Ten Years by new to this reader, British author, Permille Hughes tells the story of Charlie and Becca over the decade since their first meeting. Always present is Ally…sweet Ally, the perfect friend to Becca, the perfect fiancée to Charlie…the perfect go between the other two who were always feuding. Except Ally wasn’t around as a buffer anymore, having lost her battle with cancer. However, as the first anniversary of her passing draws near each receives a message that she very much wants her two best friends to complete her bucket list and scatter a bit of her ashes each time. The story defines these characters, what drives them, the anger, the emptiness and finally the realization of the gift Ally has given them. I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. Highly recommend.

Received for free from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I thought I was going to end up really disliking this book when I started it -- Charlie and Becca are so unpleasant to each other that it was uncomfortable and unpleasant to read. However, they both grow and change over time, and the book showed those changes step by step in a fairly believable way. In the end, I was happy for them both. This book has both humor and pathos, and some fun little surprises to keep you going. I'm looking forward to checking out more of Hughes' work.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Charlie is having a tough time after losing Allie. But Allie has a challenge for him and Becca who never see eye to eye on anything. They both try to read Allie's letter and comply with her wishes.

I loved this book. It really describes the raw horrible grief you feel when someone you love has died. No one really tells you about this: the emptiness, loneliness, the anger. You don’t know who you are any longer, because you’ve always been a fiancé, a best friend, a daughter, and you need to reinvent yourself.

The love-hate relationship between Becca (the best friend) and Charlie (the fiancé) is written so beautifully and is realistic and funny and shocking at times. They’re tasked to meet once a year to carry out Ally’s bucket list of experiences that she had longed to do. Oh, and they need to spread a bit of Ally’s ashes in these places too. As each year passes, we learn how Becca and Charlie deal with their loss and try to find a way to support one another in their grief. Or not. Highly Recommended.

This is my first time reading a novel from @pernillehughes and I'll definitely be reading the others!

One of the main things I liked is that for the first few chapters you think the story line will centre primarily around a tragic loss and how the characters adapt. However, it turns into something else, lighter hearted, entertaining yet still realistic in recognising how people cope differently with grief.

As the title says, we follow the characters every year for ten years. I liked how this works as the story progresses quickly, you see how the characters evolve as they mature and reach different points in their lives. I loved Becca, the strong female lead. She is feisty, funny, sensitive and most importantly relateable.

I won't spoil any of the storyline but if you're looking for a romantic story that is based on something a little unusual, give this a read!

Thank you to @netgalley and @onemorechaptrehc for the opportunity to review.

Released in the UK on 18th August 2022.

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Charlie and Becca met each other at university years ago and they have been bickering and arguing ever since.

After the death of Ally, Charlies girlfriend and Becca‘s best friend, they are drawn together to complete Ally’s bucket list. It seems as though Ally knew all along that these two needed one another.

I loved every word of this novel and I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

This is the story about a love hate relationship in the face of grief for a fiancé and a best friend. This story was overly long with almost too many words.

3 stars

Thank you to Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter and Netgalley for an ARC of this book which I voluntarily read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

TEN YEARS by Pernille Hughes will inevitably be compared to previously published books like ONE DAY by David Nicholls or Josie Silver’s ONE DAY IN DECEMBER. But TEN YEARS should in no way be classified as just another book where the reader gets tiny peeks into the character’s lives once a year because it was so much more than that.

The book follows Becca, an aspiring actress, and Charlie as they meet up annually to spread the ashes of Becca’s best friend and Charlie’s fiancée, Ally, after she dies of cancer despite having been enemies since college. However, unlike most novels that follow this concept, Becca and Charlie, though scheduled to come together once a year to complete Ally’s bucket list, are actually thrown together more often, giving the reader a better sense of how these characters act and think.

What I loved about the novel is that yes, you do get to see how Becca and Charlie grow and mature over the years, yet Hughes also makes the ebbs and flows of their relationship feel natural. I could feel their collective grief and empathize with Becca’s abandonment issues and Charlie’s need to take the easiest route so as not to risk discomfort or conflict. Though I would have loved to see more of Charlie and Becca together in the end, I found TEN YEARS to be completely satisfying and beautiful.

I really wanted to like this but unfortunately I just couldn't root for the two main characters. It starts out from a place where they're each hurt and mean because of it, and personally I found next to no growth in either of them as it progressed. It ended up being a rare romance where I actively didn't want the main couple to end up together. A shame because I enjoyed the writing style and the general premise was handled delicately.

Relatable characters, slow pacing of the story; Hughes' "Ten Years" does not manage to live up to its intriguing premise.

Quite slow and boring book with characters that were supposed to have some strong feelings towards one another but in my opinion the author failed to portray a believable emotional connection between them. Both Charlie and Becca sounded like a couple of petty, squabbling teens, not adults. Their relationship dragged for far too long, I could have easily skipped a few chapters without missing any significant details.

Charlie's fiancee dies and she leaves bucket list for him and her best friend Becca to fulfil on the anniversary of her death. Only problem is that they can't stand each other

Great concept (definitely a bit of a 'one Day in December' vibe) and extremely clever, witty, funny and well written. The characters were well drawn and I enjoyed the writing style very much. I felt the need to skip through quite a lot as conversations / scenes just felt a bit drawn out and conversation-heavy without necessarily a whole lot of direction, but this is perhaps personal taste. Definitely an author to look out for!

I couldn’t wait to start this book & I really enjoyed it even though I cried on page 2!

The story follows Charlie & Becca over the space of 10 years as they navigate through their grief at the death of Beccas best friend & Charlie’s fiancé Ally, Both Charlie & Becca do not like each other at all & haven’t done since university…. Tasked with scattering Allys ashes in line with her bucket list they battle through to meet her wishes.

I liked the way the book was written, it skipped years yet it flowed….. I felt like I was on the journey with both of them, I couldn’t stand Becca in the first half of the book however that changed the further in I got, you can’t help but empathise with her!

I would recommend this book, it’s an easy read and very much a ‘will they, won’t they’

Thanks to NetGalley & One More Chapter for a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

Summary
Becca and Charlie have known each other for years – ever since they met at university. And for every one of those years, they've bickered, argued, offended, mocked and generally rubbed each other up the wrong way.

Until now. Until Ally’s bucket list. The death of their loved one should mean Becca and Charlie can go their separate ways and not look back. But completing the list is something neither Charlie nor Becca can walk away from.

My thoughts
Ten Years is a really entertaining, well written enemies-to-lovers romantic novel.
Over the course of the ten years following the tragically early death of Ally, the paths of Becca (her best friend since childhood) and Charlie (her boyfriend) cross many times, as they fulfil a promise to complete the experiences on Ally’s bucket list. As Ally is no longer around to have these experiences herself Becca and Charlie will live them for her, and so they find themselves attempting to swallow their mutual dislike and irritation as they climb Snowdon; cycle from London to Brighton on a tandem; go to a music festival, and have a very drunken gin-themed afternoon tea on a London bus. Even in the midst of them mourning Ally, with activities such as this and with a healthy mutual loathing, chaos and comedy often ensues. The author handles the tragedy of death at a young age with a delicate touch, but in portraying it she is not afraid to use comedy and fun.

Over the years Becca and Charlie have to learn to deal with their grief in their own individual way and at their own pace. Life after Ally is not easy for either of them. But, this entire subject is very sensitively handled by Pernille Hughes and it is played out in the novel in such a realistic way: how all too easy it is to see the departed loved one as perfect; how those left behind can resent their departure and become angry with them; how hanging on to the past too tightly can stop someone moving forward, and how easy it is to try to move on too soon.

The other strength of the novel is the development of the characters of Becca and Charlie. The reader knows better than the pair of them that they will eventually end up together because that is the trope here, but, we also see them growing up, growing and changing as the years pass by.

It can be all too easy for some to dismiss romantic fiction as nothing more than fluff and froth, but Ten Years has depth and wisdom to offer, as well as a smashing love story. I really, really liked it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins/One More Chapter for an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

There are no words. TEN YEARS was phenomenal.
Like they say "all good things must come to an end!" Yeah I did not want this story to end!
A beautifully written book that spills emotions on every page
One of the best novels I've read!
The characters were so enjoyable and very likeable.
They were well developed and detailed that you felt like you knew them all.
The characters are strong, relatable and I loved Becca and Charlie. They left a special place in my heart.
Pernille, her descriptions, her characters are very intriguing and interesting.
A truly well written, uplifting, entertaining story that envoked a complex of emotions whilst reading.
I think this is going to be a new favorite author for me!

One More Chapter
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review closer to pub date.

This was a really good read for me. I really liked the characters. Recommended by me. Thanks for the opportunity to read & review this book.

I had a very different concept in mind of the book before I read it.

The writing is adequate, but it lacks personality. The characters are dull and lackluster.

I did not see where this one was going at first! The scene is set with an extremely sad funeral for Charlie’s fiancé and Becca’s best friend, Ally. Over the next two years, these sworn enemies have to complete items off Ally’s bucket list, which ends up bringing them closer together.
This is a very slow burn with lots of “one step forward, two steps back” in the plot. I enjoyed watching them mature and grow into who they were meant to be.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The plot of this book is good. A woman passes away young leaving her boyfriend and best friend with the task of spreading her ashes at all the places and things she didn’t get a chance to do. The problem is that the two of them don’t like each other at all. You can tell that through the animosity they really like each other but the story just drags on forever.

When the plot is so predictable it is hard to get Into the book and to route for the couple. He comes across as settling for a different woman and she is stuck in her life and not willing to find a new Career or move on.

You may like this book it i find it fell flat.