A really endearing love letter to London, so for anyone who’s spent a significant amount of time in the capital will feel comfortable and familiar with the settings. It starts with Jennifer (or Jen or Jenny) as a teen growing up in North London in the 1990s. After a gig with some friends, her and Nick from college become good friends. The rest of the story is about them drifting in and out of each other’s lives. I think the story went at a good pace and there was a lot of tension - particularly when Jennifer spends some time in New York. Fans of One Day will enjoy this.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily.
I was expecting this book to be a story about a long-awaited love which is eventually realised. The start was engaging, with teenage Jen not quite fitting in whilst descriptions of everything accurately evoked memories of that time (such as 'anaglypta wallpaper painted in Dulux's Hint of a Tint Barley White'). Jen's 18th birthday marked a milestone in her relationship with Nick, but I thought it also marked a change in the book. The language becomes more explicit and frequent episodes of drunkenness lead on to drug-taking and whilst this might be indicative of the behaviour of some young people at the time it is not true for everyone. It added nothing to the story and spoilt my reading, I gave up at 37% because the story was not what I was expecting.

This book was so cute and romantic and genuinely had me laughing out Loud in some parts, I fell in love with the characters so easily. The author was really clever in being able to weave in parts of history and show it from the characters points of view. Really liked this book and looking forward to reading more from this author.

This was a difficult one to review mainly because I struggled with the first quarter/third of the book and staying interested. I found it go t so so much better as the book went on and I was so invested in Jen and Nicks relationship. I also really enjoyed that it spanned such a long period of time and we got to see the progression of both their lives and careers whilst also incorporating the world events that happened during those times. I thoroughly enjoyed this by the end of it and would 100% recommend it. I also have to say how great it was to be reading a Sara manning book again as an adult as she was an author that I loved growing up in my teens!

Jennifer and Nick meet as teenagers, they keep on meeting as the years pass, lose touch, meet up again etc... Will a lasting relationship ever happen.? Enthralling, hard to put down, a really enjoyable story.

I Loved this story , I was hooked immediately a beautiful friends to lovers romance that tugs at the heart strings, lots of highs and lows and I loved riding everyone of them.

I read about a third of this book before giving up.
It seemed like a Y A to me, which I normally enjoy but this one was too slow and dwelt on the main characters with not enough background and input from other characters.
I expected more about London, as the title was one of my reasons for requesting the book.
Maybe I am too old to appreciate the scenarios.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC .

I’m afraid this book wasn’t for me. I didn’t like the lead characters and just couldn’t enjoy them, or invest in them. I found the references back in time (bands, pop culture stuff) a little tedious after a while. It felt like a trip down ‘cool’ memory lane and came across aloof. I skipped a huge part as I just found it such a slog.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
The book starts in the eighties and follows through to the current day. It follows Nick and Jen who first meet at college in their teens and follows them through the years to their fifties. I would describe this book as a love story with a lot of extras thrown in. The author takes the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions through the book.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for this read.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book tells the story of Jennifer and Nick and how their relationship develops from the 1980s to the present day. Honestly, I didn't love this book - I felt like I didn't really connect with the characters.

*TW* - I also feel like there should be a content/trigger warning in this book, since it randomly, with no warning jumps into the events of September 2001 in New York City, as well as the London bombings of 2005. I wasn't expecting this and I didn't enjoy these sections of the book.

Overall, this book just wasn't for me. Some of the content just didn't sit right with me and I feel like I'm maybe just not the right target audience for this one. I did really like the portrayal of London over the years; it's a lovely city and I feel like the book does it justice. It's just a shame I didn't enjoy the rest of it.

This book starts in the eighties with a sixteen-year-old Jen as she starts sixth form and meets pretentious, melodramatic Nick, who instead of reciting his favourite poem, pulls out his boombox and plays the Velvet Underground. And this pretentiousness continues through the next twenty years of the book as Jen/Jenny/Jennifer pines away over this man who's incapable of being a non-objectionable human being. I really wanted to love this book, because I like Sarra Manning, and I love London, where I've lived for seventeen years, and this book definitely has a third main character, which is London, in all its different guises. As North London natives, waiting for a train to Mill Hill East, Nick and Jen have experience after experience together, being terrible people each time, and really not helping to endear themselves to me. Who cares about partners, who cares about maturity, who cares about the rest of your life, the important thing is to pine after your teenage crush and continue to ruin your life as you're doing it.
I just had a lot of problems with this book - the same kind of issues that I had with One Day - that really, are all these major events going to happen while linking these two characters? Two MAJOR world events, on different continents, and the two main characters are independently both present at them, which is hard to believe, and stretches the bounds of reality.
I was also disappointed that there really wasn't any development of the side characters, and the minority characters - one gay man, one Indian woman and one Black man - are all throwaway sad lives. There's no real joy in any of them, and Priya's fate is never confirmed, which is extremely disappointing.
Overall, although I wanted to love this book, I spent a lot of time rolling my eyes at it, because I just didn't like the romance, didn't believe the events, and just was overall somewhat disappointed in an author who I normally really like.

London With Love ticked every box for me. I devoured it. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened to Jen and Nick and along the way I could imagine being part of the story reliving some of the tragic world events as they happened over the years. This is a book I will read again. 5*****

*This is not a personal attack, but an honest review* - TW: terror attacks

So - this book started off in such a lovely, lovely way. I was really enjoying it. Up until the inclusions of two very triggering events. Which is disappointing as I enjoyed the rest of the book.

Moreover, I feel like if I was going to recommend a Sarra Manning book, it wouldn't be this one.

Wow.

Wow wow wow wow.

I fell in love with Sarra Mannings prose in rescue me, and again in this book. This book, which spanned from a first love at 18 all the way until Jennys 50s really spoke to my heart. It could have been the main characters love of DMS and charity shop dresses (which we all know could be me) or the way that even though the characters are 20 years older than me, this book filled me with nostalgia and also made me cry on occasions as I remembered exactly what it felt like to be in there situation.

We see the characters go through such growth throughout this novel and to have packed all of that into a relatively short book just speaks of the authors talent at weaving a story together.

The only reason this isn't a five star is because I don't generally enjoy reading about casual drug use in books and also I had conflicting feelings about some of the other characters etc (a bit like in Josie Silvers One Day In December)

I saw a few people talking about this book and I really wanted to see what it was about. I was not disappointed it was fantastic!

Such a funny read which I would recommend.

London, with Love is a novel I hugely enjoyed from start to finish. I don’t read a lot of romantic fiction as I’ve read too many novels that are cheesy, predictable and unbelievable, but this novel managed to get everything right!

We follow Jenny from her teenage years through to adulthood as she navigates life in London alongside (and often very much apart from) her best friend Nick.

It definitely feels like a love letter to London in so many ways, and well-known moments in history are presented through Jenny’s eyes throughout the book. The chapters each have the date on them so often you can guess what historical moment might take place in some of them before it happens, which adds to the anticipation. Although Jenny is older than me and I didn’t grow up in London, it is still a book soaked in nostalgia and I loved reading about her life. The fact that this novel spans so many decades makes you feel like you’ve really got to know Jenny, as we follow her for such a long time.

I loved that this novel isn’t just about romance. Jenny and Nick’s feelings towards each other – whether they’re positive or very negative – are always there but the book is also very much about Jenny and how she develops as a person. There are some romantic moments but there are also many other scenes where things don’t go to plan or work out quite as they might. I liked the fact that this book shows life as it often is – messy, complicated and hard work – but also amazing at times!

London, with love manages to sum up the joy of living in London (and some of the drawbacks too) all with humour and avoids the cringey, overworked moments you often get in romantic fiction. It’s a great story that I would happily read again. As my first Sarra Manning book, it also makes me want to read much more by her.

If you want to know everything about London Tube stations this is the book for you.
Starts off good then had too much description of everything and not enough of the storyline.

Nick and Jennifer had a teenage crush and were best friends, over the next 20yrs they keep running into each other but never seem to get it together.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It is six years since Kate Eberlen published Miss You, a novel about two people who seem destined to fall in love but never quite get the chance to meet. I was reminded of its plot when I received London, with Love by Sarra Manning an have to say I enjoyed her novel in equal amounts. Manning’s plot starts in 1981 when characters Jen and Nick are teenagers preparing for their A Levels. The novel weaves in and out of their on-off-friendships and carries on until the present day, when Jen and Nick, now into their fifties, are still in touch. The descriptions of 1980s and 1990s London, the cultural scene and technological advancements are brilliantly described. Readers are in for a treat as the the ‘will they, won’t they?’ plot foregrounds what I think are the strongest aspects of the book: the amazing city that is London.

Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for the free ARC that allowed me to produce this book review.

I have read quite a few stories of a similar premise over the last few years but actually really enjoyed this from Sarra. I particularly enjoyed how she wove aspects such as 9/11 into the storyline but the last third felt very rushed, however the overall book felt about 100 pages too long in my opinion.

I think the timings could potentially have been rejigged to give an overall better flow but loved Sarras writing style!

Thank you for this ARC ✨

This tells the story of Nick and Jenny who meet as teenagers. It follows their lives, university, careers, love interests. They fall out with each other several times but they always tend to be drawn back to each other, in times of great trauma they run to each other.

Will they remain friends over the years? Will they fall out again or will they end up with their happy ending?