This book was an absolute delight. I LOVE a romance where the characters can't get their timing right - so much pining and longing it just makes my heart ache for them in the best possible way.

I loved that both Jen and Nick have their flaws and I also really enjoyed the chapters divided into times and locations. If you're familiar with London it really helps you imagine the scenes and gives context to the situation as you follow the timeline of their lives.

This is a story that is rich in detail and emotion and had me invested from the start.

Big thanks to Netgalley/ Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC.

Huge thank you to @netgalley and @hodderbooks for my advanced reader copy.

“What defined you wasn’t the thing that had made you falter and fall. What defined you was the way you got back up, put one foot in front of the other and kept on walking.”

Jennifer and Nick meet as teenagers and over the next two decades, they fall in and out of love with each other. This is the start of a tumultuous twenty year friendship, when neither of them are ever on the same page at the same time.

I was completely and utterly immersed into this book, from London life to growing up in the 80s, awkward teenage years, hitting milestones in life, falling in and out of love and all that comes with it. I absolutely adore a story that spans across the years, there’s just something about getting to know a character from a young age that I love.

The story starts with 16 year old Jen having left school to start her course at college, it starts off quite YA but I loved the way this was done to make myself, as the reader, feel like I was growing a long with Jen.

Although, I didn’t particularly love either Jen or Nick but I was totally invested and absolutely rooting for them. I think this is because they were written with some subtle yet quite contrasting flaws that made them such real characters to me.

I also can’t not mention how I loved the subtle bookishness to this book. Watching Je work her way up in the publishing world made me so happy and I loved the little mentions of London bookshops too! I’ve seen many people say this is a love letter to London and it absolutely is. The epilogue of this book truly brought it all home for me.

Rated: 4.5⭐️ on my blog.

If reading is to live another lifetime… well, Sarra Manning has taken me there and allowed me to live it!

I have previously enjoyed Manning’s other books and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one. It didn’t disappoint!

As someone who lives in a rural northern village and has only visited London a handful of times, I was amazed to find that Manning writes in such an easy, ‘real’ way, that meant I could vividly imagine (and feel I was there!) to see Jen growing up in London- the scenes she encounters, the people she meets, the tubes and all that city life brings, and truly feel the love for her home city.

I won’t go into plot details, as I’m sure other reviewers will have covered that already, but what I will say is that this book immersed me completely in London life, in growing up in the 80s, awkward teenage years, hitting milestones in life, falling in and out of love… and the journey that all brings, the highs and lows, the excitement and the devastation. Manning covered some quite hard-hitting concepts throughout quite well and with an authenticity I really responded to.

Read this book. You won’t regret it!

A will they won't they story spanning years from college to middle age.

I ended up enjoying the story but did find it a slow start, I think this was exacerbated by the fact that I didn't particularly like either of the main characters.

They eventually grew on me and I ended up rooting for them however while I felt the start was slow I felt the end was slightly rushed.

A nice, easy read and over all I would recommend if you want something enjoyable but not particularly taxing.

Thanks for the opportunity from Netgalley to read this book.

I was sent an ARC. The writing does start off immature but progresses into more mature language as Jen ages. Loved how this was done purposefully so that the reader could feel like they’re growing alongside Jen. I also liked how they covered so many important key events that occurred in recent history- including 9/11 and COVID-19. The metaphor of the trains, the back and forth with the “will they or won’t they” questions was done so classily that it didn’t get tiring.

A really lovely, light, easy to read romantic book. One perfect for the summer.i really enjoyed it. With a great setting and great characters as well.

I blitzed through this book over the weekend as I just could not get enough. Light and witty I enjoyed every second. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gorgeous. Wonderful. Sublime.

A romantic dramedy told over decades, it both broke and fixed my heart on repeated occasions. Read over the course of about two days, I was beyond desperate to find out what would happen next. Manning utilises the structure to such magnificent effect - sometimes moments, days, months or years pass between sections, yet we seamlessly stay up to speed and in the loop. I loved both Jennifer and Nick immediately, desperate for them to see what we see so clearly - they are just simply meant to be together, but for different reasons they seem unable or unwilling to see it too.
This is a love letter to London and to love itself. I've already been recommending it to everyone I know - this book could and should take on the status of something like One Day. Although some of the experiences of the characters are so uniquely and profoundly London, there's so much that's universal - our want to be seen, known and loved at our truest of levels.
It'll undoubtedly be in my top ten books of the year.

This book is a love letter to London, to the intimate details of growing up in the 1989s and 1999s and then facing the 21st century head on. Every line weaves a rich tapestry as we follow Jenny (or Jen or Jennifer) from her intense teenaged dramas and along an unpredictable path toward adulthood, as she is brought back in touch with childhood friend and one time object of her teenage desires Nick Levene.

Jenny and Nick are fantastically well written characters, with enough subtle flaws and foibles (as well as the not so subtle flaws every human has) to make them feel quite real. I couldn't help but to think of friends and loved ones I have grown apart from as I read Sarra Manning's tale of missed opportunities and bad timing.

Even the feel of the book seems to change and mature as the characters do. It starts not quite carefree but laden with the trivial-yet-overwhelming trials of being young and in love, then grows through those gritty university years, and the sheer relentlessness of starting at the bottom and working to the point of exhaustion. Menthol cigarettes and bad wine make way for slightly more refined tastes as Jenny blooms into an adult.

Brilliant book. Many thanks to the author and NetGalley for giving me an ARC to read and review.

What a truly heartwarming and endearing story! This whole book was so easy to read and slip into. It was a great escape and I seriously loved reading it. Watching Jen (/ Jenny/ Jennifer depending on her current evolution of the time) develop over the years was so lovely to read.

We got to see her throughout her young teenage years, sporting a larger than life crush on Nick, a pretentious, die hard music fan who Jen has always seen as ‘not her type’. We see her move throughout her college years, where she gets to reinvent herself and uncover more aspects of who she is. It was a perfect representation of the times, and was written so well.

Jenny then navigates through a fledgling career, working life and relationships which we also get to read about. It was like getting to know Jen in such intimate detail, it was hard not to get attached to her character! And reading her and Nick come together over the years, their relationship ebbing and flowing like a wave, made for such addicting reading. I had no idea how things were going to conclude. I was left feeling so happy and fulfilled and I loved it.

A will they or won't they love story which pulls you in, starting from 1980s and spanning to the present day. Jen and Nick are friends from college and in finding themselves, can they find each other? An emotional read and a love story to London too. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

Substantial.

That was the first word that came to me when I first thought of how to describe Sarra Manning's London, With Love. There is a quality to this book that is hard for me to explain, something about its texture that leaves me at a loss for words.

Jennifer and Nick, our main characters, first meet as teenagers. Connected through their love for music, words and eventually each other, we witness their journey through laughter, tears, heartbreak, silences, understanding, attraction... and time.

As we travel through time with Jennifer and Nick, we are taken through historical moments that are charged with an emotional current that is impossible to deflect. I didn't expect to cry, but here we are.

One of my favourite things about reading this book is that I struggled with the characters' personalities – which I believe says a lot about Sarra Manning's clever writing. If the characters had founds themselves right from the beginning, where would the possibility be?

While annoying at times, you don't even question giving them a second chance because we all do the same ourselves. We try on different styles, different hobbies, different nicknames, different cities... we try them on, see what fits and how comfortable we are in them, until we find just the right place – which, mind you, could last for one simple perfect moment.

In terms of language, I like to think of Sarra Manning's words as pieces of lego – they are colourful on their own, but when she puts them together they build something that exists at a level that is not quotable. It's one those books that... you need to read, really.

More than reading, London, With Love is experiencing.

I am grateful to Hodder & Stoughton for allowing to read London, With Love ahead of its publication date on May 5th.

When they meet as teenagers Jenniffer falls instantly in love with pretentious, arrogant Nick Unfortunately he doesn’t see her in the same light. This is the start of a tumultuous twenty year friendship, when neither of them are On the same page at the same time.

I absolutely adored this book. I was invested in the characters straight away and really wanted them to succeed and be happy together.

I love Sarra Manning as she wrote about womens empowerment before it was cool to do so. Incredibly well written but however I did not like the constant jumping from year to year to year. I can see that some people would love this but it wasn't for me. Despite this it was a good story

Great read from a fab author who I've been a fan of for years!!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

OK, this book stressed me out BIG TIME. I was invested in Jen and Nick from the very beginning. They just kept breaking my heart chapter after chapter after chapter! But I loved watching them grow up, watching them change and patiently waiting for what felt like centuries for them to get their timing right. All in all, this was a beautiful love story and I would recommend to anyone. And the descriptions of London and the stations were beautiful.

Knocked off one star because I did find it frustrating and slow at parts.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free e-ARC of this book.

I recently finished London with Love and having been a fan of Sarra Manning’s books was not disappointed. The book takes the reader through the lives of Jen and Nick from teenagers to in the 1980s to adults in the current day (and the life experiences during this time. Thank you net galley for the early preview of the book. Would recommend!

Absolutely adored this book! It was amazing to watch the characters grow together over the years and feeling as though I was growing with them! The right-person-wrong-time felt so real and I was yearning for them to get together properly for so long!

Loved loved loved this read. I adored how it looks at the lives of two people across time - which makes it a good book for any age. A lighthearted and hilarious read!

Er, excuse me Sarra Manning but have you been reading my teenage/student diaries? A memorable The Smiths gig where I lost items of clothing in the mosh pit? Check. Lovelorn journeys around London and running for the last Tube train home? Check. I even had an equally mind-numbingly tedious first job and served obnoxious bankers as a waitress...
Suffice to say I loved London, With Love and I think loads of other people will be swept up in this love story, too, whether you grew up in London or Leeds.
It tracks one couple from the 80s to now. Part social history, part love story, and the fashion details are spot-on for each era, from Jen's shell-pink slip she wears to go clubbing in the 90s to her 'now' uniform of a Boden jumpsuit and bookshop tote bag (plus covid face mask).
Manning has created characters that grow and change and who, like all of us, sometimes waste chances and sometimes manage to seize them. When the film is made (which it surely must be), please can I be an extra at The Smiths' final gig? I might even dig out my circa 1984 pixie boots...