Noelle meets Sam when they are both stuck on the motorway during a snow storm and they hit it off right away. Eight perfect hours - at least in Noelle's opinion who cannot stop thinking about Sam and the fact that she will never see him again because she didn't ask for his phone number/e-mail or Instagram handle. However, their lives become entangled in more ways than either thought.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

To be honest: I thought it would be a fast-paced, typical chick lit/contemporary romance with a meet cute and then constant re-meetings until both admit how they feel for each other. Simply the typical outline for most contemporary romances.

However, the book isn't just a contemporary romance. It is also about grief, mental health and the complicated relationships children have with their parents. Noelle is the unofficial caretaker of her mother - who had a stroke a couple of years ago and doesn't dare to do anything outside of the flat anymore - because 'she is the responsible one, she will take care about everything' since her younger brother is the golden child who could never do wrong (even if he is the most annoying man child ever). So Noelle puts her entire life on the back burner. Splits up with her long-term boyfriend instead of going with him to Oregon. Works as a cleaner to earn money, so they could pay bills, instead of purchasing her dream of having a flower shop and doing bouquets for everyday but also special events (weddings, ...). And she utterly suffers from it. As the story unravels, the reader learns that Noelle lost her childhood best friend, that she suffers from anxiety, panic attacks and depression, that she suffers from 'fading into the background' because she does everything for her mother but never for herself. And while Sam doesn't struggle openly with mental health, he admits to his own issues in later chapters, in how the loss of his cousin/best friend messed with his mind, about his relationship with his father, about how he always runs away from relationships, etc. Tbh: both should just go to therapy.

Unfortunately the book is just a 2 star read for me because I don't think Noelle and Sam have any chemistry and the banter is lukewarm. It doesn't help that the majority of their romance happens while they aren't together in a chapter. The constant meet ups happen in later chapters, so the first half of the book drags on, and the reader is constantly in Noelle's mind. After the third repetition, it got exhausting to listen to Noelle's constant worries. Yes, I know that it's her internal battle with her own mental health or dealing with everyone's shit instead of her own (including her other best friend's post-partum depression) but it isn't fun to read about it all the time in a chick lit. I wanted more chapters where Noelle and Sam spend time together. Instead, we get a book where the "perfect eight hours" are compressed into 2 chapters and the rest is just ... exhausting. 

Also, I got really sick of the "he is so tall" and Sam being called Captain America because he's tall (he's supposed to be ~6'4'', so ~1.93m), muscular etc. Noelle herself is supposed to be quite tall, so the constant yapping about his height annoyed me. (And the stupid obsession with dark-haired love interests who are over 6'/1.80m.)

Additional note: the author is supposed to be British/to live in Britain. Unfortunately, at times it felt like the book was written by an US-American. For example, the story is set in Bath/by Bath and Sam works near Mount Snowdon. That's a four hour drive if the motorway is free. That's not "a quick tour" for Europeans. 

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

TWs & CWs: grief, panic attacks, mentions of anxiety and depression, post-partum depression, loss of best friend (in the past), mentions of cheating, mentions of suicide, stroke, death of a family member

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Heat/Spice: 0 🌶️