Book Review: The Day We Met

By Becky Gulc

‘Stephanie doesn’t believe in fate, true love or living happily ever after. She’s content enough being engaged to Matt. But then she meets Jamie, who understands her more than anyone else ever has.

Jamie is happily married to his childhood sweetheart Helen and believes in everything Stephanie doesn’t. So why does he have such a strong connection with Stephanie?

When Stephanie and Jamie meet one fateful weekend in 2006 it will change everything...

Ten years. Two people. One epic love story.’ (Courtesy of Amazon UK.)

Prepare to go on an emotional roller coaster of a journey with The Day We Met. When Stephanie and Jamie meet during a retreat at a country hotel they instantly gravitate towards one another, but with both being happily coupled up, this is a forming friendship that is just going to have stay platonic, isn’t it? Cue a narrative of meetings spanning ten years.

I felt the instant connection between the pair, and I was drawn to the vulnerability of Stephanie we saw early on and the kind and caring nature of Jamie. I enjoyed their meetings in the first couple of years, the narrative worked; I believed these people could meet once a year and live separate lives the rest of the time, I continued to like them. I did however find myself a little frustrated at times, but an enjoyable frustration if that makes sense? There’s a lot of indecisiveness, a lack of acknowledgement and sharing of emotions particularly on Jamie’s part at times as the book evolves. This frustrated me as his inner dialogue was telling me all the right things. For me, this showed Roxie captures the complexity of ‘forbidden’ love and loving more than one person at the same time so well. This was also mostly done without demonizing the existing partners which would have been the easier option.

I loved the last third of the novel in particular. The characters flourish and by this point you really want some true happiness for them, however they will find this. It’s certainly an emotional ending and I battled with that for various reasons, but it suited the novel to be honest. A recommended novel and I’d definitely read more from Roxie!

Thanks to Ebury Press for the book in exchange for an honest review.

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