Published August 3rd, 2023 by Hodder & Stoughton
Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Humorous Fiction
Today I’m delighted to be resharing my review of London, with Love for the paperback publication blog tour. Thank you to Alara at Hodder & Stoughton for the invitation to take part and the gifted copy of the book.
********
SYNOPSIS:
‘A VERY special book. GORGEOUS, real believable and BEAUTIFUL’ – Marian Keyes
London. Nine million people. Two hundred and seventy tube stations. Every day, thousands of chance encounters, first dates, goodbyes and happy ever afters.
And for twenty years it’s been where one man and one woman can never get their timing right.
Jennifer and Nick meet as teenagers and over the next two decades, they fall in and out of love with each other. Sometimes they start kissing. Sometimes they’re just friends. Sometimes they stop speaking, but they always find their way back to each other.
But after all this time, are they destined to be together or have they finally reached the end of the line?
********
MY REVIEW:
After meeting at college, Jen and Nick strike up a close friendship that sizzles with an undercurrent of love and lust. Over the next twenty years the pair dip in and out of each other’s lives, fall in and out of love and try to make it work with other people. But when two people are meant to be something will just keep pulling them back together. Can they finally get the timing right or will they reach the end of everything they’ve shared?
London, with Love is a story of love, friendship, joy, heartbreak, triumph and tragedy. I loved the concept of following a couple that first fall for eachother in the all-important yet crazy teenage years but can never quite make it happen. It’s the fantasy of ‘the one who got away’ or the person who you always wonder ‘what if’ about that great romance stories are made of yet the reality never quite lives up to. I liked that Sarra Manning gave this book a dash of both fantasy and reality that she combines into one great story. There were times I was rooting for Nick and Jen to just get together already, and other times I wanted them to wake up and realise it would never work. But at every point I loved reading their story and rooting for Jen to find happiness.
But this love story isn’t just about romantic love. There is the love of writing and books woven into both Jen and Nick’s characters that this bibliophile adored, and then there is the fact that this novel is undoubtedly a love letter to the city of London. While it isn’t a place I’ve been many times or am that familiar with, I did find myself getting caught up in Jen’s love for her home city and how intricately it is woven into every facet of her life. The author makes London feel like a character in its own right and I could picture every place so clearly thanks to her evocative descriptions. Jen’s passion for London leaps from the pages and made even this staunch northerner feel a little bit of love for our capital.
But the thing I enjoyed most about this book is the nostalgia. I’m just under a decade younger than Jen and Nick, so while I was still in primary school when the book opened in 1986, I was of a similar age to them at many points in their story and enjoyed reliving the nineties and early noughties through them. The author weaves many memorable historical moments into the story such as Y2K that pulled me in and helped me feel even more connected to the story. I couldn’t help but reminisce about where I was, how I felt and what I was doing in life flashed before my eyes as I read.
So if you enjoy readable romances filled with compelling characters, engaging plotlines, familiar tropes and heaps of nostalgia, then this is the book for you.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
********
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Sarra Manning has been a voracious reader for over forty years and a prolific author and journalist for twenty five.
Her novels, which have been translated into fifteen different languages include Unsticky, You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, After The Last Dance, The Rise And Fall Of Becky Sharp and her latest, Rescue Me, which publishes in 2021. Sarra has also written over fifteen YA novels, and four light-hearted romantic comedies under a pseudonym.
She started her writing career on Melody Maker and Just Seventeen, has been editor of ElleGirl and What To Wear and has also contributed to The Guardian, ELLE, Grazia, Stylist, Fabulous, Stella, You Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar and is currently the Literary Editor of Red magazine.
Sarra has also been a Costa Book Awards judge and has been nominated for various writing awards herself.
She lives in London surrounded by piles and piles of books.
********
BUY THE BOOK:
Waterstones* | Amazon* | Bookshop.org*
********
Thanks for reading Bibliophiles xxx
Please check out the reviews from the other bloggers taking part in the tour.
*All purchase links are affiliate links
Emma's Biblio Treasures 