Gorgeously readable book, this heartwarming and moving book nevertheless packs a series of emotonal punches in the way it handles trauma, love, family, parenting and addiction. Brilliantly written with a vividly depicted cast of characters you can't help but grow to love, I found I could hardly put it down. Highly recommend!

The author has achieved something quite rare - the story just leaps off the page. It offers so much from humour to learning about acceptance.
Plot is well written.
Great read.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Penguin Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review

Starting at an Anger Management group held every Saturday at Noon, this book is a breath of fresh air. I found it funny, charming and moving.
The three main characters, Emily, Jake and gorgeous little Alfie are very real. They are all challenged and flawed in their own ways but so likeable. I was cheering them on from start to finish.
The book provides an insight into family life, the vulnerabilities and damage that is so often done, but how love ultimately makes all the difference.
I really enjoyed it.
Thank you to @NetGalley and Rachel Marks for the opportunity to read an early copy.

What a lovely story, one full of relatable charming characters (with the exception of one !) along with introducing the reader to the trials and joy of being around an autistic child.
Rachel Marks the author has through her own experiences written the character of Archie so beautifully I just wanted to give him a cuddle and be his 'best bug'.
Although the book has a romance theme running though it, it's the message of not judging each other on first appearances that for me is what we should take away from reading it. The love story is more about Emily and Jake and them falling in love with Archie and the acceptance of his autism.
If you love books like The Rosie Project, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and The Catcus then this is a book for you. A great debut novel and the first of many more to look forward to from this author


Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a free copy in return for an honest review.

I had a conflicted relationship with this book.
I interesting set of topics are covered in a well written story. There are some really good insights into living and coping with people with different abilities.
Perhaps I am too cynical because the ending was too obvious and twee.

Overall an interesting a good read.

Really enjoyed this book. It gives you some clear, honest truths as to how tough life can be, and how you can want something so bad only for it turn out to not be what you wanted after all....

I really enjoyed this book. It had just the perfect combination of genuine hilarity and heartbreak. It's a beautifully written tale of so much more than a simple romance. I'd highly recommend!

This book shouldn't work, but oh it does, It's a hilarious and very emotive read that's way more than just a romance story. Characters are well written, easy to become and attached to so you champion them and their stories throughout the novel. Brilliant debut by Rachel Marks!

What a lovely story. I loved everything about it., from the mixture of characters , each with their own story and way of seeing life through their mind was refreshing at times as well as heartbreaking.
Would definitely recommend this book.

An enjoyable read with lovely characters. It was a bit predictable at times but I still couldn’t put it down.

This is a really good interesting read. It is different from the synopsis and better than I thought it was going to be. Alfie’s perspective on life is intriguing. It is really interesting how other people think and the way in which their brains work. I laughed and I nearly cried in places and I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Lovely story with some great (and not so great) characters, a really interesting storyline set around a young boy with a variation of autism. Gives real food for thought in how different people perceive the world.

Thanks for allowing me to review this book.

A lovely read. I loved Jake, Emily and Alfie. It is a delightful story which I read in one sitting. The characters, with their problems, are well drawn and extremely likeable. Coming to an understanding of what they suffer from is a truly fascinating experience. I highly recommend it.

An absolutely wonderful story of the relationship built between strangers Emily and Jake meeting for the first time on an anger management course. Possibly two of the most different people brought to each others attention by Jake’s son Alfie.

Over time we get glimpses of why Emily and Jake are initially enrolled into an anger management meeting which really opens up the characters and makes compelling reading. The story is told from all three perspectives of Emily, Jake and Alfie which I thought worked really well. The issues that Alfie has, along with the frustrations this brings to parents is described wonderfully and explained very well so the reader gets a real understanding of it all.

The book is very funny in places with some very witty lines as well as being dark in other places covering some difficult subjects in a very sympathetic way.

But what I liked most about this book is the way the author has described the dilemma that Jake has with certain decisions in his life involving his child, his wife and this new person, Emily, which I went through myself and can say it’s the nearest thing I have read to how I felt at the time too. Brilliant, honest writing by the author to get the emotion of it all down on paper and across to the reader to really feel those emotions.

I highly recommend this book which covers many topics in a sensitive but honest way and I thank NetGalley for a free copy in return for an honest review.

Really good book. Another one I read in a day. I used to run an autism unit so I could totally identify with Alford character and traits and it took me back to very happy times. I loved Emily and even Jake - who i didn’t think I would. I didn’t much like Jemma. I’m not a lover of mums who give up on their kids but the character was written very well. Awesome book - look forward to another

Great book! Touching and funny and easy to get into from the start, I could have read more and more.

A joyous read. An amazing debut.

The story is told from three perspectives - the main two being Jake and Emily - with a few from Alfie, Jake's son.
Jake and Emily meet at anger management class – Jake is there to save his marriage and Emily is there for an unspecified reason. Neither feels they should be there. Feeling defensive, they immediately get off on the wrong foot.

Jake and his wife are finding it difficult to deal with their (not-yet diagnosed but obviously) autistic son. Emily is dealing with the fallout of a difficult childhood. When chance allows Emily and Jake to meet outside of their anger management sessions it is clear to Jake that Emily is good and patient with Alfie, he offers her a short-term job as Alfie's nanny. Throughout the book we find out how they all cope with their respective lives and what made them 'angry'. It's an insight into the difficulties of relationships, parenting and coping.

The story is beautiful and it brought me to tears on more than one occasion.

I absolutely loved this book. I didn't want it to end - please can we have a part two!


VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review.

Alfie is a six year old boy in the UK with too many thoughts and feelings to know what to do with. In “Saturdays at Noon”, by Rachel Marks, we meet Alfie’s Mum and Dad (Jake and Jemma) and Emily, as their paths cross.

Jake and Emily meet at Anger Management class one Saturday, where they are paired up. As Emily gets to know Alfie, she recognises herself in him, and tries to help him communicate better. Meanwhile, Jake and Jemma are struggling in their marriage, and in trying to deal with Alfie’s meltdowns and tantrums on a daily basis.

This ticked along quite nicely, and I did enjoy reading it. It was good timing for me as we had a couple of short flights to take, so it passed the time.
Circumstances change and Emily starts to take care of Alfie, getting closer to Jake. There are three different narrative voices - Alfie, Jake and Emily, a standard format with the adults and perhaps a little more unusual with the kid’s in there too.

Some of the plot points were pretty obvious, which is part of the fun sometimes, of course - spotting the changes coming down the line. Others were less obvious, and I enjoyed being slightly sideswiped with an unpredicted, and still believable, change of direction.

All in all, absolutely a personal story for Rachel Marks to write and no doubt an enjoyable read. A little too formulaic for me, I think, and I didn’t quite buy the central love story. I wanted to hear more about the friendship between Alice and Emily, as the couple of interactions were really fun and natural.

As always, thank you to Netgalley and Penguin for providing me with this copy!

Emily, a confrontational and self-destructive young woman, and Jake, who’s struggling big time with his six year old son Alfie, meet at anger management classes - the “Saturdays at Noon” of the title. It’s the beginning of a story which will profoundly impact all three.

Despite the title, the anger management class doesn’t really play a big role - most of the story is about the relationship between Emily, Alfie and Jake, and most particularly the bond which develops between Emily and little Alfie. This is really well described and touching, and Alfie’s difficulties (occasionally described from his own point of view) felt very real. I’m not familiar with the condition he was eventually diagnosed with - an autistic spectrum disorder - but I definitely spotted elements of OCD (a widely misunderstood and misrepresented condition) in some of the distressing thoughts he described, and appreciated the sensitive and insightful way this was dealt with by the author.

Saturdays at Noon was a hugely engaging read which I really enjoyed - recommended.

What a fantastic book. Rachel Marks has created the most believable characters in Alfie, Jake and Emily and I absolutely loved their story. Despite the fact that her characters are all very damaged people in different ways, they are so relatable and she shows how they can ultimately save each other by learning from each other. I read a lot of this story with a large lump in my throat - the writing is brilliant and it is such a beautiful story. Bravo, Rachel, I can't wait to read your next one.