Huge thank you to NetGalley and Headline for my advanced reader copy of this book.

What I loved so much about this book was how simple yet effective the storyline was. It is romantic fiction at its finest. I really enjoyed how the two characters and their relationship developed over time. Within quite a short amount of time, I felt like I really knew both Pippa and Steve so well and I didn’t want to leave them.

Although they are both complete opposites, I fell hard for their love story because it was clear how well they worked as team together. I think most people will be able to relate to this story as it shows realities of relationships.

The second half of the book had some really emotional, triggering topics which I felt were handed really well despite them being quite upsetting.

I can also really see this book working as an excellent film or TV series! I have to mention too how impressed I was that this was a co-authored book, I never would have realised as it’s clear to see how well they worked together.

Unfortunately what let the book down the most for me was that I found at times the timeline didn’t make a whole lot of sense and was a bit disjointed. And the ending quite fell flat for me and just didn’t live up to the potential I felt it had. But overall, I liked it!

Actual rating 4.5⭐️

12 Hours To Say I Love You. Wow, now that’s a title loaded with expectation and promise. I love nothing more than a good,weepy love story and reading those seven little words I assumed this one was going to be a real tearjerker. So, armed with a box of tissues I plunged right in to find Steve at his wife’s hospital bedside being given the news no one ever wants to hear. Pippa has suffered a traumatic brain injury sustained during a car accident and is now lying in an induced coma. According to the surgeon the next 12 hours are critical and that’s where Steve comes in. The doctor is encouraging him to talk to his wife. The only problem is he doesn’t know what to say, troubled by thoughts of where she was going when the crash occurred. It’s vital Steve tells Pippa why he loves her but where does he start??? I guess he needs to go right back to where it all began….

I knew I was going to fall madly, deeply, truly in love with this novel from the humorous opening scene in which 15 year old Pippa Lyons, aspiring actress and drama queen extraordinaire is having a slight wobble just as the curtains are about to rise on the school production of Romeo and Juliet. Like a knight in shining armour Steve Gallagher is hovering in the wings poised to help Pippa remember her lines. From that moment on Steve’s heart belongs to Pippa (and my heart belonged to him!) and that’s the way it’s destined to remain. It’s in these first few pages that the essence of Steve and Pippa are captured, the die cast in terms of the roles they will assume in their future together. Everything that follows just confirms this fact. Funny, sad, poignant, beautiful and intoxicating this is the story of their heady, complicated , tumultuous romance and life together (and apart) and oh my goodness what an emotional journey this is.

Told from a dual perspective, Steve and Pippa’s love story unfurls via a series of flashbacks plotting the rise and fall and the ebb and flow of their relationship over the years. This lends a balanced feel to the narrative, giving you an in depth sense of who these characters are and what makes them tick. Interspersed with these flashbacks are scenes of Steve keeping a vigil by Pippa’s bedside, the clock ticking ominously as he endeavours to remind his wife of all the reasons why she needs to come back to him. It’s a simple, straightforward format but one that is extremely effective in packing an emotional punch. Within a short space of time you feel as if you know Steve and Pippa inside out, irresistibly drawn into their world which has now been turned upside down. I loved the push and pull of their romance, that will they won’t they vibe which propels the narrative forward. There is a rhythmic quality to their interactions, a pattern to their relationship quickly emerging from which they barely deviate. Everything about the narrative screams love of the most exceptional, once in a lifetime kind that many of us search for but not all of us are lucky enough to find yet essentially this couple are just ordinary folk who despite their differences deep down know they belong together. The authors had me hanging onto every word as Steve and Pippa recount days, weeks, months full of joy and sorrow, laughter and tears, bad jokes, drama, and good friendships. They are just like you and I with their hopes and their dreams, their worries, their uphill struggles and their happiest times. The challenges they face are often the same troubles the majority of us will face at some point in our lifetime but there are some episodes in their lives that are particular tough and painful. Their biggest downfall is their lack of communication. I loved the humour in the novel and I’m happy to say there’s an awful lot to laugh about. Oscar, Steve’s friend is a great source of fun and amusement and it’s a shame he didn’t feature more throughout the novel. The importance of good strong friendships is a thread running right through the narrative with Pippa remaining in close contact with her drama pals. Tania plays a pivotal role in the lead up to Pippa’s accident. This novel certainly isn’t cheesy or cringeworthy or overly sentimental. It’s a celebration of love and what it means to be human in an ever changing landscape where nothing is certain expect perhaps the rock solid love between two people. In my opinion it is the sheer strength of Steve’s love that will knock you for six. The hospital scenes are loaded with so much tenderness, so much compassion and so raw with panic and fear that you can feel yourself unravelling alongside Steve. I think these are some of the best scenes in the entire novel. Tension arises both with the uncertainty over Pippa’s prognosis and the mystery surrounding the accident plus the melodic soundtrack of the machines keeping Pippa alive adds to the emotional atmosphere. Be warned; these scenes could well be your undoing.

Steve and Pippa are as different as chalk and cheese but they compliment each other like salt and pepper. Candid, beautiful and fun it would seem Pippa from the outset is way out of his league, at least by Steve’s reckoning, but from a reader’s perspective you might disagree. Pippa is a frustrating character, self absorbed, overly dramatic, high maintenance and infuriating. She may be colourful and vibrant and the life and soul of the party but is she worthy of kind hearted, dependable, maybe a bit boring Steve who clearly would lay down his life to protect her? He is the kind of man you’d like your daughter to bring home, the all round nice guy, a character you can fall for easily, laughing at his attempts to woo the subject of his desire but perhaps a tad too obliging and lacking in ambition. Pippa on the other hand takes some getting used to, the kind of woman who would probably drive a saint to distraction, starry eyed and perhaps a bit delusional but even though for much of the time I thought Steve was way too good for her she did make me laugh. Yes she’s annoying but I couldn’t dislike her and as time evolves and she sadly faces some harsh realities she does mellow.

I thought I knew how this was going to end. I thought at some point the floodgates would open and I’d become a blubbering ugly mess. Unfortunately I felt cheated on both counts. The mystery surrounding Pippa’s accident isn’t resolved until very late in the day which if I’m honest didn’t overly concern me. I was too wrapped up in each moment to think whether or not this aspect was underdeveloped. I so much wanted Steve and Pippa’s love story to make me cry but it didn’t and that made me a little bit cross! Oh well, I guess the tissues will keep for another day! However I do have a positive note to end on. Somehow I managed to end up with an audio version of the book too and I have to say listening to the authors own voices (plus another female narrator) bringing their characters and words to life gave this love story an extra special edge that is missing when you’re reading to yourself in your head. I can only imagine how even more romantic it might feel watching all this unfold on a film or tv screen. 12 Hours To Say I Love You is everything you want a love story to be (minus the tears!) and regardless of what you think about the ending I think you’ll find it will take longer than 12 hours to forget Steve and Pippa!

My thanks as always to the publisher Headline Review and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Loved the book, boy meets girl, girl ignores boy, girl finally realises she loves boy, boy and girl experience highs and lows of being in a relationship, girl crashes car

The countdown of time in the hospital adds to the tension, will she survive or will Steve lose her?

Full review to follow online on the blog tour

I went in blind, the title is what intrigued me and I can't wait for more readers to discover this book. Wow! What an experience!

This is such an emotional rollercoaster, but there are some content warnings in here that are potential spoilers - check out at the end for more info.

12 hours is such a beautiful book as you follow a dual point of view (Steve and Pippa’s) and a dual timeline (the immediate aftermath following the car crash and their lives leading up to crash). In these flashbacks you snippets into how these two came together and fell in love - all the insecurities, uncertainties, doubt, devotion, and utter and complete love. And it’s just beautiful.

But as with every relationship, it’s not always plain sailing and these two endure more than their fair share of adversity - but it’s how they get through it all together that makes you love them even more. Whilst this book really does pull you through the emotional wringer, there’s also humour in here. Particularly so with Steve and Pippa’s inner monologue - I loved Pippa’s especially. There’s also some cracking supporting characters in 12 Hours: and standouts for me were Pippa’s dad Chris and her best friend Tania. I loved how these were so supportive to Pippa and Steve. My only niggle with 12 Hours is that I would’ve loved more time focussing on Steve’s supporting characters - his ginormous family and best friend Oscar.

Thanks to NetGalley, the team at Headline and the authors for the opportunity to read this review copy.
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⚠️Content warning/potential spoilers: there’s references to infertility, miscarriage and terminal illness ⚠️

Wow what a book. I started this Friday night and immediately messeged the girls saying I just started this it’s going to break me. Thankfully there was no tears but I must be broken 😂 this story is just so lovely but also so heartbreaking. I wasn’t a big fan of Pippa at first but she did grow on me. I really liked reading about how they fell in love and I was not expecting that bittersweet ending at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for a chance to read “12 hours to say I love you”. I am sharing my review voluntarily.

I was intrigued by the storyline and format of this book. It was hard for me to get into the story and I found the dialogue to be dull. I also felt that there were a lot of extra details that didn’t hold my attention. I was interested in the love story but that took a long time to get to, through additional details that didn’t seem necessary. I also had a hard time keeping track of the dates and times in the chapter titles and was unsure until midway if I needed to remember them.

12 Hours To Say I Love You opens with Pippa being in a life threatening car crash. The doctors tell Steve, her husband that the next twelve hours will be critical in whether Pippa survives or not and they encourage Steve to talk to her. Updates on Pippa's fight for her life are interspersed with flashbacks on the life together from both Pippa and Steve's perspective.

On paper and from the blurb, this should be the perfect read for me but for some reason it didn't work for me. It started off well but after the first third of the book I just kept feeling frustrated and impatient for the story to move on. It's great to have both perspectives with in the couple but I felt in places the snapshots didn't focus on the bits I wanted to read about - for example - Pippa having the realisation she wants to be together to the next flashback of them already established as a couple. For many readers, that is the moment you wait for - the moment when it all begins. I just didn't get the feelings I need to root for the characters or for it to be a page turner for me. I enjoyed parts of it, it's occasionally funny but ending didn't justify the struggle I felt reading it.

As I didn't enjoy the book, I will refrain from posting my review on social media.

Thanks to the authors, publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of the book.

Pippa has been rushed in to hospital after an accident - but where was she going when it happened? The story of Pippa and Steve is told through flashbacks to when they met and how they got together.

I felt it ended it a bit abruptly and would have liked more of the story at the end of the book.

This book begins with Pip being rushed into hospital following an accident and her husband Steve advised to talk to her. He tells Pip their story and all the reasons why he loves her. The book switches between flashbacks and the hospital, with Pip and Steve as narrators. The dual timeline was very cleverly written and worked really well as the story of their past unfolded in tandem with their current situation.

This was a lovely book; emotional yet witty and the dual perspective effectively developed the characters and really brought them to life. I found this a compelling read, and I really enjoyed both the writing style and the story.

Thanks to the the publisher for the opportunity to read this book on exchange for an honest review.

Reading this book will give you a rollercoaster of emotions, happy, sad, devastation, shock are the ones that come to mind.
From friendship to love, Steve and Pippa’s relationship is beautiful from the start with many hardships thrown in.
I liked that the story moved from the present back to other moments in their relationship and felt that gave the story more of an impact.
Thank you Netgalley and Headline Review for a copy of this book in return for my honest review.

I started this book blind and not knowing what to expect. To begin with I thought it was the usual romance novel however with some really really lovely writing we are told the story of Steven and Pippa and how they fell in love and the struggles they have with starting a family. The passages covering the loss of their baby were so beautifully written, having been in the same situation myself I was right there in Pippa's grief.

The injections of humor were spot on and made for a truly wonderful read. I look forward to seeing what the authors can do together again.

I loved this book!! All I needed during these grey January days. The dual narrative and timeline are very well written, and the voices of Steve and Pippa distinctive so it's easy to keep up with the story. I also liked the going back and forth between past and present.
The end could've lasted a page or two longer if you asked me, but nonetheless very much enjoyed reading this!

When your emotions are already all over the place, and you have a Steve to blame, maybe it’s not the time to read a heartbreaking romance. For me, this is exactly the time. The sometimes cynical Dani is replaced by a hopeless romantic and dreams that someone, even fictional characters, may get their happily ever after.

After a tragic car accident, Pippa is clinging to life. Steve now sits at her bedside and with the hope she can hear, he begins recounting the story of their love. Unheard pleas for the love of his life to come back to him.

Told via flashbacks immersed with real-time moments at the hospital, we follow as Steve & Pippa share a plethora of stories that fill the pages full of love, tragedy & humour that is so real, so relatable you can’t help but think of them as your friends.
Steve is harbouring a secret love. And Pippa, the object of his affections, is completely oblivious to this until 1 turbulent flight, she finally realises he is the one. And that flight scene is one of my favourites. It’s touching. I love that mystery man.

I adore the realism of the main characters. They are flawed, like us all, but loveable, too. It’s as heartwarming as it is breaking. showing the strength of their relationship, their love as they tackle the challenges life throws at them, hand in hand.

Pippa is hilarious, if a little self-centered, but gave me Bridget Jones vibes (especially after the flight from hell) & it makes me love her more.
Steve is sweet. Forever by Pippa’s side. All he ever does is for her. However he does anger me, but I can’t say without giving a spoiler. It’s just something that touches a little close to home.

This is a beautiful, poignant story of love.

Thank you NetGalley & Headline for the ARC ebook. This is my honest review.

4.5 ~ A couple of times it felt a little disjointed & not explained until later. There was a fat-shaming line/joke. And even if I come across as a snowflake, I didn’t feel it was needed.
And sometimes, the use of metaphors was a little much.

12 Hours To Say I Love You by Olivia Poulet & Laurence Dobiesz is an absolutely gripping tale of what it means to love and be loved. It is beautiful, heartbreaking, warm, funny and very special indeed.

12 Hours follows Pippa and Steve. It is a story told in two parts, interwoven throughout. We are faced with the agonising 12 hours of March 2nd 2019, where Steve rushes to the hospital to find his wife Pippa in an induced coma following a traffic accident. Steve has been told to keep talking to Pippa to try to bring her back to him. The second part of this story follows Steve and Pippa’s relationship, from when they first met properly as teenagers right until the night before Pippa’s accident.

The use of the duel timelines throughout the book worked very well. As we chart our way through Steve and Pippa’s relationship we gain their insights and feelings through alternating first person narrative. When we are in the 12 hours of March 2nd, the third person approach works well to differentiate what’s happening within Pippa’s hospital room. The way Poulet and Dobiesz juggle building the tension of those 12 hours with the flashbacks to their relationship is very well done indeed.

I really liked both Pippa and Steve as characters and felt that they were well matched. They worked well as a team and it was clear just how much they meant to each other. Neither of them were perfect and life had dealt them some tough cards, I won’t reveal what these are so as not to spoil the story but I will say there are some trigger warnings here. Despite all of this, it is their love that Steve desperately hopes will bring Pippa back to him.

This is a story that made me smile, laugh and cry. It is a story of love, hope, grief and what it is to be human. I very much enjoyed it.

I gave up 483 pages of my life for that ending! I’m not ok with that!

I loved the characters and I was invested in the storyline, I thought both sides were written really well and I liked the idea of time flipping between then and how but I’m just too mad at the ambiguity of the ending to give any more coherent thoughts

Beautifully tender, heart wrenching writing that reminds you that life is fragile and to tell those you love that you love them!

12 hours to say I love you is stunningly raw and real.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

12 Hours To Say I Love You is such a powerful and heartwarming read, I did not want the book to end or to leave the characters behind.

The story is told from the alternating perspectives of married couple Pippa and Steve and at the start of the book we learn that Pippa is in critical condition in hospital after a car accident and Steve is by her side hoping and praying for her recovery. In extended flashbacks we learn about the history of their relationship from how they met many years before and the ups and downs of their friendship, romance and desires to start a family.

I loved getting to know Pippa and Steve through their individual viewpoints and thought that the growth of their characters across the years depicted in the story was brilliant and brought them to life. The structure of chapters set in the present day interspersed with moments from their past worked so well in adding context and deeper meaning to the turmoil of Pippa and Steve's situation in the now.

This was a beautiful love story with funny, relatable and believable characters and I was completely invested in their journey from start to finish.

Thank you to Netgalley and Headline for the ARC.

This is an okay book in this genre. the idea is good but needed editing down as it is very long in some areas that do not work as well. The mystery element is not well played out and only really is covered in any detail near to the end so the premise of why was Pippa in the car and what happened is really underplayed - yet this could have been referred to right the way through the book to keep that mystery flowing.
I enjoyed the book but felt that if it had been shorter by editing down and the theme of why was more central it would have been a lot better.

I love a big, soaring, life-affirming book and that’s exactly what I was expecting from this one. I was delighted to be accepted for it on NetGalley and I can certainly say that these characters will be with me for a while.

Pippa Gallagher is in an induced coma, following a severe car accident. Scenes from her life flash through her unconscious mind as her beloved husband Steve anxiously waits for his wife to wake up. Steve has no idea where Pippa was going when the accident happened and he’s devastated that he wasn’t there when she needed him the most. All he knows is that Pippa is his world and that he needs her to pull through. He will spend the next 12 hours telling her why he loves her because everything else is now out of his hands.

One thing that struck me was the beauty of Pippa and Steve’s relationship. They have the kind of gorgeous, crazy love where they know every little detail of each other’s bodies because they’ve spent time studying each other. There is something so intimate and heartwarming about watching Steve take in every little part of Pippa’s face, as if he’s simply willing some sign of life into it. My heart both broke and swelled in the same sentence!

Pippa is undeniably, madly in love with Steve too and I loved being able to track it through her memories. Throughout the book, we join the two of them as they meet each other’s families, go on adventures with their friends and the development of their relationship. Seeing them constantly be there for each other, work through their tensions and emerge stronger was lovely to witness and so romantic.

It is also wonderfully funny at points and I laughed out loud at the hilarious scrapes that both Pippa and Steve get themselves into. They’re both a little awkward at the beginning and it’s so cute watching them try to impress each other. This is exactly the kind of romance that I love and I couldn’t help but become enamoured with both of them.

There are trigger warnings for miscarriage and fertility struggles and my heart broke when Pippa describes how it feels to be a childless woman (unwillingly) in her late 30s. I know that so many women will be able to relate to her story and see themselves in her pain. My heart broke in these chapters and this heartache only worsened as the book raced towards its end.

12 Hours To Say I Love You is both a heartbreaking and heartwarming novel. Pippa and Steve are a couple who deserve the world and walking with them through such raw, dark emotions completely destroyed me. Celebrating the beauty and imperfections of true love, 12 Hours To Say I Love You is a funny, romantic book that you’ll need the tissues for.