The story belongs to Nadia, a Russian student living in London, who is about to be deported and her friend Alex, a government worker at the immigration department. Alex first "meets" Nadia on paper, then gets dragged out to a pub night by a friend, at which he sees the girl in the flesh. The tough part of his job comes to the fore: He's not dealing with imaginary people, his decisions affect real people with real lives.

As Nadia and Alex grow closer, so too does the date for Nadia's appeal for papers that would allow her to remain in England.

Nadia is a bit of a firecracker, genuine and messy. She both reveals her feelings, and keeps things close to the vest. Putting all of her eggs in one basket could lead to heartache as she is most positively not in control of her own destiny. Alex, on the other hand, is a gamer, and a homebody, who is in love with a girl he can never have. He can be a bit of a sap, but he's very much an accurately drawn man/boy of his age. We all know the type! He's very appealing, despite the growing-up he needs to do, and it's easy to see why Nadia would turn her eye to him.

Nadia ropes him into a scheme that brings out the fun-loving, risk-taking qualities that have been dormant within him, and he grows and changes. Of course, as he grows, he's drawn toward Nadia. He can't go back to being the way he was.

This book is very "New Adult" in the emotional way that it examines the development of both Nadia and Alex as they are compelled to face real-world, grown-up choices. The nuances of two young people starting as friends and the push-pull of growing into something more, taking one step forward and two steps back drew me in.

This is a sweet book, and much softer than Lawless's debut. Fans of contemporary romance set against the backdrop of a city that becomes a character will enjoy the storyline. The ending is satisfying, and there is enough mystery about the outcome to keep it from being run-of-the mill.

Oh this was glorious. Erin clearly adores London and I adore her writing. This book has set me on a path of finding unusual situation romances. I love books where I undoubtedly route for the characters and man did I route for Nadia and Alex. At one point I wanted to throw my arms up and shout "No! Come On. What are you doing?" because I was so invested in these characters and things were just not happening the way I wanted. Later on I wanted to whoop and jump for joy because finally! I really felt like I was right there was Nadia, Alex and their friends on their journey through London. I celebrated their wins and commiserated their loses right along with them. Told in third person this book alternates between Nadia and Alex so we know exactly how they feel about things and each other. I laughed, I cried and I sighed because of all the feels and that's just about everything I need in a book. Somewhere Only We Know was my first Erin Lawless book and I can't wait to read more!