Our Stop is the perfect rom-com about Nadia and Daniel. Daniel has seen Nadia on the 7.30am from Angel and had a huge crush! Instead of approaching her, he writes a post on Missed Connections. Nadia's friends convince her the post is about her and sends a response...

I read Our Stop in one sitting. I couldn't put it down as I had to find out what happened to Nadia and Daniel. After so many closes misses, will they ever find each other?

“Staying hopeful in romance…even with a dented heart.”

Nadia gets the 7.30 train every morning without fail. Well, except if she oversleeps or wakes up at her friend Emma’s after too much wine.

Daniel really does get the 7.30 train every morning, which is easy because he hasn’t been able to sleep properly since his dad died.

One morning, Nadia’s eye catches sight of a post in the daily paper:

To the cute girl with the coffee stains on her dress. I’m the guy who’s always standing near the doors… Drink sometime?

So begins a not-quite-romance of near-misses, true love, and the power of the written word.

This is the feel-good romance of 2019. It honestly is. It has just the right amounts of humour mixed with love mixed with real life drama and completely believable situations.

It reminded me of ‘One day in December’ and also ‘The Day we Meet Again’ and I usually hate it when people compare authors to others and say…’oh it’s the new..so and so…’ But in this case this book is its own and the author is individual and you’ll just love this if you liked those other books for the simple reason that it exists on hope. It also paints the beauty of London throughout – the magic and possibilities of a big city.

This book is Serendipity reborn.

This story was very uplifting and gives hope of finding that right person in the most bizarre circumstances. This is a definite summer must-read. You wont be able to put it down.

Absolutely loved this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. Would put this book in the same league as The Flatshare which was one of my top rated reads so far this year. Very funny and relatable and love Williams writing style.

Our Stop was a fun twist on a rom-com, based on a London Underground sighting followed by a series of Missed Connections newspaper postings. The writing is smart, witty and finally (!!!) a romance where the adults act like adults and actually communicate. A breath of fresh air. I truly enjoyed how this story played out, all of the ways that Nadia and Daniel almost met, and how those experiences shaped their story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books for the free advance e-galley. All opinions are my own.

Cute rom-com. Well written story with great characters. Feel good story with a happy ending. Quick read.
Thanks Avon Books UK and NetGalley for the ARC of this great book.

Thanks to HarperCollins for sending me a proof copy in exchange for an honest review.
So I am being generous in giving Our Stop three stars and while there were some parts that I did really like, reading this book was such a frustrating experience. But I will start with what I liked first.

Daniel - I really liked Daniel most of the time, he was probably my favourite character and if anything maybe a little too perfect? He is clearly Williams' idea of a perfect feminist man, in touch with his emotions, incredibly kind, thinks that Love Island (oh wait no Lust Villar) is a feminist masterpiece and has a great relationship with his mum. Most of the subplots around Daniel were the best parts of the book, his grief over the death of his dad and how he coped with it was really touching. His comments on class had me slapping my knee in agreement, "But anyone who comes from very little knows never to trust a bloke who said money doesn't by happiness. Money buys food electricity and pays for a school jumper without holes in it do you don't get picked on, you can't be happy without that." He's just a really nice guy and quite frankly too good for Nadia.

The humour, sometimes - Honestly, I'm adding this section purely for this line: "Jared genuinely had tickets to Fyre Festival." I, um think that's all I can think of for what I liked, so onto what made me want to throw this book across the room.

The bad parts:

Nadia and romance - This is mostly just a personal issue I had with it but the book is sickeningly romantic. Meg Ryan romantic. Hell, this book is just a modern You've Got Mail (which they watch in the book and Nadia is even compared to Meg) and I cannot stand Meg Ryan films. I just couldn't warm up to Nadia and by the end, I found her insufferable. She is the type of overly romantic person who grates on me and I had very little patience for her. So, if you like Meg Rayn films then you will probably like One Stop but it was too much more me.

Almost meeting - This was one of the most annoying aspects of the book. The number of times that they almost met each other boarded on ridiculous and frustrating by the end of the book. Yeah, it was cute the first few times but it was about halfway through the book that I got worried. They still hadn't met, only had a bunch of just missed each other situations. I worried over how much time they were gonna have for the actual romance and not just the meet-cute. But lo and behold it's not till the very end that they meet and then all the time is spent on the build-up for their first date which was horribly cringy and boring. This is the main problem with the book, the central romance is given no time to grow or develop. Instead, it's entirely founded on a few back and forths in missed connections and the fated 'almost meet-ups'. At least in You've Got Mail Meg and Hank have been talking to each other for ages over email and a romantic relationship has developed from that. It's made worse by the hamfisted oh they are 'The One', this is my last first date, my last first kiss. Like, really??? What is this 'bone deep connection' built on? The only time we see them together is on the first date which fades to black in what feels like five minutes into the date and a cringy news article that just tells us everything we already knew from the book and very little about their relationship. Relationships with other characters are given more time then the central one which is such a misstep! But if they had met earlier then half the book would be gone. Really what this book needed was a massive editing overhaul where the last half of the book should have been spent on developing the relationship! You can't spend 300 pages on a meet cute.

Overall there were some funny parts and it is a cute concept are first but more attention was needed on the actual romance for me to believe they were oh so deeply in love. If you like really romantic books with a touch of insta love then this is a fun read.

For the most part this was a cute little RomCom. I loved the communication element between Nadia and Daniel. Their flirty banter had me grinning and desperate for them to meet.
And then there's a twist and the book heads on a completely random tangent that I thought was unnecessary and boring and I skimmed it to be honest.
I enjoyed the writing style and would definitely read more from Laura Jane Williams in future.

3/5 Stars

I loved the catchline of this book with the ad in the local paper “to the cute girl with the coffee stains on address…… And “so man meets girl. Or does he? So many times the starcrossed lovers miss the opportunity to meet, that I found myself literally holding my breath and willing them on!
Such a fun and enjoyable read! It left me with a smile on my lips!

A light hearted book rom com style, about two people who want to meet but destiny steps in the way.
Very modern up to date romance. Really enjoyed.

This was such a romantic book and I was hooked. I was so willing them to meet and get together and tried to read as much as I could while commuting. The book was so funny and relatable. I will definitely be looking out for our books by Laura Jane Williams.

Our Stop was a cute read about coincidences, friendship, and love. The amount of missed love opportunities between Daniel and Nadia became almost trying at one point. I just wanted the stars to align, and I wanted them to meet. As life lead the way throughout the book and they missed meeting each other time and again, I patiently waited for the time they would finally realize they had found the one they were looking for. An enjoyable and cute read worth picking up, especially for those who still believe in finding their soulmate.

A fluffy, easy read, chick lit romance. Sadly not really my cup of tea but it’s well written with some funny one-liners. I couldn’t feel emotionally involved with the main characters and knew from the start that the outcome was inevitable but not really believable.

If there is one book you need to read this summer (or upcoming summer in the Southern Hemisphere here) it’s Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams.

What makes this book so brilliant? No stop-gap Romance characters here - each character is individual, fun and totally relatable. The writing itself is witty and entertaining. And the story, much like the Londoners in the novel, our was gripped by the #OurStop Missed Connections story and was so happily cheering them from the sidelines! Plus, what made this book extra special to me was how vividly Williams evokes the London setting. I was transported back to the big smoke and it makes me realise how much I miss home! I was on an emotional rollercoaster and I enjoyed every second of it!!!

Congratulations to Laura Jane Williams and the whole team at Avon Books. A storming debut!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this book and I found it funny and uplifting. Daniel and Nadia are meant to be with each other and it was fantastic how the author found ways to bring them close just to bring them apart again - I found myself despairing at some times as I wanted for them to meet!

It was a lovely story, full of interesting themes and beautiful romance.
Definitely a must read if you travel on the tube often!

A nice story about a guy who sees the love of his life on a train and resorts to running an advert to try and meet her. Along the way we have every obstacle placed in the way of them actually meeting. So the story really is about them and their other relationships, as this one is pretty much guaranteed, if only they could speak to each other.

“She still half-heartedly thought there was something staggeringly romantic about meeting somebody on the underground: two people coming from different places, going to different places, chance putting them in the same place at the same time for mere minutes.”

Nadia gets the same Underground train to work every morning - if she’s on time. So does Daniel, and he’s been trying to pluck up the courage to speak to Nadia for weeks. Instead, he gets her attention in a different way: through the Missed Connections column in the daily commuter paper.

What follows is a will they-won’t they hopeful story of romance, friendship, and a lot of near-misses as Daniel and Nadia try to work out what they want from life and love, whether it’s with each other or not.

I love romantic comedies, and I love Laura Jane Williams' writing (I’ve been reading her work since she self-published The Book of Brave back in the day, and have read both her non-fiction books) so I knew I’d love Our Stop, too. It’s a rom-com with a few twists, and it’s refreshingly modern, so even if you think you don’t like “romance” or “chick lit” or whatever you want to call it, give Our Stop a try. It might just change your mind...

There has been so much hype about this book but it just fell flat for me. Oh man did it drag. I know the whole premise of the book is missed connections but after the second one, they got a bit unrealistic and boring. It doesn’t help that everything is over-described and explained. I also found topics like gay relationships, consent and women in STEM was shoved in to get brownie points but they weren’t fleshed out. Like, Nadia works in A.I but we never see her actually doing work or learn anything about it.

I also found it a tad creepy that Daniel felt like he had fallen in love with Nadia after overhearing one conversation and then kind of obsesses over her. The missed connections are dragged out and then it’s all over in an extremely cheesy flash. It just didn’t do it for me. I struggled to finish it and ended up skim reading some parts because it just didn’t hold my attention. It was a cute idea but it just didn’t come together well.

I received a copy of the ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I mostly read thrillers or literary fiction but my heart will always belong to the crappily named "chick-lit" genre - I spent my teens devouring bonkbusters by Jackie Collins and Jilly Cooper and then graduated to Marian Keyes, Adele Parks, Jane Green and of course, Bridget Jones.

Being in my late 30s and married with kids, I read a lot less in this genre because I can't really relate to the modern dating world as I've been with my husband for so long - but the premise of this novel intrigued me and I wasn't disappointed! I absolutely loved this gem of a novel - a perfect treat for a holiday, weekend or comfort read, you'll come away from this book with a big smile on your face just like the Meg Ryan movies they talk about in the book. I was totally involved in #ourstop and it was relatable and believable!

A cute, modern romance that gave me giddy feels and felt familiar yet fresh all at once. This was a feel good storyline with witty dialogue and I enjoyed it.