This is not just a love letter to two people but a love letter to London. You can tell that the author has a connection with the city and it translates well with setting and affection. It's a warming book and one to pick you up instead of tear you down

Jen & Nicks love story was such an easy one to become invested it. From the very beginning I needed them to be a couple and the will they, won’t they chance encounters had me hooked. It reminded me of one of my favourite books, One Day by David Nicholls and also had slight vibes of the film When Harry Met Sally.

Beginning in the 80s and weaving the timeline through to modern day is one of my favourite story timelines. The nostalgia was lovely and the way some very real and hard hitting events were written were beautifully linked to the plot, but also left me with my heart in my mouth for Jen & Nick.

I loved the characters development and seeing a teenage Jen bloom within the industry of publishing and just to see her confidence and self esteem grow was a lovely character arc.

This is a heartwarming and wonderful book. If you love a weaving romance then this is the book for you. I’m so happy I read it and Jen & Nicks love story will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you @hodderbooks for my gifted copy.

Jennifer meets Nick when they are teenagers but although they have a beautiful friendship they never quite get it together. After bumping into each other for best part of 20 years can they ever get it together?

Wow this book was brilliant so great with all the different ages being covered by this book. I love how the teenage years had all the awkwardness of being a teenager, then uni, then first jobs and moving up the corporate ladder. I love how many book references there were and it also dealt with real life events very tactfully and sensitively. It was such a great tale of friendship and if it’s meant to be it will be.

This is a wonderful story, spanning twenty years of Jen/Jenny/Jennifer’s life.
A take about unrequited love and teen angst always fills by stomach with nervous butterflies, reliving all the drama of youth.

I really enjoyed this read, couldn’t put the book down and all I wanted was to know that it ended happily! A rollercoaster of emotions that I would recommend.

A beautiful story that spans out over twenty years. I usually loose my interest when I hear that but this story is worth your time for sure.
If you’ve been to London, you’ll know that the underground system is a huge part of the city and when I read that each chapter had a station name I was so happy. Mostly because each name gives an interesting insight on what’s to expect to happen in that chapter. That’s really clever. As for the characters, I enjoyed them a lot. They are flawed, they are smart and also make bad decisions while having to suffer the consequences. Their chemistry and emotions are felt throughout the book and I wanted to hug them both at times.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

Firstly can we just take a moment to appreciate this stunning cover? I just adore it and I love all the insight it gives the reader into the transport theming of this book. I love underground systems in different cities and have spent some time just exploring the London underground and so I really appreciated the fact that each chapter in this book was themed to a different station on a metro subway network-genius.
I also love a dual narrative and a book that dips in and out of characters' lives over a longer period of time and so this book was just perfect for me. It revisits Jen and Nick over the span of 20 years. The pacing of this novel was spot on because each time you leave one time frame or one character you’re desperate to get back to them and get back to see what their reaction was to the last thing that happened to them.
I loved getting to meet Nick and Jen because they are both very relatable and both have their own fully formed lives and thoughts and feelings but they're not perfect and I think that’s what made them so relatable. I didn’t always like them or support their choices but I was intrigued by them and by their relationship and they definitely made for a page turning read!
I did part of this book in eBook form and part in audiobook and I enjoyed both formats. As previously mentioned, I loved the idea of each chapter being the name of a metro station in one city or another and this worked really well in the eBook because of the illustration around the name of the station. I will say that you had to be listening closely with the audiobook not to miss the name of the station but the narrator definitely helped to identify which character we were currently visiting with. I enjoyed this book and I do recommend it.

A lovely London romance between two people Jennifer and Nick, who met as teens and continued to meet as their lives progressed. From strangers to lovers and everything in between, this book captures the layers of their relationship over the years. I enjoyed this book and liked watching their love story unfold!

I loved this book and couldn't wait to see how Jen and Nick's story would turn out. Full of 80s nostalgia and great descriptions of London.

I really liked this book. It took me back to when I was a teen myself but without the angst. It made me emotional at times and I was rooting for the two main characters throughout the book.

This is a love story about two people who just can't quite get together and their lives progress in different directions, but they always end up crossing paths again and again. Written with great depth and feeling, as much for the characters as for the city of London, which the author clearly knows very well! I have learned so much about the London public transport system from this book, but it is integral to the story. Wonderful and rich, this is a story that will keep you turning the pages until the wee hours.

A beautifully written book. I loved this story, London in the 80s and Jen and Nicks very different story of near misses and missed chances. A great read I would recommend
Thank you to Netgalley, and Hodder and Stoughton for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review

I love Sarra Manning, but this book just didn't do it for me. It's a pity because Sarra Manning really helped me get back into reading and therefore reviewing, so I wish I'd liked this more and could give it a better review. It was well done and well executed, I think I just didn't like the relationship and in the end if you don't like the central relationship a romance book will always fall flat.

I did like however the descriptions of London and the tube stations. I use the tube a lot when I'm in London so it instantly made the setting feel familiar to me even at the stations I hadn't been in and as it started in a time before I was born.

Manning also did a superb job at depicting the disasters of 9/11 and the tube bombings. The 9/11 chapter was harrowing and emotional, everything you'd expect from a depiction of such a tragic event and was handled sensitively and well. The tube bombing chapters focused more on the pulling together of Londoners and Nick and Jennifer's reunion and were much lighter to read, but without shying away from the events of that day.

My only real complaint about the book was that we never found out what happened to Priya.

I wasn't a huge fan about the inclusion of 9/11, the London bombings of 2007, and Covid. It all felt a bit too shoehorned in and not entirely necessary to the story. It was otherwise well written but that dampen it for me sadly.

This book reminded me so much of One Day. The characters kept meeting over the years. There were three large events - covid , 9/11 and the london bombings and they felt a bit shoehorned in which made it slightly insensitive. However a very well written engaging book

This one was a lovely read. I really enjoyed reading this one. I just love this kind of books.
4 stars read for me

Absolutely loved this book. If life hadn’t gotten in the way I would have devoured this in one sitting. I found myself thinking about what the main characters were doing as I went about my daily chores as this is so well written I felt like I knew them personally

This book had beautiful writing and techniques. We follow the story of Jenifer and Nick from when they’re 16 all the way to 36. There growth mainly Jens as she’s our main character, is written beautifully and you can really see the evolution of her as she goes through university and enters into work and goes through relationships and homes.

The reason I give this book two stars…
First of all this book includes 3 big events.
9/11
The London bombings
COVID 19
I feel as though 3 of these events was far too many and insensitive especially since the purpose of using each of these was to bring Nick and Jen together. I can understand if 1 was used such as the London bombings as they live in London and it well established that Jen and Nick uses the trains frequently. Or even to write about 9/11 and have the characters out of the country during the London bombings, a bit more far fetched but could be done. There was no need for covid to be included as this is in the epilogue when it skips to 2021, although I don’t think the use of covid was bad it’s just a bit of poor taste when having included two terrorist attacks as well,

My second reason was that the reasons that Nick and Jen don’t get together doesn’t even feel realistic. I felt like we were supposed to love Jen, and I did in a way, but she was everything she accused Nick of being, she was so pretentious and stubborn and childish. And refuses to get with him cuz she doesn’t believe he’s serious about her despite him repeatedly proving he is serious. I thought this would be a story about two people who keep falling in love with the other at alternate times so their timing is never right. What it really is, is Jen loves Nick then at 18 gets angry at him and holds a grudge that means she will spend the next 20 years convincing herself that she doesn’t really love him and continuing to act as if he hasn’t changed from that 18 year old boy. Meanwhile Nick doesn’t love Jen at 18 but then continues to love her from 20 onwards all while Jen says she doesn’t love him. I honestly Just felt bad for Nick as she constantly accuses him of being childish and unserious although she says this for 20 years when I felt as though he had changed a lot. This carry’s on even to the very end when obviously they’re meant to end up together.

My third reason is how unrealistic it is that all her friends end up being her friend Kirsty from university and then her college friends. You can’t possibly mean to tell me that this 36 year old woman has no friends that she hasn’t met past the age of 18. No work friends? Nick doesn’t have any work friends that he introduces to her? And she doesn’t lose any friends in that time, the only people she loses are ex boyfriends. She just keeps the same friends throughout the whole thing.

Overall I thought the writing was good it was just the plot that let it down.

This novel follows the story of Nick and Jen, who meet as teenagers and never seem to find the right time for each other as they grow up, forge careers and learn about who they are as people.

This was a really easy read and I found it enjoyable. I think not having the best knowledge of London was sometimes a hinderance as there is so much based around the city, travelling around it and the ways in which you can find people you know within the city (as the title would suggest) but that didn't detract from it being an enjoyable read. I also thought it was an interesting choice of the author to weave key moments from the early 200os into the narrative as a way for the two characters to find their way back to each other. I am sure this could have been done in other ways, but I didn't find it completely unbelievable (if you can get past the highly unlikely plot twist of four people who were at sixth form together being reunited as a New York deli 13 years later?!)

Overall, I enjoyed this read. It isn't one that I would be likely to return to and I can't honestly say that the premise is completely original, plus the ending was a bit predictable, but there was a comfort in following these characters, knowing how it was all likely to end.

I loved the very London centric story, liked Jen as a relatable main character and could kind of see where the plot was going throughout. Despite the love interest being slightly repulsive at points, I was far more interested in the evolution of Jen from awkward teen desperate for transformation to assured young woman. Manning's writing is really easy to be absorbed in, and makes a perfect summer read.

'London With Love' is an absolute stunner from Sarra Manning! The plot is so very skilfully constructed, hitting some major moments of cultural importance to those of us who grew up in the 80s, 90s and Noughties (what a word! *shudder*) Besides themes of love, family, friendship and belonging, it's a love letter to, and celebration of, the city of London. This is truly a book that has everything. In fact, I think it's utterly perfect, in every way. Buy it, read it, love it, gift it to everyone you know. Highly recommend!