My first read by this author, who is now firmly on my list of favourites.

This is a brilliantly written, nostalgic, heartwarming and sexy love letter to London, and two Londoners who seem inexorably bound to come together over the decades.

Jennifer and Nick meet as teenagers studying for A Levels at 6th form college. Jennifer is immediately struck by Nick who is as gorgeous as he is annoyingly pretentious, and vows that he is absolutely definitely not right for her.

After saving her from being trampled at a Smith's gig and getting her home when her friends all fall out, Jen and Nick become best friends, each unafraid to call out the other's worst habits, while Jen remains steadfastly determined that Nick must never guess her true feelings for him.

Over the decades they fight and drift apart, but always seem to find themselves back in each other's lives, against a backdrop of key historical events.

The characters are so real and relatable, I was completely invested and couldn't tear myself away from this gorgeous book.

I feel certain plots lines (dates and events) ikky and cheaply used to fill out the timeline. Personally I found those bits distasteful in an otherwise nicely told extremely slow burn story.

So skillful constructed!
A lovely letter to London. Following Nick & Jennifer though the decades. Everything about it was absolutely perfect.

3 Stars!

I think this was an okay read, I think for me I'm veryyyy particular about my romance reads. I think the best part was definitely the time jumps which was what I was looking for with this read (so I guess that gave me what I wanted) It was more so the characters. They were likable but I just wanted something a bit more.

Really enjoyed this book,such a nice setting and I loved the characters. It's definitely a book I'd recommend to a friend.

I love this author, I read Guitar Girl when I was a teenager and saw this new book come up.

Sara depicts teenage experiences exactly how I remember them, then anguish and deep hurt from miscommunication. The intensity of first crushes.

I loved this new journey with Jennifer and Nick and how love can keep pulling people together.

Thank you so much for the change to read this wonderful book, I love this story and know I will read it again!

Unfortunately this one was a DNF for me, however, it is a sweet story with lovely characters. With the right person, this book will be adored.

I love the connection I felt to the characters from living in London. I struggled a little bit to get into the book, it didn't instantly grip me like some others I have read recently.

Felt a little contrived, Didn't hit the heady romance heights that Sarra Manning has done historically. A common plot, without much to set it above others.

It's a cute story, you know big cities, you walk past people, the same people every day and don't notice. Is it ever too late? I enjoyed this easy to follow story, I love London and have lived there 3 times in my life. I recommend this as a light hearted afternoon read.

This was unfortunately a DNF for me: I was not in the place to read it at the time, I will try to give it another chance in the future.

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC of thus book in exchange for a honest review.

I liked how the story was in London so some of the story was familiar like being at tube stations.

Jennifer's character as a teenager could be quite relatable as she tried to change her name to Jen when she started college to try to appear cooler. It was mainly written from her POV so you couldn't get to know Nick as well and know what he was thinking and the actions he did, he was always described as pretentious which didn't give much away about his character and not as likeable as Jennifer.

I really enjoyed this book in the beginning but then the only thing was it felt like it really dragged towards the end. I know that it was meant to be a slow burn romance but you get to the point where you think they should be together by now.

Overall it was an enjoyable read.

I thought this book is going to be similar to Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern, which is one of my favourite books ever, so I had high hopes for London, With Love. However, apart from beautiful writing this book was too long, and I didn’t really believe the love and chemistry between the two main characters. Also, the miscommunication trope in this book just made me so angry. Both of the main characters were just so childish and too stubborn to admit their feelings. Also, some of the events in this book were quite triggering and happened without any warning…yet felt that including those events wasn’t necessary to make this book good.

The story follows Jen and Nick, who became best friends in college when both were 16 and see them fall in and out of each other’s lives over the course of the next 35 years. The book also uses the London tube as a backdrop to all the important events and meetings that happen in both Nick’s and Jen’s life.

I didn’t like Jen’s character that much. For me, it felt like she didn’t grow up and her character development was non-existent until the last 10% of the book. Also, for someone with two degrees and being quite well educated she lacked common sense and was very naïve, which was just very unbelievable. Nick, for me, was quite a mystery, as we get to know him only from Jen’s POV. I didn’t feel much romance and feelings between the two of them in this book, it felt more like a childhood crush for me.

What I liked in this book is the beautiful writing and scene setting, as well as the beautiful descriptions of London. The author perfectly explores how London changed from 1986 to 2021.

Overall: I had such high hopes for this book but was quite disappointed with a very mediocre romance that didn’t feel that realistic. I couldn’t connect with the main characters or believe their feelings towards each other. The book itself also felt a bit too long, and the inclusion of three major events without a trigger warning nearly made me DNF this book. Writing and exploration of London was beautiful though.

Love love love this book. It is cheesey and soppy and emotional, everything you want in a romantic storyline. Recommended this book loads.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.


Now for the review: Sarra Manning's London, With Love is an absolute delight to read. It's a cosy love story that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Our two main characters, Jennifer and Nick, are relatable and the setting is so vivid - it feels like you're in London yourself (although I actually was)! I highly recommend this book if you're in need of some lighthearted escapism, it had me rooting for them to have their happy ever after from the start.

A bit late with reading this as it had been sat in my shelf. So glad to have got round to reading it. Such a fantastic book. I loved the setting, that it was in London. The characters were so relatable, a really enjoyable read. Thank you.

This book really does feel like a love letter to London.
I especially appreciated each of the chapters being named after a station, for example.
Having this take place over the course of 20 years was really interesting and definitely captured my attention.
The two main characters are also relatable, which isn't always the case with these kinds of books.
I enjoyed watching their love story unfold over the years, even if it was frustrating at times to not just see them get together.
It was quite a shock, even though it was understandable that they were included given the time periods covered, to see two terrorist attacks depicted.
Both were handled sensitively but they kind of stuck out for me and made me feel a little bit uncomfortable.
I also didn't need to have COVID mentioned in the epilogue either.
I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for Sarra Manning's other books, as well, after reading this.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed elements of this story but as a whole not so much. It started off strong with Jens teen years and how she came to meet Nick and I liked this part of the story. We follow Jen as she navigates life with Nick always appearing in her life somewhere no matter what state their friendship is in. I wasn't a massive fan of how the story panned out with too much going on and too many real life events shoved in. I would have enjoyed it more if it had focused on the one which seemed more in keeping with where the story was set and done in more detail. I wasn't a huge fan of Nick either I thought he was a bit of a tool and didn't feel any chemistry between him and Jen. Unfortunately this wasn't a story for me.

I enjoyed this book although i took my time so this may be the reason i could not get in to it so easily. I Would still recommend
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion

I had this book sitting on my shelf for a long time and I am not sure why I didn't read it sooner. What a delightful story!

London, With Love revolves around Jennifer and Nick, two completely different people who met when they were teenagers and still have something between them as the years go by. It seems like they never can find the right timing so... are they destined to be together or not?

A great read, funny and tender and incredibly passionate. I loved every minute of it! And let's not forget that the book it's also a love letter to the glorious city of London - what else could you possible want?