Have you ever given up on love?
When her boyfriend lets her down for the last time, Brooklyn bookshop owner Bea James makes a decision – no more. No more men, no more heartbreak, and no more pain.
Psychiatrist Jake Steinmann is making a new start too, leaving his broken marriage behind in San Francisco. From now on there'll just be one love in his life: New York.
At a party where they seem to be the only two singletons, Bea and Jake meet, and decide there’s just one thing for it. They will make a pact: no more relationships.
But the city has other plans . . .
I was really excited when I was offered the chance to review Miranda Dickinson’s new novel. Her growing list of treasures have been sitting patiently on my TBR list whilst I’ve had so much to do, and I was loving that I could finally prioritise one of them!
To start with I have to say that I love how gorgeous all of Miranda’s books are – if you see them sitting on a shelf they are definitely screaming out to be taken home and devoured.
I really liked the format of the story where we followed the stories of Bea and Jake (the two main characters), with every other chapter swapping to the others story. From the start you can sense that the story is building up to Bea and Jake finally meeting one another. At first I would’ve thought knowing this would make the story lose some of its excitement, but I found that it really intensified the anxiety as you know they were going to meet but you didn’t know how or when.
The relationship that Miranda creates between Bea and Jake is really beautiful. They are both such unique characters, who have both recently found themselves having to start over in life. Having suffered heartbreak and shared their tragic stories with one another, Bea and Jake decide to make a pact to stay single. And so the love story begins…
I loved that the romantic relationship between Bea and Jake grew gradually and that they built a strong friendship with each other before any romantic notions caused disruption! At times it did seem to be a little too slow and you just wanted to shout at them to hurry up and realise they should give it a go together! But patience is a virtue as they always say.
I really loved Miranda’s portrayal of New York – it is somewhere I have never been and it is a dream to go, so when a writer is able to really bring it to life and make me feel as though I am there they always get a massive thumbs up from me. The images Miranda creates seem so authentic and real and they have definitely only ignited a bigger flame in me to want to visit New York.
I found it really special that Miranda involves so many other characters in amongst Bea and Jake’s stories – from Jake’s brother and sister-in-law to Miranda Grandma. They all have such an important part to play in the story and in the lives of Bea and Jake. Bea’s Grandma was particularly precious, and had some very good words of wisdom for Bea. My heart melted when Bea and her Grandma shared a touching moment where her Grandma spoke about her first love.
This is such a beautiful story – definitely one to snuggle up with now the weather has turned chilly! It is a really warm, feel-good story. Having recently become a single girl myself I definitely related to the journeys that Bea and Jake have found themselves on… and may just have to share Grandma’s words of wisdom with Bea!