Ted and Marianne meet in the most unexpected way. Marianne saves Ted’s life one night and this connection is not easily forgotten.

This is a dual POV told over many years. Ted and Marianne can’t stop thinking about each other and many near misses over their lives keeps the reader wondering about the two. It took me a few chapters to get into the book because some of the slang. It was a very quick read for me and very enjoyable. I loved Ted, Mariann, and a third major character Lance.

How to Save A Life by Clare Swatman was just ok for me. The storyline was good. The characters were good. But I felt everything to be repetitive even with the chapters being read from each characters point of view. The storyline felt realistic as I'm sure many former military suffer from PTSD. Overall, I'd recommend but it's not a drop everything now and read it.

I absolutely loved this. I devoured it in less than 24 hours ( and it’s half term, no easy job ). This is the second book from this author I have read and I didn’t love the first one I read so I was a little dubious with this one. But oh my goodness what a read. I loved everything about it. The close encounters and near misses had me on the edge of my seat! Brilliant!

While this one was well written the story fell flat for me. I didn't hate and I didn't love it. It was more meh for me. However I am willing to try more books by this author.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

How to save a life is a deeply touching emotional story. The blurb had me very curious so I had for it.

I really liked the plot of the story. The chance encounter, fated lovers.
But the time leap was not my favorite to be honest. I really wanted them to meet so badly again but it took a lot of time for that.

In all, it's a bery unique storyline that was well portrayed.

How to Save a Life
by Clare Swatman
3.5 stars
After his time in the war, Ted has a hard time readjusting to life outside of it again. He decides it's time to not be a burden to anyone anymore. As he is standing on the bridge looking into the water a girl in fairy wings comes up and asked him to please step down and talks him down from jumping.
Marianne is walking when she sees a man standing on the edge of the bridge, after having a bad night Marianne walks right up and starts a small conversation with him. After leaving him she constantly thinks about him and how he's doing.
Ted hasn't forgotten Fairy Girl she is the one who saved his life and now it's time to get his life together.

This goes back and forth between the two for years on end. They keep seeing each other but not connecting and being in the same area. I was liking the whole back and forth but it was you get Ted's perspective of it then Marianne's even if its the same thing it wasn't for me but I like the background and how they ended up together in the end after 12 years of constantly thinking and wondering what happened to each other. Both have kids and both have grown and have careers.

Thank you, Net Galley and Bold wood books for this ARC for an honest review.

This was a lovely book. It had a good storyline and great characters in it. I particularly enjoyed the storyline and the way that it felt real. It is told in chapters of both characters. Sometimes it was a bit repetitive but I know it had to be like this for the story to work. I think it would make a good film!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Marianne, fresh off of finding her boyfriend canoodling with someone else, runs into Ted, who has every intention of taking his own life by jumping off the Waterloo Bridge. She takes a moment to share genuine compassion and saves his life. This book follows the next twenty years of their life and all the ways they could've come across each other's paths. This book is definitely not a fast-paced romance and is much more slow burn, wondering if they'll ever cross each other's paths after all. It also points out how long lasting the ramifications of our interactions with others can truly be. 3/5 stars.

This was just ok. It was a lot of buildup for repeated let down scenarios and then I found the ending very unsatisfying. The story takes place from 1991 on until close to present day. Lots of time to cover over two perspectives. The choices the characters made were beyond frustrating.

Thanks to netgalley and publisher for an early copy of this title.
Having read and enjoyed this authors previous book, Before We Grow Old, I was excited to see what this one would be like.
I loved the premise and I thought the story flowed really well with the alternating chapters from Ted and Marianne's point of view.
I really enjoyed this title and would recommend it.

I enjoyed the premise of this book but in the end was disappointed in its execution. I think comparisons to novels like Josie Silver’s One Day in December are inevitable, and perhaps this is not fair. But that book had moments that made you catch your breath and sigh while this one just sort of rambled on. There were lots of missed opportunities for the characters to connect that were revealed to the reader, but in the end, did they mean anything to the story? Similarly, there were small subplots like Marianne’s early unhappiness with her parents and Ted’s heartbreaking separation from his son at the hands of his ex-wife that ultimately were only irritating distractions. When it became apparent that the main characters would probably not reunite until the very end, I sped through in hopes of a blissfully climatic resolution. Instead, it kind of just ended. No toe-curling sighs of contentment, at least not from this reader, but just a sigh that said, “okay, that one’s done.”

this is the kind of story i like to read about, but now when i finished with reading i’m looking for excuses why i couldn’t love as much as i wanted to.

i’m sucker for the love stories that placed in the 90’s and follows the lovers through the decades until they finally found each other for good. but it means they met year by year. but in this story i wasn’t satisfied.
we have marianne and ted. they met twice in twenty years times only for two minutes. and for this two minutes they whole life is desperate because they know they won’t find anyone like the other.
and we got the whole book based on the two main characters storyline and they’re never cross each others path. or they do but they somehow miss each other. every. unbelievable. time.
yeah it’s fate. fate of not meant to be. because it was that. they always missed the opportunity to meet literally every year and i was like in the halfway that its the destiny that says to them that theyre not for each other.
and i really lost interest after that. i wished they’d met year by year so they love slowly could’ve developed and it could’ve been so much enjoyable but in this way i didn’t find it a very pleased story. or a good love story.

Ted is suffering from PTSD after his time in the Gulf War and can only see one escape, ending his life. When he stands on the railings of the bridge, he is stopped by Marianne. She stops him and then goes about her own life. Ted always wonders about her and vice versa. Can they ever find their way back to each other?
This was a really lovely read although the ptsd Ted suffered was a sad element for me personally. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

An excellent premise, save someone’s life and there is a connection that lasts for years. The idea of paths almost crossing was interesting at first, but as the years of their lives role on and they still keep almost meeting it started to get tedious. This was also annoying because each “almost” encounter was given from both viewpoints.
The basis for an interesting novel.

Ted is staying on his mates couch but feels he has nothing to live for so decides it's time to end it all by jumping off London bridge
Marianne is on her way home alone from a fancy dress party after catching her boyfriend cheating with a work colleague,her way home takes her across London bridge where she sees Ted and persuades him not to jump
They both make their respective way homes but later wish they had kept in touch to see how each other was doing, they don't even know each others names and think of each other as fairy girl and bridge man
Over the years they often think about each other and wonder where they are not realising how close they have come seeing each other but circumstances made them miss each other often by just minutes.
Life carries on and it's not until the roles are reversed and Ted who is a doctor save's Marianne's life that they finally connect properly
A lovely story

𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘛𝘰 𝘚𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘈 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 is about Ted who's headed to jump off a bridge and Marriane who stops him after experiencing an awful night out all while dressed as a fairy and covered in glitter. Now Ted can't seem to stop thinking about the woman who so calmly disrupted his plans but he also regrets not asking more about her.
What follows entails numerous almost meets spanning twenty years and a fated story you'll never forget.

- ~ -

The story is quite touching, the moments of self doubt are what most can connect with. However, the numerous (ten times to be specific) major and minor coincidences where they almost met or recognised each other were frustrating to say the least.

The writing is very gripping. It instantly transported me to a time when I didn't even exist and I throughout the story I was rooting for our main characters, for their individual progress and also as a couple.

Side note, I didn't like Sam or Andy. It's totally unfair of me but I can never like the person who's with one of the MCs but not meant to be the love interest. They were lovely characters and perfect for the MCs at the time and although I couldn't connect with them, I still felt sorry for all the hurt they were caused.

We all take away different things from a story. For someone it might be nothing but a waste of time, for someone perhaps a heartfelt message... I guess for me this book just strengthened the belief in how it's often a stranger who impacts one's life profoundly.

- ~ -

3.17 / 5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘉𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 & 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

The opening of this book was very touching and portrayed tenderly such an intense moment. Ted feels helpless and hopeless and Marianne stops him from ending his life. In that moment there is so much that bonds them. Have you ever met someone so briefly but you can’t stop thinking about them? The rest of the book spans 20 years of Ted and Marianne’s fate. I loved the dual point of view and the representation of mental health but wanted the characters to go deeper. I was invested but overall I felt parts of the book fell a bit flat and sometimes were too repetitive. The book had a great start but kind of lost me by the end.

3.5 stars

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

Ted, who’s 23, hasn’t long got back from Kuwait having seen first-hand all that happened in the war.

He has heard for a long time in his head, his fathers voice saying he doesn’t do nothing well. So he decides to end his life and goes to a London bridge, when a fairy appears, who tells him that he shouldn’t jump and manages to stop him and in the next few minutes leaves him there, jumping into a taxi herself.

The fairy, is Marianne, who also isn’t having a good time, when she meets Ted, Marianne had left a work party where she caught her boyfriend, also her boss with one of her so- called friends.

At that time, she was thinking that nothing is worth the effort - life or her job. That was until meeting that man, after which, what he told her, helped put what happened with her in perspective.

The story is about their lives told alternatively between Ted and Marianne, their missed opportunities in meeting each other and about how a small act can save someone's life.

I loved and couldn’t put down Clare’s last book and found unable to put this down too.

I highly recommend this book.

On a cold December night, Ted finds himself on a bridge with pockets full of rocks, ready to end things. After finding her boyfriend cheating on her at the company Christmas party, Marianne sees Ted on the bridge on her way home. After she convinces Ted to live, she disappears into a taxi into the night. The two spend the next twenty years reminiscing in that night while also nearly bumping into each other.

Ted and Marianne are a beautiful reminder of how a short interaction with a stranger can change the course of your life forever. While the two characters continue to just miss each other, you’ll be left wondering why their worlds couldn’t be just a smidge smaller so they could intersect.

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

Marianne and Teds story spans over 20 years after they meet one night when Ted has decided he wants to kill himself.
They part without knowing each other’s names and refer to each as ‘fairy girl’ and ‘bridge man’
Without knowing how often they cross paths over the years, the story is told from the bridge night onwards from each perspective.
A fantastic page turning book, I adored this.
The last sentence in the book is a perfect ending to a heartwarming book.