Have you ever felt a magnetic pull toward someone? Felt tethered together? More than just the right place, right time, but a feeling of your lives being pulled together.

In Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis, Sam and Noelle, meet by happenstance on a freeway during a blizzard. But they quickly feel drawn to each other and at ease in the others presence. Their lives seem to run parallel, as they continue to run into each other. But it seems it may be more than just a coincidence, it seems to be as fate.

This book was like a warm winter hug. The perfect read as you cozy up under a blanket. Thank you to Atria and Netgalley for a copy to read and review.

It was great to fun to see how Noelle and Sam kept running into each other and how little things that happened over 18 years meant that they were supposed to find each other. Loved all the characters. Looking forward to more from this author.

First of all, I keep seeings this as a Christmas book. It is NOT a Christmas book even though the cover is a winter wonderland, and the main character is named Noelle.

The premise of the story is that Noelle and Sam are strangers who meet during a snowstorm and spend eight (perfect) hours keeping each other company during the storm. While they shouldn’t cross paths again, they keep running into each other in random places and at random times. I loved the book, but it’s not a traditional romance. Noelle has a lot going on in her personal life (the death of a friend, an unfinished relationship, a mother struggling with anxiety, a friend dealing with postpartum depression, a career going nowhere), and I feel like Noelle’s journey to “find herself” was stronger than the (slow burn) romance between her and Sam. It was a quick listen!

Thanks to @NetGalley and Atria Books for my ARC!

Lia Louis' book Dear Emmie Blue was the first book I was able to read during the beginning stages of the pandemic, so when I heard about her new one I was especially eager to read it. And it did not disappoint, in fact I might have liked it even MORE. When Noelle gets stuck on the highway during a freak snow storm with a dead cell phone battery, Sam comes to the rescue. They spend eight hours chatting while waiting for the road to clear, thinking they'll never see each other again. But when the keep running into each other, they start to wonder what's a coincidence and what might be meant to be. Full of heartwarming moments, well developed characters, and plenty of happy endings, this one was exactly what I needed to read at this very moment.

Oh my gosh I loooooved this story so much! I couldn’t put it down and loved every second. The characters were fantastic and the setting was perfect. I can’t wait for more from Lia Louis. She is definitely becoming an auto buy author for me! Thank you netgalley and atria for my copy.

sweet, heartwarming read. I liked the setup of this book, especially their first meet in the snowstorm. A couple coincidences of running into each other after that was fine. But, it got to the point that there were so many coincidences that it was completely overdone. I wish we would have seen them more together as a couple. His POV would have been great too. It's a solid 3 star for me.

Eight Perfect Hours is a perfect-ly enjoyable rom com. It isn't saccharine sweet and touches on a lot of issues, death of a friend, an ending relationship, anxiety, and post-partum depression. I love the fated lovers trope and although it at times seemed overly coincidental, it pulled together at the end in a really satisfying way. I was rooting for Noelle and Sam from the first encounter!

The premise sounded wonderful and it was a bit slow to start, but the ending was worth it. I love the idea of fate and soulmates being connected by an invisible red thread. Sam and Noelle's story was long and arduous at times (and I HATED Ed) but I had happy tears by the end.

I also loved the cover, but it made me think it would be a holiday book but it wasn't!

I’m so bummed this was archived before I got it downloaded, it looks fantastic, and I hope I can still get my hands on it!

Endearing holiday read. From the interesting premise, I was hooked on this book and was able to read it quickly, which is a rarity for me these days. I found it to be heartwarming and moving, which is exactly what I want in a holiday book!

This is a sugary sweet story of a girl down on her luck, struggling to find her place in the world, and the serendipitous way she finds her man.

Noelle and Sam spend 8 hours stuck in a snow storm, and I'll be honest, I thought this would be the entire book. I was very surprised when it ended rather quickly and we're swept up into Noelle's life. A life where she's struggling but she continues to run into Sam (an American) an awful lot for someone who supposedly lives on another continent. He's like the wise "godmother" who is always stepping in at just the right moment to help her.

Overall it was a sweet story about finding yourself, and standing up for yourself. I enjoyed seeing Noelle grow and develop...though I was very frustrated how the amount of times she let others walk over her. There was also a big cast of secondary characters, but we really didn't get to know them well enough. I wish we had seen more of Charlie and Theo, Dilly and Ian.

Fans of Lia Louis will not be disappointed!

What an absolutely adorable book! I loved the characters and couldn't stop reading. I love that these two were fated...for years! Fantastic book!

BOOK REVIEW- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

My Thoughts: Thank you to @lialouisauthor , @netgalley, and @atriabooks for an E-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was such a heartwarming story and I loved almost every page of it! I love the idea of fate and second chances so this book was right up my alley. Although there wasn't an overall holiday theme, this would still be a perfect rom com for the winter months as the beginning our characters find themselves in a snow storm. I loved seeing our main character grow throughout the story while cheering her on as she attempts to find the right kind of love that she deserves. Add this one to your collection now! 🌺

I loved this book! I flew through it and I was very anxious to see how it would all wrap up. It reminded me very much of that movie "Serendipity" and that is totally my type of genre! Coming out at Christmas time, it's not totally a Christmas book but it has that feel-goodness to it. There are some serious issues as well such as loss of a loved one/friend but overall so enjoyable.
The characters of Noelle and Sam were so perfectly developed, I could "see them" in my mind as I read. This would be a really cute Lifetime movie!!
Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Title: Eight Perfect Hours
Author: Lia Louis
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.5

On a snowy evening in March, 30-something Noelle Butterby is on her way back from an event at her old college when disaster strikes. With a blizzard closing off roads, she finds herself stranded, alone in her car, without food, drink, or a working charger for her phone. All seems lost until Sam Attwood, a handsome American stranger also trapped in a nearby car, knocks on her window and offers assistance. What follows is eight perfect hours together, until morning arrives and the roads finally clear.

The two strangers part, positive they’ll never see each other again, but fate, it seems, has a different plan. As the two keep serendipitously bumping into one another, they begin to realize that perhaps there truly is no such thing as coincidence.

This was such an enjoyable read! From when Sam and Noelle met in the snow on the highway to all of their heartwarming “coincidental” run-ins, this made me laugh, smile, and just sigh sometimes with the perfection of it. I loved how all of the things from their pasts melded together and lit up their present. This is perfect for a binge-read.

Lia Louis lives in the UK. Eight Perfect Hours is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.)

I was so excited to pick this book up, as Dear Emmie Blue was one of my favorite reads of 2019. I loved the premise of Eight Perfect Hours. The relationship between Noelle and Sam felt very serendipitous, and it was wonderful to see how their stories aligned together in the end. This being said, I felt no real attachment to the characters. It felt very surface-level and predictable, thus leaving me feeling a bit underwhelmed in the end once I finished the story.

A sticky sweet story that feels reminiscent of the movie Serendipity, this is a quick read that does offer some more somber tones. There’s an undercurrent of tough family dynamics, often unhealthy, mental health including panic disorder/attacks, anxiety, and depression, along with grief over the loss of loved ones. It’s important to know off the bat that there is a suicide mentioned throughout the book that greatly impacts the characters, though the event itself is not shown on the pages.

I appreciated the way Noelle and Sam’s ‘threads of fate’ as it were kept coming up through chance meetings, and ultimately how their paths intersect and connect in ways they never expected, however I think in trying to give them so many overlapping moments, each moment ceased to feel special or impactful. Some of the bigger reveals later on (key chain, camera, Daisy) didn’t quite leave the impression I wanted because it felt like seemingly EVERYTHING overlapped for these two. I also thought the initial ‘8 perfect hours’ that Sam and Noelle spend together in the blizzard happened way too fast in the book. By 20% in, that moment has come and gone and without too much insight into the flirty and warm banter that I think would have really sold the romance for me. It would have been nice to intersperse flashbacks of those memorable 8 hours throughout the book to draw it out, or add a lot more dialogue and bonding to them.

The lack of that dialogue and development early on made Sam feel more like an afterthought with not much depth, while we spend so much time with Noelle that this felt more like women’s fiction than contemporary romance. Noelle herself is an interesting character with some elements and layers that I thought were interesting, but not really explored. For example, her panic attacks are mentioned a few times but we don’t really get much more than mentions. We see how Ed feels about Noelle’s caretaker role with her mother, but not really how Noelle sees it herself. In the end, her mother comes around but even that didn’t feel believable and there’s never a family sit down moment where they realize the toll and burden they’ve put on Noelle’s shoulders. There’s definitely promise with Noelle, it just doesn’t get executed well.

Overall, I read this in under 4 hours, it was a nice palate cleanser, but lacked proper execution and a strong romance.

I've been looking forward to reading more from Louis since finishing her US debut novel, DEAR EMMIE BLUE, last year. I gave that book as a gift to multiple people last year and I simply adored it! So though my hopes were high going in, I wasn't in the least bit disappointed. I loved this one completely, too!

Thirty-two year old Noelle lives at home and is the main caretaker for her mother in the wake of a stroke. A freak snowstorm on her way back from a disastrous class reunion strands Noelle on the highway - but also gives her those titular perfect eight hours with Sam. Their chance encounter leads to life changes for both of them. The characters here both major and minor come completely to life. I felt a real connection to Noelle in particular - she is a definite people-pleaser but all of the characters are easy to connect with because they are so well-created. Louis is a fantastically talented author!

The romantic concept of the red thread works so beautifully here - I laughed, I cried - it's a romantic and at times heart-breaking novel that I completely adored. I couldn't put it down! Louis is definitely one of my very favorite authors- and this is one of my very favorite reads of 2021! I am looking forward to reading any and everything that she writes in the future! I really enjoyed this and found it to be the perfect escape!

This was such a feel good book. I am a firm believer in fate, and what’s meant to be, will be. I loved how this book was based around that.

I loved the romance between Noelle and Sam. I felt like their romance happened so naturally, and was so believable. It was the perfect slow burn romance. Both characters had real quirks and flaws, and it made them so much more relatable. This book is emotional, heartwarming, and would be the perfect book to read this winter. I highly recommend checking it out!

I loved this romantic comedy story which took place in the winter and would make a fabulous winter read for any romance fans. It takes place in the UK so it has all the charm of a British setting. Two strangers meet on a cold, snowy night when the road they are both traveling is shut down for 8 hours due to the snowstorm. Noelle is on her way back home to take care of her mother, who is not able to take care of herself, and her nimwit younger brother who only thinks about himself and his band. Sam is on his way to the airport, as he does not live in the UK, but in America. The two spend eight perfect hours together, talking and getting to know one another, as if they had always been friends. But when the road opens back up, Sam must get to the airport and Noelle must get back to her mother. Neither dream of ever seeing the other again, but what happens will delight readers to the core. Loved this romantic, well-written story of love, family, and second chances.