After becoming a young widow, Lily moves to a large estate and becomes the village’s “reclusive writer”, hardly leaving her home. Other than her brother and his family, she sees no one and likes it like that.

Then her brother invites his best friend, Jack, to stay with her when he moves back to England from Australia. Lily is not happy but she slowly warms to Jack. Jack, the future earl, helps her slowly learn to love again. While the plot may be a bit predictable, the details of the story are not.

My favorite excerpt that summarizes the book best is “Jack had been right when he said I was living in the shadows and I had been for far too long. It was time to step into the light, no matter how scary and bright it felt right at this moment.”

You Only Live Once by Maxine Morrey is an enjoyable read and is well written.

Thank you Netgalley & Boldwood Books for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this heartwarming book and its lovely characters. Lily has hidden herself away for a decade after losing the love of her life, but grudgingly agrees to let her brother’s friend (and Lily’s teenage crush) stay temporarily in her house. Lily is still ravaged with grief and guilt, but slowly the charming Jack begins to break down her walls. I loved these two—Jack was so incredibly patient and caring with Lily, pushing her when he felt she needed it, and also propping her up if she fell. I enjoyed the conversations they had, I appreciated that they took their time, and I cheered for them as they got closer and let themselves love and hope.

This was a lovely read and just what I needed at the moment. The book could have done with the romance starting earlier in thr book, but so many of these types of cosy romances fall victim to that. Jack and Lily worked well together and the supporting characters were entertaining. Good read to curl up with a cup of tea and relax.

When Lily’s husband dies, she moves to the edge of a tiny village, settling into a solitary life, her only real company her brother and his family. A quiet life becomes her safe space, with no risk of getting hurt.
When her brother offers her spare room to his oldest friend, Jack, Lily’s reluctant – but knowing how much she owes her family, can’t say no.
A lodger takes some getting used to but to her surprise, Lily begins to enjoy Jack’s company. Slowly but surely, Jack encourages Lily to step outside her comfort zone.
But taking risks means facing the consequences, and telling people how she really feels, means Lily might have to face losing them. But as the saying goes - you only live once - and being brave could mean Lily gets a second chance at love…
This book was SO. DAMN. FABULOUS!…

I loved this . A beautiful gentle love story.. Clive the dog melted my heart.. Lily was a famous author with a sad past. I loved how the story went. It grabbed you from the beginning . A perfect ending.

Sweet and heart-warming tale of love and loss. A second chance romance with the individuals needing to grow up and evolve into mature, understanding adults. Good and bad family relationships. A few tears may be shed. A smattering of interesting slang. I was surprised at the mention of tipping. I didn't think that was a thing in England. Maybe times have changed. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley.

I always love books that have the main character as a writer. This novel tells the tale of a reclusive writer who is a loner after her husband's death. I liked the theme of the novel. But the characters and the plot were quite dull. As it was always about the main character doing mundane tasks, it wasn't interesting enough.

If rom-coms aren’t your thing but you want a love story, this is a good one for you. It’s heavy and emotional, but a good story of grief and healing.

I didn’t love Lily, but Jack was a sweetheart.

This was a charming and heartwarming read. It follows Lily as she struggles to find confidence and happiness after the loss of her husband. She is persuaded into letting her brother’s best friend, Jack, board with her for some time.

I appreciated the plot of this book, and enjoyed the family dynamic between Lily and her brother, and his wife. I also felt that Lily and Jack worked really well together, and appreciated that he was genuinely respectful to her throughout the novel.

The book was fairly predictable in general, but I didn't mind that one bit. It's a nice little rom com book and was an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the ARC of this novel.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

So good, highly recommend it.

Lily is widowed by the untimely death of Mike and hasn't laughed since then. Her brother suggests her to move to their hometown to feel a little better. She has to share her room with Jack, the heir to an aristocratic family, who fled home to avoid an arranged marriage. Jack is a teenage friend of her brother and her.
She isn't free of the guilt for her husband's death, two years after the accident. Jack avoids his heirloom and the prospects of arranged marriage with another heiress like plague. He is pretty sure that he isn't made for royalty. To make things better, he brings home Clive, an abandoned Golden Retriever boy. What happens to the trio that met in unforseen and unpleasant circumstances forms the rest of the story.
Jack is a charming gentleman and maintains that image till the epilogue. He has a troubled past himself and understands Lily better than anyone. Lily's grief and reclusiveness are kept real and relatable. Overall, the characters are well-crafted.
As it is a romantic story, the narration is quite slow and descriptive. The english is very simple. It reminded me of the books I would read on wattpad during high school. The story gets predictable after a point. It suits audience who prefer slow and casual romance. You may have guessed it already from the page count.
I liked the book as a one-time read. The title of the book is probably the moral of it - you have only this life to either regret the past or welcome the future. Lily chooses the latter.
I recieved a review copy of this book and I am posting my review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I liked the message this book sent of living life to the fullest and learning to find happiness after loss, but overall it lacked plot for me. I felt like nothing really happened expect a lot of dragged out dialogue and explanation of mundane things. It moved slow, especially the romance aspect as it doesn’t fully kick in until the last bit of the book.

Do you believe in soulmates?  This is a difficult question because everybody has a different version of the perfect partner.  However, after reading You Only Live Once by Maxine Morrey, I believe there is someone out there for everyone that emotionally completes them. 

The story starts by introducing the main character, Lily, a successful author.  Years earlier her husband died in a tragic accident and this trauma caused her to withdraw from life as a social recluse.  Her older brother Felix adores her but he can't seem to help her emotional state and is deeply concerned.  Felix is contacted by Jack, a childhood friend, who needs a place to stay.  He suggests Jack stay with Lily in her large empty countryside home temporarily while he gets back on his feet. 

This story has it all!  It is a fun, cute, and feel-good romantic comedy.  The characters are each developed well and I was able to understand each of the characters' personalities and intentions clearly.  I was able to sympathize with Lily and understand her family's worries.  While it does lack the romantic heat it isn't necessary due to the storyline.  I love this book and highly recommend it.

If you like romantic comedies with tropes such as brother's best friend, roommates to lovers, slow burn, small-town romance, and friends to lovers then you need to put this on your TBR list.  You Only Live Once will be out on June 14th, 2022. 

Thank you Netgalley @netgalley and Publisher Boldwood Books @booksandtonic for the e-ARC

It was a overall a good and cute read for me but it depends on the mood. The reason for three stars is that it was too predictable and dialogue at some part seemed to be long. For me it was a kind of light reading.

Cute overall, but a bit long in some of the dialogue-only parts. The talk between two characters in the limo went on for way too many pages. I was, however, getting into the story, when at about 80% it tripped and fell on its face because it felt like we skipped ahead MONTHS in a particular relationship (trying to not give anything away) with no context. It was a bit of a bummer.

The story
Lily is a successful, 30 something author. She lives in the countryside in her large house, really only venturing out to be with her brother and his family. Ten years ago she lost her husband of exactly three years in a freak accident and slowly she has withdrawn from the world. When her brother invites his best friend Jack to stay with her when he returns from New Zealand, Lily starts to live a bit more with Jack’s company.

My thoughts
This is a sweet story which I enjoyed. There is a lot of detail and Lily shares a lot of her everyday thoughts. I felt that this book may have benefited from having a dual POV which would have added some texture to the story. The strangest thing is at one point quite far into the book, Jack and Lily are going out for dinner and then it felt like a chapter’s worth of pages are missing when they are suddenly kissing and the next thing have been in a relationship for weeks. The pace just doesn’t fit it with rest of the story.

A really wonderful, life affirming book, with a wonderful feel good message, a lovely romantic dash, with a smattering of funny moments too. It is splendid. One not to be missed.

This was a very charming and heartwarming read - this novel follows Lily as she struggles to find confidence and happiness after the loss of her husband, and then is persuaded into letting her brother’s best friend, Jack, live with her for some time.

I really liked the plot of this book, and enjoyed the family dynamic between Lily and her brother, and his wife. I also felt that Lily and Jack worked really well together, and appreciated that he was genuinely respectful to her throughout the novel.

I sometimes felt that Jack and Felix (Lily’s brother) were a bit harsh on her and her feelings, but appreciated felix’s wife, Poppy, actually being kind to her after. The novel was also very predictable in general, and when it came to the inclusion of a dog (randomly) that lily originally didn’t want, but as a nice and classic rom com book it was very enjoyable!

Thank you to netgalley and the author for the arc of this novel.

You Only Live Once by Maxine Morrey is the story of a romance novelist, a widow, whose husband died in a horrific accident years earlier. Lily has been a recluse since shortly after her husband’s death. In an effort to shake up her life, her brother traps her into hosting their childhood friend, Jack, and you can guess the rest, I expect.

Let’s start with the title: it’s stupid and over-used. Don’t agree? Do a search for books with that title. And also ask yourself what that title actually means. See also YOLO. Moving on…

A little bit of personal information that informed my review: I too am a widow and as such, I was very interested to see how the author would portray Lily. Most of the time, authors get it wrong. No criticism but it’s a hard thing to write about if you haven’t lived it or talked extensively with people who have.

Now, I don’t know Morrey, including whether she’s a widow, but I can tell you that she, too, got it wrong. And that really matters in a book that centers itself on loss. Her protagonist is literally a recluse because she’s afraid of experiencing loss again. We’re talking she doesn’t own a pet because pets die.

But here’s the problem: we don’t just love our spouses. We love friends, siblings, nieces and nephews, parents, cousins, etc. Lily’s brother and family visit Lily frequently and she appears to love them very much. Why isn’t she terrified of that connection? The author seems to have completely overlooked that Lily’s love for her brother’s children is probably even more impactful than her love of her spouse.

In the story, Lily has been a recluse for a long time, like maybe 10 years. All it takes for her to break out of her shell is for Jack to move in. Not only does she go to a party – in a dress that she hasn’t worn in 10 years but somehow it isn’t dated or faded and it still fits perfectly – but she also stands up to a bully at the party, protecting Jack from embarrassment.

Given that I could hardly remember how to buy groceries after more than a year isolated by a pandemic, I am having a hard time suspending my disbelief that she can function normally at a loud, crowded function when she’s been mostly alone for 10 years.

AND she immediately falls for basically the only man she has seen since her husband died. If I were Jack – who, apparently, is perfect and nursing a crush that he’s had since they were children, I’d be really cautious about committing to a woman who hasn’t interacted with another man since her husband died. That’s not love – that’s mental illness.

And finally, let’s talk a little about the romance: Lily occasionally objectifies Jack. Jack seems to be carrying a torch for Lily, which we get some additional details about late in the story. But the pacing of their romance is ridiculous.

They go from platonic friends supporting each other to a weird partial scene of them stripping their clothes off – mostly implied, by the way. BOOM. They’re in love. There’s no build up. The author doesn’t let us see what happened that caused them to fall through the front door, passionately kissing as they start to strip off their clothes. It’s weird, like the author wasn’t sure what would make them want to kiss. And to be honest, I’m not sure what would make them want to kiss either.

The author has created a character who is terrified of the deep intimacy of loving someone. And then the author writes a scene in which that character – who hasn’t kissed anyone romantically in 10 years – is tearing off her love interest’s clothes. Balderdash.

This protagonist was deeply trapped in her fear and grief. Wouldn’t it have been great if her family and Jack had helped her get into counseling? She needed that far, far more than a romantic entanglement.

Also, there’s quite a bit of over-writing: You know what I mean: ‘“I’m cold. I will put on this sweater.” I keep a sweater close by for those times when I feel the chill in the air. Since it’s chilly right now, I will put on this sweater.’ PSA: This is not a quote from the book. This is an example of over-writing. I can’t quote from the book because I received an ARC. Okay? Okay.

There’s also a lot of unnecessary explanation – dear author, we do not need to know that she used the bathroom after all that tea. (ALSO AN EXAMPLE.) We can assume a bunch of stuff that happens in normal life. We only want the details that move the story forward.

Nope yourself right out of this one. It will just make you mad.

I received a digital ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

“Even when your life had been shattered, nature’s cycle continued and, at a time I found it hard to discern comfort in anything, I did find some sort of comfort in that.”

Nine years ago Lily lost her husband in a tragic accident. Since then, the widowed romance author hardly left her house. She found comfort in her loneliness and therefore missed out on a lot of things. When Jack, her brother’s best friend, moves back to England after his marriage failed, Lily reluctantly agrees to let him stay with her until he gets back on his feet. As Lily and Jack spend more time with each other Lily slowly starts to open up. Their friendship might turn into something more if Lily is able to allow herself to love again.

What to expect:
- friends to lovers
- Forced proximity
- Brother’s best friend
- Small town love story

What I liked:
- Lily is a very relatable character. After experiencing the loss of her husband she is scared to open up and let herself love someone again. Her grief and “survivors guilt” felt very realistic to me and was a great starting point for future character development.
- Jack is the definition of “he’s so hot and respectful”. I love how he managed to encourage Lily to step out of her comfort zone without being too patronizing. You could really see that he just wanted what was best for her, but also respected her boundaries. Plus, I swooned every time we got to see him interact with the children.
- The family dynamics! I loved the banter between Lily and Felix (her brother). His anger and frustration at times felt very real and realistic. Poppy (Lily’s sister in law) and Lily have such a cute friendship. She was so compassionate and supportive but never failed to give Lily a reality check if needed.
- Clive!!! He is just such a good boy…

Criticism:
- After more than 80% of anticipation, Jack and Lily finally go on a date … but instead of giving us the satisfaction to witness what happens on that date the book cuts immediately to the aftermath (aka them getting together). I want to see them confess their feelings for each other after months of tension and “Does he/she like me or not?”. For me this is the whole point of reading a romance novel…
- The conflict felt very forced to me…every romance novel has some kind of conflict at the end but this one was just so unnecessary and completely destroyed Lily’s character development in my opinion.
- Also what was the point of making Jack a lord. I expected the conflict to be about that (e.g. His parents don’t accept lily bc she isn’t “suitable”) but there was literally no point.

I genuinely enjoyed this book and loved all the characters. It had the potential to be a 5 star book for me, but sadly the story lacked in some aspects (see above). Still, I had a very good time reading this book and would recommend it as a quick feel-good read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Maxine Morrey and Boldwood Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

3,75 ⭐️