Publisher: 18th August 2022 by HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter
Pages: 400 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Romance | Women's Fiction
My Rating: 4 cups
Synopsis:
They’re perfect for each other
They just don’t know it yet
Becca and Charlie have known each other for years – ever since they met at university.
And for every one of those years, they've bickered, argued, offended, mocked and generally rubbed each other up the wrong way.
Until now. Until Ally’s bucket list. The death of their loved one should mean Becca and Charlie can go their separate ways and not look back. But completing the list is something neither Charlie nor Becca can walk away from.
And sometimes, those who bring out the worst in you, also bring out the very best…
Over the course of ten years, Becca and Charlie’s paths collide as they deal with grief, love and life after Ally.
My Thoughts
Ten Years by Pernille Hughes is described as a romance, yet I feel that its strengths lie elsewhere. If you go into this read looking for the classic enemies to lovers it may not ring true for you. However, if you choose to view this story as one that deals with grief you are in for a special tribute.
‘Having had little experience of grief, Becca had assumed it was a short-term contained event, but no, apparently not. Loss was a much longer affair, sometimes a constant feeling of something being missing’
Losing a loved one is never easy and everyone most definitely deals with it in their own way and time, feeling in fact, that you might never move on. This is a story about how two people coped with grief, learned to live with it and in so doing, opened themselves up to love once more.
The mode of these two coming together is clever and unique. The dying wish of their loved one was that each year they must come together to complete one of her bucket list items. Over this extended time period Pernille dives deep into their individual and collective highs and lows, their growth and stagnation and ultimately coming together as you always knew they would with this type of book. Readers will enjoy this book if they sign onto how life evolves through both success and setbacks and where advice and opportunities need to be taken.
“I think it helped,” she said, turning her glass by its stem. “The tasks pushed us through the grieving process.
Viewed in this capacity, Pernille has penned a powerful tale that deals with a very sobering topic. Be prepared to both laugh and cry as she tackles the difficult task of grieving and healing. Yes, it does move a bit slow at times, feels a little repetitive, main characters bickering wears thin leaving you questioning if they should even be together. Yet, it’s real and it’s raw and is sure to appeal to those searching for that little bit extra when it comes to a tale on the journey of life.
‘Life could be long or short, but it was wide as the sky and there would always be some path around the obstacles.’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
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