A beautiful, slow-burning novel. Fiona writes with such pure emotion. Both of her novels have made me both laugh and cry.

"Because letting go is so much harder than holding on".

Its 1991 in North Dublin, and Shauna is helping her mum unpack their new hair salon when Dean (accompanied by his pals who have come over for a "good gawk") lays eyes on Shauna for the first time.

We follow Shauna, Dean and their friends over the course of their young lives as they navigate family, friendships, relationships. The story is told in a dual timeline and I loved the setting of the hairdressers for the current day chapters.

This is really the most beautiful book. It is filled with so much nostalgia for me. Summers spent playing Tip-The-Can on 'The Green' and sitting on the wall kicking off the pebble-dash, doused in The Body Shop White Musk with hair crimped.

The relationships in this book felt so real and relatable. I think Mark is one of my favourite book characters that I've come across in recent reads. The book deals with some tricky family issues, but does so in a really brilliant way. The author is so skilled at bringing you in to the scene, as if you are really there having the cup of tea and chats in the salon kitchen or in Natasha's mums kitchen getting your hair crimped.

I adored this book. It's the first book in a very long time that has had me sobbing. It has also left me pondering on what I think will (or would like to) happen next for the main characters.

It's a short enough read at 256 pages, but it packs a punch and I'll be recommending it to everyone.

this book was amazing, fiona captures the essence of friendship and the trials of growing up beautifully. such an amazing crafted narrative that manages to balance humour with the harsher realities of life. I was sobbing by the end

Fiona Scarlett has fast become one of my favourite authors, and I am yet to read her debut, the much loved Boy's Don't Cry, so that is next on my list.

Although a shorter novel, the pages are filed with emotion and heartache and centres around the love between a close knit group of four friends who live in the same neighbourhood and have grown up together in Dublin. The prose and story was different to my other reads but I enjoyed it. Scarlett has an insane ability to bring out depth and meaning in small moments between the characters using the simplest language.

Central to the plot is a devastating love story and I was fully invested and rooting for the main protagonists, and witnessing how their love for each other grows over time as they grow up was touching to read. The story also deals with strong subject matter, vulnerable parents, alcoholism, dementia and the impact it can leave on families and the resulting trauma. The book is not afraid to delve deep but in a way which is not overly sentimental although I would strongly advise readers to check trigger warnings for the same reason. I was fully engaged within the story and it felt raw and real and the writing was refreshing.

Fiona Scarlett is magic, bringing an authenticity to the story so that Irish humour within dialogue had me keeling over with laughter, the familiarity and support that comes with being surrounded by community and people within that space who know you well and vice versa... and then exploring themes of pain and hurt that can accompany selfless love, the roads not taken when presented with options, and the difficult choices we make and living with them...and I was in tears and heartbroken by the end. This is your warning to keep tissues handy...you'll need them!

One of my favourite books of 2025. Highly recommend! Thank you @netgalley and Faber and Faber for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest unedited review.

I found this very hard to get into and quite heavy going. It was difficult to follow at times as the story had flashbacks and then suddenly continued in the present day. The language didn’t help either and I didn’t like all the swearing. Maybe this is one for a younger person? I found the story line a little bit light but there was a bit of humour amongst the characters. Overall, not really for me.

I was delighted to get an advance copy of this , having completely loved the authors previous book, Boy's Don't Cry.

This one, being honest, took me a little while to get into....I had a few false starts and was unsure as to what was happening. I initially found the structure confusing and I also struggled with the love story, not quite feeling the connection between Shauna and Dean.

HOWEVER, about a quarter of the way through something clicked for me and I devoured the rest of the story. I enjoyed the friendship dynamics throughout and found the storyline of Shauna and her ma very moving , enjoying both of these aspects moreso than the love story itself.

Overall, I didn't love this book from the start but definitely grew to love it by the end. It's a stark reminder that guilt, regret, 'what-ifs?' and 'shoulds' serve very little but to cloud joy from our lives. I have to say, my heart was more than a little broke by this book, lucky enough I happen to enjoy that!

I'm so conflicted with this book. It's a short 256 pages long, yet it's taken me 9 days to read it. It's definitely slow paced and if I'm completely honest, I found the Irish dialect tricky to get my head around. But then I powered through the last 30% this morning after waking up at 5am, fell in love with everything about the book and even had a small (by my standards) cry at the ending.

Turns out that my concentration has been rubbish and I just needed the silence of the early hours to get through!

While I struggled with the slow pace and dialect, what I did love were the characters. I felt Shauna's pain. I loved the little foursome of Shauna, Pam, Mark and Dean. I loved the 90s nostalgia.

This isn't just a frustrating will they/won't they though. There're some tough issues dealt with. Dementia. Alcoholism. Not a light and fluffy read - as you'd expect from the author of Boys Don't Cry.

I liked this one. And I think I'm going to give it another go in the future when my concentration is better and and I'm feeling less foggy and tired. Because it really is a beautiful book that I reckon on another day, it would be contending for a Top 3 spot.

Have read Boys Don't Cry I was very keen to read Fiona Scarlett's new book and it didn't disappoint. A dual timeline brings us through the teenage years of beautifully drawn characters in North Dublin, her writing is beautiful and I was bereft when I finished. This is a story that will tug at your heart and remind you of first love....it's wonderful!

When I first started this I wasn't sure if I was going to get into it and then about 5 pages in I was 100 percent in! I loved the quick chapters of different timelines one spanning a childhood one on real time, so clever! The writing was very good I loved the way it was written. It is a really poignant, heartbreaking story of love of all aspects. Romantic love, familial love, unrequited love, and friendship. I read it in twos sittings and would definitely recommend!

Fantastically written story. A heart breaking story about childhood sweet hearts, Dean and Shauna. Shauna moved to the area and becomes friends Pam, Dean and Mark. The story is told two through timelines, Shauna’s initial moving to area and the other a number of years in the future, that end up meeting at the end. I would highly recommend this book. I was in tears at the end.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy for an honest review.

I found this book so moving. How Dean and Shauna’s relationship grows over time. The care they have for one another and how that might not be enough to keep them together. And when that conflict comes, it’s not one big dramatic moment - instead just those familiar circumstances of life and all its responsibilities coming in between them to move them away from one another. And somehow that’s even more heartbreaking.

There’s sadness and hard truths in this novel but also hopefulness and the love and appreciation for community. And it’s not just romantic love, it’s the love between friends, family. I felt like I knew the four friends at the centre of this story by the end.

Fíona is brilliant at writing that human story and I was in tears by the end. An indication of a good story, if you ask me.

Being honest, I almost gave up on this book. It might be because I was reading on an e-reader, but there were some confusing transitions and the style of writing made it hard for me to understand context at times. Having said that, I persevered and I am so so happy that I did. As I got to about halfway, everything started to click and I became so invested in the story that I forgot the world existed for a short while.

There were such exquisitely moving moments that made my heart overflow. And break. So many missed chances and such bittersweet memories as we read Dean and Shauna's story. And Mark was the sweetest, kindest character who showed such compassion and thoughtfulness.

This is a coming of age story but not a predictable nor happy ever after kind of story. It's brutally real and moving and sad. It's reflective and visceral and compelling.

A book that slowly reveals a story which will take a piece of your heart with it as you turn the very last page.

I'm not gonna lie, it took a while for me as an non-native english speaker to get used to the Irish slang and how the book is written. HOWEVER, when I got used to it I realized how beautifully written it is. I came to love the way the author sets up the scenes and describe the environment, and how the two timelines work together. It's a beautiful story about friendship and love, about growing up together, and realizing our parents might not be as invincible as one may have thought... I definitely cried while reading this 🥹

What drove me to the book was the cover and the title, and I'm so happy that it did because I'm extremely grateful to have received this ARC and had the honor of reading it.

A novel set in Ireland in the 1990s and present day. Shauna Ryan is running her family hair salon in the present day. Most of the book takes place during her teenage years in the 1990s with her inseparable friends Pamela, Dean and Mark. We see their home lives, families and feel for them. Shauna and Dean are attracted to each other but do nothing about it for so many years. Finally they get together but will it last. Present day situation suggests not but what happened in the intervening years. A beautifully told story of teenage angst, family responsibilities and how the direction of our lives can change. #netgalley #MayAllYourSkiesBeBlue

This book was so good. A story of 4 friends throughout the years but returning to modern day throughout the chapters. It was fun, sombre, uplifting but also heartbreaking. Shauna and Dean always drawn to one another but never quite getting there. It broke me at the end despite the fact I had an inkling of how it would end. I will definitely be reading more from the author.

I absolutely loved this authors first book , Boys Don’t Cry, unfortunately this book just didn’t work for me.

It’s a slim novel yet it took me numerous attempts to read it. I didn’t really connect with the characters and it was a little too over sentimental for my taste .

I think some readers will enjoy this one but unfortunately I wasn’t one of them.

There is nothing I can pinpoint as a negative it just wasn’t for me.

I write this review through sodden, puffy eyes. Please excuse any typos.

I loved this book, it was cracking. As a teenager in the 90s, in Scotland compared with the Ireland in this novel, I felt completely connected to Shauna, Pam, Mark and Dean. The pop culture just made me melt into the period from then and I could also connect with the modern Shauna and the challenges life gives us in our 30s/40s.

I loved being able to reminisce about my life then, while enjoying their story too. The irish twang really helps to set the location which is something that really excites me about dialect/language in novels.

I ugly cried at this book, it absolutely shook me, not purely the plot, but the writing was sharp, yet absolutely engaging and poetic in its brevity. I know there are readers out there who like books to wreck them and this book is one of them.

I loved Boys Don’t Cry, which I read with The Pigeonhole (now sadly departed), so I leapt at the chance to read this.
I finished at 12.30am, which is too late for a school night and I am heartbroken. This is such a sad book, but it’s also beautiful. It follows a group of teenagers in 1991, and particularly new kid in town, Dean, who sees Shauna at her mum’s hairdressing salon, beginning a love story.
Dean and Shauna are star-crossed lovers. We meet Shauna again in different points in time and see what happens to her and Dean at various points. They both have adult responsibilities and there is a growing sense that all will not end well.
There’s a lot of humour and nostalgia in this book - the salon provides a lot of opportunities to get to know the community and the teenage dating and drinking are brilliantly depicted. However, this book will rip your heart it and stamp all over it. The ending, whilst not unexpected, is devastating. Highly recommended.

I just loved this book from start to finish, it was so full of sadness, but never depressing - it was a real love story, telling of a connection that will last forever. The kind of love that bleeds into every other facet of your life and changes you irreversibly, for good and bad.

It reminded me a lot of Talking at Night by Claire Daverley, it's full of the kind of interactions you only have with people in the small hours when the rest of the world is asleep and you are full of possibilities and melancholy at the same time. There's the same underlying feeling that there isn't going to be the perfect happy ending for the main characters right from the start and that their story may well devastate you as much as it does them. The emotion that Fiona Scarlett pulls out of the reader is immense but never gratuitous, it's real and raw and beautiful.

The theme of friendship is everywhere in this book, how it is everything when you are a teen and how it changes as you grow up but still remains a source of strength and exasperation in equal measure...how would we survive half of what we do without the supporting hands of our friends? Another strong theme is family and the obligations we have to it, how they can determine what our life can and can't be.

It's a wonderful story, told with real heart and grace.

(4.5 stars) Fiona Scarlett's second novel is a tender, dialogue driven story that reads a bit like an Irish kitchen sink drama. I loved the way the plot was constructed. It flicks between a day of appointments in Shauna’s hair salon and flashbacks to teenage memories with her friends in the nineties.

I also loved the characterisation and felt like I really came to know Shauna, Dean, Mark and Pam. Whether they were downing shots in a nightclub or watching a video in Mark's front room, I felt like I was a friend there with them. Even the peripheral characters were drawn well enough to visualise and believe in.

There is a real sense of immediacy to this story which initially left me reeling and at times a bit muddled as to who was who (particularly when new characters are first introduced such as Melody or Tina). It felt a bit like being invited to a private party where you don't know anyone so have to pick up what you can without introductions. Sink or swim. That said, I did get used to this and came to feel it a strength once I became totally immersed in the action and the characters.

I quickly became really invested in Shauna and Dean and wanted things to work out for them both. This is a novel about love, the choices we make, the paths we don't take and the repercussions these decisions have - not just for us but for our family and friends.

I cried at the end of this novel. It was very nearly a five star read and it's a story I'd heartily recommend.

With thanks to Netgalley and Faber & Faber Ltd for granting me the e-ARC for this review.