I enjoyed this book a dual time line. The book is about second chances and keeps you guessing what will happen in the end.

Ella has been married to Will for 23 years and she has a best friend Cole as well. On Ella’s birthday she receives a green coat with a scarf which brings her to the point where she remembers when she was a teenager she saw a woman with the same clothes, then realised it was her that she saw.

We go through the emotions of Ella trying to make sure her marriage survives.

I enjoyed the concept of the book and found it sad in places.

Well written.

A duel timeline, a beautiful, poignant tale which reduced me to tears. What’s not to like? I was so invested in the characters and their story, and actually reduced to tears at one point. You know it’s a good book if it makes you cry!
Loved it!

I was fortunate to receive a copy of this ARC from NetGalley and Headline.

I read Songs of Us by Emma Cooper on holiday in 2019 and it made a strong impression on me.

This book was a beautiful story about childhood friendships and bonds that are formed which can last a lifetime. There is also an element of magic in this book but it is not overpowering (if that's not your thing). It made me think about decisions we make and how they can have significant ripple effects on those around us.

Significant content warning for Alcoholism

My favourite quote:
".....Wonfering why we only have the prettiest food when we're already full, like it's something to be forced down rather than savoured. How, if anything, we should savour the dessert first, the food with the brightest colours, the most beautiful finish." (I'm not sure if this is the author's personal view, but I'm totally on board!)

Firstly, huge thank you to NetGalley and Headline for my advanced reader copy of this book!

I hadn’t read any of this author’s work before but I first saw the synopsis for this book many months ago and as soon as I read it. I knew I had to read it because it sounded right up my street!

This book had me feeling all the emotions. I love to read romance books with a mix of drama and second chances so I was pleased to have got that from this book. I also really enjoyed the dual timeline element of ‘then’ and ‘now’. This book kept me guessing throughout and I had no idea where it was going to end which I loved.

I do love a time travel element in my books but for some reason this one just didn’t really sit right with me and I didn’t love this aspect like I usually do. Unfortunately, I found the ending to me a bit too over the top dramatic and unnecessary for my liking but overall I still really liked this one and would recommend to my romance friends!

This book will stay with me for a long time.
Poignant, heart-wrenching, funny and thought provoking. I didn't want to finish Emma Cooper's latest book and neither did I want to say goodbye to characters: Ella, Will and Cole.
There was a point where I embarrassingly sobbed, that's how !ugh you get drawn into the story line and lives of the characters.
My favourite book of 2022 and indeed many years.

@currentlyreading__
Book 66 of 2022

Thank you to @NetGalley, @itsemmacooper and @headlinebooks for the copy of 'It Was Always You' which is out now in Kindle, paperback and audio. It was my last book of September in a VERY slow reading month for me. It was a lovely book to end the month with and never having read anything by @itsemmacooper, I will definitely be downloading some of her other books when I want a lovely feel-good read.

Despite the book being ultimately romantic fiction billed as having 'all the feels', it has some tough topics and Cooper doesn't shy away from the brutality of what living with addiction is like. That said, it is done with tenderness and we see the character behind the addiction.

Ella and Cole grew up together, falling off their bikes, scraping their knees and navigating their teenage years. When Emma meets Will it is love and their relationship moves quickly, relocating to France so that Will can pursue his rock star dreams, unplanned pregnancies and the loneliness that comes with a partner who's always preoccupied with his job. Throughout her loneliness, Cole has been there for Ella and then her children, Amber and Jamie.

Fast forward twenty-three years and their children have gone off to university and there is a case of empty nest going on to add to the point that Will has asked for a divorce. Emma, desperate for Will not to leave, starts to se a therapist and after a series of weird flashbacks, Emma also has regression therapy convinced that the person she saw on the night her and Will got together was in fact her adult self, giving her a warning about her future. So, can Ella go back there and find out just what she is meant to do? I really didn't know where the plot was going which made it all the more enjoyable. And the 90s nostalgia was also 👏🏻👏🏻.

After finishing this book a week ago I am still not over this.... I am so in love, I am so heartbroken.
I honestly couldn't tell you who I wanted to be Mr Right until the end and then I was wow Emma Cooper nailed it, then she ripped our hearts out in the only way it could end with any truly heartfelt meaning - I love it.
Why it wasn't 5 stars, because I was being a little picky, I had the audiobook and didn't love the narration, it was pretty good but the voices were a little overplayed.
I wasn't a big lover of the paranormal trip to the past but see how it set it all in motion and how without it the story just wouldn't work.

I have read most of Emma's books in the past and liked them all and this is no different. I enjoyed the dual timeline concept of then and now. It's a romance with a mix of drama and the prospect of second chances! It's a definite page turner that will have you feeling all emotions!

So I have a problem with this book. I liked it, it is Emma Copper's novel, powerful and emotional, but on the other hand, I've never felt completely engaged in this story and I really am not sure why. Theoretically, everything was perfect here, but practically...well... no. It dragged on and the partts when Emma was by her therapist were, well, boring and I started to skip them. It felt repetitive and the same and well, to be honest, I was not happy with the end. Too dramatic and unnecessary for my liking.
I was also not sure what to think about Will - did he really know what he wants? He came across as a spoiled, immature and undecided, things that will make every adult man annoying, to say the least, grrr.

Nevertheless, there is much more to this book that you could think at first. It's not your usual girl meets boy story, it's much deeper, featuring a bot of time travel which, to be honest, didn't sit so well wit me. But all in all, it was filled with emotions and the author knows how to capture them, how to write about them.

I really wanted to love this book but sadly it didn't grab me the way I had hoped it would. Set over two time frames, it follows a relationship between Ella and Jack from teenage meeting to marriage and grown up kids, but things are always clouded by the presence of its third wheel, Ella's friend Cole. The side story involving time travel and Ella's attempts, via hypnosis to get back and warn her younger self of what is to come just felt pointless, with no real disaster to avoid or clear message to impart that would change anything. This part of the book just didn't work for me. I struggled to the end but it's a very average 3 stars from me.

This is the story of Ella, who has been married to the love of her life Will for 23 years, and they have two grown up children - the youngest has just gone to university. Their life hadn't quite gone as planned but Ella was happy and thought Will was too - until the day he asked her for a divorce.

The story is told in two timeslines - 'then' and 'now' - 'now' being October 2022. 'Then' tells how Ells and Will got together and the fateful night that Ella got drunk and saw a mysterious lady in a derelict archway, dressed in a green coat and red scarf, causing her to faint, and how Will took her home sparking their relationship. 'Now' tells how Will asks for a divorce and her children buy her a green coat and red scarf, leading Ella to think that maybe she was the lady in the coat and scarf, going back in time to tell her past self something important.

Even people who don't like the idea of the time travel aspect would love this book. The characters are very believable and sympathetic, and we build up clues to their personalities and relationships as we travel through the book in both timelines. As well as the obvious relationship between Ella and Wills there is also the very complex relationship between Will and Cole who is Ella's best friend from childhood and whose life Will saved when they were young. I absolutely couldn't put it down. Well written and deeply emotional.


https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/59359001

It was an excellent love story, of fate, choice and unrequited love. A mystery ran all the way through it and kept you hooked.

This novel tells the story of Ella and the two men in her life, over the course of two points in her life. The story flashes back to her early 20s when she made a choice and then back to real-time when she's in her 40s and her marriage is falling apart. Through therapy, she discovers more about her younger self and gets to ask herself if she had a chance to go back and change everything, would she?

Think I must have misread the synopsis because I never go for romances yet this was basically what this book was. Fairly uninteresting characters didn’t add to my enjoyment either I’m sorry to say.

A lovely read. Ella has been unwittingly caught between two loves all her life. Although seeing Cole as her best friend she hasn't realised how he feels. When her husband Will tells her he wants a divorce after more than 20 years of marriage it sets in motion a series of events that lead right back to the October night the clocks went back when Ella was 18, and the night she and Will first got together. There are some good humorous moments, some very poignant a whole lot of caring. I had no idea how it was going to end - would Ella discover she loved Cole? Or would her abiding love for Will be enough to carry her through? #netgalley #ItWasAlwaysYou

Really enjoyed this book, a romance with a difference. You could really feel the joy and the heartbreak throughout Cleverly written characters who all had light and shade. Will definitely look out for more from this author.

This was such a emotional story I loved and read I enjoyed the writing style the characters I loved the story between will and Ella such emotion journey between them. I loved every paged. Covers certain topic on divorce and a few trigger warming. Overall a amazing book.

This book was stunning. I loved the flashbacks between present and past as the book went on. I was so intrigued by the relationships between Ella, Will and Cole as they were so relatable and complex.
It was a tear jerker, funny, beautiful. Everything you’d want in a book!!!!!!

I loved the blurb for this book and thought it would be perfect for me but unfortunately it wasn’t quite what I expected.

Will and Ella are childhood sweethearts they have been together since they were teenagers and now have two lovely children, the second of which is off to uni, the first having already moved out. Suddenly Will drops a bombshell that he wants a divorce, so Ella turns to her oldest friend, Cole, an alcoholic who appears to have been a third wheel for most of her marriage.

From there we delve into their lives Then, back when they first got together and Now as things are currently. Alongside this there is some time travel involved and Ella questions whether, if she could go back and make changes that fateful day when she first spoke to Will, she would change her life completely. Maybe he would have gone on to become a famous pop star and she a famous artist.

The first 40% or s of this book was mostly character building which would then lead into a plot building where the characters become almost irrelevant. I found it hard to get through when I didn’t feel any connection to any of the main characters and didn’t really care what happened to them.

There are some tough parts that I didn’t feel were necessary to add which left an unsavoury taste, for example Ella’s sexual acts with her husband at the beginning which was completely inappropriate and left her complaining of a bruised leg. I think, had it been the other way round, there would have been outrage at such a situation.

I expected this to be an adventure of Ella daydreaming about what life could have been like if she made different decisions, but it wasn’t like that at all. She sees a hypnotist which was quite interesting but the whole thing felt quite long and drawn out.

I didn’t enjoy the characters as, despite all the development, they felt flat and I didn’t feel like I knew much about them aside from the very basics, Ella is smug and arty, Will is handsome and Cole is an alcoholic. I wanted to be rooting for the characters, for a romance I wanted to be desperate for them to get back together but I just wanted it to get to the end in all honesty.

This wasn’t the one for me. I like the premise of ‘what would you do if you could go back and make different choices’ but I wouldn’t want to do that myself.

This has to be one of the best audio books I have listened to. The narrator certainly did the book justice. Absolutely loved the story - took me through all the emotions. The story really tugs at the heartstrings - loved all the characters as flawed as they were. I am no good at predicting endings or plot twists - I like to enjoy the story as I'm reading it and not second guess stuff. But that ending......

Is 5 stars enough - I could have given it more. I think this is one of my top reads of the year.

This has been a powerful and emotional book but very well written. Outstanding characters with an interwoven storyline. This is the best book by Emma that I have read,