I recieved a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The story follows a day with Freya, Nathaniel and Harun after a chance encounter in Central Park.
All three have lost something, or someone, important to them which is shown through the current events of their lives and flashbacks.
I just have to say here, I’ve loved everything by Gayle Foreman that I’ve read. They way she tells this story in particular I loved, the way the three stories are woven together was done in such a way that it was believable, the insta-love aside.

Freya is an almost famous pop star dealing with a Kris Kardashian style Mom-ager, the departure of her father back to Ethiopia and a complex relationship with her sister. The story of her relationship with her father was my favourite part of her story, just how her feelings about his absence in her and her sister, Sabrina’s, lives have truly affected her in a way that neither of them have dealt with.

Nathaniel’s story was my favourite. He had lost his father in a completely different sense than Freya, much more permanently. Reading about his struggles as a child and teenager with a father with issues was heartbreaking, especially when you read about the events that caused him to lose an eye. Reading how it ended up as just him and his father, where his mother was and what happened to his grandmother, made it so much more relatable when he said that he had lost his way.
“He might never see his father again. Might never know why he left their fellowship of two, or why he created it in the first place. Maybe his father didn’t know that a fellowship of two is too small.”

Harun, a gay Muslim living in New York City after 9/11, was understandably struggling to align his sexuality with his religion. After his relationship with James ends he understands that he has to do something and speaks to a family member about his situation which causes even more problems.
Seeing how much hope he has in Freya after the chance meeting is relatable, he sees her as a way to get his first love back in his life. I would say throughout the book he has the most visible growth of the three characters - just through acceptance, of himself and of him from his family.

Overall, I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting. A second book could be interesting, maybe a year on to see where the characters are as human beings and to see what the impact of the actions that day by all three characters had on the rest of their lives.
4/5 stars

To be honest when I first heard about this book, I was a bit doubtful of how Forman would make it work between our characters Freya, Nathaniel and Harun, but of course you can leave anything to Forman and she can make it happen, she was able to connect their stories in such a wonderful way. Freya, Nathaniel and Harun were dealing with their own problems in their own way, Freya had an illustrious singing career, but had lost her voice, Nathaniel has just arrived in New York and Harun was keeping the biggest secret from his family. Until one day when three of their paths intertwine in a way neither could have imagined. Like I mentioned before, I really didn’t know how Forman would make this work or how things would go down for our characters, but it was one heck of a journey to experience. These characters through their highs and lows in this story were able to find meaning, understanding and answers with each other, it was truly incredible to see their stories play out. Once again Forman gave us a beautifully written story with I Have Lost My Way, it was a really heartfelt story, but one I thoroughly enjoyed.

This book lives up to Gayle Foreman's resume. While tackling some important topics, it still managed to make me feel hopeful at the end. The character driven story really excelled for me, as I felt we really saw the truth of each person's feelings/thoughts.

I’m quite an emotional reader so this book hit me hard. But it did disappoint me.

I don’t like Gayle Forman’s writing. I have tried to read ‘If I Stay’ before and i couldn’t get into that one but I decided to give it another try. It just isn’t for me. It was a beautiful story but the characters lost their voices in a way and the romance was too cheesy and forced for me.

I think a lot more could’ve been made of the plot and of the characters. I wish I would’ve liked it better.

Having enjoyed ‘If I Stay’ and ‘Where She Went’ by Gayle Foreman, I was excited to receive an eARC of ‘I Have Lost My Way’ in return for an honest review. I wasn’t disappointed!

I loved how this story of 3 strangers, who randomly met in Central Park, unfolds. How the stories of Freya, Harun and Nathaniel are told to us by the losses the have endured. But it is a story of hope, of how they support each other in facing their losses and fears. Of how they save one another, and of how in the end a deep friendship has developed over the course of just one day.

I enjoyed the pace of this book and how the narrator changes from chapter to chapter, learning more and more about their background stories.

I loved this book a lot.
I'm really struggling with reviewing this book because all I want to say about it is that I loved it. Everything about it. You should read it. Is that enough of a review?

Great characters, all completely different.
This book follows three main characters and they are all completely different with their own distinguishable personalities. I enjoyed reading about all of them and liked how their individual stories were told. All of the characters were relatable in their own way and I feel like you can find something of yourself in each one.

It was written so well.
I'm usually quite hit or miss when it comes to books set over one day. There are some books following this 'trope' that I love but there are also those that just don't quite pull it off as well as I would like. It is so common for instalove to become a prominent feature of these types of stories. Thankfully, this one was done so well. There was no instalove and nothing felt rushed. I also really liked how the each characters story leading up to this day was told in instalments and the way in which things were revealed.

There was so much diversity within this book.
We had racial and cultural diversity, a gay main character, mental health rep and a lot of other important topics of discussion. Gayle Forman did a great job of incorporating so many important factors into a relatively short novel and, in my opinion, did so very effectively.

The ending had me on the fence.
I really liked the ending, don't get me wrong, but it caught me by surprise. It was a good, fitting ending but I wanted a little bit more. I wanted another couple of chapters or an epilogue of some sort and the fact that I didn't get that almost made me drop half a star on my rating. However, once I got over the fact that book was over and that was the ending I was able to accept he ending for what it was; quite beautiful.

Overall, I loved this book to the point of not being able to review it completely coherently. I never know what to expect with Gayle Forman as her less hyped books seem to catch me by surprise. I didn't expect to love this as much as I did, particularly as the synopsis didn't totally pull me in, but it is definitely so much more than the synopsis describes. I would definitely recommend picking this up, especially if you are feeling a little lost in your own life, it'll take you on a wild, emotional ride.

I really enjoyed this book. Three individuals - all in crisis - who meet on one day. All three were interesting in their own right and each helped the others to make some sense of their lives.

Life affirming and positive although the dilemmas being faced were real and the conclusion inconclusive. We are left to make up our own minds about their future prospects.

A book I will be recommending.

I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman is a disappointing book. I read it very quickly, the before and after of a Passover meal, but it was a slog to get through. I found that the characters were very one-dimensional, Harun and Nathaniel’s voices are almost indistinguishable, and the romance was incredibly rushed and cheesy.
I always felt like I was never being told the true story, and when things were ‘revealed’ it was almost pathetic. I wanted to know more about Freya and her sister, I wanted to know more about James and Harun, I wanted to know more about Nathaniel and his father. The kid is blinded by his Dad’s negligence, and nobody bothers to check on him?!
There were very minor things too that complicated the book, Harun’s family have almost identical names, the weird doctor that flirts with Freya, how her and Harun can so easily sneak in and out of offices. The ending was also very unsatisfactory, and overall, this book was a let down.

Do you ever read a book and think to yourself that it’s not going to be for you, that you’re just not meshing with it, but then something happens to keep you going? And then it happens again. And again. That’s what reading this book was like for me - a constant, mysterious and tantalising carrot dangled in front of my hungry face just as I was about to reach for something tastier. There’s just something about the writing style, which oddly isn’t especially exciting or exploratory, but which grabs you anyway. I kept reading to unravel the mystery, expecting there to be a twist any second. And there never was. And that part was kind of disappointing, but I just couldn’t put it down!

The plot of this story is largely unimportant, because this book is solely character driven. Three people, each with fleshed out stories of their own, are inexplicably bunched together after a chance encounter. And each of them is fighting an inner battle, of sorts, which none of the others can see. Until they do. And that’s exactly what I liked about this book. Maybe sometimes in life that’s just it - we just need someone to see us, and I mean really SEE us, for the mess of our own lives to start to right itself. Maybe it doesn’t right itself. Maybe it just stops mattering so much when the right people come into our lives. Who knows. But it is refreshing, and quite personal in a clever sort of way, to read about it.

I really liked exploring each of the characters. I’m usually much more of a plot driven reader, where world building and the inner workings of each world make me excited to read on. But I became interested in each of these characters because the author pays so much attention to building their lives and how they became lost within them into the narrative. I just wanted to know more!

Freya, Nathaniel and Harun couldn’t really be more different but the diversity was really exciting to me. I loved reading about the life of an online singing sensation who lost her voice, compared with the complex relationships Nathaniel had with his family and his own body image, and the struggle Harun has accepting his sexuality whilst trying to maintain his faith. It’s really compelling reading.

The major problem for me was that I didn’t feel I ever really connected with the story despite its interesting characters - I guess I kept expecting it to take off somehow but it plateaued almost immediately. Whilst I felt the author took the time to explore some important and complex issues within her characters, showcasing them well in each individual, it did sometimes feel a little deliberate (and maybe even a bit too cheesy for me sometimes!).

So whilst I liked it, I didn’t love it. I am most definitely the minority on this one though!An interesting story with diverse, thought provoking characters but a slightly sluggish narrative.

Gripping character-driven tale of friendship, loneliness & self discovery. Split narration could be more distinct but overall it's an uplifting read that resists an unrealistic, rosy ending. Forman's fans won't be disappointed.

Freya, a singer recording her debut album has lost her voice while her mother is flapping around her frustrated at how things are working out, while Harun is making plans to run away and find the boy, James, he loves as Nathaniel ends up in New York after a family tragedy.



Freya, Harun and Nathaniel all meet in Central Park. Freya falls off a bridge while Harun watches her fall onto Nathaniel whom she gives a concussion to and so they stick together and go to the emergency room together before events spiral to them sticking together the rest of the day as Nathaniel and Freya get feelings for each other, Harun wishes to see James and introduce Freya while she feels seen for herself for the first time in ages despite who she is and the fact she remembers Harun's James writing to her about his situation at home and being kicked out for being gay.



We learn about each characters past and issues with family such as loss of members, lack of either parent in their life or the reality that they're pressured to be something they aren't whilst they all seem to have common feelings of loneliness and unable to be enough for their families to feel they're not approved of because of sexuality or otherwise. There is a strong mental health storyline too from the parental side as Nathaniel's father is depicted to be unstable and exist in multiple worlds symptomatic to bipolar and depression.



This is a book to give hope to those who wander alone feeling lost in the world and proves that while we may feel one way, it's not true and we are all noticed in some small way at least.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!