Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. Having enjoyed Swatman's other books, I was looking forward to this one, and the description sounded interesting. I did like it, however, much of the story was quite slow moving and repetitive in its theme, which got a bit frustrating. However, her exploration of addiction was sensitive and realistic, and there was some genuinely powerful and emotive writing.

Can I just state in advance of my review that like always I went in to the book blind. I hadn’t read the blurb. I’m pretty sure it was probably the cover that attracted me. (no judgement please). So with that in mind, my review may be a bit vague as I feel that added to my enjoyment of the book.

Ted is struggling with his mental health after a enlisting in the army and was deployed to Kuwait during the war. He has seen some horrific sights, some he will never ever forget. Ted hasn’t really got much going for him at the moment. He’s single, homeless and jobless. He’s kipping on his mate Danny’s couch. When a split decision leads him to make a terrible decision. Is there any coming back from it?

Marianne works as a personal assistant to Robert her boyfriend. Did she get this job because she was sleeping with him? Probably yes. However when she finds him and Sandra from accounts en flagrante during the Christmas party. Marianne leaves the party early to take stock of her life, she knows with certainty her job and relationship are finished.

When fate intervenes and Marianne stumbles across Ted and ultimately saves his life (hence the title). However one small problem, neither know the others name or has anyway of tracking them down.

This starts a 21 year tale beginning in 1991. Told from the perspectives of Ted and Marianne in alternating chapters. As you would expect there are big jumps in time sometimes a couple of years goes past in a single chapter. However this doesn’t in anyway detract from the story.

At the beginning of some chapters after big time jumps it was a sort of jolt a shocking change in either Marianne or Ted’s life. The part I liked the most was that in a city like London with almost 9 million people. Marianne and Ted were never very far from each other and in fact there were a number of times where they almost met or just missed each other in a situation.

I loved the writing style. This is my first of Swatman’s books that I have read, It won’t be my last. I read this book quite quickly as the story kept me gripped from the beginning right until the last chapter to find out how these two were going to end up.

What a book!!!! I loved it! It's so different from anything I have read so far! The way the chapter is so unique, I found it so clever, so well done! And I loved the story in itself, this book is a real page-turner! I couldn't stop reading it as I wanted to know how... (well I won't tell you what I wanted to know otherwise it will be a spoiler!). I could have given a 5 stars out of of 5 to this book but I didn't just because I find that this book is a few chapter too long. I would say there are maybe 4 or 5 chapters that don't bring anything to the story and at some point it seems like the story is starting to drag on. But all in all this is an excellent book, a wonderful romance and it's one of the best book I have read this year! You can go and read it without any hesitation!!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐
How to Save a Life, Clare Swatman
June 8, 2022, Boldwood Books

Thank you NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ted, freshly back from fighting in Kuwait, plans to take his life by jumping off a bridge -- but as luck would have it, Marianne is running from catching her cheating boyfriend and stops him. The beginning of this story has the makings of a predictable love story, but it is anything but. The story follows Ted and Marianne's parallel lives as the don't quite reunite for years and years. That night changed them forever and brought them to find their purpose in life. So while I was expecting a predictable love story, instead we see how two very damaged people move on, persevere and live their lives. To say much more gives too much away, but an excellent read on may levels.

#bootstagram #bookstagrammer #netgalley @clareswatmanauthor @netgalley #howtosavealifebook #instagrambookreview

This was a book that I wasn't expecting. When I went into reading this book, I sincerely thought it was going to be a true romance story of finding lost love or meeting with fate, but this story is mostly about continued missed connections. I really loved the character building by Swatman; her portrayal of Ted and his growth throughout the novel was beautiful. I think the thing about this story that I'm hung up on is how badly I wanted it to be a love story!! If you go into this read thinking you're going to get a grand romance, then this isn't the story for you. If you into it ready to ready a lovely tale of two people just trying to make their way through life. Maybe I'm just projecting, but all in all, this "right person, wrong time" story was a lovely read that felt mostly drama free.

There are certain books that are "mood books", you have to be in thr right frame of mind to read them, this for me was one of those books. When I first picked it up I felt pretty down and as a result felt the book was dragging a bit, I came back to it a few days later in a better, brighter mood and realised the pace of the book was appropriate for the story. I particularly loved the ending.

I literally just finished this book while driving in the car for 4 hours. (No I was not driving, my husband was)

I have so many feelings about this book right now and it is driving me crazy!

I am laying here on our hotel room bed and I am thinking how many people have the same-ish story was Ted and Marianne?!

This story was brilliant, real, heartwarming, gut wrenching, perfect, and it pissed me off.

There were so many times that they were right there but it just didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.

Then it made me think that it just was not their time. They had to grow up, live life, and learn….I guess.

I will be honest and tell you that this book made me upset because of all of the pissed opportunities that they could of had.

BUT let’s face it…that is real life! Like I just want to hug Ted, kiss him on his cheek and tell him that I am so proud of him.

I also wanted to smack Marianne for not taking him off that bridge that night!

Check triggers**

Read this if you like: Dual POV, past and present timelines,

This book starts bluntly with a 22 year old named Ted Green trying to commit suicide. One night in December Ted makes his way to Waterloo Bridge determined to end his life. Lonely, despairing and utterly hopeless, it seems the only choice to make.

That same night in December, Marianne Cooper is running away from a party. She discovers her boyfriend cheating on her so she leaves. She makes her way along London’s South Bank, a figure catches her eye on top of the bridge. Then she sees him, a man ready to jump.

When Marianne saves Ted’s life, this night in December becomes one they’ll never forget. As Ted watches Marianne leave in a black taxi, all he can think is he should have asked her name.

This book takes place in the timeline of twenty years. This isn't really so much a romance but more a story about friendship, life’s twists and turns, joys and heartbreaks, etc.

This was heart-breaking and beautiful. The characters and story were developed so well. I could not put it down. I thought the pacing was perfect. I didn't love when it replayed a scene entirely in 2 different POVs. It was just not needed. That's my only negative. I highly recommend you picking it up!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, Rachel's Random Resources and Boldwood Books for the gifted copy. ❤️

Ted is back from his tour in Kuwait and struggling to find his feet again in normal life, while dealing with PTSD. His good friend Dan is putting him up on the sofa but at 22yo and his fathers voice in his head telling him he doesn’t do anything well, he decides to end his life from Waterloo bridge.
Marianne has just walked in on her boyfriend sleeping with another colleague at the work Christmas party. She runs out knowing she has lost her job along with him. She is crossing Waterloo bridge on her way home when she finds Ted on the wrong side of the railings. After talking him down she disappears into the night.

The story then follows the lives of both Marianne and Ted, both unable to get each other our their heads after their chance meeting on the bridge. The chapters then switch between both lives and the journey they take after equally being affected by that night.

I absolutely loved how their paths continued to crossed with so many near misses! I was totally routing for both of them in their new lifes and yet wanting them together too! Clare brought such depth to both characters and I loved that she managed to portray just how different life was with technology and social media back in 1991 when they met on the bridge! I also loved how the true events in London over the past 20 years were included in the book! Particularly the London terrorist attacks.

Highly recommended read!

2.5⭐️
This is not what I thought it would be. I wanted romance. I wanted romance. And so I ask again, was this a romance? A love story?
I searched and searched and never found it. Lots of potential and it felt a little like Normal People that I watched (not read) on Hulu.
I didn’t hate it and it wasn’t the writing but something else. At 88% I knew it was over. This was really about a chance in counter and a chance encounter another million times. I just can’t suggest this as a romance.
Thanks Boldwood Books via NetGalley.

Book TOur review with Rachel's Random Resources

How to Save a Life is reminiscent of a real-life account I saw on Twitter recently where someone opened up about being suicidal a few years ago and being saved by a stranger on the London Underground. This individual randomly bumped into their saviour later and simply hugged them and hasn’t exchanged details or spoken since. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking story that gives you hope and makes you think about how your smile or simply kindness one day could be the difference between someone staying or leaving.

This story starts bluntly with Ted heading to Waterloo bridge, rocks in his pockets, ready to end it all. But he’s interrupted by Marianne, drunk, heartbroken, freezing but hopeful. Marianne’s quick run of the mill conversation with Ted is enough to halt him and keep him going.

We then follow Ted and Marianne through their lives over the next 20 years as they find love, fall out of love, change careers, go to parties, and narrowly miss each other time and again.

Both Ted and Marianne are highly relatable characters in vastly different ways, and we can see how both of their life trajectories are altered based on their chance meeting on the bridge. However, I found the repeated near-miss meetings quite frustrating as a reader and the whole ‘will they won’t they’ nature to their relationship. For me, I don’t think a romance aspect to their relationship was needed at all, and it could simply have been a study of how one-off chance encounters can impact you indefinitely.

That being said it’s a beautifully written story, with in-depth and captivating characters who you are constantly cheering on or being exasperated with as their futures unfold.

Verdict: A lovely story, with great characters, it could have been slightly shorter and without the romance aspect.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review and Blog Tour - How To Save A Life by Clare Swatman ⁠
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#HowToSaveALife⁠
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This was a gorgeous, heart-wrenching story of two people whose paths cross when they're both at their own rock bottom. When Annie stops an unknown man’s suicide attempt on Waterloo Bridge, she doesn’t realise the impact she has had on him. Likewise, when Ted’s talked down from the brink by a small, blonde girl in a fairy costume, he doesn’t know that that one moment will skew both of their trajectories in life. The book is about their journeys to self-improvement, healing and relationships after that fateful meeting, as their paths cross just enough that you can connect the dots but they never quite meet. ⁠
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I loved reading this book, it was unexpected, raw and emotional, but I couldn’t put it down. I loved reading about Ted and Annie’s stories, though them nearly crossing paths half a dozen times while pining for each other, but never actually meeting until years later was frustrating in the best way. Reading this novel showed me the impact of one action, and how the things that could be meant for us sometimes pass us by until the right moment when they are meant for us. ⁠
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I think this book says a lot, more than you’d expect at first glance. It’s about human connections, expectations of what life should be like and how life itself throws that off-course. Ted and Annie will stay with me for a long time, I can tell. They have been living in my head rent-free for the past two weeks since I finished this novel and I can’t bear to part with them yet. ⁠
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If you’re looking for an honest look into the human condition, like a bit of fate mixed in, and love a wild cast of characters that all have an important part in bringing them together, this is the book for you. ⁠
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This review has been made possible thanks to @NetGalley and Boldwood Books @BookandTonic, @rachelsrandomresources for providing me with an Advance Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review as part of this blog tour!

At the end of December last year I read, reviewed and loved Before We Grow Old by this Claire Swatman so when I had the opportunity to read and review this one for a blog tour I was eager to take part.

I really enjoyed the story of Ted and Marianne. Although this is not your conventional love story, but something so much more.

I loved the way we hear the story told from Ted’s POV then Marianne’s in alternating chapters. The story starts back in 1991 and continues up to 2011.

I won’t say anymore as I don’t want to give anything away. It is a beautifully written story.

I will certainly look out for future books from this author.

Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources and Boldwood Books for having me on the tour and for my gifted ebook.

How to Save A Life reads rather like a documentary on the two main characters’ lives, a fateful encounter that holds so much meaning for them both as they go on with their lives. The novel spans two decades and is told in the first person from each of the main characters.

The storyline is very engaging and I found it to be a quick, fast paced read through the many twists and turns in Ted and Marianne’s lives. For me, at the heart of the novel is a discussion about depression and loneliness. Although Ted and Marianne are not always alone, I felt the constant loneliness within them, always missing that puzzle piece of the other. Ted’s depression is somewhat realistically portrayed and it’s easy to see how someone in his position in reality might make the same choices. PTSD is mentioned but I could empathise more with Marianne’s struggles over an incident that takes place later in the novel as the reader is allowed to bear witness. Although I wouldn’t classify this as a romance, I definitely felt the connection between the characters, even love. Overall, a thoughtful novel that left me still thinking about it after it had ended. With thanks for my ARC free copy, I received with no obligation to review.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t sing How to safe a life from the Fray a dozen times while reading this.

Marienne and Ted are not having a great day as we speak. Marienne just found out her boyfriend is cheating on her, and well Ted is a war veteran struggling with extreme nightmares and PTSD, that has led him to a bridge, where he is quite sure the world won’t miss him. Marienne sees Ted at the bridge, and this lovely and mysterious ‘Fairy Girl’ swoops in and talks Ted out of his lowest of low points. They don’t exchange names or anything, but this night is embedded into both of their minds vividly. As they both move on with their lives, we can see these two fated characters searching for each other in crowds, always so close but never close enough. That is until one fateful night 20 years later they are reunited.


I really enjoyed the timeline jumps, as you sit and experience how Ted and Marienne develop but still hold onto that night that brought them together. The angst of seeing them go through all of life’s ups and downs, joys and heartbreaks alone made me yearn even more for them to find each other, and quick. But in a sense this is why this book is so good, because life doesn’t always work out that easily. Reuniting only 20 years later made it all the more realistic for me, and how the author addresses the subject of war veterans was accurate, without sugarcoating it, and respectively written.

I loved the concept that one interaction with a stranger can so deeply touch you and build roots in your heart that it changes your life. I legit wanted to take them both by the hand and drag them to each other at multiple points in the book, you will finds yourself wishing gravity could pull two people towards each other.

I did except however to cry or be more moved when they finally got together, it just fell a bit flat for me. But I would still say that it is beautifully written, and if you like any of the following this is the book for you:

💌 Missed opportunity
💌 Lost Love Trope
💌 PTSD awareness
💌 Happy Endings
💌 90’s era love story

Thank you #Netgalley and #Boldwood for allowing me to read this ARC.
A very cleverly put together Story that follows the individual lives of Ted and Marianne from each of their perspective. Clare Swatman has done a wonderful job of putting this story together in an interesting and curious way. It all starts on a freezing cold December night when Ted aka Bridge Boy and Marianne aka Fairy Girl's paths cross on a Bridge in Waterloo in the early 90s. We also meet their best friends Danny and Lance (Alison). There are so many near misses and coincidences in this story that you can't help but want to know more.
Danny lets Ted stay on his couch as he is struggling to cope with the after effects and impact the Gulf War have on him, Lance supports Marianne through a job change after leaving her cheating boyfriend and boss behind. I definitely recommend this quirky read even if its just to discover 'How to save a life'. I dare you not to hum the same named song by The Fray.

Well, I’m not sure where to start with my review of this one – but only because I absolutely loved every single moment, read it in a single sitting, laughed and cried, got totally caught up in the characters’ lives, and put it down at the end (with a bit of a wrench, returning to my own life again…) with the thought “that was just wonderful”.

Both Marianne and Ted had a place in my heart from the very start (isn’t it lovely when that happens?) – particularly Ted, plagued by nightmares only dulled by alcohol, badly damaged by his experience in the Gulf war, homeless and jobless, placing rocks in his rucksack and pockets before making his way to Waterloo Bridge to end it all. But he hadn’t reckoned on Marianne – on her way home from a disastrous party, wearing fairy wings, her face a mess of tears and glitter – who calmly stops him jumping, before getting into a cab and disappearing into the night. Ted tries to find her with an advert in the Evening Standard that she doesn’t see, moves on with his life with the support of a counsellor, gets a fresh sense of purpose by training to be a doctor – but never forgets the Fairy Girl who saved his life. And Marianne, while moving on with her own life too, can’t get her thoughts of Bridge Man out of her head.

The book follows their separate lives over the next twenty years – their careers, their relationships, their mistakes and successes, their moments of joy and despair – each of them hoping that their paths will cross again. Although the impact of that moment on the bridge is actually much more significant than that – it affects every decision they make, every aspect of their lives, although they can barely remember each other’s faces as the years pass and don’t even know each other’s names. Until… but no, this is a story I’ll let you discover for yourself, follow every twist and turn of their lives, and see if you find its ending as absolutely fitting and thoroughly perfect as I did.

It’s one of those books with a wonderful balance of light and dark – moments of sheer joy, plenty of laughter, counter-balanced by its sensitive handling of a number of fairly serious issues that arise in both their lives. I enjoyed its focus on families and all their complications – and on friendship, with Ted’s friend Danny one of the loveliest and most genuine of the many well-drawn supporting characters. The writing is just wonderful too – the story is told from both their perspectives, sometimes the same story when they have some of the near misses that inevitably happen over a lifetime, and that works ever so well. As the years pass, the cleverness of the story’s construction quite took my breath away – but the scaffolding never shows as the pages turn and you’re totally immersed in (and enthralled by) the developing story. At times the emotional content is difficult, and tears flow – but I always felt in a safe pair of hands as the author led me through.

This book is just wonderful – one you live and experience rather than read – and I now want to go back and enjoy everything Clare Swatman has ever written. Highly recommended and, without question, one of my books of the year.

Ted and Marianne's story starts on each of their worst days. Ted is suffering from PTSD and has reached his breaking point. He's on the side of a bridge preparing to commit suicide when Marianne finds him. She just found her longtime boyfriend cheating on her and is shellshocked herself. She manages to convince Ted that he still has a life worth living. Once the drama of the night plays out and they go their separate ways, they both realize they never exchanged names or contact information. They both felt some kind of chemical spark or connection that haunts them for years.

The storyline is one of near misses. For the majority of their life, Ted and Marianne come close to seeing each other again but just barely miss each other. It's quite heartbreaking at times. Fate is definitely not on their side. If you mentally can't handle that, then I recommend you avoid this book. However, if you have the wherewithal to weather it, the rewards are well worth it. It's a beautifully written story about life in all its imperfections. As much as my heart ached at times while reading it, I knew it was the way this story needed to be told.

I truly enjoyed this author's writing style and will be reading more of her books. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

I adored this one. Its full of hope and it shows how an act of kindness can have an enormous impact. You really root for the main characters to connect again and not necessarily in an romantic way. So all the near misses over the years were a bit frustrating. But that's probably the only "complaint." Highly recommended!

I got this arc in exchange for an honest review.

How to Save a Life is a beautiful tale of how someone can impact the life of another, even in the shortest of interactions and moments. It explores many current and relevant issues that will resonate with most readers, and it looks at how people develop, grow and change over time and with this – how their relationships with others do too.
The plot follows Ted and Marianne from their chance encounter one winter night until they meet again. Both make a huge impact on the other but have no easy way of contacting each other afterwards.
By looking at both Ted’s and Marianne’s relationships as time passes, Clare Swatman navigates the world of mental health and unstable/difficult relationships we have with the people around us but also the positive impact our relationships can have on our lives. She also explores the age old question of What If? which provides some real thought provoking ideas and opportunities for self-reflection.
This is not a light and fluffy book, with some heavy subject matter to contemplate but somehow, it gave me such an emotional journey and left me with all the feels. It’s a wonderful story and will leave you with a warm feeling inside.