Love, Almost

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. Chloe and Jack have a whirlwind relationship for 5 months and then he is killed. Chloe has a hard time dealing with this tragedy living with the fact he was in her life for such a short but life changing time. She has to find closer to move on. This book was pretty good. #lovealmost #hayleydoyle #Jan2021

This is the 1st Book that I have read by the author and I really enjoyed this book.

This Book tells the story of Chloe and Jack, Chloe and Jack are in a relationship not long after Chloe moves into Jack Flat , Jack is run over and killed and this story tells of how Chloe is copying after Jack dies and also about telling people who she is as even Jack own parents .

I really enjoyed this book and would give it 4.5 stars, With thanks to Netgalley & Avon Books for the arc of this book in exchange for this honest review.

A sad thought provoking book. A first for my by Hayley. Will definitely be looking out for more. Definitely recommend.

Love, Almost is a book about a whirlwind but serious romance. Chloe hasn't been with her boyfriend long when he is tragically killed. As well as having to cope with the sudden loss, Chloe has to deal with the fact that none of his friends and family seem to know who she is and nobody on her side is taking her grief seriously. This is a refreshing change from typical 'chick lit' and I found it really well written and thought-provoking. It's quite a sad book but I'd definitely recommend it.

This book. THIS BOOK. I don’t think I have the words to describe how emotional and impactful this book is, but I’m writing a review so I’m going to try 😅

Chloe Roscoe and Jack Carmichael have been together for 5 months when Jack is unexpectedly involved in an accident and passes away. How do you move on from the person that was the beginning of the rest of your life? The book follows Chloe as she learns to navigate a life on her own that was intended to be shared.

I have never read a book that made me cry so much. The way that Chloe experienced her grief was so relatable to me. I know that grief is not the same for everyone; people experience it differently, and it is never neat or linear or convenient. But I’ve read a few books where characters lose a loved one, and never have I read one that was so honest and scary and heart wrenching but ultimately hopeful.

I’ve seen this quote already in other reviews but thought I’d share it as well: “So, word of warning for anybody who- like me- has fallen into the habit of taking photos of a rainbow salad; two glasses of wine by candlelight: feet on a beach: don’t. Take photos of people. You will never, ever, ever care about your toes painted neon pink on the sand, ever. But you’ll wish you had more photos of the person you loved. “

I can’t properly articulate how much I loved this book, so all I can say is that I loved it and I encourage everyone to read this when it is released.

I have never read anything by Hayley Doyle, but was intrigued by this book as I am a big fan of the movie, P.S. I Love You. I really enjoyed this book, even if it was depressing at times. I think it's a great story of how you can overcome whatever life throws your way and celebrate people, even if they've passed away.

I enjoyed this book! I liked the writing style as well as the story. It was so well told. This book was so real and the pain Chloe felt was so raw. Watching Chloe grieve was heartbreaking and watching her grow from losing her boyfriend was inspiring. The self discovery in this book was wonderful

As the blurb states, definitely one for fans of PS I Love You - but this is a really different romance novel - it's laugh at loud funny in some places and as a Liverpudlian - I really loved hearing(seeing?!) the accent written down and with no big deal made about it!

My poor heart! This was an engaging, heartfelt story. Well worth the read, but keep tissues handy....

At first I thought I was gonna read some heartbreaking story. It's still heartbreaking but not the way I expected. But then I realised I prepared myself for tears, rebellion and pain but it's not how this story built. So I just let myself go in this book.

Chloe has a boyfriend, or she had. When Jack died in a tragic accident, Chloe tries to cope with the loss of her love. Only for five months knowing/dating him, she's convinced she found the one. But his unexpected death makes Chloe question every single moment with him. Was he really the one?

I liked Hayley Doyle's writing style. This is the first book I've read from her. For me personally, the real message in this book is finding your own happiness in your life even when you thought you hit the bottom. When Chloe did the bucketlist of her boyfriend -plans they'd do if he was alive- she only did them for Jack. It didn't make her happy, in fact everything she did on the list just made her sadder. When she started to do normal things like teaching or seeing some neighbours, she slowly let him go in a natural way.

Maybe I couldn't say everything I wanted to say, but I'm really happy I read this book. I want to thank Netgalley and Avon Books for sending this book and giving me the opportunity.

Could a book can be so sad but also so promising, inspiring at the same time ? Ye, it can. Just like this one!

Grieving after losing someone who really matters to you is a tremendous, ugly process it never leaves you in your whole life! Sometimes it lessens. But at the most vulnerable times of your life, a smallest thing makes you remember that person and in the meantime you feel like the small glass pieces stabbing you deeply. You never stop bleeding. You never stop caring or crying. But in some ways you learn how to handle it without making a scene in front the crowd or dragging your soul to the darkest place you never want to visit!

In this book Chloe spent only five months with Jack before losing him forever. Nobody in her life including her family, friends and of course Jack’s own family couldn’t empathize with her grieving process. They thought she didn’t know him enough to suffer from losing him.

But falling for a person is subjective experience. You can fall at the first sight, first look, first touch, first smile, first talk! Or it takes too much time which prevents you to differentiate between the time you fell in and the time you completely fell out.

Chloe doesn’t only grieve for a man she lost after 5 months of relationship, she grieves for the chance of lifetime long relationship they can build, the holidays they can spend together, dreams they can achieve and realize hand in hand. She longed for their common future that is taken away from them.

Chloe is a teacher, decisive about her life choices. She believed in Jack was the one. Her guts , her heart agreed with her mind. After losing him, she realizes it’s time to find her true self.

So this is a moving on with your life and facing your grief bravely story. It’s sad, emotional, moving, thought provoking but it’s truly well written, motivational.

Overall: I’m giving four learning to love yourself, tear jerking, heart wrenching stars!
It’s not a romance but with its P.S. I love and Forever Interrupted vibes, it’s a great women’s fiction novel!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for sharing this review copy with me in exchange my honest review.

First of all, I want to say how much the storyline was a beautiful take on the brutality of life, but how you can overcome your pain. It was truly inspiring to see Chloe move on with her life, even if she was so deeply heartbroken. She spent so little time with Jack, yet it’s easy to feel how much love she had for him. Most of the time in those types of storylines, the main character has many years with their love before losing them. This time around, I felt like it was a refreshing take on grieving and loving blindly.

This surely wasn’t my usual type of read.
Yes, I can see how it could be predictable for some people, but I liked it just like that.
To me, it was easy to connect with Chloe. I loved how she was so deeply emotionally connected to everyone and everything.

Doyle’s writing style wasn’t my favorite, but overall, I did enjoy her unusual way of using words.

I absolutely feel like Hayley Doyle should now be on everyone’s radar for lovely, emotional reads.

Thank you to the publishers of NetGalley for the ARC copy of this novel.

[My review of this novel will be posted approximately a week before the pub date on my Instagram page @jessiereadz]

What Chloe and Jack did have was special.and unfortunately ended way too soon due to a tragic loss. However, it was only five months and I had to wonder if Chloe created a more romantic picture at times as to what was rather than what actually occurred. It certainly caused her to stagnate and her mother was right when she said that she didn't take anything seriously nor really listen when people needed her like Beth or Si. He only reckoned not clearly stated his love. This was a true learning and heartfelt experience.

Chloe meets and falls in love with Jack and is with him for 5 short months when tragedy strikes, however, what is odd, is no one has ever heard of her. I liked the premise of the book. The author did a wonderful job with Chloe and explaining her feelings and I loved reading of her travels! Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed a lot about this book. I thought the premise was cute and really enjoyed the idea of star crossed lovers and being in love at first sight. I thought the characters were well developed on their own, but I did feel as if i didn't really get to know enough about the relationship of them together. It felt as if i was reading two separate books that occasionally overlapped. I just didn't really feel the relationship between Sam and Izzy build... I wish there had been more back and forth, rather than reflection on what had happened. However, it was still a cute read and i definitely enjoyed it.

This is not a typical love story. What if you were in the first stages of love and all of sudden they were no longer there? Chloe takes us on a journey of love, grief, and self discovery. She’s not a perfect character. She’s flawed, but I was totally rooting for her. Her story really kept me coming back and I finished this book quickly. Loving not only her, but a pretty great cast of side characters.

Thoroughly enjoyable book. Well written and beautifully told story of the beginnings of real love, real possibilities and real loss. Chloe finally meets Jack and it is only the beginning! Even though they've only known each other for a few months, their romance is blossoming and moving fast until the unthinkable happens. So how does one deal with losing someone you are only just falling in love with? This book allows the reader to truly feel what the characters are going through. I really liked this book.

Love, Almost is the story of Chloe whose boyfriend Jack dies in a tragic accident 5 months into their relationship. Chloe lives out all the plans they had pinned to the fridge in a hope to feel closer to him. However, when speaking to his family and friends no one knew she even existed which leads her to question if Jack felt the same about her as she did him.

This is such a well written book where you can relate to Chloe at every turn of the page. Following Chloe all over the world you get so sucked in that you keep hoping she’ll get answers too! I found it very frustrating that no one understood her grief as they’d only been together 5 months. Chloe shows if you know, you know. I found it very interesting that Jack maybe didn’t feel the same and would’ve loved to get answers to this! Hayley Doyle has done a fantastic job with this book and I will definitely be reading more of her work.

Trigger Warnings/Content Warnings for this book: Death/loss, grief, vehicle accidents

“Love, Almost,” is an adult fiction book centered around a woman named Chloe, who loses her boyfriend in an accident. The beginning of the story sets the scene and showcases how happy they are with each other and gives the reader a glimpse into what their relationship was like before his tragic and sudden death, and the rest of the book focuses on Chloe, her grief, and how she tries to do things that she planned to do with her boyfriend.

I really liked the plot of the book, and was very captivated during the beginning and the end, but when reading some parts in the middle of the book, I noticed that I wasn’t as interested. Despite that, I still think it’s a really good book that tackles grief very well, and would definitely recommend it.

Rating: 4/5

Really enjoyed reading this book, couldn't put it down, must admit its one that I would happily pick up again and read,
Overall I would recommend to anyone to read it, can't wait to get it on my page and let my followers know what I think about it!

Finished in one sitting, this was a fairly powerful read about finding your soulmate and then having to move forward after trauma alone.

I believe if you are looking for romance this isn't for you.

I enjoyed reading it, found a couple of the characters a little annoying and the flashbacks at time a little confusing.

Oh my goodness, I absolutely LOVED this story. It was such a moving portrayal of grief, particularly in a significant - but not particularly 'long' - relationship. I read it pretty much in one sitting, and I've already told my friends that they have to read it when it comes out!

As a scouser, I love the Liverpool connections in Hayley Doyle's books - Home Alone at the Phil is a must in Liverpool at Christmas time.

Anyway, back to the book. What struck me the most was how Chloe's feeling of grief at losing Jack were practically pushed to one side because of the of time she'd known Jack...but we as the reader knew that these characters reckoned they were in love with each other.

I loved the idea of the fridge and Chloe using that as a map of where to start in terms of her grief.

Wasn't a fan of Jack's ma!

Was a fan of Simon.

Overall, this is a story of how to work through grief and move on and not necessarily into the arms of another man, I felt that this was about Chloe finding herself.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest opinion.

Heartwarming yet a rollercoaster, Love, Almost isn’t a stereotypical romance.

Love, loss, and moving on are all written from a different than usual perspective. The short time frame of a 5 month relationship will either bring feelings of sadness of what could have been, or of a slight grateful glee that things will come to pass sooner and with less severity.

The tone of writing, the many swear words and comforts of the North make Hayley Doyle cemented as a new, lovely author I’ll keep my eye on in the future. (And previous books too!)

Beautiful unique take on love and moving on.

I really enjoyed this novel. I don't think I've ever read a romance with the same premise before.

We usually spend years with someone before they die but what if you only had a few months? You're not a widow and have you spent enough time to be their girlfriend? Are you even entitled to your grief.

Chloe has only known Jack a few months before he is involved in a horrible accident. She doesn't even know if he really loved her. But her grief is real because he was her future..

The characters in the book were just so well written, I loved every one of them. The dialogue at times was hilarious and I loved my journey with Chloe.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and would love to see a sequel. I really want to know what happens next to them all.

Many thanks to Avon books for this advance copy to review.

Chloe is deeply in love with boyfriend Jack of 5 months. Jack is tragically killed and her world is turned upside down, Chloe decides to work through the list of things they had planned to do together.

I really enjoyed this, I really dread the thought of carrying on without the one you love, I can't bare to think about it.

Very similar to P.S I love you, heartbreaking and worth a read.

When Chloe meets Jack she feels he’s the one. She’s never felt like this about anyone else and while on holiday in Thailand Jack asks her to move from her home in Liverpool into his home with him in London.
It’s all going so well, a new job at a school and ready for a night out to see one of jacks friends do his comedy show, until it’s not.
Things change in a matter of minutes leaving Chloe questioning everything about their relationship and if it was as real as she’d originally thought.

After reading and loving Hayley Doyle’s first book, Never Saw you coming during lockdown I was really excited to see she had another book coming out. Even more excited when I saw it on netgalley and was lucky enough to be gifted the book to read and review before its release.
I don’t even know where to start, I loved this book and read it in 24 hours. It’s full of love, heart ache, laughs and lots of Scouse accents which I could literally hear in my head as I read it.
Chloe is such a loveable character and I just wanted everything to go well for her. I like the way it ended, leaving you wanting more, imagining what comes next and not the ending you’d expect from a romantic story (not to give anything away).
I really look forward to future books, I’m loving the authors work and she’s rapidly becoming a new favourite.

Cute story about moving forward after lost love!

Reminded me a lot of “Forever, Interrupted” by Taylor Jenkins Reid at the beginning, but the book ended up taking its own shape.

I love that, for her, moving on from her boyfriend’s death didn’t mean finding a new man. Often times “moving on” is taken to mean that you have to find someone new to be with. But moving on can also mean traveling through your grief on your own and finding yourself.

I also liked that she let herself grieve even though their relationship lasted “only” 5 months. A lot of people in her life didn’t completely understand how she could be so upset, but she didn’t let that get in her way.

One thing I will say is set your standards before going into this book. It’s not a romance. It’s a story of love and grief and moving forward for yourself.

Chloe's boyfriend of five months, Jack, is killed in an accident, before they get a chance to meet many of the big relationship milestones. Chloe had been truly in love for the first time in her life, and is left reeling after her loss. Though many aspects of this story reminded me of PS I Love You, I felt that Love, Almost had enough differences to make it a unique story. For instance, the idea of Chloe and Jack's relationship being so new and untested before she loses him. I really enjoyed Love, Almost, and felt that it was a fresh and unique take on grief and the main character finding herself in the wake of a disaster.

Love, Almost by Hayley Doyle a devastating five-star read. I have just finished another emotional read and then wasn’t sure if I should start this one as I didn’t know if I had any more tears in me, but I am so glad I did. I don’t know if it was that my husband moved from Liverpool to live and marry me after we had only been dating a short couple of months, so I could imagine what he would have felt if he had lost me like Chloe loses her Jack, I could understand the depth of her love in such a short time span, you don’t spend much time together physically but you do emotionally. I had a similar relationship years ago, very intense and passionate and then suddenly gone and you do feel lost, you haven’t known them since school, or all of their life so everyone who has looks at you with incredulity like your grief isn’t as powerful as theirs even though you feel it is. Maybe I identified with Chloe too deeply, but this story consumed me and was just what I needed as I have honestly been in a horrid slump in our second lockdown in Wales, and even though this second one is short, there is no clear end coming and I was having a wobble, watching Chloe through her voyage gave me a sense of peace, how was I feeling so wobbly when I haven’t lost the love of my life, next year will come soon and life will be back to a more normal way, but when you lose someone life does go back, but it’s never truly normal. Maybe it was the northernisms of this story that added an extra layer to me, as I may have been here for years, but I’m still a northern lass at heart. I know that some people wont enjoy this story, but for me it is easily one of the best I have read this year.

I loved this book so much! It was a bit of a slow starter but the persistence was worth it in the end.
After the first few chapters I just couldn't put it down and flew through it.
Every character although to a point extreme in their traits is so relatable too!

Such a cute and fun read! Perfect distraction in life right now. Really enjoyable characters and story and hard to put down! Really really cute!

Anything that smells romcom is definitely ending up on my TBR because I am a sucker for everything love .Huge thanks to Avon Books for hooking a girl up. Firstly having to read this book shows that I am such an adult and likely to have cried because it hit me in the feels. It tells the story of Chloe and Jack this lovely couple that is hit by such a tragedy after only 5 months of dating. How does one move on and find peace ,love and comfort when someone you love is gone. This book was written so well and I am definitely grateful that I got to read it. Did I cry? Of course but lesson I took is love people while they still here

As I was already a big fan of Hayley Doyle, I was really looking forward to reading this book. It is so cleverly written that I felt like there were times throughout the book that I felt I was there with Chloe. I understand how grief can make you sometimes make silly decisions such as jetting off to Thailand by yourself! But we were with her every step of the way! I also understand that no matter how long you have known someone, after they have passed away it can make you question many things, including how well you knew them after all and what their wishes would have been. I think Chloe’s character is very true to life and was heartfelt. I just wish I knew what happened next with Layla’s dad! I feel Chloe deserved a happy ending!

Love, Almost is a story about love, loss and trying to move on with your life. Chloe and Jack are in love when Jack suddenly dies in an accident which leaves Chloe living in a fog with her grief. But is it from the loss of the love they had or what might have been. Chloe struggles with this because their relationship was only 5 months old and she is overwhelmed by what ifs. To help cope and move on she starts to check off a to-do list of everything she and Jack were planning to do. This is a heartwarming story that depicts one woman’s struggle to cope with the hardballs life throws at you and move on after a devastating loss and realize life does go on.

Chloe has been seeing Jack for a while and has not long moved in with him. Although not together for very long she realises that she is in love with him- could he be the one? They had a fantastic holiday in Thailand where he asked her to move in. One day at their flat, which Jack rents off his parents, Chloe is rather startled by his father's appearance. He has some devastating news- Jack is dead. He has been hit by a van in an accident and died at the scene. His parents don’t know about Chloe being anything more than a one night stand and she is pretty much left to her own devices. To start with she only tells a close friend and tries to carry on normal life as best she can. She realises at the funeral that she hardly knows anyone and they don’t realise that she was Jack’s girlfriend, it's as if she doesn't exist in their world, yet Jack was the world to her. This is the story of how she got over the months following his death. As many others have said about the line about taking pictures of toes and glasses of wine in the sunset- don’t -take them of the person you love as you really don’t know how many tomorrows you may have. A wonderful read of picking yourself up and getting on with life despite all the turmoil inside. How, yes, it changes you but the world does go on turning and you with it whether you like it or not and that there is sunshine after the rain. A wonderful read to make you think.
(rest of links on publication)

An emotional read which deals with grief and moving on. An interesting collection of characters most with their own bereavement in some form or other and their way of dealing with it. The main character, Chloe, was only five months into a relationship with Jack when he tragically died and the plot is around was he really 'the one', did he really love her. She has created her own bubble around her and some of her discoveries are brutal but real as she needed to face some harsh truths about herself along the way.

Chloe and Jack have been together for five blissful months. They vacationed together, moved in together, and began planning the rest of their lives. Until one day, it all comes crashing down when Jack is killed in an accident. Chloe is left to pick up the pieces of their life together, left with a fridge full of reminders of what they had planned.

Love, Almost is an important story that explores the grief of losing someone very close to you. This book made me cry, but also made me laugh quite often. The main character, Chloe, seems very real and it is easy to find empathy for her as she navigates this hard journey. This is definitely a book to be on the look out for!

I loved this book. Its an emotional but uplifting story which had me in tears .I look forward to reading more from Hayley

“I reckon I love you, Chloe Roscoe.”

Chloe Roscoe is head over heels for her new boyfriend, Jack Carmichael. However, their sure to be love-story, is tragically cut short when Jack is killed in an accident. Chloe is devastated and isn’t sure how to move on with Jack so abruptly ripped from her life. They had recently moved in together and things were just beginning to unfold for them. Chloe finds herself in an awkward space of not really knowing Jack fully but fully knowing she loved him with all of her being. She can’t seem to find a place to fit in, with him gone. She finds out his family and some friends didn’t even know about her. She attends his funeral and the picture that is painted of him, isn’t the Jack she knew. In an attempt to quell her pain and try and find some peace, she sets out to check off some of their to-do’s, without him. Will she find what she needs? What is life without Jack? Can she learn to move on and lovingly leave him in her past?

This was a good story about having your life take an abrupt, unexpected turn and learning how to rebuild, brick by brick. A story of how the most earth shattering thing can happen, but the world keeps turning and you must find a way to go on. And sometimes, even in the darkness, you can find some rays of sunshine that get you through to the next ray of sunshine, until you are fully in the light, again. I thought it was going to have a more romantic side to it than it ended up having, but I actually enjoyed how it all turned out. I really liked Chloe and felt connected to her. The other characters weren’t as developed but they were all complimentary to the story. I would definitely recommend this read and will be looking for more books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley & Avon Books UK for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. I wholeheartedly enjoyed it!

“I reckon I love you, Jack Carmichael.”

I must be a sadist or something, reading this sad "made me cry" book during these trying times. Maybe it was because I loved the simple yet colourful cover too, I can't get enough of this cartoonish pieces of art and I am always attracted to books with these types of covers.

Love, Almost is heartbreaking, following Chloe's journey through loss and grief, and her inability to move on from her boyfriend, Jack...so she decides to complete a list she and Jack made and as she does so it leads her on a journey of discovery. The novel is quite hopeful in some ways too because it shows that death isn't the end of you, you can and will move on and the person who died never really leaves us. *sniff*

Whether you’re usually a fan of this type of novel or not I definitely think it’s worth checking out. It made me feel all the feels and to me that's worth All. The. Stars.

The story follows a girl chloe and boy named jack who were living together and were in their late thirties. It has just been three months since they are together, and one morning Jack's dad comes to jack and chloe's appartment and tell her that he is no more.
Although, I enjoyed every moment readying this book and still at some points I could not connect with chloe.
But still I would recommend this book to everyone.

This book is terribly sad and incredibly heartwarming at the same time. It’s very well written and a truly lovely story. Beautiful book

This book is special. It’s the kind of story I know I will think about for a long time.

Chloe and Jack’s time together is over before it really began. This is not your average love story but it’s definitely a story about love. Its unpredictable. Its emotional and it’s about moments we share with those we cherish. It’s also about healing and finding yourself and a future you can be happy with.

I cried a few times in this one. It made me pause and think about mortality, about family and about happiness. There’s a fantastic group of supporting characters that made it a really rich read. I absolutely loved it.

I Received An eBook Version Of This From @netgalley In Exchange For An Honest Review.

I Reckon I Love This Book! Chloe’s Story Is So Heartbreakingly Sad, But You Are Able To Also Laugh Along At The Funny Bits.

This Book Covers The Absolute Highs And Lows Of Life. Hayley Doyle Has Written It So Well, It’s Lovely But You Also Feel Like You Are Grieving Jack.

I Really Liked The Fact That It Wasn’t Your Typical Happy Ending. It Is An Ending With Purpose, Not Just Girl Gets Boy.

I Highly Recommend This Book, There Is More To It Than Meets The Eye.

It is a happy start to Love Almost with Chloe and Jack enjoying their holiday in Bangkok, revelling in their freedom to sample the sights and smells of a city that never sleeps. Their relationship is very new but it would seem their connection is very real. Could Chloe at the ripe old age of thirty six have finally have found The One? Fast forward a short while and Liverpudlian Chloe is now living with Jack in his London flat. On this particular day Chloe is just exiting the shower when she comes face to face with Jack’s father John, the bearer of devastating news. Jack has been killed in a road traffic accident and in that instant Chloe’s life falls apart. Their relationship has tragically ended before its even really begun which forces Chloe to question how well she knew this big lovable bear of a man and whether theirs was a love that would have stood the test of time.

Although there’s plenty of fiction exploring grief and its unique nature, this storyline acknowledges the fact time is irrelevant in matters of the heart. Instead what is more relevant are the ways in which people can have an impact on your life and imprint themselves on your heart whether it’s for five minutes, five months or longer. It’s a storyline that recognises the struggle many face in coming to terms with losing a loved one, the coping mechanisms they employ to deal with grief and the ways in which individuals begin to move on. Chloe is no exception as she battles her reluctance to accept that life goes regardless, questions her entitlement to feel her bereavement so keenly and questions whether her relationship with Jack was the real deal or not. You cannot fail to be touched by events that see Chloe holding imaginary conversations with Jack’s ghostly presence, her ill timed return to their holiday destination of Bangkok and a determination to fulfill the list of things they’d already planned to do in the future. As she bravely works her way through the list, with limited success, Chloe learns more about the man who literally lit up a room with his presence, his booming laugh bouncing off the walls. Quite what is the significance of a photo depicting a man sitting in a trolley underneath the infamous McDonald’s golden arches, a photo that hangs in Jack and Chloe’s kitchen is perhaps the biggest question of all.

In terms of characters, there is the usual eclectic mix of family, best friend, new friends and passing acquaintances that prove love is still very much in evidence in Chloe’s life even if it may not be of the romantic kind. The Roscoe family provide much of the laughs in contrast to the Carmichaels whom I couldn’t warm to until the closing pages when their grief at losing son Jack is finally recognised, putting Chloe’s experiences into perspective. Up until then they exude frostiness and unfriendliness as opposed to the natural warmth that exudes from the likes of Beth and Si and all the Roscoes. The voices of Chloe and the rest of the Liverpool contingent sound authentic with dialogue that is typically scouse, hardly surprising since the author hails from this part of the world but it helps in visualising these characters, bringing them to life. Chloe herself is somewhat flighty, incapable of taking life seriously much to the annoyance and despair of those closest to her. In short this is a woman who despite her thirty six years has a great deal of growing up to do. The unexpected death of Jack ensures that Chloe will be a very different woman from the one we glimpse in the opening pages, thanks to the help of her friends and family and the life lessons she learns along the way.

Having previously awarded the author’s debut novel Never Saw You Coming with 5 gold stars I wanted so much to be able to do the same with Love Almost. The crucial word here is almost as I couldn’t find it in my heart to do so for a number of reasons. I longed for Chloe and Jack’s story to make me weep as well as smile, laugh and feel hopeful but unfortunately my eyes stayed resolutely dry, even with the repetition of THEIR saying (which I won’t spoil for you!). It is heartening that this love story ends on a brighter more hopeful note given that Chloe’s story is overwhelmingly sad although the humour is still there in the writing, just bubbling away beneath the surface. It explodes onto the pages from time to time especially where Chloe’s family are concerned but it definitely is more subtle overall. Maybe that’s inevitable given the subject matter but I also failed to connect with Chloe in the way I expected to, despite the fact she’s a lost soul blindsided by grief. That said Love Almost is beautifully written, heartfelt and touching with the author capturing the uniqueness of the grieving process and beyond, reminding us there is no right or wrong way to behave when experiencing great loss. I feel this is a love story to savour,rather than race through, allowing you to reflect on a a subject all of us will confront at some point in our lives. My criticisms will by no means deter me from picking up future novels by this author and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend. My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

A tender, emotional but uplifting read that I became hooked on. This is Chloe and Jack's story, just when she finds the perfect man something devastating happens, it is the story about grief and loss, I really felt for Chloe and hoped that she would be ok. I can never imagine her situation and never want to but it makes you cherish the ones close to you as you never know what is going to happen. It is such a fragile storyline but one that has been done really well. I laughed at parts, I cried at parts and I thought this story was told beautifully.

Love, Almost by Hayley Doyle, is the story of what happens when a happily ever after doesn’t end as you had hoped. It explores the grief of losing someone that you love too soon.

Chloe and her boyfriend Jack had been together for five months. They were planning their future and placed mementos on the fridge of all the things they wanted to do, and the places they planned to travel. They had just moved in with each other, her bags still packed, when Jack tragically dies in an accident. Chloe now must pick up the pieces of their life together alone, left with a fridge full of reminders of a future that will never happen.

Chloe soon finds out that although she loves Jack with all her heart, she might not know Jack as she thought. While attending his funeral she realizes that his friends and family is not aware of her or their relationship. Was their love mutual? What is her life to be without Jack? Were their plans meant to be? Will she be able to move on? To answer these questions and to heal, Chloe sets out to follow through with their plans, without him.

This is a beautifully written book of love, loss and moving forward. You’ll find yourself cheering for Chloe in her adventures, and hoping she’ll get the answers she (and we) need. Hayley Doyle has done a wonderful job with this book and look forward to reading more of her work.

“I reckon I love you, Chloe Roscoe.”

Special thanks to NetGalley, Avon Books UK and Hayley Doyle for sharing this incredible ARC  in exchange my honest review. ❤️️

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Great book. I loved reading it. Very interesting and covers alot of information

I loved this book!

Within a coupld of pages I was completely hooked and just had to know what was going to happen to Chloe.

Chloe had only known Jack for 5 months when he is tragically killed in an accident. She had just moved in with him and seemed to be moving really fast in their relationship like she had finally found "the one" and then he is gone and she ends up questioning just about everything.

The story is sad and moving and made me smile and even laugh.

If you enjoyed the likes of PS I Love you and Me Before You you will most likely enjoy this book too.

I would love to read a sequel to this story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon books for the arc.

Chloe and Jack are soulmates. But life has other plans…

Chloe is deliriously in love for the very first time. But when Jack, her boyfriend of five months, is killed in a tragic accident, she is left reeling. Their relationship was amazing – but it never really had the chance to get started.

Grieving but determined, Chloe decides to live life for the both of them and makes her way through the list of things they’d planned to do together – this time on her own.

This was at times a heartbreaking read. Chloe as a character handled grief exactly the same way I would, over-analyzing everything and pushing people away.

For fans of Me Before You.

This book was the perfect escape. It was lovely and fun. It was my first book by this author and I will definitely be on the look out for more!!

This book is a must for fans of The Notebook and similar slow burning love stories with no obvious ending. The characters were full of depth and colour and the locations vivid and tempting. A beautiful story with a satisfying ending

Firstly I'd like to thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This is a great book, the story of Chloe and Jack. I loved reading it and got fully engrossed in the characters and just wanted a good ending for Chloe.

Love, love, love a good chick lit, fans of PS I love you will love this for sure! Highly recommended

Love, Almost by Hayley Doyle is a great book about love, loss and moving on.

Chloe is happily dating her boyfriend of a few months Jack and hoping for a future together when Jack unexpectedly dies. After dating a few months, they moved in together but hadn’t said I love you yet. Jack’s family doesn’t know about her. This causes Chloe to question their relationship and whether she actually knew him.

Love, Almost is emotional and heartbreaking. The reader quickly is brought into Chloe and Jack’s happy romance to have it shattered by tragedy. Chloe is grieving and contemplating their relationship throughout the book. Chloe has to move on from the future she wanted while wondering if that future was ever going to happen even if Jack was still alive. Chloe turns to her family and friends. Some are trying to be supportive without knowing what to do while others think the relationship wasn’t serious so she should get over it. I liked how both sides were shown. Chloe is thirty six, so her family wants her to get married and have kids. Chloe is left wondering what she wants.

I recommend Love, Almost to fans of JoJo Moyes and Josie Silver.

Thank you Avon Books UK, Harper Collins UK Audio and NetGalley for Love, Almost.

Life can be cruel. When Chloe lost Jack five months into their relationship because of a tragic accident she wondered what her future would look like. She decides to live life for both her and Jack, working her way through adventures that they had planned together. Whilst incredibly sad I was glad that I had read it. Life can include sunshine again if you let it.

Love, Almost by Hayley Doyle was a book with all the feels, it was a book filled with likeable characters, Chloe and Jack were adorable albeit short lived as Jack dies.

Its written in a easy reading style and I was able to devour the book in a couple of sittings.

I would totally recommend this book to anyone who was after a light read, which will give you all the feels.

I must say, that this one broke my heart. Yes it was good, but I do not do books like this. Yes, I read P.S. I love you and Me, before you, and I knew what I was expecting, but even knowing it this made me sad...
I know that there is always a rainbow, but still...
This is lovely written, 4 stars for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Chloe's story, it's a raw and unpolished look at true love, and also grief. It felt so real and I completely fell in love with Chloe, she's a mess but she has a big heart. You can't help but think about those early days of a big romance where you feel your whole world has changed, and to then consider what would have happened if it had all ended so abruptly; this explores that grief and the loss of "what could have been", and I particularly felt the questioning that Chloe did about the romance, their experiences and of Jack himself as she's presented with other people's memories of him.
Chloe's own family were absolutely adorable and hilarious, her mum, dad and brother steal the whole show.
This is an uplifting read that offers you a chance to assess what's important in life and what we all want to leave behind after we're gone.

Grieving after losing someone (or even something, such as a pet) can be incredibly difficult to deal with and everyone deals with it in different ways. It does not matter if it is a loss from a long relationship or a short one as the loss is still tremendous. Last year I read and greatly enjoyed The Happy Ever After Playlist, which takes the subject of loss and illustrates how you attempt to move on. This novel sets out with the same goal as our character tries to figure out the next steps to move forward. One key difference is that Playlist is written about a character’s loss after a long-term relationship and Love, Almost features a character’s loss after a much shorter one. Is there a difference for how grief affects you if you have not even been together long? This novel sets to find out the answer as our character journeys to heal.

Chloe Purdue is in her mid-thirties from Liverpool. She is currently a drama teacher after many career paths, including acting. She met Jack Carmichael while attending a performance at a theatre in January. The two of them hit it off and soon became an item. Soon after meeting, they even found themselves on vacation together in Bangkok, Thailand where they had the time of their lives and even reckoned they loved each other. They also found themselves so happy in their relationship that they soon decide to move in together. Life together was bliss until one day Chloe finally meets Jack’s parents and it is not for a happy first meeting. Jack has unexpectedly passed away after an accident. Chloe now faces the bewildering idea that she is now without her significant other and how to move forward. They were only together five months and they had endless possibilities in front of them so how can she figure out what to do next alone when the future of what to do in the future as a couple was unknown. Readers journey along with Chloe as she tries to find the next steps.

The story is written very organically as it starts slower as Chloe is in the initial shock of the sudden loss of Jack. She goes through all the stages of grief in her own time. The author balances Chloe expressing her own feelings on the matter while integrating outsiders’ perspectives. To those outside the relationship, they have a difficult time understanding Chloe, as they believe that she should not have been as devastated over the loss of a five-month relationship. It is very well done in this story as there is no timeline for how much grief can affect you as you could be devastated by a loss of a one-day relationship equally to a fifty year one as each person is different.

As Chloe and Jack were in their honeymoon phase “bubble,” they never fully had a chance to introduce their relationship to others. Even Chloe and Jack’s parents had not met the other yet. Their respective friends had not had the chance to fully meet yet. How can you create a proper network of support when those that knew Jack have never heard of you? This was an extremely well done aspect of the story as you can feel Chloe’s frustration yet she also understands that they cannot really relate to her feelings if they never knew she existed. It was nice to see Jack’s friends and family try to move on and how it all relates to Chloe.

Overall, the story does have a lot of heartbreak and sadness, as it is a story of grief. There are additional themes of friends and finding yourself, which are nicely, weaved together. The supporting characters were great, although I absolutely could not stand the amount of times Chloe’s best friend said “Babes” in this story. If I took a shot of alcohol every time the word was used, I would have been in the hospital for alcohol poisoning. Aside from this, Beth was a good friend to Chloe and it was nice to see how she was there for Chloe even though she was going through a lot herself. It is a great storyline as it illustrates how even though a tragic loss occurred, life still goes on with both the good and the bad. Although the story does have a conclusion, it is not one that wraps up everything fully and that made it very relatable as the journey through grief never fully concludes. The story was great read and I would gladly read more by this author!


**I give a special thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an ARC to read and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.**

The 2nd Hayley Doyle book I’ve read in the last few months. First thing I need to say is : I’m officially her biggest fan.

‘Love, almost’ is a fantastic story about (almost) love, loss and how you move forward after losing the person you (almost) love. I have nothing bad to say at all about this book. It took me just over one day to read because I was so invested in Chloe’s world. I loved the use of ‘me’ to emphasise Chloe is a scouser. I found myself reading ‘me’ even when ‘my’ was written!

You won’t be disappointed.

5 stars. Amazing.

Instagram : @Raena_Reads

This is a perfectly wonderful book about love and loss and the complicated nature of grief. The author tackles these topics beautifully and with heart.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

How long does it take to really know and fall in love with someone? The story stars with a glimpse of Chloe and Jack’s relationship. The two are together for 5 months before he dies suddenly and then the focus shifts to Chloe and how she copes with the loss of someone she thought she loved and the loss of the future and life they had planned. I felt for Chloe throughout this book, grieving a love/ almost love but also having to deal with people who don’t quite get it because the relationship was still fairly new. The book was heartbreaking at times but also had some really lovely moments once Chloe started working through and processing her grief. There were also some interesting, sometimes difficult well rounded supporting characters. A well written, compelling story from start to finish.

''I RECKON I LOVE YOU, CHLOE ROSCOE.
This is what we were. What we will always be. Not love. But almost. ''

Chloe and Jack were in love. Just moved in together. But then he died. Jack hasn't spoken about Chloe to his parents or his friends yet, and nobody knows who Chloe is and how serious they actually were. But Chloe is 36 and after all that time she has found her true love. Only for it to be taken away from her.

I love how the story progressed. It starts off with Chloe learning how to cope and deal with missing Jack, but it goes deeper and she widens her search from finding peace to finding herself. She first searches for some kind of a sign of affirmation that their love did exist, that she didn't imagine it, that she wasn't irrelevant to him. She is desperately trying to get that confirmation. So she goes through a lot to find peace and comfort. She goes from shock to feeling desperate, to feeling absolutely lost in life all together, to the point where she almost ruins all her relationships.

It shows us that we sometimes get caught up in grief, totally normal and that we sometimes forget to reach out to others who also have their sadness to deal with. We just go through it at different times, or through different aspects of our lives. People tend to have it together, but appearances are just appearances.

I guess the story also sends a message that you never know what people are going through. Use your words wisely. Show more kindness. And always be honest with your loved ones because you never know how you might help someone learn the truth about who they are.

Characters: Every character introduced was presented in the right way so that we understand their stories. We were given tidbits of their deep struggles and lives so that we understand them and their roles in this story. The relationship between her and her bestie was so raw and honest, it was amazing to witness it. Oh, and Justin! Justin was my cherry on top of a sundae at the end. I was a bit annoyed with her parents, especially in the beginning but it all kind of went away once I got deeper into the story. You start to slowly understand everyone's point of view, and that is what life should be about anyway. Understanding each other, even though we walk different paths in life.

I have to admit the last 10 minutes of reading had my eyes watering. It's definitely not how I imagined it would end, but it ended PERFECTLY. I am definitely picking up her other books.

Who would like it: Anyone who enjoys love stories, but isn't afraid of reading an unconventional one, If you'd like to get more insight into a different kind of a love story, that hasn't even begun properly, and want to learn more about how one deals with loss.

Love, Actually is a book about finding yourself after losing someone you love.
Chole met Jack 5 months before his tragic death and she is having a hard time finding closure. Her relationship with Jack was still so new she barely knew his friends or family but she knew she had a connection and she spends the next few months finding answers to all her unanswered questions about Jack and if he truly loved her.

I really actually enjoyed this book and felt a connection with Chloe and her grief. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose someone so quickly into a relationship but it is not hard to begin to feel your heartstrings being pulled.

I revived this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A fantastic feel good story that manages to have you in tears one minute and smiling the next. I was hooked allthe whole way through and didn't want it to end. Just what I needed and I'm already recommendeding to all my family and friends beautifully written

Falling in love quickly, Chloe and Jack are together just a short five months before a tragic accident takes Jacks' life and Chloe is left to grieve him without the understanding of the people around her understanding. If there is one thing I know about grieving it is that no two people grieve a like, and this is what is baffling to the people around Chloe. How could she be having so much grief for a person she barely knew. The dynamic of this was interesting, especially on Jack's parents' part, who barely knew Chloe and certainly had no idea how close she and Jack were.

Love Almost is a heartbreaker of a read, so be sure to have tissue handy. I was prepared for sadness but not to the extent I actually felt it. Chloe's grief is raw and honest and if you have ever felt the hard loss of a loved one, it could be a trigger for someone. You travel with her on a journey of what could have been, how she imagines things would have been if Jack were still there, and then you watch as she realizes hope and that her life isn't over just because Jack's is and that it is ok for her to move on and live her life.

Love Almost is a great read, but I would not necessarily call it a true romance, to me, it felt more like a book of struggles, recovery, and change. It is a quick read, that is if you can read through the tears you shed while you read. If you are a fan of PS I Love You or just tearjerkers in general this book is a must-read.

Good read one to curl up with on a Sunday afternoon. Would read more by this author. Good characters and likeable/

‘Love, Almost’ is a lovely story about love, loss, and how you move forward after losing the person you love. This was an unforgettable, emotional read. If you enjoyed PS I love you, you will certainly enjoy this one.
My thanks to Net Galley, the author and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A different love story! A story about love, grief and self-discovery; approached in an entertaining and even fun way by the author.
The story of Chloe and how she grieves the loss of her boyfriend, with whom she had all these plans and dreams and hopes with is a story that takes you on a journey with her attempts of finding answers to questions that might never be answered.

In endless could have been’s, and what if’s we enjoy Chloe and Jack’s relationship while she is grieving the relationship she thought was the perfect and final one!

Mix in parents, in-laws that don’t even know her, friends and colleagues, and why not, a new love? The above is definitely what makes this a good read!

This book is the first I have read from the author, and it was very good. It follows the sorry of Chloe, whose love interest Jack dies after whirlwind romance. it follows her as she deals with the grief and always with Jacks family and friends meeting her after his passing. Overall a good story, and much different than my normal rom coms.
Thanks netgalley!

Chloe meets Jack. She enjoys a whirlwind 5 month romance where she moves into his flat before it is tragically cut short. Jack dies in an accident. However, Chloe is the last to know about this as Jack's parents did not know about her. Her first meeting with Jack's parents is at his flat when his Dad retreats their upon finding out the news.

On Jack and Chloe's fridge hang tickets to gigs, dinner and holiday plans. These are a stark reminder to Chloe of the fun and future they had planned together. Chloe seeks out to live out all their plans in an attempt to stay close to Jack. She often finds herself talking to him out loud.

Love, Almost follows Chloe's journey in accepting Jack's passings and all it's difficulties with it regarding their newly established relationship. Love, Almost portrays both the beauty and struggles of experiencing grief; the vivid illusions of hearing/seeing a loved one that has passed away.

Love, Always
Truly beautiful!

I enjoyed this book wasn’t quite how I would imagine it didn’t quite grip me but was nice.

We have Chloe and Jack in holiday in Bangkok having a lovely time. Then they move in together and after a few months Jack is tragically killed and this leaves Chloe to try and grieve. The only problem Jack never told his family and friends about Chloe. She wonders did he truly love her.

This takes Chloe on a journey to discover whether he loved her or not. She even went on holiday back to Bangkok but that didn’t help her.

Will she find out did he truly lover her?

I should start by saying I'm a sentimental person. I cry at TV ads, and cat videos for goodness sake! But I often find supposedly emotional or sentimental scenes in fiction forced or predictable. Consequently, there are only a small number of fictional stories that make me cry. Fewer still that really hit me emotionally to the point of full on sobbing.

This was in the latter category. At times I was sobbing to the point that I had to go and take a walk. That's one of the reasons why it took me twice as long to read as most books. It had nothing to do with the beautiful writing or the pacing of the story. I was never bored, never struggled with the believability or any of the characters. I was immediately hooked. Immediately invested in Chloe and Jack. So I found myself so emotionally bereft at times that I needed to take a deep breath. Or ten!

Things I particularly liked:
* Chloe was painfully real. Her journey through the stages of grief was so skilfully imagined that it was visceral at times. And, although gut wrenchingly tragic at times, it never felt morose. There were some truly hilarious moments interspersed throughout.

* I also liked that all of the main characters were in their late 30s, dealing with all the anxiety, loss and emotional baggage that comes along with people in this age group who are still trying to find their HEA's.

* I really appreciated that it wasn't predictable. The answers to Chloe's questions weren't all tied to grand gestures and huge, groundbreaking revelations. I can't say more without spoiling some of my favourite parts, but real life isn't like fiction, so this unpredictability added to my emotional investment in all of the character's lives.

Things I didn't particularly like:
* Running out of tissues. Several times!

All that said, If you've ever suffered a huge loss in a relationship (whether that be through bereavement or not; and regardless of if it's a partner, or simply a friend or family member) this is an uplifting and cathartic read. Hayley Doyle's exquisite writing ultimately leaves the reader with hope for the future. And that's all you can really ask for, isn't it?

Overall rating: ❤❤❤❤❤
Heat rating: 🔥🔥
Emotional rating: 😭😭😭😭😭

A really sweet book about finding love, then losing it. The book is about Chloe whose boyfriend of 5 months (Jack) unexpectedly passes away in a traffic accident. Life gets a bit awkward for her because she didn't really know much about Jack and hadn't met his family or friends (except his brother very briefly) and she feels she can't share her grief as no one in her life knew Jack either. She then tries to move on by ticking off all the calendar items they had planned together. The storyline was lovely - thankfully never having lost someone like Chloe did, I couldn't relate to her whirlwind choices but I could imagine how grief would prompt you into making crazy choices. The characters were well written - I really liked Beth and Kit and I kinda want a tin of broken up easter eggs for emergencies now... This book is definitely about loss and moving on from it and I think the author did a good job with it.

This was a beautiful book and reminded me of one day which if you loved you will certainly love this. This was such a poignant and beautiful read to start the new year with and so much more than a love story a d conveys the message life is so precious so make sure make memories and live each day like it's your last as you never know what's round the corner.

I was not ready for Love, Almost by Hayley Doyle. Such an emotional, heartbreaking and heartwarming read. Chloe and Jack are in happy and ready for a life together, when tragedy strikes. Chloe is left lost and grieving and without the future she had imagined. Now she finds herself looking at what her future now means. What follows is her journey and how she works through the grief and finding herself. It was both sad and hopeful and I enjoyed it.

Happy reading!

A beautiful story of love, loss, grief, mourning and trying to figure out how to move forward. Chloe and Jack were in love when the unthinkable happened. Chloe is heartbroken and while trying work through her unimaginable grief she is dealing with her family and friends not understanding why she is in such pain. According to them “she was only with him for a few minutes”. Apparently to them the time allowed to grieve is commensurate with the length of the relationship. Chloe is left adrift as she mourns heir five months together, but the loss of their future . She loved Jack and truly believed in her heart that they’d have a lifetime together. Even Jacks family is dismissive of her. We get a birds eye view of her figuring out how this smart young woman tries to navigate her new reality. No one should ever judge who and how we love or grieve. Its an emotional, but beautiful read. Be sure to have a big handful of tissues at hand while reading this heartwarming and heartbreaking story.
Thanks to Netgalley and Avon UK for this wonderful book.

This was a beautiful story dealing with overcoming loss. The book was very thought-provoking and sad, but in the good way of getting sad because something touched you.

Chloe and Jack have their relationship potential cut short, at the stage of 'I love you' with future plans. But not long enough to have got to know everyone around their partner. When she loses him she decides to carry on a bucket list of things they had planned to do, and tries to get to know his family and friends.
You really feel for her as she comes to terms with coping with grief and accepting that life isn't taking the path she'd imagined.
I would be keen to read more by Hayley Doyle

This reminds me so much of The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, which means this is an extremely emotional book. It's thought-provoking, which is great, but it is really sad. I don't think I needed that right now, but this is definitely the type of story I'd like to return to one day.

“So, word of warning for anybody who- like me- has fallen into the habit of taking photos of a rainbow salad; two glasses of wine by candlelight: feet on a beach: don’t. Take photos of people. You will never, ever, ever care about your toes painted neon pink on the sand, ever. But you’ll wish you had more photos of the person you loved."

When it comes to loss, how do you cope? I'm a sobbing freakin mess. I don't do well with hurt or loss or "forever gone". How do you move on when the person who's gone was just right in front of you hours before?

Chloe and Jack were adorably in love; it brought me back to the first 5 months of my previous relationship, probably the only one that if this had happened to me I would be a WREK. Cause even at 5 months I was sure he was my forever (we were high school sweethearts ended up getting married but divorcing at 30, I still feel like I lost my best friend most days).

The news being broken to her was devastating, considering his parents didn't know who she was or why she was in his home. I can't imagine how much harder that must had been as well.

I tend to stay away from reads like this lately, but in light of Valentine's Day... that was probably still a pretty bad idea.

Despite how sad this topic is, this book is also about hope, moving on and finding your way while dealing with grief and loss. It was definitely an eye opening and thought provoking experience. And I'm glad I picked this one up!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this title!

Enjoyed this love story, very thought provoking & well written. Not quite the ending I had anticipated & did find the last two chapters a little long winded, that said, still a good read

So I am a little bit of a sucker for a good love story. Whether they’re light-hearted or rooted in tragedy, as long as it has an easy-to-root-for romance at its centre, I’m usually bound to fall for it. That’s exactly what I was expecting from Love, Almost.

Chloe had only been with Jack for five months when the unthinkable happened -Jack was hit by a van and died instantly. Now, Chloe feels she must live out the life they’d planned together on her own. But in doing this, she is forced to answer a pivotal question -was what they had really love or did they only almost get there?

One thing that Chloe struggles with is the fact that her relationship with Jack was so brief and she isn’t sure whether she deserves to mourn him like his friends and family are. It seems that she is constantly trying to prove to Jack’s inner circle -who never got the chance to meet her- and also to herself that their romance happened and that their love was real. I guess it puts paid to the school of thought that anyone who comes into your life has the power to change it forever, no matter how little time they spent in it.

Chloe takes a trip back to Thailand, the only holiday that she and Jack managed to take together. She goes to source the story behind a photo that Jack took on their trip but when she’s disappointed with the truth, she meets a Canadian man and fellow solo traveller called Justin. Despite her grief, she ends up having a really wonderful time dotted with lovely moments of happiness and peace. It was at this point in the book where I really started to be certain that Chloe was going to be just fine.

There are even a couple of little bits of wisdom to the phone-obsessed among us. There is something about a grief-centred story that makes both the character and the reader very reflective about life and its fragility. Suddenly nothing that seemed to be so very important matters at all when someone we love dies, especially when it’s unexpected. So much about Chloe and Jack’s romance read so authentically, which upped the emotion whenever Chloe clearly missed him.

One character I didn’t really like was Chloe’s best friend Beth. Although she is there for Chloe, I felt that she came across as self-centred. The above passage is from the beginning of the book where Chloe turns up at Beth and her husband Fergus’ house to tell them about Jack’s death. It takes what seems like forever for Chloe to tell her because Beth goes on and on about mundane, unimportant things even though it’s obvious that Chloe is distressed. This meant that my first meeting with Beth consisted of screaming at her to shut the hell up!

There is also a lot of Scouse dialect in Chloe’s conversations mostly with Beth, her parents and brother. She says ‘me mum’ and ‘meself’ a lot which may confuse anyone not familiar with the Scouse accent. However, it wasn’t really consistent. Sometimes she used ‘my mum’ and ‘myself’ and I didn’t really notice this only being reserved for Southern characters. Perhaps this could have done with a little more editorial attention.

I think Chloe’s mum Sue shares many traits with all of our mums. Their relationship is very relateable -fraught with prickly tension but still full of love. Sue seems to be forever disappointed by her unambitious, single, 30-something daughter and Chloe seems to be forever trying to impress her. It’s an age-old dynamic that most women I know will be able to recognise, so I can only assume it was written from experience!

Love, Almost is a heartfelt story about one woman’s journey from unimaginable grief to acceptance and hope. It has been touted as great for fans of Jojo Moyes but I actually found it a lot more light-hearted than what I’ve read of her books. Chloe doesn’t just embark on a journey out of her grief. She also rediscovers her passion and reason to live. Yes, it revolves around a tragic death but this novel is ultimately about living life to the fullest.

I really enjoyed this book. It was sad, joyful, heartbreaking and wonderful all at the same time. Easy to read and wonderfully written. Would recommend!

This book had such a heartbreaking premise, yet also conveyed a message of hope and healing after the death of a loved one. Chloe’s shattering story is written so beautifully, I was moved to tears watching her fall apart.

We watch Chloe break. We watch her struggle to come to terms with Jack’s death, and we watch her attempt to get her life back on track after this devastating event. I loved reading every minute of it. As she moved through the stages of grief, without a very helpful support network, all I wanted to do was hug her! She needed to know that everything she was feeling was normal. That her feelings were valid. To lose Jack the beginning of their love story, would have been absolutely devastating.

As I watched Chloe attempt to finish off all the plans they had made together during their five-month relationship, all I wanted was for her to find her closure. Choe was such a strong protagonist, yet some of the characters made me want to smack them with the book! Although they probably meant well, many of them really weren’t helpful during her grieving process. My heart broke for Chloe!

I loved this book so much. The way grief was explored was so real, devasting and yet the end made me feel hopeful. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. As much as it hurts, life will go on, and that alone made me teary. I will not stop recommending this book!

Thank you so much for allowing me to read “Love, Almost”.

This was such a sad book. While it defiantly tugged on my hearts strings, it was still a great read.

First of all let me say how much I love this cover. So simple but yet so effective and thought provoking a little like the book. This is the story of Chloe who meets Jack her soulmate and falls head over heels, in love with in.

Imagine meeting the one, moving in with him or her and then it all being taken away from you, within five months. You're still so wrapped up in the initial honeymoon stages and can't get enough of each other that, your friends haven't met you or each other yet, his parents don't know who you are or how important you were to him. I can't even imagine!

This book is so sad but also so lovely. After Jacks sudden death, Chloe goes on a journey of self discovery, finding things about about herself but also about Jack. A beautiful book, with a really unique concept which I loved, even if it did make me ugly cry.

I haven't read the author previously but she will definitely be added to my list to check out other books she has written. A beautiful book.

Thank you for Netgalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

My rating scale
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Absolutely loved it! Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling or made me cry. And took me on an emotional rollercoaster.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Really liked it. Will read more by the author and other books in the series.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - It was just okay, didn’t move me, but don’t feel like I wasted me time reading it either.
⭐️⭐️ - Didn’t like this book and probably won’t read other in the series.
⭐️ - I did not care for this book at all and feel like I wasted my time reading it

Fantastic read. I have been completely unable to put this one down. I cannot wait to read more by this author.
Full review to follow