Ally was Becca's best friend and Charlie's fiancée. Becca and Charlie have never gotten along, but now that Ally has died and left them a bucket list to fulfill, where will it lead?

"You can't hide from grief, it's in you. You have to accept it and accommodate it to work through it."


I'm not sure why I requested this. I don't like this trope. This wasn't the best book ever written. And yet I could not put it down. The Britishisms warmed my cold American heart. Becca's black cat energy brought so much to Charlie's golden retriever.

"You'll never truly know love because your heart is so guarded and you're too cowardly to unlock it."


Over the course of ten years, Becca and Charlie meet up once a year to scatter Ally's ashes at different points of the globe, doing things she wanted to do. It's heartwarming. It's heartbreaking. It's hurtful. I loved every minute.

Book pairings: Me Before You, P.S. I Love You

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter

REVIEW: Ten Years by Pernille Hughes

Ten Years by Pernille Hughes is a sweet and engaging story that explores the complexities of friendship, love, and loss. The novel follows the lives of two characters, Becca and Charlie, as they navigate a decade of ups and downs, connected by the memory of Ally, the woman who brought them together.

Hughes does a great job of capturing the characters' emotional journeys. The banter between Becca and Charlie is often humorous and endearing. The alternating timelines allow the reader to see how their relationship evolves over the years, which adds depth to the story.

However, the novel sometimes feels uneven. The pacing can be slow, and specific plot points are stretched longer than necessary. While the story's emotional core is strong, some conflicts feel contrived, making it difficult to invest in the characters’ journey fully.

Despite these flaws, Ten Years is an enjoyable read, particularly for those who appreciate stories about enduring friendships and the passage of time. It’s a light and heartfelt book, but it falls short of truly memorable.

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper 360 | One More Chapter, for the free advanced copy for my honest review!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.
I wasn't sure about the 10 years covered but it worked for this one!

I was hoping for more from this book. The book blurb was intriguing and the reviews seemed positive, but for some reason, I just couldn't connect with either of the main characters. He was too blah and she was too over-the-top. So much animosity stood between them for me to see them ever being more than just acquaintances. Maybe had the author started to spark their closer relationship sooner rather than much later in the story, I might have found it easier to believe

I received this novel as an advanced reader copy from NetGalley and exchange for an honest review. The chemistry between the two main characters was only OK in this. I was not as invested and it took a while to get into it. I would recommend it for someone who really likes romance, and it’s determined to finish what they start reading

"Ten Years" by Pernille Hughes is a slow-burn centered around loss and grief. The enemy-to-lover trope is done well and the book has high notes, but the chemistry between the leads doesn't jump off the page. Still, this is a novel worth the read.

Penniless Hughes writes romantic gold and has done it again. The plot, the flawed characters, the scenery and pacing are all sublime. Can't recommend highly enough.

I found this book to be a pleasure to read. Becca and Charlie's dynamic was interesting and their dialogue was fun to read. I still haven't landed on how I feel about how little of Ally there was, I found myself wishing that there were maybe some more scenes of the three of them when she was alive. I think that's how I felt about the book in general, I just wanted a bit more. While I didn't feel like there was anything bad about the book, I'm not sure I'll think about it for very long, I'm not sure it made an impact, and it feels like it has the potential to be more impactful and more emotional. Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter for this ARC!

Ten Years by Pernille Hughes was a fun read for me. Charlie and Becca have a history and then are constantly being thrown together because of their mutual love of Ally who is terminally ill. The bulk of the story is about Becca and Charlie traversing grief and finding themselves and what they really want over the course of 10 years. I enjoyed returning to these characters each morning and evening as I read this book and recommend it is a fun romantic tale and will look forward to other books by this author.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Harper for this ARC and a chance to read and review this book**

Tropes:
- Enemies to lovers
- duel POV
- third person

Trigger warning: loss of a partner

Summary: Charlie and Ally are engaged, but when Ally dies, she leaves a bucket list for Charlie and her best friend Becca to complete. 1 task per year over the course of 10 years.

Review:

I liked it in the beginning - the first year was definitely the most interesting chapter. I felt that you really got to see how both the FMC and MMC dealt with the initial grief of loosing someone close to them. I thought that the breakdown of chapters by year was an interesting concept, but didn’t do the story any justice. In fact, I felt this made it hard to connect with any of the characters, especially with the passing of time, because some chapters only had one of the characters POV. Becca and Charlie did not seem like they liked each other the entire time so it was hard to believe in any romance.

Other things I liked:
- They address each other by their last name, which I thought was cute!
- Allie’s mom was a good example of healthy coping/grief and spoke positively of the palliative care experience which I enjoyed as someone in the healthcare profession.

Slow and steady book. Sometimes the female.main character was annoying but I grew to love her. The book is slow but I think it adds to the sense of time and slow burn. I ended up really enjoying it and it was incredibly complex.

Ten Years by Pernille Hughes is a laugh out loud, heart wrenching, joyful, lump in your throat treat. This rollercoaster ride delivered all the feels in the best possible way of two people grieving a loss over ten years. It is a UK based novel so the humor is English based but overall loved it!

Imma be honest. The premise is something we've seen before. It's opposites attract. It's best friend's fiance. It's best friend. It's loss and pain and healing.
It's also not for me. I had a really hard time believing that these two were actually attracted to each other, other than the physical. Didn't buy it.

Before her passing, Ally leave a series of notes and emails that leave her boyfriend, Charlie, and bestie, Emma, on a series of bucket list activities. The catch? Charlie and Emma loathe each other, and Ally knew it. The relationship changes between Charlie and Emma is amazing and will have you laughing and crying.

On reading the description of this book I knew it was to be a gutcrusher. Within the first few pages I was reading through wet eyes. There were plenty of laughs too. There couldn’t have been two better people to go through this bucket list kicking and screaming yet coming back for more. It’s crazy how much one can change over the course of 10 years. For these two it took a lot of grit to circle back to one another after some of their interactions. Sometimes your heart pushes you in the right direction and waits for your brain to catch up! This was a great read that I devoured within one sitting.

Slow & boring. I just didn’t believe their love at all. They spent the first 70% of the book reiterating how much they disliked each other and then all of a sudden that changes? Just… no. I stopped reading at that point.

Quite honestly, Becca was an annoying main character to me, as well. DNF @ 70%.

I received a digital ARC from Harper 360, One More Chapter via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this story. I connected with Becca and Charlie as they grieved the loss of Ally over ten years. However, at times, I felt the story became too repetitive and drawn out. I do look forward to reading more from Pernille Hughes in the future.

***ARC Provided by the Publisher via NetGalley***

There was a lot about this title I enjoyed.

I liked the way the story was constructed and the way the reader learned about the events in each of their lives at the same time Becca and Charlie did.

I liked the way it was written in snippets of moments and that there wasn't a lot of fluff between the meetings.

There was a reveal at the end I could have done with as it made the story feel like it was...fraudulent for lack of a better word and no opportunity was given for the reader to deal with it as it was the last reveal.

I also didn't really ever feel much of a connection between Charlie and Becca. Well that's not entirely true...I felt the dislike and the frustration that they felt when forced to be around one another, but I never felt the attraction or passion between them. I'm not really sure why either as the dislike worked so not sure why the passion didn't, but it wasn't there for me.

While there were parts of this I liked, it's a romance (well, maybe more women's fiction) and for me to be able to recommend a romance I need to feel the romance, and that was lacking for me.

I'm unable to recommend this title.

When Ally dies young, her best friend, Becca, and her fiancé, Charlie, are both devastated. Given that Becca and Charlie have never gotten along dating back to when all three were in university together, they assume they will no longer be in touch. But then it turns out that Ally's last wish is that Charlie and Becca each year jointly complete an item on her bucket list. They agree to honor Ally's request, so every year over the course of 10 years they find themselves coming together on different adventures. At first, they each drive the other up the wall like usual. But over time, they find themselves becoming closer and, much to their own surprise, perhaps even becoming friends ... or more.

This was a heart-warming and frequently funny story that also explored interesting themes around grief and whether and how people change as they older.

Highly recommended!

TEN YEARS by Pernille Hughes was a heart grabbing roller coaster of a ride. When the death of a friend unexpectedly brings a couple as often at odds as they are in union, the sparks fly and the pages are turned as fast as I can go to keep up with the twists and turns and results of this perfectly matched couple through the ups and downs of ten years of living. I especially enjoyed their dialogue and the fact that I had no idea what was going to happen next, but happy to go along for the ride in this wonderful writer's hands. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased thoughts.