Ivy and Fisher are in love - deeply, miraculously, totally. But is love enough for the complications of life? And how deep must the love grow to cope with both the everydayness and the pain?

This is a touching story. And it is told by males! The author and the narrator are both males and their voices sound authentically here. Ladies (guys?), if you are ever in the need to read a sensitive, honest male voice - here it goes. Fisher is wondrously emotional, awkward and self-conscious. And he is British to the core also - and if I love any voice in the romance department, then British voice it is. Their dry humour, their self-deprecativeness, their politeness, their honesty. All combined with the London streets, bad (and so often funny) language what flies so easily from the British mouth that is it almost inoffensive, sounds and smells of the UK as I know it - all this makes for an easy and yet deep read.

This is a book worth reading and discussing. So let me start with the topics for debate - while I love Fisher to the bone, I just don´t know who Ivy is. We are told that she is great and lovable - but how do we know that? I wonder. Given the way she is written, I just don´t see anything typical or her own about her for me to see her as her own, interesting person. And she seriously needs some growing up! While poor Fisher dances around her and apologizes for almost everything, we see only glimpses of who Ivy is. And an lot of it is complicated behaviour with only little honest explanations (while Fisher wondrously bares his sould and mind for us). Sure, she has all the reasons for this kind of behaviour, but I would love to know her true self more.
Anyway, Fisher´s love for is truly touching. She is happy to get a nice guy like him!

There is also the story of his best friend El, slowly dying from the Huntington disease. While generally I am not the audience for the gay stories (El is gay), here I appreciate the honesty about his health situations and all the relationships hit by it. But I seriously dislike how his story ends. Both for the moral reasons and the inevitable comparisons to the Jojo Moyes´s "Me Before You" vibes.

But I like how Fisher and Ivy´s story progresses (mainly in the last chapters). It is deep, raw, touching - and somehow deepening their love story. This is a hard hit on their (yet unknown) journey - but a binding event the more as well. The sorrow shared beautifully develops the heart bounds here. Because love is not only about the rainbows and kittens, but also about fighting and overcoming the deep pain.

Having said all that - this is a tender, raw, beautiful story. And it is a good omen that I discuss and fight it that much - because it means the novel has touched by heart and my mind.

On a whim, and at the last minute, I remembered I had been sent a link to read The Two of Us. It was a refreshing and emotional page-turner. I've recommended to many people looking for a short and quick read.