The frequency of us is the story of Will and Elsa who meet during the war and fall in love. They are living happily ever after until their house is bombed. After Will recovers, he can find no trace of Elsa and no one believes she existed. Decades later, Laura is assigned as Will’s carer and her assessment of his health leads her to become entangled in the mystery of Elsa’s disappearance.

I sank in to the story of The Frequency of Us quickly and found Will cantankerous but charming. I enjoyed seeing the mystery of Elsa’s disappearance unravel. It was a story that spanned several genres with really humorous moments interspersed with really creepy, skin crawling events. I found my interest waned during the middle of the book and couldn’t relate to Laura’s obsessive need to find out what happened to Elsa. Because of this, I didn’t feel the tension or urge to get to the answers and some aspects of the ending seemed a little too convenient.

It’s a really interesting idea for a novel and I am sure fans of romance and sci fi genres will enjoy unravelling the mystery of Will and Elsa.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Sphere for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Definitely a novel of two halves, and I do not want to spoil the ending..
Bath, during the Second World War and Will, a young wireless engineer , meets and falls in love with Elsa, an Austrian refugee. Their marriage is shortlived when a bomb falls in their garden during a night raid.
Seventy years later and Will still lives in the same house and is looked after by troubled care worker Laura. their lives seemingly linked by some invisible thread.
I found this compelling as I initially thought it was just a romance. The author has cleverly weaved a mixture of genres together to create a novel beyond my expectations.

This book spans two timelines, and it does it very well. Sometimes there can be a disconnect or the book is difficult to follow, but this is written very well.

I found myself feeling some deep feelings of sympathy for Laura and how she struggles with her mental health and every day life. I am pleased to follow her growth throughout the book, and I love how the story just ties everything so neatly together.

Laura finds a purpose in her life, and helping Will really gives her something important to work on.

The characters were great, and were written in such a way that you definitely feel connected to them, and really wishing for the best outcome.

This was a beautifully written story which I thoroughly enjoyed.

ects that Will has dementia. She goes on a search for Elsa, and this takes her to places she didn't expect and requires that she face up to her past as well.

This was a really unusual, special book. You have to suspend belief at times, but the unusual aspects of the story were well handled. I loved learning about the old wirelesses and I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Bath - a place I have been (I live in Australia, so that isn't a given), and especially the Pump Room where I spent a delightful few hours with friends as well; I could visualise there being dancing and a band, it has that kind of feel to it. The descriptions of the bombings during WWII were horrific and brings home just how horrendous war is and has always been, for the ordinary person.

Anyway, the only thing that was disappointing was the ending really, there were some loose threads that weren't quite tied up when it came to Laura and I think it would have elevated the story just a little bit more.

So, for me, this is a 4.5 star book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK.

Beautiful, moving and not quite what I expected. I really enjoyed this, there were so many layers which were woven together perfectly..

Really struggling to put into words just how much I loved this.

I really enjoyed precious books by the author and this did not disappoint. I couldn’t see the twists coming and it had a real emotional impact with the issues it dealt with.

Where do I start with my review of this book... I am still trying to formulate into words what I thought of it...
We start when Will is caught up in a second world war bombing raid and wakes up dazed. He is convinced he was married but there is no sign of Else, his wife. No one has heard of her, there is nothing belonging to her in his house, their house. They say she didn't exist.
Years later and Will is still living in the same house. He never re-married and, well, is struggling. So much so that social care have got involved although thus far they have failed to get him to engage with them. It is a race against time to complete an assessment of his physical and mental health and make a judgement as to what help he needs, whether his home is the right place for him to stay.
Laura is also struggling. Mostly with her mental health but she is trying to battle through it all. She has quit uni and got a job through a connection from her mum and is now a social worker. She is sent to assess Will, to see if she can't get through to him. No mean task really given his history with social care.
And so begins a wonderful and powerful story - both in the present as we follow the "relationship" between Will and Laura, and also the past as we follow Will's version of what happened. With Laura, back in the present, trying to makes sense of it enough to complete her report.
Will and Laura are wonderful characters. Chalk and cheese on the surface but oh so similar when you get down to the basics. They have both suffered in very different ways. Will by what happened in the war, Laura by her childhood. Completely different events but both have made their marks. Both ably illustrated by this author's own inimitable way - he really writes mental health issues so well. So real, so much that you can't help but empathise with the characters that are suffering. But still managing to keep everything on an even keel, not to get too dark and dismal about it all. Even in this book, which is quite laden with issues, there are lighter moments, even some humour along the way. And always light, and hope.
I could wax lyrical for ever now I have started but I fear that spoilers may creep in so I will stop here. Suffice to say I loved the book just as much as I did the author's previous - A Boy Made of Blocks and Days of Wonder - which are both also cracking reads when you have finished this one if you haven't already! Me, I'm already hankering for his next book!
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Another magical, fascinating tale. Every book I read that comes from the pen of Keith Stuart is completely different but is infused with the same DNA of ethereal beauty. I get very excited when a new book is announced as I know I will be taken on a wonderful journey that will engross me. He is masterful in his structure and detail and there are no jarring moments that take you out of the magical world he has woven. I eagerly look forward to his next spellbinding tale.

I loved the author’s books A Boy Made of Blocks and Days of Wonder so I couldn’t wait to read this book, get my heart busted again and turned into a gibbering emotional wreck. Those are the best days. Like his other books, this is a very emotional read and I quickly became invested in the characters. I enjoyed the fact the story bounces between WWII and the present and gradually reveals the links between both. The book blends science fiction and a love story which I haven’t come across before and which works really well even though it sounds very strange. I cried a few times reading this because it squeezed my heart so much.

Oh, how I love Keith Stuart. This was different to his other two books, but I loved it nonetheless. I loved the whole concept of the dual lifetimes and, as ever, Keith created characters I loved and cared for - and in some ways related to. This was a delight. Thank you so very much.

I loved 'A Boy made of Blocks' and 'Days of Wonder' so I was very excited to read this book, and it didn't dissapoint. The story is told in two timelines, the second world war and more current times, and switches between the two. The story is amazing for fans of Science Fiction/Romance but is so beautifully written you would enjoy it whatever your preference.

Laura is taken on as a favour to her mum, as a carer in a private firm. It is her job to asses 87 year old Will and decide whether he is safe to be living in his house, or whether he should be taken into a care home.

Will was involved in a bombing during the second world war, and when he awoke the love of his life, Elsa, had dissapeared along with everything she owned in the house, and everyone told him she didn't exist, and that he was single. Did she exist or not.

An intriguing, magical mysterious love story spanning the centuries. Beautifully written, and cleverly crafted. I loved it.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3865171948

Set in Bath during the second world War.
Will is an wireless engineer and he falls in love with Elsa, a refugee from Austria. They set up home at Will's house overlooking Bath and are very happy, often visited by a young boy called David who lives a few doors away.
One night there is a bombing on Bath and over their house and Will wakes up in hospital but Elsa has disappeared and no-one has ever heard of her and that he wasn't married.
70 years later and Will's health is deteriorating. He is suspected to have dementia but his social worker believes otherwise and thinks something else happened that night.
She decides to try and solve the mystery but time is running out - will she succeed?
A very cleverly written book which will keep you hooked till the end.

I can confess I hadn’t heard Of Keith Stuart before. So, The he frequency of us is my first book from the author that I have read.
Laura is a carer and has been given the task to visit 87-year-old Will Emerson and devised a report to see if her is capable of still living at home on his own in a depilated house called Avon Lodge. As he has the first signs with dementia and has been told to talk to himself. In his younger days, Will was a Radio engineer and his house and garden shed portrays that as it is full of old transistor radios and its components and dream of his younger day back in Bath in 1942 and his memories of his loving wife Elsa.

Laura herself has her own problems. She suffers from Anxiety and depression. This is her first job and she hoped to make a difference. But after devising her report. She got Will all wrong and she goes out of her way to find out the truth to what happened to Elsa.
Thank you, Little brown, for a copy of The frequency of us. This is a moving story of courage, love, loss and also mental health. I really enjoyed this historical tale. Although a bit slow to start, this has a unique story line of two lonely people brought together which changes both their lives for the better. 4 stars from me.

3.5/5

It’s been a while since I read a historical, contemporary fiction but this was an easy reintroduction to the genre. The Frequency of Us is a poignant story that follows two main characters - Will and Laura - alternating chapters with their point of views, past and present. We open with Will’s perspective during a bomb raid in his neighborhood where he discovers that his was completely wiped from his life. Cut to the present where Will is now a 90 year-old man living in solitude, Laura finds herself assigned with evaluating him for social services. Laura, with her own set of secrets, decides to help Will reconnect the pieces from his past.

Ultimately the story is about grief, trauma and healing.

I do enjoy stories that feature two timelines weaved together, as one of the characters slowly uncover some mystery of the other. This was similarly enjoyable, though I did feel more invested in one pov for majority of the book (Laura), so non Laura pov chapters felt a little bit of a bore but the prose was smooth so they were still easy to get through.

Both characters were great but Laura stood out more to me, I love how her struggles with mental illness and medication were shown. The author really wrote these characters with care and you can tell, there were several more subtle, mellower moments that somehow hit harder due to how relatable they are. Will in the past did not interest me as much, his personality felt a little monotonous compared to older, present Will. His grumpy yet compassionate personality bounces off Laura’s anxious yet stern personality really well.

Overall, the book was a quick and nice read. It might drag a little bit but still a lovely story for people who are looking for a heartwarming, historical fiction.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a honest review.

This book gripped me from the very beginning and I just couldn’t put it down. I loved way the story unfolded and especially the twists and turns. The descriptions of Laura’s anxiety were very real and convincing ( I’m a fellow sufferer). This is a love story which is totally different to any others I have read , which made it refreshing and intriguing. It moved along at pace which relayed Laura’s urgency to find out the truth of Will’s story before it was too late. As a lover of WW2 history and romance this was a perfect combination for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can highly recommend it.

A wonderfully compelling read! Contemporary fiction that masterfully blends historical details, a timeless romance and hints of the supernatural...although here, think more along the lines of 'The Time Travellers Wife' - but better.

I loved the facts and and details about vintage radios, music and art history/architecture. The City of Bath was vivid in words, seamlessly interwoven throughout the narrative and I could see every street. I especially enjoyed the wartime narrative which absolutely glowed – so immersive - Will and Elsa’s romance was beautiful.

Characters to root for, a gripping storyline, and plenty of surprises - thoroughly recommend!

This was a wonderfully emotional and gripping read, I felt I had to get to the end to understand what was happening with Will and Laura but also I didn't want it to finish.
The nostalgia of the wartime memories and courtship of Elsa and Will was stunning to read and I felt really captured the very complex political scene at the time for refugees and Jews that has perhaps been brushed over more now.
However it was Laura's past that truly struck deep with me; her experiences of her childhood and the absence of that safe, loving relationship with a parent and the after effects of that on her sense of self and purpose was heartbreakingly real and well written.
This is a unique and captivating book, with such a clever premise I kept thinking of it after I had finished.

I really enjoyed this book. A quirky idea that rang true. I found myself rooting for Will and Elsa and really wanted things to work out for them. Really well written. I would definitely recommend.

Having read Stuart's previous two books, I was keen to read his new one.

This tells the story of Will, a wireless engineer who meets Elsa Klein, an Austrian who has fled her country to live with her aunt. They are living together when a bomb in WWII tears their lives apart.

Seventy years later, Will is an elderly man living on his own, when Laura comes into his life. Laura has her own problems and decides to stop taking her anti depressants. Will doesn't seem to have anyone in his life. He is seen as a nuisance by his neighbours. He shows Laura diary entries that he has made relating to his meeting Elsa and their relationship. But did Elsa really exist.

I loved this story from start to finish. A beautiful book.

This book got off to a really great start. It's war time Britain in the city of Bath. The Germans are dropping their bombs every night, causing people to flee to their bunkers for their safety. Fast paced, and exciting, straight away I was totally drawn to Will and was fascinated by the story. How could his wife, Elsa Klein, just disappear without a trace? I loved Will's character; grumpy, mean and totally broken by the disappearance of his wife. Laura, sent by Adult Social Care to find out whether Will can copy alone at home or if he needs to go into care, is drawn in by his story and sets out on a mission to find out what happened to Elsa. Did she really exist, or is she a figment of Will's imagination? The downside to the book was that to me personally, it just went on for too long and by the time the end came I'd lost a bit of interest and I admit I skipped bits to find out how the book ended. I would recommend it though.

Review will be posted to Amazon on publication day.