Member Reviews
Thanks to Net Galley and Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
This is a love story and certainly touches the readers heart. It’s well written and flows easily that the pages just keep turning.
Joel is single and determined to remain so, he meets Callie in a coffee shop where she is working, they have an immediate connection.
Callie has recently lost one of her girlfriends and is struggling with moving forward, whilst Joel regularly dreams about the people he is close to, he can see what is going to happen in the future, days, weeks, months or years ahead.
Despite both their problems they continue to drift towards one another and eventually start dating, you can literally feel the tension and sparks between them
Inevitably not long in to their new exciting relationship, Joel dreams about Callie, he tries to keep it a secret, but finds he can’t.
How much can he tell Callie, how much does she want to know? What decisions will they make?
Beautifully written, a very successful first book for Holly Miller. 4.5 stars
Don’t read the end of this book in public unless you don’t mind people seeing you with mascara running down your cheeks and your nose sniffing madly.
I really enjoyed the two voices of Callie and Joel and the different timelines. I particularly liked the start of their relationship which was exquisitely drawn and well depicted.
I still fail to understand why Joel And Callie made The decision they did but this didn’t deter me from enjoying the book.
Indeed this is the love story of the year! A beautifully written book with wonderful, thoughtful and well developed characterisation. I was unsure about this read at the start but it just got better and better. Reading the blurb, it might sound weird and totally unrealistic but as you got used to Joel's unusual 'condition', it all seemed so real and believable that it became natural to accept him the way he was and embrace how this influences the whole story-line. Such a brilliant idea and handled so well and sensitively so that it never feels like a psychic or science fiction novel. Recommended!
This is a beautiful book! It had me crying and smiling in equal measure! The characters were interesting and felt like people you would love to know!.
Would highly recommend this book and can't wait to tell others about it!
Thankyou to Netgalley for allowing me a copy of this book in return for an honest review
Wow! I loved this book. This is a book that you have to read - it will make you laugh and it will make you cry, set amongst the most beautiful prose I have come across all year! I don't want to give too much away. If you love someone and you know something that could change their way of life, should you share or keep it to yourself? Will that destroy your relationship? Joel is the most wonderfully, quirky character and I wanted him to have the happiness he deserved when he met Callie. This book has fabulous twists and turns - don't miss it! Put it on your reading list now... and a box of tissues to hand!
Wow what a debut novel!!
This story follows Joel a former vet who is struggling with depression and anxiety. He meets Callie by chance in a coffee stop and they have a strong connection. The problem is Joel dreams about the people he loves and the dreams come true. He dreams about Callie and struggles with what her future holds. This was a fun story and I would recommend.
Imagine for a moment that your dreams contained premonitions about future events involving you and the people you love? Would you welcome the opportunity to prepare for what’s to come, perhaps to try and change things for the better? Or would you dread each vision and let them profoundly affect your life? Might the anxiety cause you to lose your job? Or end relationships? This is the predicament that Joel has to deal with in Holly Miller’s The Sight of You.
Joel is afraid of the future and has been ever since he was young and started having his dreams. In recent years he’s started to push people away when they threaten to get to close, just so he doesn’t have to deal with the consequences and responsibility of his premonitions.
Callie’s life has been mostly on hold since the death of her friend, Grace. She knows she needs to try and move on but doesn’t really know how. When she meets Joel they both feel as though it’s could be the start of something serious. Until one day Joel has a vision of how it’s going to end…
This is one of the most beautifully written love stories I have ever read. Joel and Callie are the sweetest characters, clearly absolutely made for each other and, though the blurb suggests that the course of true love may not be destined to run smoothly, I spent most of the book desperately willing there to be some sort of happy ending for them.
I thought the concept of the book was very thought-provoking, and spent a lot of time considering how I would manage in Joel’s situation. My conclusion? I’m definitely in the “I don’t want to know” camp! I think I, like Joel, would try everything to make the premonitions stop!
While I did find some parts of the writing to be a little saccharine for my tastes, I was undoubtedly fully invested in Joel and Callie’s lives and found myself with tears in my eyes for the profoundly moving last 50 pages. If you’re looking for a book to make you ugly cry then this one could be a strong contender! Tender, beautiful and heartbreaking, Holly Miller manages to capture the raw emotion and messy reality of love within an original and utterly captivating premise. It’ll be a while before I forget Callie and Joel.
A nice easy read. Totally believable and great characters In Callie and Joel. With such a focus on their story I was not as engaged As I could have been with the cast of supporting characters. This would, I think, make a fantastic film. A perfect weekend escape read.
I just loved this book. It was a wonderful read, beautifully written, both heartbreaking and uplifting. Left me in tears, an absolute pleasure and would make a brilliant film.
I have been reading more light, romance-type books whilst stuck at home in lockdown, and for the most part they have been good, fun light reads, enjoyable escapism if not always particularly memorable. So I started reading this expecting more of the same - and boy was I surprised. I was in absolute bits at the end of this, and am not ashamed to say I was in tears. An utterly heartbreaking, beautifully written book and certainly a romance novel with a difference - you can't help but fall in love with the main characters, Callie and Joel who are so well drawn by Miller. Such an impressive debut - make sure you have some time set aisde when you start reading this as you won't want to put it down.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Usually, if a book makes me cry it is because it transports me to a time I can personally relate to – unearthing my own feelings which swirl into those of the characters and their story. It’s surprising therefore that I found myself sat on a Monday night crying uncontrollably into my red wine with my husband tutting and side eyeing me in disgust while my loud sobs blocked out the garden-based wisdom of Alan Titchmarsh on the telebox. All because a guy in a book had a bad dream about a girl he fancied. It’s hardly relatable stuff on the face of it.
And yet the author has created two characters in Joel and Callie who got under my skin so much that I fell in love with them. That I felt what they felt and I wanted the world for them. They are the true magic behind the The Sight of You, their relationship is the stuff of dreams (pun intended) and I was their one person cheer squad positioned in the margins of each page, pom poms waving furiously. I became so very invested in them that I found myself arguing with them in my head hours after I finished a chapter. I couldn’t understand why Joel made certain decisions. I couldn’t understand Callie’s point of view at times. I still don’t understand to a certain extent, and I would love to discuss these points with someone because I am still…..a couple of weeks later, mulling over the events of this book.
The events of the novel are seen from the point of view of both Joel and Callie in turn, from before their initial meeting to several years down the line. There is very little in the way of major secondary plots to distract from the building of these two characters, everything that does happen serves to consolidate them as people, rounding them out and the author does a magnificent job of pulling all these threads together to build them up. There are few novels that I read that I would say I can truly ‘see’ the characters in my minds eye, but this is one of them. And I think that is why *that* scene towards the end held so much power and triggered so much emotion in me. Simply done, and yet so effective.
The Sight of You is wonderfully written, evocative and so essentially human. At a time when it feels the world has broken so irretrievably, this book has been my solace and my escape. For despite the tears, it bubbles with hope and that most basic of human desires – love. An incredible novel, it will, I know, be a very strong contender for my Top Reads of 2020 list.
What a sad story. It seems a slightly unrealistic plot to begin with but it works.. A true love story where you feel their pain and really want it to work for them. The characters are believable . Definitely worth a read.
Oh this book will make you fall in love and break your heart at the same time!
I honestly cannot fault it.
The prose is beautiful and sometimes I just had to stop and really read a sentence to take in how well written it was.
The character development is fantastic and we go on a real journey with the two main characters; Callie and Joel. Not only that, but they are supported by a cast of characters who are very well developed and distinctive in their own right; despite sometimes not featuring too heavily. I really admire the author's ability to convey realistic characters without having to provide tons and tons of detail. I particularly loved the support network that Joel had. I wanted to be friends with them!
The plot has a sort of fantasy/sci-fi undertone (Joel can dream the futures of the people he loves) but it doesn't feel like that kind of book. It feels like a contemporary romance that doesn't stray into mindless or too 'chic-lit' fairytale. The 'seeing the future' element of the plot, while the crux and catalyst, feels almost extraneous to the real subject of the novel.
I am a big fan of the dual/multiple narrative which seems so popular now - if it is done right. This is certainly done right and I really felt for both of them. Yes they make flawed decisions at times but those decisions make for a perfect curve of events.
I was worried I would build this up only to hate the ending. However, I can't fault that either.
Highly recommended but remember to prepare yourself for emotional turmoil.
Thanks to Netgalley , the author and publisher for access to this fantastic book.
I have no idea how The Sight Of You ended up in my groaning TBR but I need to thank the person who recommended this book to me. It’s one of my favourite reads from this year and it’s hard to find the right words to do it justice.
Joel has dreams about his loved ones which come true at a later date. Some events were happy, but at other times he carried around a terrible burden because he knew when something really bad was about to happen. The level of anxiety and guilt that he experienced from these psychic dreams was hard to share with anyone, especially his family.
When Callie enters his life Joel feels an instant attraction, but he knows that to protect them both, he should ignore his feelings. Callie is grieving and lost and Joel recognises that she too is a troubled soul. Can he put his visions to one side and make them both happy or will his predictions tear them apart?
I can’t say any more about the storyline without revealing too much, but what happens next takes you on an emotional journey which stays with you long after you turn the last page. The story had me contemplating fate and destiny for days after I had finished the book. It made me think about how precious life is and about the sacrifices we sometimes have to make for love.
The story is told through both Joel and Callie’s voices in alternating chapters and over several years. The author gives an intimate insight into each of the main characters thoughts and feelings. Both are equally likeable and relatable but my heart broke into pieces for Joel.
Towards the end of the book the pace picks up with shorter chapters and you feel like you just want to stop time in its tracks. This is a deeply immersive read, it is touching, thought-provoking and utterly brilliant.
Joel has had prophetic dreams about people he loves since he was a child. He sees the things that will happen to them in the future, good and bad. He has sworn off love because it is too painful to know how things may end.
Callie, grieving after the sudden death of her best friend Grace, is living a life that is safe but unfulfilling.
When they meet one another at the coffee shop Callie works at, they cannot deny their growing attraction to one another, and as their friendship develops, it is only a matter of time before they admit that they have fallen in love with one another. They could not be happier.
That is, until the night Joel dreams about Callie and what is going to happen to her in eight years. Callie does not want to know, and Joel cannot live with the knowledge. He wants Callie to live the life she deserves, and to be truly happy and he knows that he cannot provide that for her. So though it breaks him, he lets her go.
Broken-hearted, Callie nevertheless goes on to lead a life of travel and adventure and meets Finn, who becomes her husband and father to her twins. She has a good life and is truly happy. But she has never forgotten Joel, and writes him postcards detailing her adventures, only to be given to him if his dream comes true.
Eight years on, Callie and Joel meet for the last time, and this scene is heart-breaking. But their story is one that proves that some loves are eternal and that true love is selfless.
An absolutely beautiful love story that every reader will become fully invested in, I adored every word of this gorgeous book.
I loved the simplicity of the story. All the characters are really are really likeable and it really makes you realise that if you live somebody, you will always love them! Such a good read!
I did enjoy this book, finding the characters easy to warm to - not just the main characters, but also those of their associated friends and colleagues.
I really enjoyed the style of this book, with some lovely descriptive passages and was surprised that this is a debut novel. Looking forward to reading more from Holly Miller in the future.
Both Callie and especially Joel tugged at my heartstrings and made me wonder how I would react in their situation. I was desperately hoping for a happy ending and thought I could predict what would happen, but I was wrong!
I have heard that this book is being made into a film and I would be very interested in seeing this and how the story is translated for the big screen.
This is a beautiful, heart-breaking story of hope, love, self-sacrifice and grief and is completely consuming.
The first half of the book appears to be a traditional love story, where we meet both characters and get an insight into each of their histories and what makes them right together and I was truly routing for them to be together. The second half is a about doing what you think is best for the ones you love,moving on, coping the best ways that you can.
The book was completely real and that's what I loved about it. The ending of this book gave me goosebumps and is one I will not forget. Overall a stunning debut that I can see flying off the shelves.
This is one of those books that will stay with you long after you've finished it. I loved the relationship Callie and Joel. At times sad, hopeful, funny and moving, it was just a joy to read.
This is such a gorgeous love story -but you just know it isn't going to end well .
Joel is not your average hunk -he is handsome -kind - intelligent.....and has recurring dreams where he is shown the future of his friends and family.. This little affliction haunts him daily and stops him having any kind of meaningful relationship.. Then he meets Callie- falls in love and decides to take a chance .Everything is idyllic -until one night he dreams of Callie .....
Keep the tissues close by
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review