Decent summer read, wasn't that sure about Fin, but went with it. Kept me occupied for a couple of hours when I needed a good distraction. Houghton writes for the masses, that's for sure! Bound to sell well.

Although a rather predictable storyline, what you get with this book is a good read. Fin and Eleanor. Two friends with everything life has to throw at them. Heartbreak, friendships and love. A wonderful summer read.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to see an ARC

I enjoyed Emilys first book so much that I think I expected too much, I liked the sound of the story, but it just seemed to get lost somewhere along the line and the backwards and forwards was sometimes unclear, overall I enjoyed it and by the pool in the sun it will be an easy read it isnt what you would call a "page turner"

Last Tine We Met by Emily Houghton is the heartwarming and poignant story of Eleanor and Fin. The perfect book to escape with this summer, it is a tale of love, loss and friendship, with a cast of characters who you can’t help but fall in love with.

As teenagers, Eleanor and Fin were inseparable. Convinced they would always be friends, they made a pact to always live close to each other, attend university together and, if they’re both still single at 35, to get married. But life had other plans and now the once inseparable friends haven’t spoken for 15 years. And then fate takes a tragic turn and brings Fin back into Eleanor’s life. But everything has changed and they’re no longer the close friends they used to be. Is it too late to repair the friendship they once had? Or are the promises they made all those years ago far beyond their reach?

Told in alternating chapters by Eleanor and Fin, the story goes backwards and forwards in time, spanning the time from when they were close friends as teenagers through to the present day and the situation they find themselves in now. Last Time We Met is a beautifully written, heartwarming book that is filled to the brim with wonderful characters and a story that’s as lighthearted and warm as it is moving and poignant. As with Emily Houghton’s debut novel Before I Saw You, which I adored, this is a story that never gets too bogged down by sentimentality, but has a depth to it that turns it into so much more than only a light and fluffy romantic read.

Emily Houghton has written yet another gorgeous summer read that captivated me from beginning to end. A book that made me laugh and made me cry, with warm and memorable characters who stole my heart, Last Time We Met is a beautifully written story that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend. I loved it!

Loved that we got a mix of the present and past, so we could see how all the stages of them together. The balance of angst and friendship was really well done, and because of this found it a really emotional friends to lovers story.

The twists and turns were fun, even if my angst heart couldn’t take it. The ending was expected but really well executed, and I found Emily’s writing beautiful, with lots of rich emotion!

I’d recommend it to so many romance readers who haven’t seen the beauty of the friends to lovers trope.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

I really enjoy Emily Houghton's writing and loved Before I Saw You.

I loved watching Eleanor and Fin reconnect, I loved them as friends and enjoyed the flashbacks to their friendship as teenagers. I wasn't completely convinced on their love story initially but I started to love them together as I learned more about them!

I was obsessed with Eleanor's mum, I just loved her as a character! She just had so much love to give!

I'm looking forward to seeing what Emily writes next!

LAST TIME WE MET
BY
EMILY HOUGHTON.

Elenor and Fin were the best of friends as kids. They promise to marry each other should they both still be single at 35.
Then of course they grew up. Fin moved to the USA and the pair lost touch.
Now as Fin returns to the Uk to be with his dying mother, he and Elenor tentatively reconnect.
Both single and with their 35th birthdays looming, will their promise to each other as teenagers still stand.

This is an emotional friends to lovers story.
The ending was no great surprise, but the journey to get there was full of twists and turns and far from plain sailing.

Emily Houghton writes beautifully, with some very raw and touching emotion. Especially when writing about some quite difficult topics.

Delightful, emotional and heart warming.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Out now on all formats.

With thanks to Netgalley and Random House Uk for a digital arc of this title.

I absolutely loved Emily Houghtons first book
Before I saw you and was really looking forward to reading this book.
At first it didn’t disappoint, brilliant concept
Eleanor and Finn are childhood best friends who agree to marry if they are both single by 35.
But life moves on and Finn emigrated to America whilst Eleanor has just left a controlling relationship and is living alone in the uk
When Finn unexpectantly returns because his mother is seriously ill in a care home
Eleanor is taken by surprise to see him again and unresolved issues and feelings reignite. But she’s just started a new relationship with Ben and Finns planning on returning to the states soon.
A great will they won’t they story and I was hooked but felt rather disappointed by the ending which felt rushed and didn’t really address the depth of the feelings these two had for each other .
Even the epilogue wasn’t great - such a shame as felt this novel had the potential to be brilliant

This is such a lovely best friends-to-lovers, second chance romance. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Eleanor and Fin, and walking through their inevitable love story.

This book is a rollercoaster of emotions, but well worth it. I totally recommend for a feel-good romance read.

⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING: Parental death, grief, alcoholism

A sweet friends-to-lovers romance with more layers than a rainbow cake, in Emily Houghton's 'Last Time We Met', we get to know Finley and Eleanor, childhood friends who made a pact that if they're both single at the "ripe old age" of 35, they'll get married.

But as these things go, the years have flown by and the friends have drifted apart and when we pick up the story nearly 20 years later, Eleanor is freshly heartbroken after her boyfriend of 16 years up and left, and Fin - who has since settled in LA - is summoned back to London because his mother is dying.

When Eleanor and Fin finally run into each other again, it seems there's no way they will ever fix things again. Eleanor has finally started dating after her heartbreak and though Fin is single, he's caught up with so much from his past.

There are really heavy themes of parental death, family abandonment and alcoholism, and while it isn't the easy breezy romance I was expecting, I really enjoyed 'Last Time We Met'.

I wish we could have gotten more from Fin's confrontation with his father than a phone call, and I wish the ending was more of a HEA for Fin and Eleanor than a "I promise" for the future, but Houghton gave us a complex yet hopeful read that I found, as a whole, absolutely lovely.

Despite this being pretty predictable in places. I enjoyed this book. It was engaging and tackled some big themes such as addiction and grief - some were done better than others. I would have liked more about addiction as it felt a little glossed over. Overall, I liked it and would recommend this book.

This book was my penultimate read of last month and what a good read it was!

Following on from her debut novel, Before I Saw You , Emily Houghton returns with Last Time We Met – a friends-to-lovers-come-second-chance romance novel.

In it, we are introduced to Eleanor Levy and Fin Taylor — two childhood friends who have lost touch but, through pretty bleak circumstances, find their paths crossing again. Through dual narrative, we figure out there is more than meets the eye where these characters and their fallout (if you can call it that) is concerned. The flashbacks in this really made my heart melt, conjuring up one of my all-time favourite love stories Where Rainbows End, and I spent the whole book like please get to this point again!! Even though there were moments I was shaking my head at one or both of them, Houghton has again given us two characters we can’t help but root for — both as individuals and together, I think.

Houghton also presents a lovely set of secondary characters, to the people Eleanor meets in art class to her gorgeous sister Freya and wonderful, slightly eccentric mum Angela. Very often, secondary characters are just that but — in this book — they provide, sometimes much needed, comedic relief and help the plot glide along nicely (which helped when it needed a bit of a push).

A lot of the time, these kinds of books are as sickly sweet as the icing on the carrot cake I was eating at the time of writing this review but – much like her debut – Last Time We Met isn’t all sweetness and light. In amongst the sweet flashbacks and the heart melting present day scenes, Houghton addresses losing a loved one, illness, alcoholism, abusive relationships amongst other things. Whilst it didn’t always make the reading easy, or that enjoyable, these serious issues were dealt with sensitively and it made the book feel more authentic and emotional.

If you fancy picking up a poolside read, or something to cosy up on the couch with, Last Time We Met might just be the read you need (you may also need tissues!).

Oh, I loved everything about this book, so much so that I'm annoyed I waited so long to read it!

Elenor and Fin are best friends and soul mates - we can all see it, they can't however - who navigate life together, apart and then back together again

It made me smile ridiculously big, feel frustrated and it also made me cry. Basically, I felt a gauntlet of emotions 🥰

Last Time We Met has been published TODAY, so make sure you read it

Thanks NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Penguin for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest feedback

3.85/5 stars overall. Many thanks to the publisher for sending a digital review copy of the book my way. <3

This is the 2nd book that I have read from the author, and my love for her writing style has increased after finishing this story. Friends-to-lovers romances have my whole heart unless something very shady happens in the storyline/ the plot follows one of the tropes I hate (can't mention it here because that might be considered a spoiler). That's just a "me" thing though. I enjoyed the book for the most part!

I really appreciate how Emily Houghton's books always have dual POVs! I really enjoyed reading Eleanor and Fin's stories. They were both flawed but relatable characters. I connected with them from the very beginning of the book The plot had a lot of depth and emotional conversations that made me shed a few tears. (OR MAYBE A LOT, I AM A REALLY EMOTIONAL PERSON, OKAY?) The themes of family, forgiveness, loss, and grief were so thoughtfully portrayed throughout the whole storyline. One of my favorite things about the story was how Eleanor and Fin's relationship with their family members played a significant role in the plot's progression. Our families really do define a huge part of ourselves.

I did wish that the book was shorter though. I felt like nothing important was happening plot-wise until the 50 percent mark. The first half followed a character-driven plot in my opinion, which I am not a huge fan of, sadly. I had to keep the book down a couple of times, but because I HAD TO KNOW what went wrong between Fin and Eleanor in the past, I finished reading it quite quickly. The grand reveal was really well-written though - predictable yes, but it worked perfectly with the friends-to-lovers aspect of the story.

If you are a fan of emotional stories and friends-to-lovers romances, I would definitely recommend picking this one up. <3

Eleanor and Fin were childhood best-friends, when a family emergency at home in the UK requires Fin to return after so many years away will Eleanor and Fin rekindle their long lost friendship. This is a great book about long lost friends, family issues and family loss. There are quite a few triggering topics throughout this book, such as loss and grief, alcohol addiction and heartbreak. All this been said the way this book is written tackles these topics wonderfully.

The main characters were fun and entertaining, I found myself really routing for them I wanted the characters to do well and live happily ever after, its a great will they won't they storyline. Even the side characters Sal, Eleanor's mum and sister, even the art class group of people kept this book fast paced and entertaining. I devoured this book within a couple days I loved it so much, I just couldn't bare to put this book down I needed to read to the end. I would highly recommend this book it was amazing.

cw: alcoholism, coercive behaviour, death

Childhood best friends, Eleanor Levy and Fin Taylor make a pact to marry each other if they find themselves single at thirty-five. Now, two decades later, they're virtual strangers. What happened to their friendship? Through a series of flashbacks and present-day scenes, we begin to unravel everything that has happened since the last time they met.

There's a lot to love about this (long-lost) friends-to-lovers story. I LOVE mutual pining in a romance, and it's done well here, particularly in the flashbacks. I felt a lot of empathy for Eleanor, although she did frustrate me at times. And, while I could see where the author was going with Oliver's (albeit brief) characterisation, it was underdeveloped, so Eleanor's eventual resolution didn't have as much impact as it should. I think Eleanor's storyline worked best in the flashback scenes, and I would have loved a little more timeline structure to the present day, as sometimes I couldn't work out if it was only a couple of days later, or months. Eleanor's relationship with Ben was a perfect example of that. Big parts felt left out, and, while I know this was ultimately a story about her and Fin, Ben felt one-dimensional.

In contrast, I was rooting for Fin right from the start. His journey felt authentic and was incredibly moving. He broke my heart on more than one occasion, and the writing excels in the emotional scenes. I'm not ashamed to say I absolutely sobbed at the chapter with the box of letters. And again with THAT letter. Oh, and the next one... (No spoilers, but IYKYK). I also really loved the nursing home and art class scenes, which added some much-needed humour as well as a lot of heart, and yes... more tears from me!

Overall this was a really measured, emotional story of love, friendship, and second chances. Recommended.

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Heat Rating:
Emotional Rating: 🥰💔😭😬😂💓💔😢😢😍🥰

*Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to leave an honest review*

Last Time We Met is a character driven book focusing on Eleanor and Fin. Told in a dual narrative and a dual timeline switching from the present to their teen years, I enjoyed hearing from both characters. I did get frustrated with them at times when they didn’t communicate well. Classic 😅 Overall, the characters were likeable if not flawed which felt relatable. Very much enjoyed the addition of Eleanor’s sister Freya and Angela her mum, who though overbearing at times, sounds like she makes a cracking Sunday dinner 🤤

The story was easy to read and although predictable as romances go, I enjoyed how the story developed and the ending 😍 Did get me choked up at times 🥹 It does explore more difficult topics such as terminal illness, infidelity and addiction, all written with compassion. I’m here for the friends to lovers troupe so if you are too, check this book out.

A fairly enjoyable read about friendship, addiction, love, loss and forgiveness. I really like the author’s writing style and the alternating pov’s between Eleanor and Fin. I also liked the way we got to know more about their friendship and past through the flashback chapters. The romance aspect however I think did not get enough attention. I felt too much time was spent developing a relationship/ showing the romance with a side character than the romance between the endgame couple and unfortunately that meant the declarations at the end did not feel entirely earned. That said it was a solid, story and is worth a read. (3.5 ⭐️)

For thirteen year old best friends Eleanor and Finn thirty five seems like a lifetime away. When they jokingly sign an agreement that they will marry if they are still single neither think they will need it. Fast forward decades and they are no longer even friends let along love interests. When Finn needs to come back to London, the last person he wants to bump into is his ex best friend.

When we first meet Eleanor and Finn they are a cute pair of teenage best friends. At that age you never think you will still be single at age 35 as it seems so long away. I was eager to skip forward to find out what life had in store for them both and was surprised that they were no longer in each others lives. Unfortunately that was the end of the surprises as there was not much original after that. The evolution of their relationship seemed formulaic, however what saved this book for me was the family dynamics. Both Eleanor and Fin have had hard times over the years and things are still heartwrenching. Finn's relationship with his mother in particular pulled at the heartstrings and I very nearly shed a tear (it takes a lot to make me cry at a book) The romance potential may have fallen flat for me but the emotions were there in other ways and I would have preferred the side stories were the main focus.

A touching read. Beautifully constructed story which peels away the layers of Eleanor and Finley’s story and lays their relationship bare. This is at times an emotional rollercoaster! Heartwarming and thoroughly enjoyable. Not your usual romantic read. This has some back bone.

Thank you Netgalley