I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

WOW! This is most definitely a book meant to be shared. As Lynsey James shares Claire, Evan and Violet with us, we are reminded that life after death does indeed mean life should continue.
When this young man is left with a very young daughter to raise, he's hard pressed to remember that his life must set a path for hers too. His wife tried to prepare him, she left a "handbook" full of her thoughts and guidance for him to lean on......cue the tears and regrets.....and made clear her wish for them to be happy. As Evan struggles with this, young Violet will give him strength and keep him looking forward.
I just need to say WOW again. A beautifully written story.

Tried reading this one and it just was not for me. This does not mean that it is not a good book, I was not in the right place to be reading it.

This book is sad but also uplifting too. There is also humour even when you dont think there would be in the dark moments. This is my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it. She has a lovely writing style.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Found this one a bit dragging... Evan was an abject arse right from the start, which made it feel like he'd been widowed and left as a single father 2 weeks before the first day of school for his daughter, not two whole years. I'm also a bit iffy about books where parents, be they single or not, end up having absolute tips instead of houses (but this is a peeve of mine).
The romance with Hannah also didn't gel. The whole animosity between them from the get-go of the story just didn't feel conducive to morphing into love and a romance, so this felt far-fetched and pulled by the strings,
Overall, this had a lot of potential, but veering too much on character extremes pulled it too taut and this killed the enjoyment for me

A real tear-jerker. This is one of those stories that somehow makes you devastated and feel good all at once. It has a PS I Love You vibe. This book manages to tell the story of grief, loss, and finding happiness through it all very well.

Thank you for my eARC of this book!
This has been on my shelf for a while and although I was excited to read it I know it would hit me in the feels so I had to prepare myself!
This is sweet, fun, heartbreaking all at the same time.

When Evan loses his wife to cancer, he is absolutely devastated as anyone would be. He now has to raise his little girl by himself. This was wonderfully written about love, loss and second chances.

Tried reading this one and it just was not meant for me. This does not mean that it is not a good book, I just was not in the right place to be reading it and have decided to not try picking it up anytime in the near future.

A heartwarming tale about love and friendship and second chances, Love Always is a good one-time read. You may or may not agree with the actions and motivations of the characters, but it's a great book to get lost in.

I am a daddy’s girl. I was raised by my dad growing up, so this book struck a chord with me from the beginning. Two years after the death of his wife, Evan begins to tackle his grief for the sake of his five-year-old daughter. What I thought would be a light rom-com with internet dates gone wrong and parenting mishaps was actually a very touching book about how to move on after such a loss. I enjoyed the setting and its attractions, the characters were well developed and the letters from Claire were spot on. You’ll go from laugh-out-loud one minute to sobbing the next, but well worth the time.

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins UK and Lynsey James for an advance copy of this book.

This book has a very realistic portrait and an important representation of grief. It is not a fast turner but a slow-moving story and a bit predictable sometimes but nothing that is bad. I was refreshing to see an MC male talking about grief and being a single parent. The dating parts were fun to see. I strongly recommend this book with some nice tea and then some tissues

Sadly I felt that I could not really get into this book. I tried multiple times and in the end did not finish it.

Evan loses his wife to cancer and is tragically trying to raise his little girl and grieve at the same time. His best friend Hannah has returned after time away. He has missed her, or is it really something more? Grief, love, friendship and ghost tours, it's a lovely heartfelt read

I loved this story. I found the way grief was portrayed to be extremely realistic. It hit some sore spots and soothed them all at once. I found the characters likeable and humorous, there were some genuine laugh-out-loud moments! Claire's letters shook my emotions more and more as the story played out, and I ended up in a puddle of tears by the end. I would definitely recommend this novel.

I struggled to finish this book, I’m not sure why but it didn’t fully grip me. I’ve given it a 3 as it wasn’t dreadful it wasn’t painful it just was a bit of a slow mover for me. Great concept and I hope to try reread it this year and hopefully enjoy it more.

Two years since his wife passed away, Evan is struggling to adapt to being a happy single Dad of their daughter, Violet. With friends pressuring him to “move on”, he begrudgingly takes the first steps via Tinder.
I loved the premise of this book, but unfortunately, it really didn’t work for me. I expected it to be quite an emotional/RomCom esque read; however, it felt really flat.

I found it was more tell rather than show, and at no point did I feel anything for any of the characters. Evan losing his wife should have been really emotionally gripping, but it almost seemed as though the author was holding back. Even the letters from Claire didn’t feel authentic – she could have been leaving a note for the milkman, which was really disappointing. I would have preferred her to dive in and embrace the real devastation this would have caused, rather than skirting around the edges.

Whilst there are moments of humour, it felt quite staged rather than genuinely amusing. I rolled my eyes more than I laughed, or even vaguely chuckled. Though, to be fair, it hit the whole cliched Dad-jokes nail on the head, so on some levels, did actually work.

I don’t mean to be so down on the book (it was an OK read), but as I was expecting more, and this didn’t deliver on either level for me, I’m just left feeling disappointed.

Sadly, a forgettable read for me but, if you want something that’s light and easy, with a bit of feel-good factor about it, then this might well be for you. However, if you’re looking for something with a bit of grit and depth, then I think you’ll be disappointed.

Cute story. It was definitely predictable but i still enjoyed reading it. Most books like this are from the female perspective so it was nice to read one where the main character is male

This is a super fun read. I really enjoyed this one!

Many thanks to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for my ARC. All opinions are my own.