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All You Had To Do Was Stay: The BRAND-NEW unmissable must-read from the bestselling author of The Spare Room!
400 pages, Paperback
Published July 14, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 18, 2026
Thank you to the author/publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Some love stories don't end because the love disappears—they end because life gets in the way. All You Had to Do Was Stay is a heartfelt second-chance romance that explores grief, regret, healing, and the possibility that some people really do find their way back to each other.
Hannah has spent years creating perfect weddings for everyone else while quietly convincing herself that her own happy ending is firmly in the past. Jude has spent just as long avoiding the memories tied to the city—and the woman—he left behind. When their siblings announce their engagement and Hannah becomes the wedding planner, neither has much choice but to spend the summer together.
What follows is a slow rebuilding of trust rather than an instant rekindling of romance, and that's what makes this story so satisfying. Laura Starkey gives both characters room to acknowledge the hurt they've carried, confront the misunderstandings that separated them, and slowly rediscover the people they once loved.
The emotional tension carries the story beautifully. Every shared glance, awkward conversation, and reluctant moment together feels earned because both Hannah and Jude have changed over the years. They're no longer the people who broke each other's hearts, but they also can't pretend the past never happened.
The wedding-planning backdrop adds warmth and charm without overshadowing the emotional journey. Family dynamics, sibling relationships, and the excitement surrounding the upcoming wedding create a wonderful balance against the heavier themes of grief and lost love.
Rather than relying on dramatic twists, the novel shines through honest conversations, emotional vulnerability, and believable character growth. It's the kind of romance that reminds readers that forgiveness isn't about forgetting—it's about choosing hope over fear.
Tender, emotional, and quietly hopeful, All You Had to Do Was Stay is perfect for readers who love second-chance romances filled with heart, healing, and the reminder that sometimes love deserves one more chance.
Some love stories don't end because the love disappears—they end because life gets in the way. All You Had to Do Was Stay is a heartfelt second-chance romance that explores grief, regret, healing, and the possibility that some people really do find their way back to each other.
Hannah has spent years creating perfect weddings for everyone else while quietly convincing herself that her own happy ending is firmly in the past. Jude has spent just as long avoiding the memories tied to the city—and the woman—he left behind. When their siblings announce their engagement and Hannah becomes the wedding planner, neither has much choice but to spend the summer together.
What follows is a slow rebuilding of trust rather than an instant rekindling of romance, and that's what makes this story so satisfying. Laura Starkey gives both characters room to acknowledge the hurt they've carried, confront the misunderstandings that separated them, and slowly rediscover the people they once loved.
The emotional tension carries the story beautifully. Every shared glance, awkward conversation, and reluctant moment together feels earned because both Hannah and Jude have changed over the years. They're no longer the people who broke each other's hearts, but they also can't pretend the past never happened.
The wedding-planning backdrop adds warmth and charm without overshadowing the emotional journey. Family dynamics, sibling relationships, and the excitement surrounding the upcoming wedding create a wonderful balance against the heavier themes of grief and lost love.
Rather than relying on dramatic twists, the novel shines through honest conversations, emotional vulnerability, and believable character growth. It's the kind of romance that reminds readers that forgiveness isn't about forgetting—it's about choosing hope over fear.
Tender, emotional, and quietly hopeful, All You Had to Do Was Stay is perfect for readers who love second-chance romances filled with heart, healing, and the reminder that sometimes love deserves one more chance.
July 17, 2026
I think second chance romances are often tricky to navigate - there has to be a good enough reason that it didn't work the first time (without damaging the characters), while then having a good enough reason for the characters to overcome their issues and get back together - and all without making us hate the characters.
I thought that All You Had To Do Was Stay did this quite well - neither of the two leads come off badly (occasional immature behaviour aside), and the dual narrative really helps to explain their choices and reactions. Additionally, as the story progresses I thought the reason for the initial break up did make sense, and importantly didn't prevent me from buying the reconciliation. That said, while I liked the main couple, I wasn't particularly caught up in their romance. They had a nice, easy chemistry and appreciated each other, but I was probably more interested in the relationship between their siblings.
Where I actually thought the book was at it's strongest was the non romantic relationships between the characters, and the exploration of the 'second coming of age' that happens in your twenties. Laura Starkey did a really great job of giving them all a common history, and it all feels very lived in and comfortable. She also did a great job of exploring sibling and family dynamics - this is particularly highlighted in the relationship between Jude and his brother, and their mother.
Overall, I wanted to like this more than I did - for me, the main romance was cute, but not really compelling, (and an additional complication late in the story felt out of place), but I thought the family complications were genuinely well done. I would recommend this book for someone who's looking for a romance with some heavier themes.
Thank you to NetGalley and Embla for providing an ARC. All opinions are my own.
I thought that All You Had To Do Was Stay did this quite well - neither of the two leads come off badly (occasional immature behaviour aside), and the dual narrative really helps to explain their choices and reactions. Additionally, as the story progresses I thought the reason for the initial break up did make sense, and importantly didn't prevent me from buying the reconciliation. That said, while I liked the main couple, I wasn't particularly caught up in their romance. They had a nice, easy chemistry and appreciated each other, but I was probably more interested in the relationship between their siblings.
Where I actually thought the book was at it's strongest was the non romantic relationships between the characters, and the exploration of the 'second coming of age' that happens in your twenties. Laura Starkey did a really great job of giving them all a common history, and it all feels very lived in and comfortable. She also did a great job of exploring sibling and family dynamics - this is particularly highlighted in the relationship between Jude and his brother, and their mother.
Overall, I wanted to like this more than I did - for me, the main romance was cute, but not really compelling, (and an additional complication late in the story felt out of place), but I thought the family complications were genuinely well done. I would recommend this book for someone who's looking for a romance with some heavier themes.
Thank you to NetGalley and Embla for providing an ARC. All opinions are my own.
July 14, 2026
It is always disappointing when a book by an author you genuinely love doesn’t quite work for you.
Laura Starkey has written several novels I’ve absolutely adored, so I went into All You Had to Do Was Stay with high expectations. Unfortunately, this one and I just never found our rhythm.
Hannah and Jude were childhood best friends whose friendship eventually became something more before falling apart years earlier. Now, Jude is a successful tech entrepreneur in Sydney, while Hannah has built her own event business back home. They’re both carrying the weight of unanswered questions. Hannah can’t understand why Jude disappeared from her life completely after their breakup, while Jude can’t reconcile why Hannah didn’t love him enough to stay.
I understood the emotional premise, and on paper it has so many elements I usually enjoy: childhood friends, second-chance romance, lingering feelings, and years of unresolved hurt. But I never became emotionally invested in Hannah and Jude as a couple. The connection between them remained just out of reach for me, and by the time I fully understood the circumstances surrounding their friendship and breakup, I was already around a quarter of the way through the novel. For me, that made it difficult to become fully immersed in the story.
That said, Laura Starkey’s writing remains warm, polished and thoughtful, and I can absolutely see this working for readers who enjoy a slower, more reflective exploration of a relationship. It simply wasn’t the right fit for me, but I’ll certainly be picking up her next book.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions in this review are my own.
Laura Starkey has written several novels I’ve absolutely adored, so I went into All You Had to Do Was Stay with high expectations. Unfortunately, this one and I just never found our rhythm.
Hannah and Jude were childhood best friends whose friendship eventually became something more before falling apart years earlier. Now, Jude is a successful tech entrepreneur in Sydney, while Hannah has built her own event business back home. They’re both carrying the weight of unanswered questions. Hannah can’t understand why Jude disappeared from her life completely after their breakup, while Jude can’t reconcile why Hannah didn’t love him enough to stay.
I understood the emotional premise, and on paper it has so many elements I usually enjoy: childhood friends, second-chance romance, lingering feelings, and years of unresolved hurt. But I never became emotionally invested in Hannah and Jude as a couple. The connection between them remained just out of reach for me, and by the time I fully understood the circumstances surrounding their friendship and breakup, I was already around a quarter of the way through the novel. For me, that made it difficult to become fully immersed in the story.
That said, Laura Starkey’s writing remains warm, polished and thoughtful, and I can absolutely see this working for readers who enjoy a slower, more reflective exploration of a relationship. It simply wasn’t the right fit for me, but I’ll certainly be picking up her next book.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions in this review are my own.
July 14, 2026
Thanks to Netgalley and Embla books for a review copy of this book. Though in some ways you might call this a delightful and easy read, and it is, the novel is also filled with richly drawn characters with believable issues set in a story rife with miscommunication tropes. Believable, poignant and at times sweetly endearing, the story carries you along with great sympathy for the characters and investment in them and the story. It’s what happens when fears and insecurities push you into extreme miscommunication and incorrect assumptions that derail an experience, a relationship and lives.
Hannah is a wedding planner, proud of her career that she’s built from scratch and one that has a strong and positive reputation that gives pause to any nay sayers who might have predicted mediocrity because she didn’t get a university degree. It’s a career that she threw herself into after her relationship with her best friend and boyfriend, Jude, imploded at an airport as they were about to go to Australia together. Four years later, Hannah has to confront what happened and why between them when her brother and Jude’s brother become engaged and she is roped into planning the wedding and Jude returns to his home, with his own fears and insecurities still firmly in place and finds that he’s drawn back once to one person he can’t forget and always yearned for.
A lovely read with likeable characters, with a few exceptions that give the story extra spice, it’s a novel that can easily be a one sitting read with a narrative that flows easily and a plot that holds your attention.
Hannah is a wedding planner, proud of her career that she’s built from scratch and one that has a strong and positive reputation that gives pause to any nay sayers who might have predicted mediocrity because she didn’t get a university degree. It’s a career that she threw herself into after her relationship with her best friend and boyfriend, Jude, imploded at an airport as they were about to go to Australia together. Four years later, Hannah has to confront what happened and why between them when her brother and Jude’s brother become engaged and she is roped into planning the wedding and Jude returns to his home, with his own fears and insecurities still firmly in place and finds that he’s drawn back once to one person he can’t forget and always yearned for.
A lovely read with likeable characters, with a few exceptions that give the story extra spice, it’s a novel that can easily be a one sitting read with a narrative that flows easily and a plot that holds your attention.
July 17, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and Embla Books for the ARC of All You Had to Do Was Stay.
This was a 3.5 star read for me. I enjoyed it overall and thought it was a sweet second chance romance. I'm always a sucker for characters finding their way back to each other, so that alone kept me invested.
For me, the story was a little slow at times. I also found myself getting a bit frustrated because they kept insisting they couldn't be together... and then continuing to get involved anyway. I understood why they struggled to stay away from each other because it was obvious they still loved one another, but I wished they had communicated sooner. They had several opportunities to have the conversations they needed to have, and it took until the very end for everything to finally come out.
The drama with Marc wasn't my favorite, but I did appreciate how the book explored the way social media can be manipulated to shape a narrative and influence how people perceive a situation.
I also liked seeing the characters work through their past trauma and grow because of it. I do wish Joe, who seemed to be pulling so many of the strings behind the scenes, had found a way to help them get there a little sooner, even if it would've blurred some ethical lines.
Overall, this was a sweet, enjoyable read. If you love second chance romance and watching two people work through their past to find each other again, I think you'll enjoy this one.
This was a 3.5 star read for me. I enjoyed it overall and thought it was a sweet second chance romance. I'm always a sucker for characters finding their way back to each other, so that alone kept me invested.
For me, the story was a little slow at times. I also found myself getting a bit frustrated because they kept insisting they couldn't be together... and then continuing to get involved anyway. I understood why they struggled to stay away from each other because it was obvious they still loved one another, but I wished they had communicated sooner. They had several opportunities to have the conversations they needed to have, and it took until the very end for everything to finally come out.
The drama with Marc wasn't my favorite, but I did appreciate how the book explored the way social media can be manipulated to shape a narrative and influence how people perceive a situation.
I also liked seeing the characters work through their past trauma and grow because of it. I do wish Joe, who seemed to be pulling so many of the strings behind the scenes, had found a way to help them get there a little sooner, even if it would've blurred some ethical lines.
Overall, this was a sweet, enjoyable read. If you love second chance romance and watching two people work through their past to find each other again, I think you'll enjoy this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
All You Had to Do Was Stay is a second-chance romance about two former friends who haven't seen each other in four years. When they're reunited for a wedding, they're forced into each other's orbit despite wanting nothing to do with one another. As the wedding festivities continue, so do the unexpected moments that push them back together.
I really liked the premise and was excited for the friends-to-lovers, second-chance dynamic. Unfortunately, this one just didn't work for me. The romance is a very slow burn, and while I usually enjoy that, this one felt a little too slow. I also struggled to connect with the main characters, and because I never became invested in either of them, it was hard to care about whether they found their way back to each other.
The writing was solid, and I can definitely see this working for readers who love an extra slow-burn romance with lots of tension. For me, though, the pacing and lack of connection to the characters made it difficult to stay engaged, and I found myself pushing through to the end rather than eagerly turning the pages.
Thank you Embla Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I really liked the premise and was excited for the friends-to-lovers, second-chance dynamic. Unfortunately, this one just didn't work for me. The romance is a very slow burn, and while I usually enjoy that, this one felt a little too slow. I also struggled to connect with the main characters, and because I never became invested in either of them, it was hard to care about whether they found their way back to each other.
The writing was solid, and I can definitely see this working for readers who love an extra slow-burn romance with lots of tension. For me, though, the pacing and lack of connection to the characters made it difficult to stay engaged, and I found myself pushing through to the end rather than eagerly turning the pages.
Thank you Embla Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
July 16, 2026
Thank you to Laura Starkey, NetGalley and Embla Books for an advanced review copy of "All You Had To Do Was Stay".
I enjoyed this story quite a lot. Hannah and Jude's - long time friends/ ex's/ present time slow burn romance was a nice story, though quite slow to start, even though as a reader you assume they will end up together - or at least I did. When it finally picked up I was glad, especially with all the other drama going on in the story at that time.
Joe and Ed were also really cute, and I was happy to see that in the end their love for each other trumped everything else.
Marc is a complete and utter snake of a character that I could have done without - but I suppose you are meant to hate him, and he certainly added drama - not the good kind.
Overall I very much enjoyed this story.
Thank you again for the opportunity to read this book.
I enjoyed this story quite a lot. Hannah and Jude's - long time friends/ ex's/ present time slow burn romance was a nice story, though quite slow to start, even though as a reader you assume they will end up together - or at least I did. When it finally picked up I was glad, especially with all the other drama going on in the story at that time.
Joe and Ed were also really cute, and I was happy to see that in the end their love for each other trumped everything else.
Marc is a complete and utter snake of a character that I could have done without - but I suppose you are meant to hate him, and he certainly added drama - not the good kind.
Overall I very much enjoyed this story.
Thank you again for the opportunity to read this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2026
The premise of this sounded right up my alley: former friends to lovers who are reunited years later after a terrible breakup with all the second chance romance pining and yearning.
Unfortunately, this one didn’t work for me. The romance was extremely slow burn and I found myself getting distracted and not really invested in the characters. Ultimately, I had to put this one down around 40%. I think this is really well written and has all the bones for a solid romance, but it was just too slow-burn for me at this time! I can see this appealing to readers who want all the tension! I may pick this one back up in the future if the mood strikes.
Thank you to Embla Books and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
Unfortunately, this one didn’t work for me. The romance was extremely slow burn and I found myself getting distracted and not really invested in the characters. Ultimately, I had to put this one down around 40%. I think this is really well written and has all the bones for a solid romance, but it was just too slow-burn for me at this time! I can see this appealing to readers who want all the tension! I may pick this one back up in the future if the mood strikes.
Thank you to Embla Books and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
July 18, 2026
Second chance, Friends to lovers.
If you are not looking for yearning, this is not for you! The yearning is from both FMC and the MMC. And we get lots of it!
Both main characters grow so much in the book, that is is very enjoyable to read and navigate with them through it out.
They become friends when they are 13. After years as friends, they get together only to breakup as He leaves to Australia with an open ticket.
When he is back in town after 4 years away, for a short trip, He needs to change his plan and stay longer when his brother announces that he is marrying hers brothers.
Thank you Embla Books, the author and NetGalley for the advance copy.
If you are not looking for yearning, this is not for you! The yearning is from both FMC and the MMC. And we get lots of it!
Both main characters grow so much in the book, that is is very enjoyable to read and navigate with them through it out.
They become friends when they are 13. After years as friends, they get together only to breakup as He leaves to Australia with an open ticket.
When he is back in town after 4 years away, for a short trip, He needs to change his plan and stay longer when his brother announces that he is marrying hers brothers.
Thank you Embla Books, the author and NetGalley for the advance copy.
August 5, 2026
So I listened to the audiobook. I always listen while I work. I am able to multitask. All that to say, I can’t tell you what this book was really about. It did not hit for me at all. I totally zoned out 😣.
August 11, 2026
solid book, no third act breakup, the gays got married, good character development and communication, just a few icks with some modern references, but not bad for a genre i dont really read
read for HRCYED
read for HRCYED
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