If you’re a fan of “The Dead Romantics” and “About Time”, this is for you!! It’s a beautiful story about falling in love all over again with your significant other with a time-bending and a supernatural twist.

Claire and Matías are opposites. Claire relies heavily on order and routine and her job as a top notch lawyer, while Matías is an artist who is carefree and spontaneous. A whirlwind romance brought them together, but after eleven months, Claire begins questioning things. When she discovers a hidden ring, she quickly bails on the upcoming trip to Spain to meet Matías’ family and friends. Soon after Matías leaves, Claire receives a call about a tragic accident that’s left him in a coma. She drops everything to head to Spain where she realizes her love for him might be the only thing that can bring him back.

What I loved about this novel is how it beautifully wove together a love story and a story about overcoming grief. Claire’s character has a lot of growth in that respect because she risks everything to be with Matías waiting for him to wake up.

I love books with a supernatural element to them, and this one delivered. Claire keeps seeing Matías’ soul. He doesn’t remember her because he’s stuck to one year ago. Claire is trying to get his soul to fall in love with her so she can bring him back. I really like the dynamic here, especially with her making all the realizations about herself in the process.

The imagery in the novel was great. Not just when it comes to describing art, the feelings and emotions are well-displayed, and the settings throughout are described in vivid detail. I felt like I was truly there.

There are different perspectives represented throughout the novel. I love how you get the point of view of Matías starting at a year before and getting closer and closer to the present. It gives you more details into his love story with Claire.

You also get random chapters from the point of view of Matías’ family members. Now, this did actually take me out of the novel a bit. I think it was great how each represented how the family members were learning to operate through grief, but it felt a little unnecessary to the story. You get more tidbits of Matías’ life, but I think it could’ve been just as effective if they were telling Claire all this information.

I also felt like the family didn’t really put any effort into getting to know Claire at all, which felt strange to me. Obviously, they weren’t thinking straight because of this tragedy, but they didn’t really talk to her or ask her questions or even tell her many stories about Matías, which I feel would’ve been appropriate.

This novel was unexpected and powerful, but it could be triggering for some people. There is a lot of talk about death, grief, and loss. However, the ending is truly uplifting and beautiful.

***Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group– Ballantine for lending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!***

In the enthralling pages of Evelyn Skye's "One Year Ago in Spain," Claire Walker, a driven corporate lawyer, encounters Matías de León, a bohemian Spanish artist, who challenges her ordered existence. Their whirlwind romance takes an unexpected turn when tragedy disrupts their future. As Claire travels to Madrid to be by Matías's side, she finds herself as the only one who can communicate with his disembodied soul. Stripped of his memories, Matías's spirit forces Claire to confront the true nature of their connection and the challenges their disparities pose. Skye masterfully weaves a tale of love, loss, and the enduring power of human connection in this captivating and emotionally resonant novel. Through Claire's journey to rekindle their bond, readers will question the boundaries of love and explore the transformative possibilities that lie within the depths of the human soul.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Overall, I gave this book a 2/5 because I feel as if it fell kind of short for me. I thought it was a cute and light read that can serve as a palate cleanser between other genres of books, however, it just felt too all over the place for me. The two things I disliked about this book were the multiple character POV's and how rushed the actual romance part of the book felt.

I felt like the main characters, Claire and Matias, were rushed into dating super early on in the book and then BAM Matias boating accident happened. It felt like the whole book was about her chasing his soul and when he finally came out of the coma the book abruptly ended and there really wasn't much to their romance story afterwards, so I would recommend adding on to that a bit more. In addition, I love me a good dual POV in a romance book, but it seemed a little unnecessary and distracting to include the family members POV's as well since this is advertised as a romance and not just a fictional book.

Although I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys light, quick and easy romance reads that contain multiple POV's, I personally don't think I will pick this up again.

This was an enjoyable read and I did like both the culture and art background which set it apart from similar books.

The beginning and end both felt oddly rushed but the middle was great. The rush at the beginning made more sense once the true arc started and it was more clear that the background provided was less important to the overall story.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the eARC.

Unfortunately, this book is not going to happen for me. After getting into romance books in the last few years I’ve learned to take them with (many) grains of salt, but the thickness of cliché was too much for me to bear. Maybe I should’ve given this another chapter or two but it was way too easy to see where things were going… and read like a Hallmark movie script. Not my cup of tea!

I loved The Hundred Loves of Juliet, so I had to request this. One Year Ago in Spain felt similar to Juliet, but I didn't love it as much. It was predictable, which was expected, but the writing just... wasn't my cup of tea this time around. The line about Vega being "the woman women wanted to be and men wanted to be with" (this is a major paraphrasing of the actual line) was downright cringey and out of some middle schooler's Tumblr.

Liked the sentiment around this book, but execution left much to be desired.

Also, explaining away a toxic family like their behavior is okay? No thanks.

I thought I was going to like this book more than I did which was a bit unfortunate. This book felt like it was all over the place from the pacing to the povs from other characters.
The book starts with our characters meeting then jumps to almost a year into their relationship. I felt like I was told more that they had a connection than I really saw it in the writing. This premise had a lot of promise but I do not feel that it fully delivered on everything.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Evelyn Skye for the advanced copy! A full review will be posted closer to pub date.****

My Grade: C ⭐️⭐️⭐️. An okay read. The paranormal romantic premise was very interesting, and I loved the early scenes with soul Matias and Claire. Some of the POV's were unnecessary and I felt the ending was a bit abrupt. The epilogue was also a disappointment.

Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3 out of 5. Great steamy scenes, not too overly graphic.

The Good Stuff and the Meh Stuff:
-Wonderful chemistry between Matias and Claire!
-The Spain setting and culture was incredible! The descriptions of the locations and food are perfect!
-I loved the flashbacks showing some of the moments between the FMC and MMC.
-Dual POV was greatly appreciated. but only the ones with Matias and Claire.

I was immediately drawn to this book because I had read The Hundred Loves of Juliet by the same author. I loved that book and loved One Year Ago in Spain just as much.

It is the story of Claire, a corporate attorney in New York, and Matias,a Spanish artist. As Claire describes him, he is the chaos to her order. They meet and begin a whirlwind romance. After almost a year, they plan a trip to Spain. She has an important project at work and cancels, but he goes ahead. After some time, she gets a call at work telling her he’s been in a serious accident. Claire drops everything and goes to him. I won’t give any more away, but if you enjoy a solid, serious romance, you need to pick up this book. My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

Wowww, I really enjoyed this! I liked the flashbacks between the present and the past. I like fantasy elements in contemporary books and this book definitely delivered!

Thank you for the review copy. This is a great love story. I learned a lot about art. People are going to enjoy this book.

This was a cute story, but not much to it. Like Hundred Loves by the same author there was a lot I just skipped. The dual timelines didn't really work or make much sense here, there wasn't really a reason for it. Cute but forgettable. :-/

Review posted to Goodreads 3/6/24

A fast-paced, heartfelt romance infused with magical realism, that unfolds as an enchanting love letter to Madrid.

One Year Ago in Spain follows the unique love story of Claire, a New York corporate lawyer, and Matías, a Spanish artist. During a visit to Madrid to see his family, Matías tragically ends up in a coma after an accident. Claire soon finds that she is the only one capable of waking him up, as she is the only one who can see and talk to his soul. However, the Matías she interacts with is one year in the past and does not remember his relationship with Claire. To awaken his physical body, they must fall in love again.

The Writing
My favorite part was the descriptions of Madrid, which were extremely detailed and captivating. The book shuffles between the present and the past, revealing aspects of the characters' relationships and internal thoughts throughout. The pacing is very fast, especially at the beginning, which I liked because it was intriguing enough to keep me reading. The writing is good, but it doesn't necessarily stand out or excel in any particular way, which I think is fine for a short and straightforward romance book.

The Characters
The book primarily tracks Claire's journey as she unravels her relationship and discovers herself along the way. It features multiple POVs, including those of Matías' family, which at times felt unnecessary, yet occasionally offered deeper insight into Matías as a character, given the main focus on Claire. I appreciated how their relationship unfolded; it felt as though I was learning about the characters throughout the book, following a rapid initial first impression.

Overall, while the book might not leave a lasting impression, I did enjoy the reading experience. It's a fairly typical romance novel, but sometimes that's exactly what you're looking for.

My rating: 4⭐️
Thank you for the ARC!

I wanted to give this book a proper review, however it states in the ARC not to release reviews until after publication. I will say it was a cute concept and I enjoyed the author's writing style. I was going to give it 4 stars but when I hit 93% something happened and I was like whoa ummm that's -1...maybe... then the ending happened very quickly and seemed super rushed. I would consider reading another one of Skye's books in the future.

I would say this was more of a 2.5. But on the way to 3. The book started off really strong. I loved the alternating timeline and POV but the lost soul/ghost thing was not for me.

I thought he would wake up and she would have to get him to fall in love with her again because he did not remember. This gave me Izzy and Denny vibes from Grey’s Anatomy.

Overall I did enjoy it and when I could forget he was a lost soul/ghost they were really cute together. Kind of felt like the second half of the book was a little rushed.

If you are into a vaguely paranormal romance you probably would really enjoy this.

This was a very enjoyable read overall.

Things I enjoyed:
- Claire’s exploration of Spain and the culture in Madrid
- Claire and Matias’s dynamic
- Really everything about Matias
- the entire premise was really interesting and different. a fun romance/fantasy style blend.

Things I didn’t like as much:
- POVs from anyone other than Claire and Matias
- the lack of scenes early on to show us their relationship dynamic
- Vega’s whole character (I dont usually enjoy girls hating other girls because of men)

This was an interesting book with a lot of positive qualities. I am not usually very into sad books, and this was is definitely sad during the story. However, it ends happy so that helps.

Rating: 4/5

This was a cute book with a creative premise. Claire, the straitlaced, practical, things need to be planned out and organized corporate lawyer has fallen in love with a Spanish artist, Matias, who is impulsive and disorganized, but also thoughtful and caring, whimsical, gives his everything to what/whom he cares about, and creates art that speaks to Claire’s soul. Almost a year into their relationship, they are supposed to travel to Madrid to meet his family. However, Claire is in charge of a major merger and cannot afford to take time off work, so Matias travels to Spain alone. He meets up with friends for a guys' trip but there is a terrible accident that leaves two friends dead and the other three, including Matias, in a coma. Claire rushes to Spain to be with Matias and his family. Although she sees him in the hospital hooked up to machines unconscious, she also “sees” him and interacts with him elsewhere, except for this version of Matias, it is a year earlier, and he is preparing to move to New York City and has yet to meet and fall in love with Claire. Therefore, their interactions in Madrid are as if they are just meeting. After doing some research, Claire is led to believe that Matias’ soul is untethered, and that in order to reunite his soul with his body and awaken him from the coma, she has to make his soul fall in love with her. That is both easier and harder than expected and leads to tension with Matias' family.

The story alternates between their time together in New York and how their relationship develops, and Claire’s time in Madrid trying to get Matias back. I enjoyed the descriptions of Matias artwork and the way he talked about works of art by other artists. The “Welcome to Anything You Want” art collaboration site sounds fascinating. If it really existed, it would be fun to visit.

If you are a fan of romantic movies, you probably know/remember the pottery scene in "Ghost." There is a similar art-related passionate scene in the book between Claire and Matias' "soul", and it tops the pottery scene.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. This book was super cute. I loved Claire and Matias's relationship; how opposites attracted. I loved the different points of view, even from the secondary and tertiary characters. It was a great love story, though we see more of Claire trying to get Mathias to fall back in love with her in soul form than the original relationship. Overall, I really enjoyed this. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A review copy that won’t be published for a couple of months. An easy read more fluff than I thought. It was well written. The story does float between different characters voices. Not had to follow but having knowledge of Spanish culture and language is very helpful. A book with realistic characters that jumps between NYC and Madrid. After 11 months of dating, high powered attorney Claire’s boyfriend is in a coma in a Madrid hospital. She rushes to be by his side only to be thrown into his very big and protective family. They believe Claire is the guiding light to bring their son back them. Can Claire drop her armor and find the love and faith she desperately needs.

a hopeless romantic is written perfectly in this story - i had a super easy time connecting with this story and the plot kept me engaged through the whole thing.