Ultimately, this book was not for me. I didn't connect with the narrator's voice and the premise of a love story with your dead best friend's boyfriend was a little off putting to me.

This was my first from this author and I really enjoyed the journey. I loved the constant push and pull between Becca and Charlie. These two truly have a love/hate relationship but for the love of Ally, they try to put their feelings aside each year in order to do right by the one person they both loved and lost. I always enjoy a good story set in the UK and have added a thing or two to my bucket list. At first I thought it would be long and drawn out...10 years seems like a long time but once I was done, I found the story flowed nicely and that perhaps it would have taken them that long to get their acts together.

I could not get passed the first chapter. It felt icky and in poor taste, in a way which I could see what it was trying to do but it was just such a terrible execution that it made a bonding cathartic scene into a display of two narcissistic people being narcissists.

This was marketed to me as similar to sally rooney and I think this does this book also a great disservice, I was not the reader for this and ultimately cannot give a hood evaluation of it.

This book started very sad. I didn't like Becca and Charlie. Their behavior to each other is very annoying and tiring, especially at first. This made it a struggle to read. Later on it does get better. I like the premise, but it fell flat. The romance felt lacking. I like how you see Becca and Charlie both struggle with their grief and how both handle it in a different way.

This book runs you through every emotion. I cried, was sad, and laughed out loud. Charlie's fiance and Becca's best friend Ally passes away. Becca and Charlie hate each other. Before Ally died she made a plan to have them place some of her ashes at different places. They decide to do one a year. It takes them 10 years to complete. How will they survive each other. Lovely book.

<i>Thank you Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This book follows the story of Becca and Charlie, enemies since college, struggling to move forward after their best friend and fiancé death.
Despite being sold as a romance, I’ve find this book to be mostly about grief and how different people deal with loss.

What I liked about the book:
- The way the book portrayed life after the loss of someone important and how grieving processes differ between persons.
- The character’s growth was written in a way that was believable and I was invested in their emotional well-being.
- The ending was satisfying

What I think it could have been done better:
- I’ve felt both characters were childish. This is something I hate and that, unfortunately, I find very common in contemporary romances. I always wonder if these type of behaviors and conversations are common and I’m an alien who never experienced anything similar.
- Despite all the relationship buildup, the romance felt very sudden as the book was focused on how both characters dealt with their loss. I think the author failed at showing a true connection between Charlie and Becca. It could have worked better if the attraction started a bit sooner.
- I disliked Charlie’s need to be with a woman to feel he was moving forward. I understood this behavior in the beginning when we was struggling with grief. However, in the end I was expecting him to acknowledge Becca’s critiques and do some personal growth independently. I was disappointed that he reverted to his typical behavior.

Overall it was an easy and entertaining summer read.

TW: Death of a closed one, cancer

@currentlyreading__
Book 58 of 2022

Thank you to @netgalley, @harpercollinsuk and the author @pernillehughes for the e-ARC ahead of publication on 31st August. 'Ten Years' is a contemporary romance with a difference obviously spanning a decade in the life of protagonists Becca and Charlie. They hate each other and as their only tie was Becca's best friend and Charlie's girlfriend, Ally, then after her untimely death, they should theoretically go their separate ways and never meet again. That's until they both receive a scheduled email from Ally in which she details how they need to honour her life by completing some experiences annually from her bucket-list, from climbing Snowdon, going on a gin bus tour to a get-down-to-nature-in-the-mud festival. From their scheduled first event, their hostility towards each other is evident; Becca is surly, Charlie is moody but in the "spirit of things", they must partake in the activities for Ally.

As years pass, the hostility thaws and subsequently more walls are placed around the couple as they navigate life without Ally. New relationships, marriage, career switches, successes and failures happen, but these yearly pilgrimages find the couple trying to keep the memory of Ally alive whilst battling with their growing closeness.

This book was beautiful - it was sad, funny, heartwarming and somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster. Comparisons have been made between 'Ten Years' and 'One Day' and, although 'One Day' is my favourite book of all time, I felt the emotional pull towards Becca and Charlie just as I did for Emma and Dexter back in 2009.

This book will be a great success I am sure and one I whole-heartedly recommend if you want that emotional tour-de-force and characters you are totally invested in. Thank you @pernillehughes.

#bookstagram #bibliophile #bookworm #book #booknerd #bookstagrammer #kindle #instabook #reader #bookobsessed #instareads #currentlyreading #bookchat #bookish #tenyears #pernillehughes

I loved this so much. Ten years will have you rushing through chapters to find out what happens next. The will they won’t they, the obstacles they face and how they dealt with a death of a friend/partner. Recommend to everyone I know.

An unusual enemies to lovers romance in that it plays out over 10 (!) years, Charlie and Becca really don't like each other but they both loved Ally, who died while engaged to Charlie. She left them a bucket list of things they're meant to do one at a time over 10 years while scattering her ashes. This doesn't start well for them but slowly. slowly their respective walls come down. This is, in fact. a bit slow in the middle but it's still a story where you will root for the players. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

If enemies to lovers story is what you like, you will love Ten Years. I was engrossed in Becca and Charlie's story. It starts off so heartbreakingly sad but ends up being so so wonderfully beautiful and romantic. Their constant bickering during the first half of the book made it all the sweeter. I did however feel that Becca was a bit harsh on Charlie at times, the incident after Ally's funeral being the main issue with me, but I really did enjoy this book. It really would make a lovely movie.

Ten Years by Pernille Hughes is an absolutely wonderful contemporary romance.

This story has three main protagonists. All three from the same University in London. Their lives cross throughout the years. They are connected. They try to ignore their connection. However fate can’t ignore their connection.

The reader gets to witness how people are connected even if they are unaware. There is sadness, frustration, hate, resignation, karma, kindness and many more emotions. Pernille Hughes does a good job in taking the reader along on a decade long period of these University students lives. The characters are deep and raw.

I read this book in one sitting. The story was well-written. It was a story that will tug at your heart. It will make you laugh and cry. If you were a fan of ‘Me Before You’, you will appreciate the friendship, the revelations and the bumpy road to the conclusion. It is about the fact that it is never too late to start again.

Thank you to Pernille Hughes, Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I just could not get into this story. It was boring and rambled on until I had to put it down. I had good intentions but just could not finish this book.

I really enjoyed this book. It has all the feels, and my favorite enemies to friends to lovers trope. Becca and Charlie's dialogue is great and I found myself turning pages looking for more of their interactions. A good read.

Thank you HarperCollins One more Chapter for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed reading this book. I think the concept is very original and important. It shows grief in different phases and with different persons. At the beginning I found it very enjoyable.

When I got further in the book, I found the story quite slow. That made it a little bit boring for me sometimes. I liked the characters as individuals. I liked the idea that Ally wanted them to end up together but, I found the relationship between Becca and Charlie a little bit simplistic. The only thing they had in common was Ally and the bucket list. That was a little disappointing.

This all together makes this a three star read for me.

I loved this one! To me, it seemed like more of a literary romance than a romance, with this being a story of grief. The great banter and deep chemistry between Becca and Charlie was apparent from the beginning and I loved reading their story throughout the years.

Becca and Charlie met in college and it was a mutual dislike, their only tie is Ally. But now she's gone too soon from cancer and they can go their separate ways. Still dealing with grief a year later, they're shocked to get a message from Ally. She died before she could complete her bucket list and she wants her fiance and her best friend to complete it for her. As time goes on, they share these tasks and become closer as friends.
This book was a bit of a slow burn. I like that they found more confidence in themselves a time went on, but I just wanted to shake Becca at the end for her whole attitude and denial. Overall just an ok book for me.
I received an advance reader copy of this book. The views and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and given voluntarily.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Charlie and Becca have always been at odds but when Ally leaves them a bucket list of things to do for her after her passing, things they must do together, they are forced together for a series of adventures all in the name of fulfilling the dreams of their lost loved one. Or so they thought. It may taken them ten years to realize it though.

I have to say I wasn’t much of a fan when I first started reading this book. I thought I was signing up for a slow burn romance not a book that started with a death and a funeral. I’m not interested in reading books with heavy topics at the moment for personal reasons but I powered through and I’m glad I did.

This was a lovely story with a unique storyline. It was slow burn at its best. It was romance that was ten plus years in the making. I enjoyed the characters and the plot though I wasn’t a fan of the overwhelming theme of grief throughout but that is just from someone who is triggered by those topics.

Lovely, heart-wrenching, and wistful read.

OMG I LOVED THIS, I LOVED THIS, I JUST FINISHED IT AND IT WAS BRILLIANT.

crying, screaming, throwing up, all of the above.

Okay now that I've had some time to digest - wait no.

I LOVED CHARLIE SO MUCH, AND BECCA, MY GOD, I JUST WANTED TO SMACK THEM BOTH TOGETHER LIKE SERIOUSLY JUST LOOK!!!!!!

okay, im done.

From the moment I read the first line I knew it was going to be a fab read. It's full of grief, moving on, friendship, family, growing up, getting older, romance, depression, job satisfaction and so much more.

Let's break it down -

Characters - loved them all, they all keep you guessing, no one is safe, you have no idea what they will do!

Plot - it's not unique but I loved it. It's like One Day and other stories where you follow two characters over their lives. Dual POV POV as well but written in third person.

Romance - slow burn, slow burn and SO MUCH SLOW BURN AAAHHHGGGHHHH. I was dying. I needed them to just closer, just get a liitttlleeee bit closer!!!

Writing - beautiful - executed so well, honestly I devoured every word.

I could see this as a movie.
I need to read it again.

This is the story of Becca and Charlie - their best friend and fiancee (respectively) Ally has died so young from pancreatic cancer. Their tie to each other had only been Ally. About a year after her death, she reaches out to them through an advance scheduled email and instructs them both to visit her mother as the one year anniversary of her death approaches. The both do and find that Ally has made a request for them to take some of her ashes to Snowdon and they are given a letter to open when they do that. The letter actually requests several more requests and they agree to carry out the requests once a year. So, we follow Becca and Charlie through the next few years and learn more of the backstory to their relationship with each other and Ally. Both have ups and downs in their lives, personally and professionally. Not sure where the 10 years begins from, when the first met each other? Ally died in 2011 and the last we see of Becca and Charlie is January, 2018 with a ending of March, 2020, when Ally's mother gives us a little insight to the workings of Ally. I enjoyed the story.

After a busy few weeks, I am finally getting around to writing a review of Ten Years by Pernille Hughes (out 31 August 2022). If you loved One Day in December by Josie Silver, you will absolutely love this book. I felt like the pacing was incredibly similar and I found myself wanting to read this at a sprint, while also wanting to savor it as long as possible.

I loved how much context was given to the dynamic between Becca and Charlie as I love the slow burn, haters to lovers (not quite enemies in my opinion), mutual connection story. As soon as I read the first chapter I thought to myself that I really have a draw towards anything with death/dying haha! I didn’t realize this was going to be a part of it, but I loved the centering of a loved one dying uniting two individuals who I feel are soul mates.

I also loved the character growth and development of Becca and Charlie. While they are both incredibly frustrating at times, it really highlighted how well Pernille did with their personalities.

This was not a quick read for me, but I loved every moment. (4.0/5.0 Stars)

Thank you to HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, Pernille Hughes and NetGalley for allowing me to read Ten Years in exchange for an honest review!