save Alex's life. But as we all know, whenever a time-traveller interferes, they change more than they bargained for. How often will Julia have to try to get it exactly right?
I am at best ambivalent towards time-travelling stories and I wasn't aware there was so much of it in this story. Time-travel is too confusing for my brain, and here it moves from dreams during narcolepsy to actual time-travelling facilitated by a mysterious pendant that Julia has inherited from her mother and which is never explained (magical realism is always "because reasons"). The story moves back and forth all the time, but we never get beyond the timeframe of one specific year. The story is kind of convoluted, with all kinds of subplots about train disasters and a criminal called the Night Prowler. For the longest time I had no clue what they had to do with Julia and/or Alex. I was this close to DNF'ing a couple of times. I feel that the book tries to be a romance and morphs into a mystery instead that needs to be solved like her mother's whereabouts and the Night Prowler's identity etc.
But then something happened and suddenly all the plot points came together and I couldn't stop reading. Although I'd guessed one twist, there were a few more, and suddenly everything made sense. I even had a tear in my eye at the end. I loved Alex plus his family and Gran but felt that Julia, for all her good heart, often made dumb decisions for a man she barely knows but feels he is the "love of my life and I will never love another!" And that at 25. Naturally.
Unfortunately, for me the explanations came too late in the game. While I appreciate the narrative, it could have been plotted tighter so it resembled Groundhog Day a little less. For example, the whole Ed and Vicky subplot could have been left out without detriment to the story. Basically, the ending was great but it took too long to get there.
Also, for the love of God, don't name anything, especially a care home, "Ravensbrook". Can you not see how horrifyingly inappropriate that name is? Google it and see what comes up - the only thing that comes up. A good editor should have picked up on the connotation with an infamous concentration camp!
"Someone always gets hurt unless you opt out of the game."
Julia is unhappy with her life. She hates her boss, thinks her boyfriend is cheating, her Mum has abandoned her at the age of five, and her beloved Gran Sylvie is in a care home with dementia. Oh, and she has narcolepsy which has became worse once she turned 25. One night in one of her dreams she encounters Alex who she feels an instant connection with. He tells her to meet her the following day on Hammersmith Bridge, but when she actually gets there, she finds flowers for an Alex who died here a year ago saving two people from the river. Then her Gran gives her a pendant and suddenly she can travel back in time and try to save Alex's life. But as we all know, whenever a time-traveller interferes, they change more than they bargained for. How often will Julia have to try to get it exactly right?
I am at best ambivalent towards time-travelling stories and I wasn't aware there was so much of it in this story. Time-travel is too confusing for my brain, and here it moves from dreams during narcolepsy to actual time-travelling facilitated by a mysterious pendant that Julia has inherited from her mother and which is never explained (magical realism is always "because reasons"). The story moves back and forth all the time, but we never get beyond the timeframe of one specific year. The story is kind of convoluted, with all kinds of subplots about train disasters and a criminal called the Night Prowler. For the longest time I had no clue what they had to do with Julia and/or Alex. I was this close to DNF'ing a couple of times. I feel that the book tries to be a romance and morphs into a mystery instead that needs to be solved like her mother's whereabouts and the Night Prowler's identity etc.
But then something happened and suddenly all the plot points came together and I couldn't stop reading. Although I'd guessed one twist, there were a few more, and suddenly everything made sense. I even had a tear in my eye at the end. I loved Alex plus his family and Gran but felt that Julia, for all her good heart, often made dumb decisions for a man she barely knows but feels he is the "love of my life and I will never love another!" And that at 25. Naturally.
Unfortunately, for me the explanations came too late in the game. While I appreciate the narrative, it could have been plotted tighter so it resembled Groundhog Day a little less. For example, the whole Ed and Vicky subplot could have been left out without detriment to the story. Basically, the ending was great but it took too long to get there.
Also, for the love of God, don't name anything, especially a care home, "Ravensbrook". Can you not see how horrifyingly inappropriate that name is? Google it and see what comes up - the only thing that comes up. A good editor should have picked up on the connotation with an infamous concentration camp!
"Someone always gets hurt unless you opt out of the game."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Chronic illness, and Ableism
Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Violence, and Vomit