I don’t usually give instructions to readers, but for this book I must give you this imperative. If you read it- you have to read it through to the end. You may feel upset, unbalanced or discombobulated as you read, but you must push through your sadness and finish the book!

The Start of Us is the atmospheric and evocative story of Erica. Erica has the disconcerting ability to be able to  go back and view scenes from her life. One minute she is in a café in Blackpool and then suddenly she is back in her childhood home in Yorkshire, watching herself talk to her father. She can’t interact with her other self, and the people she sees don’t know she is there. Since the age of twelve, she has visited many “episodes” of her life.  As she reaches her late twenties, she realizes that she is actually seeing herself in a parallel life- a life that shows what would have happened if she had made different choices. What if she had been braver and had travelled the world? And then tragedy strikes and in her grief, Erica wonders if she can go back and “rewrite” her life. 

Erica tells her story in the first person. Since she is not firmly grounded in one life, she is shy and quiet. But, you will never forget her. She is involved with two men who are opposites- the earnest and nerdy Daniel, and the devil-may-care Mike. Erica lives in an old, neglected house in Blackpool, a home that once was a grand place. Like Erica, the house has had many lives and memories. 

The ending of the book will jolt you- but everything will finally make sense. Have you ever asked yourself, “What if?”  “What if I had gone with my friends to Thailand” or “What if had left the party early?” This book is an intriguing look at the moments that form the puzzle of our lives. This is a moody and melancholy read that will fascinate you. 

Thanks to Net Galley and HarperCollinsUK, One More Chapter for an advance review copy. This is my honest review.

I really enjoyed the premise and plot of this book. Yes, it did remind me of "the Time Traveler's Wife" but it was written differently. Each time Erica has an episode of viewing herself at a different time of "do-over/do it differently" and tries to find Daniel again. Daniel helped her at a party when her boyfriend dumps her. 

I loved that this book kept you at the edge of you seat wanting to know if Erica and Daniel's relationship survive and lasts. It also wasn't predictable which is a huge positive! The other side characters add to her story without distracting that her and Daniel are the focus of the story.

I would definitely recommend this as a different kind of thrilling somewhat romantic read. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 7/31/20

I liked the premise of being able to jump to a parallel world. It was intriguing, but you also have to be in the right mindset to get through it. I think we have all wondered at times what would happen if we got a do-over of certain events in our lives? Would we take that risk? If we had the power to erase our tragedies, would our lives be the same? If these questions are haunting you at the moment, perhaps this book will feel like a bit much, but they are interesting questions to explore.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more of a crime/thriller reader however this story intrigued me. I absolutely loved it, truly one of the best books I have read. I am extremely pleased and grateful to both for opening up my mind to something totally different.

Trigger Warning: Death of an Infant

"All endings are horrible. If you only ever thought of the end of something, you'd never start anything, would you?"

SYNOPSIS | Erica has the ability to slip between worlds and observe a parallel life she has never lived before made up of decisions that she didn't take. She has been able to do this since being a little girl and her first episode was on the day that her mum and dad split up and she was forced to moved out of her childhood home. She doesn't know why these episodes happen or how long she is gone for when she slips into her other life. In her late twenties, tragedy strikes and she decides to actively use her gift for a second chance at happiness.

MY THOUGHTS | This story felt very similar to The Two Lives of Lydia Bird except the writing was not as strong as Josie Silver's. The ability to slip between worlds wasn't particularly well explained and all of the characters felt two-dimensional where I didn't root for any of them in any of the timelines.  I liked the core message of "the grass isn't always greener on the other side", but that is about it.

Great book, perfect escape! 

I have devoured this book in just one sitting. 

This has been one of those reads which does leave you wanting more.

Such a beautiful book that stole my heart. I loved every minute and cried bucket loads. Thank you to the publisher for asking me to read and review

I struggled with the format and spacing of the book, and because of this it took me a bit to get into this book, but once I was used to the formatting, I couldn't put this book down! It was a whimsical story full of love, travelling and adventure. I enjoyed getting to know the two main characters, and the author did an amazing job of describing Blackpool and made it sound like a place I would like to visit! Had a little tear at the end of this book and would recommend this as a slow burner.

‘The Start of Us’ is an unusual book. It is pitched as a romantic story for fans of Josie Silver which is why I took a punt on it and requested it from NetGalley. 

The premise is that the main character of Erica experiences what can best be described as time travelling moments... moments where she disappears from her own life for minutes, hours or even days and becomes a sort of passenger to moments from her personal history e.g. as a child she finds herself viewing her parents meeting at a party. Erica isn’t able to interact with these moments. She can’t control when they happen but over the years she has found that if she is always in company then she doesn’t disappear to this otherworldly experience. 

The book opens with the breakdown of Erica’s relationship with boyfriend Mike and her meeting Daniel who she soon begins a romantic relationship with. Erica begins to see that she was never her true self with Mike and with Daniel is able to fully be herself even revealing to him all about her time travelling abilities. 

As the story develops Erica learns more about these abilities and realises that they are no longer glimpses of a past life but actually of an alternative life and this causes much tumult as Erica tries to figure out if in fact she should be living this other life or the life she has with Daniel which has been marred with much grief and sorrow. 

What I loved about this book was the exploration of how individual events in our lives shape and change us, and investigating what would happen to us if we didn’t experience tragedy and loss. Would our lives be happier or would there be an emptiness. There’s a lot in this book to pick apart; a lot to provoke much contemplation about our own personal histories and how they have made us the people we are. 

However, I think the initial romantic plot line between Erica and Daniel let’s this book down a little bit. I felt their emotional connection was underdeveloped and that as a reader I found Daniel to be written in rather a bland style. For a book that relied so heavily on the romantic relationship between Erica and Daniel I needed to feel more romance. More of a reason to root for them to be together. 

In my opinion more effort was required to have made Daniel feel as real a character as Erica was. In fact every supporting character all felt somewhat underdeveloped. There needed to be more time taken to creating unique personalities for all the characters I feel as to me the only character that was truly memorable was Erica herself.

I also felt the pacing of the book was somewhat off as the narrative to me was a little incoherent in places. Sometimes months would flash by in the space of a paragraph whereas at other times single days would be explored to exhaustion. Overall I felt the book dragged on too much and would have preferred some snappier editing and perhaps a few sub-headings to help highlight the passage of time.

Overall this was an interesting read and I am pleased I read it. I think the author, Hannah Emery, has a lot of great ideas when it comes to crafting a novel and would definitely read something written by them again. 

I would recommend this to readers who want to read a deeply emotional novel with an overriding romantic theme as there are a lot of moments in this novel that are very tear inducing. The book reminded me of the film ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ (I have not yet the book of the same name) and if you enjoyed that then I think you would quite like this too.


*An e-copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Really liked this story- the idea of being able to see another way your life could have been lived but realizing that your reality is the one you’d choose is an awesome concept. I love the way the story unfolds and the real-ness of the characters and how they handle grief and difficult times in their lives. A bit predictable in some aspects, but other things threw me for a loop! Would recommend! 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

One of the joys of receiving advance copies of books on Netgalley is the opportunity to read books that I might not have otherwise picked up. In this case the story concerns Erica, who has the ability to travel to alternative time lines and her previous history. She has no real control on where and when she goes, which gave her real issues when she was younger as she could disappear for hours whilst on her travels.
After splitting with her boyfriend's she meets with Daniel and starts a new relationship. When they experience a tragic loss she wonders whether she can find a way of avoiding this tragedy. 
This does seem to be a "Marmite" book, personally I found that I was drawn into the story and ended up finishing it in a late night session as I just needed to find out what happened in the end. Overall a book that I did enjoy and would recommend if you want to try something a bit different.
Thanks again to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity of reading an advance copy of this book, however this did not influence my review.

I've been excited about this book since I first heard about it, and it did not disappoint. The characters sucked you into the story and the story kept you turning pages as fast as you could. I devoured it in a day. I loved it.

This book wasn’t really what I was expecting. I think it’s a great book for a  reader who wants to escape their reality but....it was very sad. It wasn’t something I would pick up again.

This was a really interesting premise. I liked the fact that the characters were in two different worlds. It played out like a what if scenario. It was a well written book, good with chicklit fans, romantic and a good plot. I enjoyed it.

Initially I found this story quite engaging , I was interested in how the main character was able to exist between two worlds.  However, after a while I began to become quite irritated by the main character and her constant questioning of what-ifs? I didn’t feel the story completely explained her ability to float between worlds and I began to find her actually quite annoying.  I also feel the ending was too predictable and an anti climax to the whole thing.  Mediocre chick lit at best. Sorry!

I thought this was a romantic read, something to escape to and forget about real life, and in a way it is, but it's also a book about grief and pain, and what would be of us if we could change paths. It's beautiful but I recommend you to read it only if you are in a good frame of mind.

Beautifully written, quirky with an air of elegance; Emery's "The Start Of Us" is the ideal one-sitting read to pass the time.