If you love romantic books with a bit of a twist, this book is definitely for you.

At times, it felt a bit familiar to other books in the same vein, for example One Day by David Nichols, but the author did a great job of making it unique enough to keep it interesting. It says something that I read this entire book in one day, as I’ve been really struggling to get through any books recently.

Tess and Gus first ‘meet’ in Italy where they are both on holiday before going away to University, and so starts a string of almost-meetings that will span the next two decades. They are tantalisingly close to many times but just never manage to quite meet.

As we follow their lives through the book, it’s clear that neither of them is living the life they always dreamed off, especially poor Tess whose dreams of going to university after that holiday to Italy are dashed when her mother dies, leaving her as a carer for her younger sister Hope.

And whereas Tess’ bad luck seems to be mainly not her fault, Gus seems to head from one bad decision to the next, floating through life still traumatised by the death of his older brother Ross, and the fact that he just can’t live up to his big bro in his parents’ eyes.

I was completely transfixed by the whole story, I just had to keep turning the pages, desperate to know that the two would finally meet and fall in love. And while you’ll be happy (and unsurprised) to know that of course that is what happens in the end, I was just a little disappointed that we didn’t hear more about what happens after – maybe a sequel though?