Hi Everyone,

Happy Monday! If you’re working, then I hope the beginning of your week is a positive start to whatever you have to follow. If you’re not working, then I hope you’ve had a relaxing and chilled out Monday. I’m not working and I have had a somewhat busy morning, but everything is done and out of the way so I can do absolutely nothing now for the remainder.

Book 📖

Thank you to @onemorechapterhc for this advanced copy of Ten Years by @pernillehughes in return for an honest review. I have been lucky enough to take part in the read along for this book and it’s been awesome. Thank you to @sarabethsbooks for another fantastic set of challenges and discussion questions. Ten Years is due to be published on 31st August 2022 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Becca and Charlie met at University and have been sworn enemies since. Becca’s best friend Ally was Charlies fiancé, but even this commonality wasn’t enough to make them be civil.

Until they were forced to. Ally died and left them both the task of completing her bucket list. They had hoped that the link that was keeping their feud going not being there would mean they could walk away from each other, but they both loved Ally too much to not follow through with her wishes.

As Becca and Charlie go on a journey of grief, anger, loves and losses they learn that sometimes, the people that bring out the worst in us can also bring out the very best.

General Thoughts 🤔

Well this was an absolutely lovely book. I really enjoyed it and I loved reading it alongside a great bunch of book readers. This was a longer read along than usual so smaller bite sized chunks of the story per day and I thought it was perfect for this book. I was able to happily jump into Becca’s and Charlie’s lives to catch up with them and then take a break. Until the last third of the book. I broke the rules and read ahead as that’s when things started to get real and I couldn’t put the book down.

Although this is a romance book and I loved that aspect of it, it was probably the subject of grief that hit me the most. I find it so interesting how people handle their own grief in such different ways and even more interesting when people judge the way in which others grieve.

Characters 👫👭👬

A lot of the conversation on the blogger chat has been focused around team Becca vs team Charlie. From the beginning of the book I was firmly team Becca. I didn’t always like her and I didn’t agree with everything that she did, but I thought she was a very loveable character; flaws and all. I can appreciate that she came across as a bit too sassy at times, but I think it was all a front for something she was missing in her life.

All of the above said, I didn’t dislike Charlie. He was a gentleman and I thought he had the patience of a saint to put up with Becca’s nonsense, but I wanted him to be more assertive. I kept thinking that I wanted him to take control of his own life, but on reflection, I think he likely had a better handle of this than Becca did, he was just a little too happy to relinquish control when times were tough.

Writing Style ✍️

This is the first book that I have read by this author and I sincerely hope that it isn’t my last. I really enjoyed her style of writing and the way that she structured the story. Firstly, it started with a gut wrenching blow which took me by surprise (I was all strapped in for a sweet romance) and it went on to yearly updates with Becca and Charlie. I really liked the quick jumps in timeline as it kept the story moving along.

What I liked most about Pernille Hughes writing was her way of writing flawed characters with plenty to dislike about them, but plenty to love about them too. I don’t think I’d be friends with either Becca or Charlie in real life, but reading about them made me want the best for them and I was rooting for them both throughout; no matter what the outcome.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

Once I’d gotten over the sucker punch within the first page or so (did not see that coming before I picked up this book) I was drawn into a beautiful story about grief and how people deal with it in their own way; no rights or wrongs. Throw in the enemies to lovers plot and I was hooked on following these characters over the span of ten years of their lives. A gorgeous story with great characters!

😍😍😍😍😩