Oh Dani has done it again.

I cannot read any of her books with tissues at the ready.

Once again the emotions are perfect, she get right to the heart with her characters and they are so well written that you cannot help to fall in love with them (even their bad sides)

Lily and Josh have been friends since they were 11 years old, when Lily 1st climbed her neighbours sycamore tree and found a strange, rude little boy up there. They soon became firm friends, with Lily secretly hoping for more. When the family moved away Lily's heart was broken when now 16 year old Josh, failed to keep his promise and stay in touch.

While at university several years later a chance meeting brought Josh back into her life, but despite Lily hoping for more, he always kept her at arms length and they remained friends only.

When Lily, finally met and married Adam, they lost touch after a huge argument where they both said they never wished to see each other again.

6 years later, Lily is a widow and on his deathbed her husband Adam made her promise to find Adam and listen to his story.

When Lily does eventually make that contact, things don’t initially go as planned at it seems their friendship cannot be salvaged


I absolutely loved all the characters, I loved the way the story unfolds and I knew what the symbols on Josh’s tattoo meant too 🥰


Thank you Netgalley so much for the opportunity to read yet another fantastic book from Dani

wow, this book is a killer for making me cry! from the first pages to the last it is just full of emotions.
i loved this book and fell in love with the characters. a tragic love story, with so many twists.
an amazing book

Emotional and story which brought me to tears near the end, Dani Atkins as always writes beautifully.

A rollercoaster of emotions.

If you want a book that’ll make you cry here you go.

Thank you NetGalley & Lake Union Publishing for this arc read.

Josh is a dirty little liar and Adam is well . . . you’ll see. Nevertheless I love them both and Lily does too which makes for such a compelling and thought provoking book. Wherever they all are in their fictional world, I hope it is full of happiness, cupcakes, and rainbows.

There’s not much I can say without giving any spoilers, but I didn’t want to put this down and was all in to the very last word.

*Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

If you're in the mood for a good cry, this is the book for you. My book club read it and we all loved it! It's a beautifully written story about second chance love. This was my first time reading a book by Dani Atkins, and it definitely won’t be my last. I highly recommend it!

#AlwaysYouandMe #NetGalley
Publication date- Apr 01 2025

I liked the connection the heroine had with both Adam and Josh. The second chance element and her chemistry and banter with Josh. A good read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

This was an emotional one. Many people get one chance at love. Some get two. Lily's experiences with Adam and Josh are beautiful and heartbreaking.
This book is a roller-coaster second chance romance. Love, loss, betrayal, redemption; I felt all the emotions. Bring tissues.

A solid three star read in the vein of coho. If you want weepy romance, this will satisfy your craving.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Ohhhhh - if you want to be wrecked emotionally - pick this one up! The alternating timelines help to tell one of the most beautiful and haunting stories about love, loss, grief, and healing. The emotions are just intense and expect to barely be able to see, breathe, or feel anything besides soggy after reading this! I started a new box of Kleenex with the prologue, and finished the box with the last pages of this book - I couldn't put this down; I was reading until 5am, and I don't regret it at all (even as I sit here with yet another espresso).

This book is beautiful - Some people get one truly great love story, others get none, and she had two? Two relationships that were beyond perfect, so much so that they feel as though they were made specifically for her!

Cannot wait to read more by this author, the sooner the better!

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Level: 🌶️ (it’s mostly closed door, but not completely zero)
Kindle Unlimited: Yes.

I was not expecting this book to hit the way it did. I went into it completely blind and was blown away. Lily’s arc and her stories with Adam and Josh hit so freaking close to home it’s not even funny.

I was so proud of her for living her life the way she felt she had to. In her position, I think I would have made all the same choices, she was relatable and funny, but also kind of sassy and her love stories were so beautiful even if they were a little messy. But that’s life right?

This was my first book by Dani Atkins and I’m thinking I need to add a few more of her books to my TBR because I was crying sad tears at the beginning and happy tears at the end.

Rating edit: 3.5 stars (because, for me, it was unputdownable til the 30 th chapter).

So, Adam is dying and right before his death he makes his wife (of six years), Lily, promise that she would go find Josh ―her childhood friend and first live―and fix things with him, and forgive him and then eventually forgive Adam too.

Why did he ask for forgiveness? And what did Josh do six years ago that caused him and Lily to part ways on a bitter note?

Well, to be honest, I am not a fan of this theme. I am all for second chances but I feel it should happen by chance, naturally —not in a planned way. No matter how an author tries to portray that it's because of her dead husband that she is reconnecting with her past lover, I find it insensitive and somewhat opportunistic. In fact I have abandoned one such novel solely for this reason.

However, if I connect with the writing style and the characters, the basic storyline doesn't make much of a difference. This exactly happened with this book. I really like the author's writing style (I liked her previous book, The Memory of Us, too). More importantly, I loved Josh and Lily, especially Josh. Interestingly, although Josh is practically everywhere, he doesn't even physically appear until the seventh chapter (except for a chapter where he is a little boy). And yet, I found myself rooting for him, eagerly waiting for him to make his appearance.
There was an effortless, sparkling chemistry as well as innocent bonding. Their conversations, the moments they share are so interesting. So basically, for me, the book was unputdownable until the 30th (of 40) chapter. And just when I began to think it was going to be one of my favourite reads, it started to meander, unnecessary incidents and conversation filling the pages. I didn't really want to know how she met Adam and her moments with him. The author drops some secret or pieces of information occasionally but it seems she tries too hard to build the suspense. The only saving grace in the later chapters was Claire's appearance with the most important secret. Even Josh's reappearance didn't excite me because by then we already knew everything.

Sometimes dragging an instance to build too much suspense breaks the intrigue and the flow of the story. That’s exactly what happened in the last ten chapters.
And the most disappointing part was the last chapter. It was totally unnecessary and forced. In the end, it felt like even the author wasn't sure about Lily's feelings.

I would recommend it if you enjoy love stories―just for the sake of Lily-Josh chemistry and engaging writing style.

Lily’s life is turned upside down after the unexpected death of her husband, Adam. On his deathbed, Adam makes her promise to find Josh, Lily’s best friend who walked out of her life years ago. As she embarks on a journey to fulfill Adam's last wish, fate reunites her with Josh during a fierce Scottish snowstorm. As they confront decades of unresolved feelings, Lily uncovers a shocking secret that will force her to choose between love, forgiveness, and her own happiness. A story of second chances, love, and forgiveness, this novel will tug at your heartstrings and leave you pondering the true meaning of love.

My first book from this author. I love Paige Toon's novels and this author rivals her ability to break my heart and piece it back together. It's not often that a book evokes enough emotion for me to cry, but Always You and Me had be sobbing at some points. I went into this blindly and got hit with a ton of bricks (in the best way possible). There's no words that can do this book justice. Just do yourself a favor and read it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing & NetGalley for this e-arc.



I enjoyed how the flashback scenes revealed details about Lily and Josh's relationship. The fact that those scenes showed us how things were before everything went wrong made them some of my favorite parts of the story. Additionally, it introduced us to Adam, Lily's husband, who tragically dies at the beginning of the story. It gives us a closer look at how deeply sadness can influence your daily life and be interwoven with the chapters set in the present. The way Lily struggles with her grief over Adam's death and then tries to make amends with Josh at her husband's request is really realistic and well-written. I really liked this story. I can't wait to read more from this author!!

•••••

“Some threads run so deep in your tapestry, perhaps it’s impossible to ever unpick them all.”

•••••

Would I recommend this book? 100%

I was almost in tears several times.

The epilogue was a perfect cherry on top of a sweet sundae. Half painful and half sweet.

This author made me feel like her characters were truly real and had hopes and dreams and regrets.

I ended up giving this book 4 stars, only because the flashbacks really took me out of the interesting parts of the story and were a bit of a struggle to rush through to get back to the parts I cared about.

Absolutely loved the element of Josh’s cabin treehouse.
It felt like a beautifully described setting and an ideal place to have a vacation or a life revelation.

••••

“Bad break up?” He guessed.
I bit my lip. Can something be called broken when it perhaps only ever existed in your imagination?”

3.75 stars

Always You and Me toes a very specific line between being a sad romance (almost similar to something like Beach Read) and becoming a devastating romantic tragedy. It leans more towards the latter though, which is something I wasn't expecting when I got to the ending. The characters do get together in the ending, but the actual ending - if you look at a certain perspective, feels so heartbreaking.

I loved how we get glimpses of Lily and Josh's relationship through the flashback scenes. Those were some of my favourite scenes in the entire book because it allowed us to see how they used to be before everything went wrong. It also introduced us to Lily's husband, Adam, who unfortunately passes away at the start of the book. Interspersed with the present-day chapters, it allows us to get a deeper glance at how much grief can embed itself within you and your day-to-day life. Lily's struggle with her grief at losing Adam, and then trying to reconcile with Josh as her husband asked her to, feels realistic and really well written.

There's a certain trope in this book that I don't enjoy reading, but in the context of everything that you learn, it makes complete sense, even more so in how Lily and Josh end up finding their way back to each other. Although, as I mentioned, I would have liked an ending that leaned more towards giving the characters the happiness they deserve after the struggles they went through.

Nevertheless, Always You and Me feels like a deeply romantic, and also strangely introspective book, and you know what? I'm here for that.

Wow, this was a very emotional and beautiful story and I loved it even though I wept in the beginning and the ending. It was super.

Lily and Josh have been best friends since Josh moved in to the house next door. Lily has always loved Josh. Enter Adam, for him it’s love at first sight. Thus starts a lifelong of questions and answers.

Thanks to Bookstagram, I requested this book. It didn’t disappoint, and now have a new author to add to my list. If you are looking for a lighthearted read, this might not be for you. Emotional friends to lovers, with a lot of package in between. I cried at the beginning and cried at the end. Characters are likable and you can feel their struggle. I felt the love on one situation, and chemistry on the other. If you liked The Notebook, you’ll enjoy this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC. This is my honest opinion.

📖✨ Always You and Me by Doni Atkins ✨📖
🎥 #BookTok #RomanceReads #HiddenGemAlert

I just finished Always You and Me by @DoniAtkins and someone PLEASE check on me because I’m NOT okay 😭💔

From page one, this book had me in a chokehold. It’s giving:
💌 Childhood friends to soulmates
🕊️ Healing after heartbreak
🫶 Second chances when they feel impossible
And the kind of love that makes you believe in fate again.

Doni Atkins, you didn’t just write a love story—you wrote a whole emotion. The way the characters knew each other, even when life pulled them apart?? I felt every single word. Your writing is soft, raw, and totally immersive. This book deserves to be everywhere.

📚 If you’re someone who re-reads underlined passages and cries when a character says “I never stopped loving you,” RUN to this one.

💬 I’ll be thinking about this book for a long, long time.
❤️‍🔥 Thank you, Doni. You wrecked me in the best way.

Tagging so the whole world knows: @DoniAtkins this is your sign to never stop writing 🖊️💫

#AlwaysYouAndMe #BookRec #BooksThatBrokeMe #RomanceTok #MustRead2025 #UnderratedRomance #TikTokMadeMeReadIt