Talking at Night starts off as a sweet coming of age romance between two very different teens, who seem destined to be together. However, when tragedy strikes, their relationship becomes more complicated and a future together looks uncertain.

This book jumps between the viewpoints of the main characters Will White and Rosie Winters, describing their on off relationship, from their teens to their 40s. I must admit I found Rosie slightly entitled and her  indecisiveness frustrating at times and I really felt for Will. Was she really worth it?

This book is beautiful but heartbreaking and frustrating at the same time.

This was an ok read. I thought it had a slow start and I wasn't really in a rush to read it. But overall, had some cute characters and was decent.

Hard hitting “one that got away” romance. There was a cloud of sadness penetrating this book but it was so well written that it was still enjoyable to read. Entirely 3D characterisation and honest storytelling. Thanks NetGalley!.

Excellent debut novel, kept me engaged till the end, thoroughly enjoyed this book. Looking forward to reading more from this author

400 pages of sadness. That's how I would sum up this book with one sentence.
I struggled to stay invested in this story. Partly because the pacing was too slow for me. But also because it was non stop sadness. One thing after another.
I carried on in hopes they found peace and happiness in some way. That they managed to find themselves together or apart but were in a better place.
The ending was what it was. By that point I just wanted them to decide to either be together or never speak again.

This was a really beautiful & well written story that just held me all the way through.
Heartbreaking yet heartwarming the story draws you in.
Will & Rosie are A level students at the same school although Will is a year older.
Their backgrounds are very different as are what they want to do after they finish school.
Will & Rosies on off love story goes back & forth over the years as they navigate life’s heartbreaks.
A story of missed opportunities & complicated family issues.
Love can be flawed & messy at times but if you are dealing with grief & mental health problems too it can get even more complicated.
This is a poignant & emotional complex love story that held me throughout.
I loved this captivating story.

Wow.

Best book I have read this year.

So many feelings, such aching and hoping things will turn out for the best.

A story set across many years of the on/off relationship and friendship of Rosie and Will and how a tragic accident changes their lives forever.

Fantastic writing, full of feelings and emotions.

Highly recommended.

This is a beautiful, heartbreakingly epic love story. I loved the narrative style and its insight into both Will and Rosie. It reminded me of Normal People or One Day, which scared me because I was devastated at the thought of there being a sad, tragic ending.

I just so felt for the main characters and couldn’t take much more heartbreak and missed chances for them. I particularly loved Will and how earnest he was, to a fault.

What made this better than Normal People or One Day though, was the fact that it ended hopefully - I’m no critic, but I sometimes feel authors think there has to be some tragic or desolate or profound ending to a novel of this vain when really there is no shame in a happily ever after. There was a tangible sense of relief at the end for me - as I inched closer to 100% on my kindle, I really didn’t know what to expect.

No epilogue, but I truly don’t think this needed one ❤️

What to expect:

- grief, trauma, bereavement
- death and suicide attempt (in past)
- OCD, mental illness
- opposites attract
- second chance (and third and fourth chance…) romance
- soulmates

I feel sorry for any book I now read after finishing this one because they are going to have a very tough act to follow. Talking At Night is like the book baby of Sally Rooney’s Normal People and David Nicholl’s One Day which are two of my all time favourite books so naturally I fell in love with it straight away.

Set over a long but unspecific period of time we follow Rosie and Will who go to school together but don’t really meet properly until Will starts to tutor Rosie’s brother after school and they instantly connect.

After something catastrophic happens which tears the two of them apart dramatically, we follow their separate lives as they repeatedly intertwine over the years.

This book was beautiful, I was sobbing on the bus at one point and had to put it down. It’s that kind of special book that makes your heart actually ache (in a good way!)

I adored Rosie and Will and their story - it was so beautifully written (even if there were no speech marks, i’m blaming Sally Rooney for that!)

If you like a quiet but emotional character driven love story then I highly recommend this one!

Unfortunately I could not really get into this book. It read to begin with like a YA title, and as other reviewers have mentioned, is reminiscent of books I would have read in my teens and twenties.
These days I am looking for something rather more mature and less simplistic.
Although it was not for me personally, I can understand its appeal to a younger demographic.
I urge you to read it for yourself.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

Talking at night.

What a lovely book. The writing style of this book was quite unusual but that didn’t stop me getting sucked in from the start. We meet Rosie & Will in their last year at school as they prepare for their exams. An unlikely pair who meet when Will tutors Rosie’s twin brother. Rosie is a piano playing, high achieving all round good girl, Will White is not. He’s a bad boy with an even worse reputation. But the first night they meet they stay up in the middle of the night talking. They form an unlikely friendship & we watch this friendship grow & change shape & breakdown time & again throughout this story. It is a raw & honest love story that covers so much more than that. Family bonds, loyalty to our parents, meeting other people’s expectations, grief, loss, depression & many other things. I found this book fascinating & I’m so glad I picked it up.

One of the most heartbreaking, heartwarming, tender, beautiful novels I’ve read in a long time. Such a deeply romantic, sensitive and elegant portrayal of a relationship against the odds, with realistically flawed characters and carefully crafted twists and turns, I was drawn into Will and Rosie’s journeys from the very start, utterly invested in their happiness, Wonderful!

Will & Rosie meet at college, they are complete opposites but attract each other and become friends…they love each other but will anything ever become of it.
It’s never quite the right time.
I enjoyed this book, found it easy to read. A little slow in parts

Its me, not you.

It took me a couple of attempts to read Talking at Night. I think I just was not in the mood for it and that's on me, not the book. The characters were so young as the book began that I failed to be that invested in their story. I am glad I went back to this one as once I got a third of the way in something clicked for me and I flew through the rest of the book.

There was quite a nostalgic feel to this one, it reminded me of early Lisa Jewell/ Adele Parks/ Nick Hornby. Uk authors I would have read in my twenties. I would have been way more into this book in my twenties.

It's a decent story, nicely written and once it got going , well paced I just never fully connected with the characters.

In contrast, I handed it to my 17 year old, she has not put it down, full on heart eyes when reading.

Three stars from this 40+ year old, younger me would have given it 5 and I suspect my daughter will too.

Yet another Sally Rooney comparison - when will it end? This time the comparison is largely unjustified but that's not to say this wasn't a very enjoyable, immersive read.

I guess comparing a writer to Nick Hornby or David Nicholls might not shift as many books these days, but in reality, the style of writing and the nature of the story in Talking at Night is much more aligned to those two authors than to Sally Rooney.

This is a book I would have lapped up and adored in my 20s - a story of undying first love between Rosie and Will, waxing and waning over the years, but never extinguished by virtue of a shared trauma that weighs heavily on both characters.

The book has quite a YA feel at the beginning, and takes some time to get going, laying the groundwork for the rest of the book by spending quite a while on the teen years. It takes off around a third in, with a pivotal dramatic moment upon which most of the action in the book actually hangs.

I found it to be quite a nostalgic read, probably because it reminded me of many books I read back in the 00s (One Day, Come Together, The Time Travellers Wife). It's quite cheesy and unrealistic to a forty-something cynic, but utterly romantic and devastating to a younger me so I just indulged myself for the duration.

If you loved the above-mentioned books and are a sucker for well-written, heartfelt (but not particuarly spicy) romance, then definitely check this one out. 3.5/5 stars

*Many thanks to the author, publisher @MichaelJosephbooks @penguinbooksuk for the e-arc via @netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.*

I found that I couldn't connect with the characters really so couldn't enjoy. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

This book just wasn't for me, I'm afraid - clearly a lot of people love it and the fault isn't with the book, but it didn't strike a chord with me. I'm not a Sally Rooney fan either so perhaps it just isn't my style, but I found it impossible to connect with and never got involved with the characters.

This book is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. From surface level, you can say it is just a romance about two people that were always in the wrong place at the wrong time. But it is so nuanced, it's so deeply personal that I felt forlorn. I was heartbroken at the end even though we are led to believe it is a happy ending. It just killed me that Will and Rosie wasted so many years before they could allow themselves to find true happiness. I will be thinking about this story for a long time. In a way, it has actually forced me to look introspectively at my own life to see am I really happy, and it's been a long time since a book has had that power over me. Wow!

I so wanted to love this book - but I just couldn't get into it! I not sure if it was the plot or Daverley's writing style.
I just didn't like it

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. It reminded me very much of Normal People by Sally Rooney, which I also didn’t like. The lack of speech marks irritated me and I just couldn’t get in to the style of writing or the story. I may come back to it a later date to try again but for now it’s a DNF.

I wont be reviewing this book elsewhere and I’m giving it a neutral 3 stars because I didn’t finish it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.