I enjoyed this story very much. Phoebe is going off for a year, travelling round France and Italy, to visit places she has always longed to see. She is terrified, she has never done anything like this before, and keeps having second-thoughts about going, none of her friends think she will be able to stay away that long! When she gets to St. Pancras station she nearly changes her mind, the station is closed down, nothing will be leaving for six hours at least. She wanders around deciding whether to go back home when she bumps into someone, right beside the statue of Sir John Betjeman. Sam has also decided to go away for a year, he is catching a train to Glasgow, but will end up in Mull, where he was brought up. He is planning on finding his father, who deserted the family when Sam was just six years old.

There is an instant attraction between them, and they spend the entire delay time chatting about their lives, and their plans. They agree to keep in touch, postcards and one telephone call a month, then they will meet again at the Betjeman statue one year exactly from that day.. of course, they keep in touch far more often, with FaceTime and texts as well as telephone calls and postcards.

Phoebe meets new people throughout her travels, she has a wonderful time. She writes everyday in a journal, her honest feelings about everything, the only person she plans to show it to is Sam. He mostly spends his time with friends, but with Phoebe’s encouragement he does look for, and find, his father. Their long-distance relationship remains solid, both are looking forward to being reunited on the anniversary of their meeting. But this is a story, it wouldn’t be so interesting if everything was just plain-sailing, would it? I was surprised at what happened next, and how it eventually gets resolved

A lovely story, I felt I was part of their lives whilst reading it.

This book was not for me, unfortunately. I enjoy a good romance, but this was just too saccharine for my taste. I do not feel that the characters were well developed enough to be convincing, and Phoebe particularly was very irritating for a woman of 32 years old.
There were several inaccuracies in the text which was disappointing. Trains to Scotland leave from Kings Cross station in London, not St Pancras. The long, light summer nights in the Hebridean islands are legendary, with hardly any darkness in July. These details, and others, would not have taken much research to check, so it’s either lazy writing or lazy editing.
The two characters appeared to live charmed lives, encountering no real difficulties in their year apart, and their extensive travelling, which seems unlikely. The ending was a bit too long drawn out and over dramatic, it could have been wrapped up much more speedily.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book. I just wish I had liked it more.

I this book was such a good read I enjoyed the what if ideas and how paths and plans can change and what you want to happen isn’t always what we get.

Big fan of Miranda Dickinson and this book did not disappoint. Greatly enjoyed, with a good cast of characters and an interesting plot line. Would recommend.

This is a story of following your dreams, trusting fate and finding love.

Phoebe is determined to prove her friends wrong. She's given up her job and is being brave - setting off on her travels alone. She's not really certain she's doing the right thing and then there are major hold ups and delays to the train she's due to catch. Delays which are made more bearable by a chance encounter with Sam. He's supposed to be travelling to Scotland but his train is also delayed. As they talk, they connect. However both are travelling for their own reasons. Both have dreams to fulfil and things they hope to achieve. Their instant love is mutual but they still have to part. They agree to keep in touch, but not often, and to meet again in a year. A lot can happen in a year. Will they meet again? Will their love stand the distance and time apart?

It is a story of fate, possibilities, decisions and romance. A heartwarming contemporary romance with a difference. Will the year apart convince them to meet again or will it help them forget each other and their attraction? The story is really written in three parts - their initial meeting is the first part, next is what they did in their year apart, which is told from their alternating points of view, and what happens after the year. I really enjoyed the first and third parts more than the middle which seemed in comparison to be a more laborious section. It is a story filled with travel, investigations, friends and love that I really enjoyed escaping into and have no hesitation in recommending.

I requested and was gifted a copy of this via NetGalley and this is my honest review after choosing to read it.

I loved the premise of this book as soon as the blurb was released – two people who meet by chance and fall instantly in love, only to be immediately parted for a year. Is love at first sight a thing and can it survive an immediate separation? I couldn’t wait to find out, being a huge, squishy romantic at heart. I appreciate this one may not be for the cynical amongst you, although it is so good it might just change your mind.

The two main characters are immediately appealing. Phoebe, full of nerves and self-doubt, pushing herself to take an adventure alone that none of her friends think she is capable of. Sam seems something else in her and, his belief in her gives Phoebe courage to take that step and go on that journey to find herself and her purpose. Sam is on a different quest, he is in pursuit of answers about his own history but may also end up discovering more about himself than he anticipated, and having Phoebe there in the background might also give him courage to face those discoveries.

The challenges for the couple over the twelve months they are apart are fascinating. Can you really love someone you have only just met and don’t really know? How much can you trust them? How do you communicate across hundreds of miles without misunderstanding? How do changes in you affect the way you feel about another person? What should you put first, your own dreams or the love of your life? All of these questions are explored with real understanding and tenderness by the author in this book and will have you wondering what you would do when faced with similar dilemmas.

The first part of this book follows Sam and Phoebe on their separate travels; Phoebe through France and Italy; Sam to Scotland. As someone who is a sucker for a book featuring travel, I loved this aspect and the writing was so evocative of their journeys and the locations, I was itching to book a ticket to Paris and Rome and Glasgow and Mull. A book to both satiate and irritate your wanderlust at the same time.

The final third deals with what happens when Phoebe and Sam meet again at the end of the year, and parts of it had me screaming at the pages in a total WTF moment (excuse my language, but there is no other way to describe it). You know you have become truly engaged by the characters and the story in a novel when you start shouting at them for making the wrong decisions! I was totally charmed and involved in this relationship from the beginning to the end and could not read fast enough to find out how it was going to end, whilst at the same time as now wanting it to. A perfect recipe for great romantic fiction.

The Day We Meet Again is a book I loved. Romantic, entertaining, engaging, thoughtful, tender and moving, I relished every word. A very accomplished novel from an author whose writing keeps getting better and better. I highly recommend it.

I enjoyed this book so much because it looks a lot like Serendipity the movie and that story it’s one of my all time favourite ever.
A love story that has to wait it’s turn around so that her characters can be free and live their happily ever after but of course that fate has other ways to interfere along the way.
Romance, beautiful places and a hope for what’s to come for a future together.


Thanks to the publisher author and NetGalley for my review copy.

The story of Phoebe and Sam who meet after their trains are delayed in London. Phoebe is about to head to Europe for a year and Sam is off to Scotland, so they agree to meet up in a year. The ook folows them for the year they are apart. As it closer to the time to meet again, will they both turn up?

Sam and Phoebe are both starting their own adventures at St Pancreas Station in London. For Phoebe it’s the start of a year long journey through Europe; for Sam it’s a journey to the home he left behind. Neither were supposed to meet but run into each other at the statue Sir John Betjeman who stands eternally waiting for his own train. This sparks a year of wondrous beginnings, harsh lessons and discovery as Sam and Phoebe promise that they will meet again in a years time at the exact same spot.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!

It’s romance at heart but deals with serious issues such as abandonment, alcoholism, families and even one’s own anxieties and fears. You take Sam and Phoebe’s journey with them and soon feel like one of their tight knit group of friends just wanting to shout at them or bang their heads together or both in my case as I sat crossed legged on my sofa stress eating a bar of Dairy Milk until the end.

This is a cosy read that will make you laugh, pull at your heart strings, make you angry and gasp out loud. It came with my on my own little adventure around the Fylde Coast and will stay with me forever.

Thank you so much Miranda Dickinson and HQ Stories (Harper Collins) for placing this book in my hands. Woe betide anyone who tries to rip it out!

Five stars.

I was delighted to be approved for a review copy of Miranda Dickinson's new novel The Day We Meet Again - I loved A Parcel for Anna Browne so was looking forward to a nice romance after a summer packed with crime novels and psychological thrillers.

Sam Mullins and Phoebe Jones are early 30's London residents, each looking for something in life: Sam is curious to find out more about his absent father who walked away from Sam and his brother when they were children. Phoebe is looking to find herself more than anything, she needs to prove to herself she can be brave and do something outside her comfort zone. This is how the two singletons come to meet on an early summer morning at St Pancras station, Sam heading north to Scotland and Phoebe off to Europe for the adventure of her lifetime travelling the continent.

But Fate has other ideas so when all trains grind to a halt due to an unknown security issue the two find themselves busy going nowhere for the foreseeable amidst the crowds of frustrated commuters by the Betjeman statue. I loved their meeting, the instant click of attraction between two people who previously had no intention of looking for a partner. All too soon the trains are running again and it's time to go.

And that for me triggered what I was hoping was going to be the best bit of the book: descriptions of beautiful places across France and Italy (which there were a few, but I hoped for more). The scenes of the Scottish isles and mainland were excellently written as were the emotions the two were battling with but somehow I seemed to get a bit bogged down in the twelve months of the couple's separation.

Then all was redeemed with the last third of the book which came back to life again once Sam and Phoebe were back on English soil. As is the usual case things don't run smoothly in the course of their budding relationship and my hopes for them were raised and dashed in regular turns as we headed to the end of the book.

Overall I adored Sam and Phoebe and their hotch potch group of friends, although my interest did dip in the middle a little. Still a very nice read though. 3.75 stars rounded to 4.

I was given an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and independent review.
Essentially this is a “will they, won’t they” romance, with a strong storyline and an excellent range of characters.
It’s an easy book to read with no great surprises that the path of true love doesn’t run smoothly. No spoilers here though!
I loved the descriptive narrative of the travels so that I felt like I was with Phoebe on her journey through Europe.

'Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow' (Mary Tyler Moore). This quote sets the tone for this beautiful story of Phoebe and Sam. A train delay is the serendipitous event that leads Phoebe and Sam to meet on June 14th. They are overwhelmed by their instant connection, but they both have a journey to make and they make a promise to meet in one years time if they both feel the same. Phoebe is embarking on a journey to Paris, Rome and Florence in a bid to 'find out how to be at home with myself'. Sam is returning to his birthplace to unravel 'the tangled mystery that's overshadowed all of my life'.

Phoebe grows from her journey, meets some amazing and inspiring people along the way and begins to write her truth. Sam is trying to find out why his father left when he was a boy. They stay in touch along the way with the occasional message, phone call and postcard. But both have their doubts and struggles and this made for a more interesting plot than simply boy meets girl, falls in love and lives happily ever after. As June 14th approaches the anticipation is exquisitely torturous. Without giving away too much, only one of them turns up.

But their story is not over and somehow, despite many misunderstandings and events out of their control, they make their way back to one another.

The Day We Meet Again, is sweet, romantic and feel good. But it is far from predictable, and has a depth that is a joy to read. Can't recommend this one enough.

What happens when you meet by chance and fall in love? Is it real? Will it last? This is an enthralling read which I could hardly bear to put down. I turned back to the beginning as soon as I finished it - always a sign that I have loved a book. You follow both Sam and Phoebe's stories with bated breath and half way through have to tell yourself to breath again. A well written story with great characters and a rollercoaster of a plot!

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of the book

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. I found it to be an enjoyable story, I liked the characters and also that it wasn't straightforward.

Miranda Dickinson’s latest book The Day We Meet Again is out today. A tale of friendship, finding yourself and being brave, it lives up to all my eager anticipation for this new novel from her.

I’ve always found railway stations interesting places to linger in, an integral part of any journey I go on. And here, Miranda Dickinson taps into the magic that sometimes swirls through a railway station with its propensity for bringing strangers together. London’s St Pancras, the station in The Day We Meet Again, will play an important role in Sam and Phoebe’s stories and even take on a new significance for them as time goes on.

I enjoyed seeing where and how Sam and Phoebe meet and, as they get to know each other, I could certainly feel the pull of their mutual attraction. I was also hugely relieved when they continued on with their planned journeys because I felt these were important. They each needed to find themselves, come to terms with their past or work out what they wanted, or didn’t want from life, before committing to anything new, while also testing how they felt about each other over the course of the coming year.

The alternating chapters worked really well in keeping the story moving along, and showing the same event from their two (often different or confused) perspectives. Miranda also showed to good effect how miscommunication can still be rife, even with every modern tool we have available to us, and that these are still often but poor substitutes for face-to-face contact.

One of the aspects I particularly like about any Miranda Dickinson novel is the community she creates around the central couple, and in The Day We Meet Again, we have several different ones in the friendship groups, new and old, for both characters. I could gauge a lot about the main characters from how their friends treated them and looked out for them, and vice versa.

When I was about halfway through the book, I started listening to the playlist* Miranda compiled while writing the book, and continued to play it in the background while reading, which only enhanced my enjoyment of the book and the journeys the characters went on. I’d suggest you try this out.

The Day We Meet Again is quite an emotional ride at times with each character having to face things they’ve been hiding from or avoiding. I thought there was a good balance between the two journeys. Initially, I felt sure I would enjoy Phoebe’s more, especially once she was in Italy, but Sam’s musical and emotional journeys pulled me in by how life-affirming and bittersweet they were.

The Day We Meet Again is a story about taking chances and finding the courage to live and love, however many twists and turns it takes along the way before you get there. It’s one Miranda Dickinson tells with real warmth for her characters and a lightness of touch that engenders hope. It can’t help but make you feel that Sam and Phoebe are changed people; all the better for having met each other, whatever happens after their year apart, thanks to their shared journey through friendship, courage, misunderstandings, heartache and joy. I loved every minute I spent with these two as they got their lives back on track.

This reminds me vaguely of 'Brief Encounter', but a bit longer .. and with modern communications methods thrown in!

Phoebe is setting off, age 32, for a year abroad; travelling, seeing the sights, expanding her horizons - totally out of character for her. Sam, after many years in London is heading back to his home island of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland to try and find answers from his past. When all trains are delayed at St. Pancras, Phoebe and Sam bump into each other - literally - and a little bit of magic happens. With neither capable of ending whatever this is before it begins, they agree to meet at the same time, in the same place, exactly one year on.

I loved the idea of this one, and truly adored being part of both lives and reading about their subsequent locations. The vibrant European cities came alive on the page, and the resulting atmosphere and emotions were easy to imagine; whilst the gorgeous island scenery was breathtaking and spellbinding - and yes, even when it's hot on the continent we Scots don our jumpers and jackets! I enjoyed this part of the novel so much that - for me - it all ended too soon! The return to normality, however, dragged on a bit and had just one or two too many twists. Don't get me wrong, it is a lovely, well-written story with a good mix of characters - I just wondered how the tale would be finished off and when. I did enjoy it, but would have liked it to wrap up just a little sooner. After careful thought, I've decided on three and a half stars for this one.

Thank you for sending a preview copy
. Whilst I enjoyed the idea behind the novel I have found the characters to be a bit two dimensional and whilst I felt the chapters alternating between the 2 leads were a good idea I felt that they didn’t develop and last long enough.

I have enjoyed the book and would definitely read more by this author.

Phoebe and Sam met randomly and fell in love. But they were both going off to other ventures. The story seemed straight forward and then ...............
Lots of tears shed while reading this book!
A great book

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and kept changing my mind doing as to what the outcome might be. I loved how each chapter alternated between Sam and Phoebe and as the year came to an end the chapters got shorter building to 'the day'. Light hearted and fun entertainment.

There’s a new romantic coupling in town and Phoebe and Sam are it. Miranda Dickinson has written a very special book which had me from the very first page. From the hustle of St Pancras to the beautiful setting of Puglia you feel you have travelled with Poppy on her adventures all the while rooting for this very special long distance relationship. From tears to laughter I have been on a rollercoaster of emotions. I will be buying this for my friends