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People in Love
A long-lost friend reappears and ignites an old spark, leading to an emotionally fraught love triangle.
One bright blue day, on a bench by the river, Nora’s partner Robin proposes.
It is unexpected; they’d always agreed that they didn’t need a wedding. But after a decade of in-jokes, dancing in the low-lit kitchen and sharing morning toast in bed, Nora says yes. Why wouldn’t she?
The answer lands on the night of their engagement party, when Bren turns up on her doorstep.
Growing up, Bren and Nora were the sort of best friends who everyone swore would end up together. But when a sudden heartbreak turned their lives upside down, Bren left, Nora stayed, and the silent longing between them remained unspoken.
Now, he’s back, and their tentative yet undeniable spark reignites, forcing Nora to ask herself: How can you know your heart, if it feels like it’s split in two?
Tender and compelling, People in Love is a story about what-ifs and maybes, and the moments of misunderstanding that can shape our lives. It’s a book about living one life while musing on another, exploring how our choices shape our relationships and inform our regrets, and revealing, in the end, that the real love story is not always the one you'd expect.
One bright blue day, on a bench by the river, Nora’s partner Robin proposes.
It is unexpected; they’d always agreed that they didn’t need a wedding. But after a decade of in-jokes, dancing in the low-lit kitchen and sharing morning toast in bed, Nora says yes. Why wouldn’t she?
The answer lands on the night of their engagement party, when Bren turns up on her doorstep.
Growing up, Bren and Nora were the sort of best friends who everyone swore would end up together. But when a sudden heartbreak turned their lives upside down, Bren left, Nora stayed, and the silent longing between them remained unspoken.
Now, he’s back, and their tentative yet undeniable spark reignites, forcing Nora to ask herself: How can you know your heart, if it feels like it’s split in two?
Tender and compelling, People in Love is a story about what-ifs and maybes, and the moments of misunderstanding that can shape our lives. It’s a book about living one life while musing on another, exploring how our choices shape our relationships and inform our regrets, and revealing, in the end, that the real love story is not always the one you'd expect.
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First published June 4, 2026
About the author
Claire Daverley
3 books1,096 followersAfter graduating with a degree in Fine Art from the University of Oxford, Claire Daverley began a career in publishing, writing about books by day but penning her own by night (or rather, very early in the morning). She currently lives in Scotland with her husband and spaniel. Talking at Night is her debut novel, and has been sold in twenty-four territories to date.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 766 reviews
June 6, 2026
this nothingburger of a book
June 9, 2026
First of all I hate this new writing technique authors now do where they don’t use “ punctuation marks for dialogue?????? Immediately one star down. Story was alright; I hated Bren and my motivation for finishing the book was to make sure she didn’t end up with him cause that would have kept me up at night.
Overall I wasn’t moved by the whole ‘what if’ mainly cause the characters were just too young when they split and they were never really in an actual romantic relationship before. More should have been done to flesh out their past cause I had ZERO emotional connection and could not for the life of me understand why the FMC was even pining for this guy.
Overall I wasn’t moved by the whole ‘what if’ mainly cause the characters were just too young when they split and they were never really in an actual romantic relationship before. More should have been done to flesh out their past cause I had ZERO emotional connection and could not for the life of me understand why the FMC was even pining for this guy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 4, 2026
When Nora's boyfriend of 9 years, Robin, asks her to marry him, she emails her best friend, Bren (currently living abroad), to tell him about her engagement party. She never expects he'll return to England for it, but when he turns up unannounced, it brings back the feelings she had before he left to go travelling without her 12 years ago.
A secret that's been kept all that time finally comes to light and Nora begins to question her future. Robin is safety and security, whereas Bren is complete freedom and living life on a whim. She wanted that when she was 18, but does she still want it now?
This is a beautifully written love story. I was completely invested in it right from the start and read it in just a couple of days. I don't think there was a character I didn't like. It made me both laugh and cry.
Claire Daverley is an exceptional writer - an author who can write with such force of emotion that she brought me to full on, sobbing tears!
People In Love is without a doubt one of my books of 2026 and very possibly one of my favourite ever love stories. I absolutely adored it!
A secret that's been kept all that time finally comes to light and Nora begins to question her future. Robin is safety and security, whereas Bren is complete freedom and living life on a whim. She wanted that when she was 18, but does she still want it now?
This is a beautifully written love story. I was completely invested in it right from the start and read it in just a couple of days. I don't think there was a character I didn't like. It made me both laugh and cry.
Claire Daverley is an exceptional writer - an author who can write with such force of emotion that she brought me to full on, sobbing tears!
People In Love is without a doubt one of my books of 2026 and very possibly one of my favourite ever love stories. I absolutely adored it!
May 11, 2026
claire daverley is going on my very small list of auto buy authors!!!!!!!!
June 16, 2026
3.5 ⭐️ this was fine? Totally readable and had some beautiful parts but it wasn’t a patch on Talking at Night, which is quite disappointing because I was looking forward to this so much that I pushed past my Hardback Hatred to buy this. I wasn’t really that motivated by the whole sliding doors/what if element - they were so young and never in a relationship with too little between those 12 years that it just didn’t ring true and felt too tenuous. Also the twist near the end just felt like a trope that the editor forced in to add a bit of “pizzazz.” Overall, I think it’s worth a read but by no means something to write home about
April 23, 2026
Another masterpiece from Claire Daverley. I loved Talking at night SO much that I was almost nervous to read this. But, she’s done it again. What a beautiful book.
July 22, 2026
Enttäuschend, das ist das Erste, was mir hierzu einfällt. Die Inhaltsangabe klang gut, aber was letztendlich geliefert wurde, ließ zu wünschen übrig.
Nora hat sich gerade verlobt, aber dann meldet sich Bren zurück, ihr alter Freund aus der Jugend und sie beginnt, an allem zu zweifeln. Die Gründe dafür waren mir während der ganzen Geschichte unerklärlich, denn Bren konnte mich so gar nicht von sich überzeugen 👀🚩
Auch der Schreibstil war nicht meins, sehr abrupt, aus drei verschiedenen Perspektiven geschrieben (eine davon random aus der Du-Perspektive?!).
Und dann war da natürlich noch Nora. Als Hauptperson konnte ich mit ihr nicht viel anfangen, habe selten von einer so unentschlossenen Person gelesen.
Wahrscheinlich war das ganze Unterfangen von Anfang an zum Scheitern verurteilt, denn ich bin mit der Erwartung, einen Liebesroman zu lesen, an das Buch rangegangen. Aber es hat sich definitiv mehr wie etwas aus der Kategorie Literary Fiction angefühlt.
Alles in allem fand ich das Buch leider sowohl langwierig als auch langweilig.
Nora hat sich gerade verlobt, aber dann meldet sich Bren zurück, ihr alter Freund aus der Jugend und sie beginnt, an allem zu zweifeln. Die Gründe dafür waren mir während der ganzen Geschichte unerklärlich, denn Bren konnte mich so gar nicht von sich überzeugen 👀🚩
Auch der Schreibstil war nicht meins, sehr abrupt, aus drei verschiedenen Perspektiven geschrieben (eine davon random aus der Du-Perspektive?!).
Und dann war da natürlich noch Nora. Als Hauptperson konnte ich mit ihr nicht viel anfangen, habe selten von einer so unentschlossenen Person gelesen.
Wahrscheinlich war das ganze Unterfangen von Anfang an zum Scheitern verurteilt, denn ich bin mit der Erwartung, einen Liebesroman zu lesen, an das Buch rangegangen. Aber es hat sich definitiv mehr wie etwas aus der Kategorie Literary Fiction angefühlt.
Alles in allem fand ich das Buch leider sowohl langwierig als auch langweilig.
June 7, 2026
might have been a 5 if i hadn’t had to physically stop myself from throwing the book across the room 28193475 different times x
June 24, 2026
Could’ve been an email
June 7, 2026
I think I felt the entire spectrum of human emotions while reading this. Incredible.
June 22, 2026
i'm sad that Daverley did not delivery my new hyperfixation this year... it had so much potential.
nora and bran's unestablished relationship was vague right from the start and the slow unravelling of what they were to each other was frustrating. nora and robin's relationship was also not very defined in a sense that we don't really know how nora feels about him, just that he is stable, reliable, and has shared almost a decade of life with her. trying to parse and understand them was a chore as it is with this set up, and made even more difficult because of the prose. the minimalistic and short words per sentence kept the intrigue at first but eventually felt tired. i felt that certain ideas or thoughts could be expanded and explained better with a few more carefully crafted sentences, as the stylistic choice of writing here for me felt forced. i grew exhausted at some point because the words did not flow and felt so abrupt and insufficient to express the characters' feelings or the gravity of the situations. so it was not done as well as it should have been (the problem i think is that it's too self-conscious) and it's why the writing did not work here.
i expected a lot from Daverley because i loved her previous work, so i was unfortunately really let down here. it did not pierce my heart as i had expected, nor did it make my heart ache as the author intended. they went around in circles and the writing made it all so frustrating. the plot reminded me of Celine Song's Past Lives and even the way it unfolded felt close to the film. i think the story would translate better on screen because then it would feel less frustrating and more yearnful, which is what the writer intended. i thought the cooking food as love language was good, if anything, and i wish it were maintained and highlighted throughout the novel. but it was kind of discontinued or forgotten around halfway through in favor of moving the plot, which i'm upset about, because this little detail could have improved everything. also, i found the characters a bit dull to be honest; nora and robin were alright but bran was infuriating. i think this would have done better had it cut down on descriptions of bran's travels and described more of the characters' relationships and histories with each other. robin's pov did not do anything and the choice to make it second person is lost on me, as i think it wouldn't have made a difference if his few chapters were in third person too or just totally scrapped. i think my issue here is that the characters, writing style, plot did not feel very cohesive. i have a feeling that the author had a good idea for this book but was nudged the wrong way throughout the process, and it's why it feels forced and disjointed. those last few chapters were cruel btw and that little imaginary scene at the end cheapened the novel for me. i get that the author wanted to shock a reaction from the readers, or maybe it was really so that bran understood what he meant to nora, but i thought it was tacky (and quite offensive to readers actually) to pull that move.
well, i'm just really so disappointed. i can see the bones of it, but it's all so bland and i just wish this were better executed. it did not hit as hard as i had expected it would, especially with such a set up like this. idea was wasted on such a substandard execution.
nora and bran's unestablished relationship was vague right from the start and the slow unravelling of what they were to each other was frustrating. nora and robin's relationship was also not very defined in a sense that we don't really know how nora feels about him, just that he is stable, reliable, and has shared almost a decade of life with her. trying to parse and understand them was a chore as it is with this set up, and made even more difficult because of the prose. the minimalistic and short words per sentence kept the intrigue at first but eventually felt tired. i felt that certain ideas or thoughts could be expanded and explained better with a few more carefully crafted sentences, as the stylistic choice of writing here for me felt forced. i grew exhausted at some point because the words did not flow and felt so abrupt and insufficient to express the characters' feelings or the gravity of the situations. so it was not done as well as it should have been (the problem i think is that it's too self-conscious) and it's why the writing did not work here.
i expected a lot from Daverley because i loved her previous work, so i was unfortunately really let down here. it did not pierce my heart as i had expected, nor did it make my heart ache as the author intended. they went around in circles and the writing made it all so frustrating. the plot reminded me of Celine Song's Past Lives and even the way it unfolded felt close to the film. i think the story would translate better on screen because then it would feel less frustrating and more yearnful, which is what the writer intended. i thought the cooking food as love language was good, if anything, and i wish it were maintained and highlighted throughout the novel. but it was kind of discontinued or forgotten around halfway through in favor of moving the plot, which i'm upset about, because this little detail could have improved everything. also, i found the characters a bit dull to be honest; nora and robin were alright but bran was infuriating. i think this would have done better had it cut down on descriptions of bran's travels and described more of the characters' relationships and histories with each other. robin's pov did not do anything and the choice to make it second person is lost on me, as i think it wouldn't have made a difference if his few chapters were in third person too or just totally scrapped. i think my issue here is that the characters, writing style, plot did not feel very cohesive. i have a feeling that the author had a good idea for this book but was nudged the wrong way throughout the process, and it's why it feels forced and disjointed. those last few chapters were cruel btw and that little imaginary scene at the end cheapened the novel for me. i get that the author wanted to shock a reaction from the readers, or maybe it was really so that bran understood what he meant to nora, but i thought it was tacky (and quite offensive to readers actually) to pull that move.
well, i'm just really so disappointed. i can see the bones of it, but it's all so bland and i just wish this were better executed. it did not hit as hard as i had expected it would, especially with such a set up like this. idea was wasted on such a substandard execution.
June 6, 2026
omg omg omg 😭❤️🩹
Das war so unfassbar gut. Ich muss das erstmal verarbeiten?? Sally Rooney Ultras : this is for you.
Alle Lesen!!!! Hab mir gerade die Augen ausgeheult. Und wie kann man so wunderschön schreiben??? Und so prägnant alltägliches, zwischenmenschliches einfangen?
Das war so unfassbar gut. Ich muss das erstmal verarbeiten?? Sally Rooney Ultras : this is for you.
Alle Lesen!!!! Hab mir gerade die Augen ausgeheult. Und wie kann man so wunderschön schreiben??? Und so prägnant alltägliches, zwischenmenschliches einfangen?
January 23, 2026
Don’t mind me whilst I just stare at the wall for the foreseeable…..
She’s done it again folks.
Thanks so much to Michael Joseph for my copy. Review will be coming soon on insta
She’s done it again folks.
Thanks so much to Michael Joseph for my copy. Review will be coming soon on insta
July 3, 2026
Non quello che un lettore si aspetta, ma quello che succede davvero nella vita.
Ho apprezzato profondamente il fatto che le scelte, come appunto non succede nei romanzi, venissero fatte con la testa e non col cuore. Perché il cuore sperava fortemente in altro.
Tutti abbiamo il nostro Bren, ma penso che saper scegliere sapientemente sia più importante. Questa è la storia di due persone che nel loro passato si sono amate follemente e che non sapevano come gestire la cosa. Non sapevano come aiutarsi nelle difficoltà, come starsi affianco, perché troppo giovani e inesperti nei confronti dei sentimenti e delle relazioni. Ed è bello vedere come, dopo 12 anni, si rincontrino e riescano a parlarne, a mettere tutto sul tavolo, cuore compreso, perché non è sempre corretto usarlo. Riescono a capire come vanno e come sono andate le loro vite, e a prendere delle decisioni basandosi sulle persone che sono nel presente, anche se il passato resterà sempre parte preponderante di ciò che sono diventati.
Un romanzo alla Rooney, estremamente reale, che lascia il dolceamaro in bocca. Non prevedibile come ci si aspetterebbe, e intriso di vita. Un dolore talmente tenero da essere quasi confortante.
Ho apprezzato profondamente il fatto che le scelte, come appunto non succede nei romanzi, venissero fatte con la testa e non col cuore. Perché il cuore sperava fortemente in altro.
Tutti abbiamo il nostro Bren, ma penso che saper scegliere sapientemente sia più importante. Questa è la storia di due persone che nel loro passato si sono amate follemente e che non sapevano come gestire la cosa. Non sapevano come aiutarsi nelle difficoltà, come starsi affianco, perché troppo giovani e inesperti nei confronti dei sentimenti e delle relazioni. Ed è bello vedere come, dopo 12 anni, si rincontrino e riescano a parlarne, a mettere tutto sul tavolo, cuore compreso, perché non è sempre corretto usarlo. Riescono a capire come vanno e come sono andate le loro vite, e a prendere delle decisioni basandosi sulle persone che sono nel presente, anche se il passato resterà sempre parte preponderante di ciò che sono diventati.
Un romanzo alla Rooney, estremamente reale, che lascia il dolceamaro in bocca. Non prevedibile come ci si aspetterebbe, e intriso di vita. Un dolore talmente tenero da essere quasi confortante.
June 15, 2026
claire daverley you bloody brilliant bEAUTIFUL B*TCH!!!! how dare you rip my heart in two only to put it back together again!!! this is the best book of the year and i’ll be accepting no criticism at this time!!!!! kthxbye!!!!
May 25, 2026
i LOVED Talking at Night but this just put me in a 3 week slump…. for the most part very oddly written in a way that felt clunky and disjointed. i didn’t like that robin’s chapter were written in second person? and i also felt like there were so many different characters that it felt confusing especially with referring to both bren and nora’s mothers being referred to by their first names. i began to like it more after the 50% mark but i still couldn’t fully connect :/
August 5, 2026
“Won’t you always… wonder about us?”
Nora's boyfriend of 9 years, Robin, proposes. So she emails her best friend, Bren who currently lives abroad. They haven’t seen each other in years, but occasionally kept in touch. She emailed and invited him to her engagement party.
She didn’t expect he'd actually return to England for it, but when he shows up unannounced, it brings back everything she felt before he left 12 years ago.
I was completely hooked from the start. I think Claire Daverley is so good in writing a will-they-won’t-they love story. She did it in Talking at Night and she did it again here. Only this time it’s a bit of a love triangle between Nora, Robin and Bren. Truths that's been kept for years finally comes to light and suddenly Nora is questioning the decision she’s about to make.
The way the story is told really worked for me. Key moments from their lives are revealed slowly, and it adds so much depth to how each character feels. The whole “what if” concept drew me in, how one different choice can send you down a completely different path. We all have the “what if?” thoughts about life and how things might have turned out differently, so this really intrigued me.
I felt everything reading this. It’s about how complicated love can be - all the messy, heartwarming, heart-wrenching parts and everything in between.
I’m honestly already looking forward to whatever Claire Daverley writes next. I think I need regular doses of her books. She’s officially on my auto-buy list now🫶🏼✨
Nora's boyfriend of 9 years, Robin, proposes. So she emails her best friend, Bren who currently lives abroad. They haven’t seen each other in years, but occasionally kept in touch. She emailed and invited him to her engagement party.
She didn’t expect he'd actually return to England for it, but when he shows up unannounced, it brings back everything she felt before he left 12 years ago.
I was completely hooked from the start. I think Claire Daverley is so good in writing a will-they-won’t-they love story. She did it in Talking at Night and she did it again here. Only this time it’s a bit of a love triangle between Nora, Robin and Bren. Truths that's been kept for years finally comes to light and suddenly Nora is questioning the decision she’s about to make.
The way the story is told really worked for me. Key moments from their lives are revealed slowly, and it adds so much depth to how each character feels. The whole “what if” concept drew me in, how one different choice can send you down a completely different path. We all have the “what if?” thoughts about life and how things might have turned out differently, so this really intrigued me.
I felt everything reading this. It’s about how complicated love can be - all the messy, heartwarming, heart-wrenching parts and everything in between.
I’m honestly already looking forward to whatever Claire Daverley writes next. I think I need regular doses of her books. She’s officially on my auto-buy list now🫶🏼✨
August 13, 2026
3.5⭐️
My breakdown, because this was had me conflicted:
Writing: 5⭐️ — Wow. I was blown away by the prose, metaphors, imagery, and descriptions.
Plot for most of the book (24 chapters): 2.5⭐️ (maybe a generous 3⭐️) — I wanted to DNF numerous times and found the constant misunderstandings and miscommunication incredibly frustrating.
Character Development: 4⭐️ — There was significant character development, even though the route to get there frustrated me.
Final Chapters: 5⭐️ — Emotionally devastating, beautifully written, and landed heavily on a personal level.
My breakdown, because this was had me conflicted:
Writing: 5⭐️ — Wow. I was blown away by the prose, metaphors, imagery, and descriptions.
Plot for most of the book (24 chapters): 2.5⭐️ (maybe a generous 3⭐️) — I wanted to DNF numerous times and found the constant misunderstandings and miscommunication incredibly frustrating.
Character Development: 4⭐️ — There was significant character development, even though the route to get there frustrated me.
Final Chapters: 5⭐️ — Emotionally devastating, beautifully written, and landed heavily on a personal level.
August 26, 2026
3.5 ⭐️ I am torn. On one hand I can absolutely understand why some people may vehemently dislike this book. The characters (*cough cough* Bren) can come across as quite immature and it really does feel like a lot of this book could have been passed over if people just had an honest conversation but (and this is a big BUT) there is something about this book that pulled me in. Maybe it’s just Claire’s writing but there is something else there. A deep humanness. I don’t think this story was about Bren and Nora, a will-they, won’t-they. To me it was a story about grief. How not dealing with your grief can eat away at you and not just harm you but hurt the people you love. It’s also a story of a soft, quiet love. Of someone witnessing your life and caring enough to notice things about you. Sometimes I felt like Robin deserved better but I respect Nora’s character growth and the way she showed up for him towards the end.
This is also a story about forgiveness and how small your life can become if you hold onto things.
All in all, I liked this book. Not as much as Talking at Night but I will still read anything Claire writes!
This is also a story about forgiveness and how small your life can become if you hold onto things.
All in all, I liked this book. Not as much as Talking at Night but I will still read anything Claire writes!
June 30, 2026
In diesem Buch passiert leider quasi nix. Es wird viel geredet, aber nicht richtig miteinander. Ich habe das erste Buch von Daverley geliebt, aber dieses hat mich nicht komplett überzeugt. Ihre Sprache ist und bleibt toll, wunderbar übersetzt von Anja Mehrmann und Anne Thomas. Kann man im Sommer gut drüberlesen, aber bei mir ist es nicht richtig hängengeblieben.
August 24, 2026
die zweite Hälfte hat es für mich rausgeholt!! bin jetzt doch sehr versöhnt rausgegangen und denke aber auch, dass es nochmal anders gewirkt hätte, wenn ich es auf Englisch gelesen hätte
June 25, 2026
So so good !!! Felt so true to life and the characters felt so developed and real and I cried
Read
May 1, 2026rtc !!!
June 23, 2026
oh my god i‘m so glad it ended the way it did and not the other way around.
would have been five stars if we‘d use proper punctuation but what do i know
would have been five stars if we‘d use proper punctuation but what do i know
July 5, 2026
I was debating between a 2 and 3 for this one, which kills me because I adore Claire - I've read (and loved) all her Substack articles and have been following her on Instagram forever. Hence why we're on a first-name basis. If you've been reading my reviews for a while, you might already know that Talking at Night is one of my holy grails. Alas, this is not a review of the author, but rather the book, and I was disappointed. (I will still read everything you deign to share, Claire.)
In this novel, we follow Nora, Robin and Bren. It's a story about what happens when a long-ago important person - who in this case was a best-friend-almost-maybe-love-of-Nora's-life-but-never-happened - shows up in your life years later. In their three separate perspectives, Claire takes the reader through the what ifs and maybes, and how the decisions (or non-decisions) you make can take you on wildly different paths in life. The thing I found maddening was that on each path, you will, in different ways, find everything you were looking for. I guess that's life, but I come to books to escape the burden of choosing a path. I want them to reveal one to me, so I can learn from it. :')
There are a lot of other beautiful parts of this book - there's strong emotional development of all three characters, song-like language, a café-craft-calligraphy-sewing shop. That said, their relationships all feel so vague to me and the lack of communication skills made me want to stop reading.
The writing style is quotation-free, which makes the dialogue flow poetically but, for some reason, also causes the crescendos to fall flat. One thing I did not like about this is that it had an "and then I woke up, and it was all a dream" quality. I won't spoil anything here, but I felt as though Claire used this device to explore more complex, daring, exciting, maybe even contentious, plot lines, only to lose confidence in either herself or her readers, and say, "Sike! That's just to make you think a bit about the alternative outcome, but I am not up for making the story that brave or that sad, so it didn't actually happen"...if you get what I mean.
One thing I unexpectedly found pulled at the heartstrings was the descriptions of London, for example, "the sky an antiseptic, English grey." It explained London so perfectly for me, triggering memories that I didn't even realise I had.
The ending was pretty good and gave me warm, fuzzy feelings, but by then I was also so ready for the book to be over... it dragged on a bit and, sorry to use the same word again, ultimately felt a bit flat.
Anyways, sorry Claire, love you <3 :(
In this novel, we follow Nora, Robin and Bren. It's a story about what happens when a long-ago important person - who in this case was a best-friend-almost-maybe-love-of-Nora's-life-but-never-happened - shows up in your life years later. In their three separate perspectives, Claire takes the reader through the what ifs and maybes, and how the decisions (or non-decisions) you make can take you on wildly different paths in life. The thing I found maddening was that on each path, you will, in different ways, find everything you were looking for. I guess that's life, but I come to books to escape the burden of choosing a path. I want them to reveal one to me, so I can learn from it. :')
There are a lot of other beautiful parts of this book - there's strong emotional development of all three characters, song-like language, a café-craft-calligraphy-sewing shop. That said, their relationships all feel so vague to me and the lack of communication skills made me want to stop reading.
The writing style is quotation-free, which makes the dialogue flow poetically but, for some reason, also causes the crescendos to fall flat. One thing I did not like about this is that it had an "and then I woke up, and it was all a dream" quality. I won't spoil anything here, but I felt as though Claire used this device to explore more complex, daring, exciting, maybe even contentious, plot lines, only to lose confidence in either herself or her readers, and say, "Sike! That's just to make you think a bit about the alternative outcome, but I am not up for making the story that brave or that sad, so it didn't actually happen"...if you get what I mean.
One thing I unexpectedly found pulled at the heartstrings was the descriptions of London, for example, "the sky an antiseptic, English grey." It explained London so perfectly for me, triggering memories that I didn't even realise I had.
The ending was pretty good and gave me warm, fuzzy feelings, but by then I was also so ready for the book to be over... it dragged on a bit and, sorry to use the same word again, ultimately felt a bit flat.
Anyways, sorry Claire, love you <3 :(
June 23, 2026
EINDELIJK KLAAR 🙏🙏
oke nee grapje, dit boek was - bijzonder??
het is echt ontzettend mooi geschreven, het verhaal was goed en het einde fenomenaal.
maar: het was ZO langdradig en echt wel heel saai.
dus ik ben een beetje in tweestrijd?! ik snap echt dat dit iemands favoriete boek kan zijn, maar aan de andere kant wilde ik echt dat het 200 pagina’s minder had lmao.
ik denk 3 sterren? ⭐️⭐️⭐️
oke nee grapje, dit boek was - bijzonder??
het is echt ontzettend mooi geschreven, het verhaal was goed en het einde fenomenaal.
maar: het was ZO langdradig en echt wel heel saai.
dus ik ben een beetje in tweestrijd?! ik snap echt dat dit iemands favoriete boek kan zijn, maar aan de andere kant wilde ik echt dat het 200 pagina’s minder had lmao.
ik denk 3 sterren? ⭐️⭐️⭐️
August 12, 2026
Not as good as talking at night but still an easy and enjoyable summer read !!! I love how Claire Daverley writes about grief.
I read the whole flight Rome-Malaga with a toddler sat next to me watching me cry and highlight the whole book. He offered me some chocolate. I cried some more.
I read the whole flight Rome-Malaga with a toddler sat next to me watching me cry and highlight the whole book. He offered me some chocolate. I cried some more.
August 12, 2026
I thought I would love this book, but I liked it. Read predominantly on a delayed trains. I think Claire Daverley is an excellent author (I loved and devoured Talking at Night - one of my faves)
I didnt like Robin or Bren, Nora was also a bit annoying?
Freya reminded me of my mum which was odd.
I didnt like Robin or Bren, Nora was also a bit annoying?
Freya reminded me of my mum which was odd.
July 25, 2026
Makes me hopeful ❤️🩹
August 11, 2026
i really liked this book and would highly recommend if you wanna k1ll yourself ♥️ you'll suffer the entire way through and when you think you'll get some closure boom more suffering
loved it 💫🙌
loved it 💫🙌
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