I am not sure I am going to be able to do this book justice. I absolutely loved everything about it. Lucy and Noah first meet by chance in 2004, we then meet them every 4 years on their leap year birthdays and find out what happened in between. I loved the concept and how Bell has written this. There are also messages and voicemails from the other years that help to fill in events. The plot felt unique and was also entertaining, heartfelt and full of love and hope.
The characters are amazing and I clicked with them instantly. I took Lucy and Noah into my heart and I was rooting for them the whole way through. Their friends are also strong characters and again very likeable. Reading this felt like catching up with old friends.
I just loved everything about this book and cannot recommend it enough.
Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for an advance copy.

Anna Bell has done it once again. I really don't know how she manages to have these incredibly well developed plots and characters in such short, light and fluffy romance reads. Terrific work.

A lovely story that moved at a pleasant pace through the years, focusing on events around each leap year birthday.

I really enjoyed this one. It was something a little bit different and not just your typical love story.
Our main character is a leapling, born on the 29th February, she then meets another leapling……. But their journey is probably not what you are expecting!
Told over many years, mainly on the 29th February (with short bits at the end of the chapter to move you forward to the next chapter of their lives).
It’s fun, it’s different, it’s definitely worth a read!

If you love the glorious romance in One Day, you will ADORE this “will they, won’t they” friends to lovers saga. Truly so beautifully written in four year chunks. Your heart will be warmed!

Lucy's never met another leapling before, but on the 29th of February 2000, she meets Noah, who's also spending his once in four years' birthday on a disappointing booze cruise to Calais. There's a spark between them that Lucy thinks he must feel too, but as their both in relationships, they realise nothing can happen and they have to be purely platonic. Over the next twenty years, they're by each others side for weddings, babies, new jobs, and illnesses but Lucy can never shake the feeling the should be together.

I really enjoyed this romance story. I liked how every chapter was written on the 29th of Feb and how we got to catch up with them throughout the rest of the time with emails and text messages. My only wish is that there was more of the romance between Lucy and Noah. Overall I recommend.

I found this had a slow start but it soon got going. I’ve never thought about the fact that books haven’t focused on leap years before and I loved it. A good snuggly read.

Another enjoyable read by Anna, her books never disappoint! The queen of heart warming romance has doneit again.

I loved this book. I love Anna's books and this one was a great one. A story of two people who meet on a trip to France on a leap year which happens to be both of their birthdays. The connection is instant for one thing or another things comes up throughout the book that means that they don't get together. Ther are lots of moments you will shout at the book as the characters are being stubborn. But there are some lovely touching moments in the book too.

I enjoyed this book so much. It's a great story of friendship, love, the struggles of growing older and growing apart, and knowing who will always be there for you.

It's really great discussion of how life brings you in different directions, and the friends you thought you would always have around you can start to drift apart. The passage of time shown with texts or emails to one another was a highly realistic aspect, and I enjoyed watching the technology advance in real time, too. It's a realistic but also heartbreaking reminder that life marches on and friends often fall out of touch.

The world's topics from each leap year are also covered in each section. For those still a little avoidant of books referencing the pandemic will find it useful to know the very last weeks of the Before Times are featured here, but there is not much heavy reference after that.

There is also a depiction of a character with dementia, and the physical and mental toll that can have on their carer.

I loved the writing style here, it was engaging and exciting.

I'd just finished watching the Netflix series 'One Day' over the weekend and immediately knew this has to be my next read, I wasn't done with the genre and vibes, plus this one had a much happier ending! What a perfect book to read in the year of a leap year actually happening!? This was such a fun but extremely stressful love story between Lucy and Noah, two strangers who become friends because their birthdays are on a leap year. In the span of twenty years, we see the two of them celebrating their birthdays every four years and facing the changes life throws as years go by. Not only did I adore the extreme slow burn of Noah and Lucy (although I wanted to scream JUST GET TOGETHER every 5 minutes), I really loved seeing the lives of their friends changing and growing too. This was just overall a really beautiful story and a life lesson that you really shouldn't take for granted the people standing right in front of you, life's too short to be wasting so many years apart!

I really enjoyed this story of 2 leaplings - a good book about family, friendship & love.

Would recommend

Loved it! 5 Stars!!

Somehow I always forget how much I love Anna Bell’s books - then I pick one up and get lost immediately. Lucy is a Leapling - she celebrates her birthday on 29th February every four years. We meet her in Canterbury at university - where she meets the only other Leapling she has ever met - Noah.
We catch up with Noah and Lucy, their friends, family & significant others every 4 years as they celebrate their birthdays. It’s a really lovely story told solely from Lucy’s perspective over the years, through university, living in London in her twenties, getting an allotment in her thirties and dealing with lockdown and all sorts of complications along the way. It touches on some serious subjects and I just really, really loved this book.
Unusual story, honest relationships and friendships, serious subjects & some giggles. What’s not to love?

Lucy and Noah share a unique bond as Leaplings, born on February 29th. Their paths cross during college, and from that moment, the story unfolds over the next two decades, revisiting their lives every four years on their "official birthday."

Despite the passing years, Lucy and Noah remain steadfast best friends, connected by the quirkiness of their shared birthday. Yet, beneath their enduring friendship lies a subtle tension, as it becomes increasingly clear that one, or perhaps both, harbours deeper feelings for the other.

As each leap year brings them together to celebrate their rare birthday, their relationship evolves, fraught with unspoken desires and missed opportunities. Their journey is one of growth, challenges, and the eternal question of whether friendship can blossom into something more profound.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Just wow! This is a really beautiful read. I just adored it. The characters are so lovable. I loved the whole concept of the story and found it so easy to read.

This is essentially a 20-year 'will they, won't they' love story. But it works because with both characters Leaplings (born on 29th February) the story picks up every 4 years when it's their official birthday, cleverly using text and social media exchanges to catch up in between. It also works because of Anna Bell's relatable writing style and the fact that it's not just a love story. The story chronicles twenty years of life's highs and lows for them and their very likeable friendship group - marriages, divorces, babies, sickness, new jobs, relocations and everything else. I loved seeing how the characters' grew and their point of views changed with them. As always I enjoyed the humour, finding myself agreeing with the characters so many times in particular "using my gym membership for something other than their power shower". And also liked the life lessons too such as "not hanging onto the wrong one because you can't find the right one". All-in-all a great read.

A really engrossing book written with warmth and subtle humour. I have read all of Anna's books and this is the best one so far.

Lucy is a leaping (born on 29th Feb). At university she is expecting to celebrate with her boyfriend on a romantic trip to Paris, but instead they end up in Calais buying cheap booze. She storms off after an argument and by chance meets Noah, a fellow leaping. The book follows their leap year birthdays over 20 years, looking at the highs and lows of growing up.

I absolutely love the premise of this book. Watching a group of friends grow up over 20 years is a really interesting idea and the author did a really good job of capturing the changes of things like technology. We get to know the characters and their lives, and a lot of work has been put in to building back story and anecdotes of the years we aren’t shown in the book. We very much only follow a handful of days every four years but have texts, emails and calls in between to see how life has moved on which I really enjoyed.

This book is more contemporary fiction than it is a romance which I didn’t realise going in and is why it’s not a higher rating for me, but I can really see an audience for this book. It hits on some hard topics which I usually avoid, TW particularly for dementia and the pandemic. The former hit me really hard as it’s VERY real in this book. Thankfully (for me) the pandemic was skimmed over.

I think the downside is that because we only see Lucy and Noah together for a couple of days every few years it’s hard to completely be involved in their relationship. It was hard for me at first to see the development of Lucy falling for Noah, and then the development of the final birthday comes around quickly with a rushed plot point that happens in the in between years. I’d have liked a bit more Lucy and Noah time to really feel invested.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the concept of ‘leaplings’ happening to meet on their actual birthday and then going on to celebrate their feb 29th birthdays together each time. I thought the gaps would be too big but Anna Bell wrote it very cleverly with some texts and emails in between and enough to catch up on their lives and the other characters in between. Very well written and I simply fell in love with Noah and Lucy. Highly recommend

When your birthday only occurs 1/4 years you need to make it special. However, Lucy’s boyfriend’s idea of special is a booze run to Calais and not the romantic day in Paris she envision. What are the chances she would meet another leapling though? An immediate friendship springs between the two as if seems fate has brought them together and their friendship groups collide.
We revisit the group every four years on Lucy and Noah’s birthday, with snippets of what’s app, messages and phone calls shared inbetween. It was a really nice journey through their lives and the ebb and flow of friendships and romances felt so relatable and realistic. This book was a total breeze to read and definitely had me desperate for Lucy and Noah to take stock and realise what was right in front of them!!