I downloaded this book more in hope than expectation. It doesn’t fall into any of the genres I would normally read, but I promised myself I would expand my reading list to take in different styles.
How glad I am that I did. This book was so refreshing, even if the central characters are thirty odd years my junior. Their conversations, particularly between Nadia and her close friends Emma and Gaby were sometimes fruitier than this reader is used to- in the style of Sex and the City maybe.
But it is so beautifully plotted, the tension of Train Guy and Nadia desperately trying to reach out to each other, and just missing so many times, kept me turning pages to find out what happened next. I was as invested in the ultimate outcome to their story as were the many Tweeters who followed their exploits in the Missing Persons column of the free newspaper.
This story was warm, funny, and intriguing, I liked the humanity of it, and most of the central characters, whilst making a valid point that is very pertinent in the MeToo generation, regarding male on female behaviour.
A novel for these times we live in, I’m so glad I took a leap and downloaded it. I shall look for more of this author’s work.
My thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy

Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams is a cute and funny romantic comedy about 2 people who are unlucky in love.

Nadia loves hanging out with her 2 best friends and tends to run late in the morning for work. Daniel is a sweet guy who is always on time in the morning. Daniel notices Nadia on the train and wants to meet her so he places an ad in a newspaper column called "Missed Connections". Nadia's friends see the ad and think it's about her. She answers the ad and a conversation through newspaper ads begins.

What if you felt someone was your soulmate but you had not officially met? What would you do?

The story is told alternately between Nadia and Daniel. This is an adorable and fun story.

If you enjoy star crossed lovers romance then this book is for you.

Thank you Netgalley and Avon Books UK for the opportunity to read and review this book.

General Fiction (Adult)
Women's Fiction
Release Date: June 13, 2019

Nadia and Daniel both get the 7.30 train into work. One morning, Nadia finds a 'Missed Connections' ad in the paper that matches her description and an attraction between the two begins to develop. A lovely, heartwarming story written from both perspectives.

I loved the cover of this novel. It is bright and really caught my attention and it fits well with the story. The book was well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was mostly based around the characters of Daniel and Nadia and their near misses of becoming an item. The story was quite comedic in places and it was a really enjoyable, fun read. The writing was smooth and the whole story flowed really well. I haven't read anything from this author, Laura Jane Williams, before but as I really enjoyed "Our Stop" I would look out for other novels from her in the future. Highly recommended. Rating: Four stars.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Avon Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

This is such a fab book! It is such a romantic story that actually makes you feel a bit frustrated because of all the near misses but does leave you really rooting for the two characters.

The story is about two people Daniel and Nadia who get the 7.30 tube every morning. Although Nadia often oversleeps and misses it! Daniel sees her every time she gets on but he doesn't know how to chat to her and so he places a letter in the missed connections column of the local newspaper. In the hopes of getting a reply from her.

It is just such a lovely story that is so much more than the average fluffy romantic story. So glad i gave this one a go as its definitely one I would re read in the future.

My Thoughts: As soon as I read the synopsis for this I knew I needed to read it, I love myself a good love story and this one seemed like it wasn’t going to be your straight forward romance and I was living for it.

The story is told from 2 perspectives, Daniel’s and Nadia’s. Daniel has recently lost his father and just started a new job and therefore getting a different train, where he sees Nadia and likes what he sees. Nadia is a bit ditzy, always running late even though she starts off with the best of intentions, this means more often than not she misses her 7:30 train to work.

Daniel decides the best way to get Nadia’s attention is to leave her a message in the missed connections section of the paper that he sees her reading.

This starts an almost daily thing of back and forth between them, but when it comes to meeting each other they just keep missing each other.

I felt that the pace of this book was a little slow but it didn’t bother me as such because I was invested in the story.

There also seemed to be a lot political discussion thrown in & I’m not really sure why, it didn’t add anything to the story.

As well as the will they/won’t they relationship, There was a couple of good friendship groups too which was nice to see.

The story covered a lot of good topics, consent and grief being just two of them.

I really enjoyed this and will recommend to anyone who is a fan of contemporary romance.

A very big thank you to NetGalley and Avon books for allowing me to read an ARC of “Our Stop” by Laura Jane Williams.
I absolutely loved this! It would have been 5 stars all the way but my pet hate of bad language (and the “f” word as the worst imho) lose the half star!
Otherwise, fab! The storyline was great and very believable. The characters were so authentic and relatable.
I read this whilst on holiday so a nice romance was just perfect and there were enough detours, mishaps & real feelings and behaviour going on to make it interesting and engaging. A very easy read but with grown ups in it! Definitely like this author’s style but, honestly, there are so many words in the English language that using vulgar ones really adds nothing to such a storyline.

This novel is almost perfect! It’s a great rom-com type book that alternates it’s POV between the Nadia and Daniel as they almost meet on a train and what comes next. I loved that they included Daniel’s perspective and made him sweet and romantic but also a bit insecure. It’s a nice change of pace from the usual nervous heroine. In fact it’s so well done I found myself preferring his chapters and really cheering him on. Nadia is still a very likeable character but I found Daniel more endearing, probably because he was so open and vulnerable. This novel is very much about the chase and the near misses that have you rooting for them to finally make it work.

There was some dialogue that had me rolling my eyes because it was so unrealistic, and I could never believe the language to be authentic. It was some very odd millennial type discussion that seemed thrown in for no apparent reason but to make the reader take note even though it was out place to the rest of the tone. I could have done without it and I think the novel would have been better served. I felt the same way about issues they both had with their friends and a random chapter from the POV of another character that did not serve the story. Those should have been removed as they just slowed things down. Overall minor criticisms from a great debut novel that is absolutely worth the read. It really is guaranteed to put a smile on your face! It’s like holding a novel that would be Nora Ephron approved and make a wonderful screenplay!

I don’t tend to read many unashamedly romantic books, ones that have a love story at the centre of their story, but after enjoying one or two great ones recently – including this very book – I’m starting to wonder why I don’t. I think you definitely have to be in the right mood for one (although you could argue that about all genres, really) but it just so happens that a sunny weekend spent in my garden was just the setting for a super-easy-to-read book about hope and love.

The cover of this book has a travel theme and as someone who dedicated the title of her blog to the fact she travels (and reads) on London transport a lot, this appealed to me. As someone who also loves the Rush Hour Crush section in the Metro newspaper, Our Stop appealed to me even more. You see, the plot is a simple but effective one; a tale of crossed-wires and missed opportunities between Nadia and Daniel that all starts when Daniel sees Nadia on the tube and decides an advert in the Missed Connections section of the paper would be the best way to get her attention. To be fair, it worked, (‘Nadia and Emma were obsessed with Missed Connections’) she did realise he was talking to her and it sparked her interest. But will they ever meet and how will they really feel about each other? Readers of the daily newspaper in the story who are following Nadia and Daniel’s romance give it its own hashtag #OurStop, nicely aligning the plot with its IRL marketing campaign; first time I’ve seen it done so directly. Bravo.

As lead characters, I really found myself rooting for Daniel and Nadia, they have just enough back story to make them feel real and are both very likeable. Daniel is recently bereaved and struggling with that while trying to balance his work / life situation and Nadia works in artificial intelligence for a company called RAINFOREST (yep, love it) and has two close friends, Emma and Gaby who are important to her. Another massive bonus throughout are the great pop-culture one liners (‘Nadia headed for the bar with the confidence of Blue Ivy’) and the cutting advice on the kind of guys to run a mile from (‘the guy turned out to be an axe-wielding serial killer who lived with his mother and had voted LEAVE’ or ‘there is no man to be trusted less than one who has feminist in his Twitter bio’) that all made me chuckle on the train.

A thoroughly charming read, Our Stop has enough witty lines and cheekiness to keep it fresh and a lovely, heartwarming story at its core that keeps you hooked, all while putting a smile on your face. If you’re looking for a great contemporary romance book this summer, you’ve found it!

Excellently Executed. This is a romance tale where the entire premise is that our central couple keeps *just* missing each other, and it *really* works. The cuts between perspectives in different scenes are amazing, showing the couple at various points literally in the same place at the same time... and completely missing each other. It *is* a romance though and *does* have a happily ever after, but Williams does an amazing job of holding that off until almost literally the last second. Funny where it needs to be, serious where it needs to be, and overall a fun romantic comedy. Very much recommended.

It really pains me to say this, as I'm a big fan of Laura Jane Williams on Instagram. I loved her column in Red magazine and I enjoy her non fiction, but I didn't enjoy Our Stop.

The premise I was down for. A sort of You've Got Mail, will they won't they meet storyline centred around the London Underground and the Missed Connections section of what I'm assuming is basically The Metro. Sadly I felt like the book could have done with a huge edit/re-write. The characters were incredibly flat, millennial cliches, spouting Tumblresque inspo quotes. Events in the book felt unnaturally set up so that one of the main characters could take the moral high ground and I felt the author's presence throughout, her strong opinions are littered throughout the book, which would be fine if done more subtly, but as I follow her on Insta I instantly noticed when an opinion or statement was actually one I've seen her make online. It threw me out of the story on numerous occasions. A character has to have some flaws to feel well rounded and relatable, and I don't just mean being someone who is late for a train or gets a few spots in their 30s.

Sadly the book feels like it has been rushed to hit a summer market. It is very padded out and could do with some very sharp editing. The author has a habit of explaining every last detail to you rather than trusting the reader to get it. Her writing is good enough and she should trust it more.

I was reading a proof copy from Net Galley so I'm hoping that some of the errors have been corrected before going to print and that the book has since been edited further. There's a good story in there it just needed more time, more edits and more depth. But fuck it, others are enjoying it and I'm an over critical, basically edit for a living, fluff hating grump.

A sweet funny story of perpetually late, disorganised, honest and kind-hearted Nadia and shy, all-round-good, romantic Daniel.
Nadia has just come out of a really bad relationship and feels she needs to change her lifestyle and daily routine to make it calmer, healthier, more organised. One of the changes in her routine is making sure she does get on that 7.30 am train to work. And so she does..on Monday, sometimes even Tuesday. Then life creeps in, late nights with friends, Netflix, too much wine..and the New Routine gets abandoned until next Monday. One day her friend Emma texts her that The Missing Connections, a lonely hearts section in the newspaper they both flick through on a regular basis, has a message describing somebody who sounds like Nadia. Naida is intrigued, so when her friend responds on her behalf, she is more embarrassed and excited than angry. Unfortunately, meeting each other in real life proves unexpectedly difficult as they keep missing their opportunities for months and months. meanwhile, the story goes viral and lots of people root for the Train Guy and Girl from #Our Stop entry to meet and fall in love.
The book was a bit slow at the beginning, but by the middle I was so involved that I couldn't put it down. It is lovely, heart-warming and very modern. Only in our times, it can be considered creepy to start a conversation on the underground train, but not so to search for somebody's recent and not so recent photos on Instagram.
Loved the story of Nadia's friends Emma and Gaby.
Recommended for anybody who loves romcoms and believes you can meet your One anywhere as long as you are emotionally ready.
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

This was quirky and adorable and read like a cute rom-com movie along the lines of You've Got Mail. I finished it in less than a day and wanted to find out if Nadia and Daniel would ever offically meet. It was a bit frustrating at times because it seemed liked everything kept getting in their way. Howver, I was very happy with the ending and how things get tied up by the end of the book!

People rushing to work on the tube and trains in London. Guy meets girl and finds her attractive with coffee stains on her dress and wants to ask her out. He puts an advert in the paper to find her, in the section called Missed Connections where you can track down people you fancy on your commute.

A cute idea and with so many tube lines and stations in London, this book might just have you racing around London wishing for your own meet cute. There are lots of instances of missed connections, late arrivals and rushing along platforms to catch trains so it's realistic from a London view point as people are always rushing around here and jumping on trains at the last minute.

A cute idea this but I did feel that it started to get a bit unbelievable with all the near misses. I was also disappointed with the end as I was waiting and hoping for something more ( no spoilers) and got a quick snapshot of what happens next.

It's going to make a lot of people think about running for trains, meeting someone and finding love on the underground though!

A lighthearted read, concerning two characters destined to meet....eventually.
Nadia is disorganised, always promising herself that she will get her life together, but always falling short. She's late for the train more often than not. Daniel is the opposite, shy, but highly organised. He sees Nadia on the train and is determined to meet her.......through 'Missed Connections', a lonely hearts agency.
Nadia felt to me as though she was a teenager. I really found it difficult to relate to her and her habit of constantly using four letter words was just irritating.
But all in all it was a very readable book.
Thank you for the review copy.

Have you had a rough day? Feeling a book hangover? Our Stop is the perfect cure! This book is such a delight! This is the romcom I want to read - smart, funny and feminist.

Nadia gets a text from her best friend Emma about a message in the paper’s Missed Connections. Emma says - I think this is about you! The post reads in part:

To the cute girl with the coffee stains on her dress. I’m the guy who’s always standing near the doors...drink sometime?

What would you do if you thought that message was to you? Following along as Nadia chooses what to do and if/how to respond was a total delight.

I stayed up well past my bedtime because I couldn’t put this down and was squealing with delight. I was texting quotes from this book to friends as I read and trying to convince them to drop what they are reading and pick this up immediately. If you like romcoms, READ THIS BOOK NOW.

Thank you so much to Teresa for posting about it and bringing this to my attention. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

“Missed connections “ that’s how I would name this book actually. It had everything for a sweet, light summer read at the beach while having a cocktail and relaxing.
While the first part of the story felt dragging a bit, to much inside of work colleagues, friends and family for both Nadia and Daniel, the second part takes a faster pace and it’s more about their feelings towards each other and what ifs and how they get to know each other.
I liked that she took a time for herself to just enjoy the moment and met a nice guy, before actually dating Daniel.
Overall was a good read and will definitely recommend it.

I loved the description of this book and thought it would be a lighthearted and funny read. Sadly that was not the case for me. I found it much too slow, with nothing of any interest happen until about the last 20% of the book. I also did not really find the main female lead, Nadia, a very well rounded character, and felt she behaved, in many ways, more like a 19 year old than a 29 year old woman!
It was also not very funny. Sorry, this book was just not for me.
However, I am happy that I persevered with it as the last 20% was the best part of the book and the action all happened then.
Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Such a lovely story! It has a reality about it, you really can imagine it happening in real life, even the way that Nadia and Daniel manage to keep missing each other even though they are in the same places at the same time.

Nadia has a good job in Artificial Intelligence, and is always planning to be more efficient, and catch the 7:30 tube from Angel to London Bridge; so that she starts work early. She often oversleeps, so only manages it a couple of times a week. Daniel is an Engineer, and much more organised, he is always on that train, standing in the same place near the door, and he sees her every time she catches it. He had first seen her one day in Borough Market, talking about artificial intelligence, and he was entranced by her. He is too shy to talk to her, but one day, frustrated by his nervousness he places a letter to her in Missed Connections, a lonely hearts column in the newspaper, which he has seen her read from time to time. He gets a reply, which she actually did not write, her best friend did so on her behalf. And so begins a relationship of lost opportunities, often missing each other by a whisker! It is very funny at times, a wee bit sad on occasion, and quite thoughtful in places. There is very much a feel-good factor to this book, a very satisfying read. You get emotionally involved with this couple, willing it all to work out for them. Well done Laura Jane Williams!

A great quick, funny, romantic read. This is a humorous story with likeable characters. It is a light read perfect for holidays.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.