Ive been in the mood for some well-written uplit recently and One Moment definitely hits the spot!
From a desperately sad beginning, where we know that Scarlett is going to die very soon, the story takes the reader on an emotionally packed journey.
We are there at the moment that the accident takes place, and watch as Scarlett is hit whilst picking up a stranger's bike from the middle of the road. Evie is understandably devastated by her best friend's death; she's also dealing with her own personal life-changing health issues which affects everything. When she meets Nate, she wants to hate him for ruining everything. And Scarlett is there watching over everything, flitting between the present-day and past memories, seeing them in a new light.

The story challenges our beliefs about what we might do when everything is stripped away from us - and where we can go if we give ourselves permission to try. It reminded me of Julietta Henderson's Sincerely Me, & Meredith Alone, both which I loved as well!

Highly recommended, I will be waiting for Becky's next book with eager anticipation!

Just finished reading this on holiday and what a perfect choice it was! Told through the eyes of best friends Scarlett and Evie, this is a story that really showcases the strength and importance of female friendships. When Evie loses her best friend Scarlett in a tragic road accident she doesn’t know how she will be able to carry on. Not only does Evie have to deal with her loss, she’s also suffering with MS and the uncertainty of how it will affect her life. As Scarlett finds herself suspended in a place between living and the afterlife, she watches the effects on those affected by her accident: from Evie to her parents, Nate who Evie blames for her death and his own family loss, their ex lovers, and teenage neighbour Astrid who is wise beyond on years. I loved watching the various characters grow and develop throughout the story, the portrayal of grief in all its guises, and watching how the choices we make can change the path of our future. I smiled and cried at this book and finished it with a big grin. Definitely one I’ll be recommending to my daughters!
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for a review.

One Moment is a remarkable debut. It is a truly delightful read, a story of love, loss and friendship that will break your heart at times but I guarantee will leave you with a smile on your face.

It’s the story of Evie and Scarlett, friends since childhood. When Scarlett dies in a freak accident, Evie must deal with her grief whilst at the same time managing the implications of the fact she has MS.

Told through alternating points of view, we hear from Evie in the third person and Scarlett in the first person as she watches over the aftermath of her death and also looks back on their friendship over the years. These are characters I guarantee you will fall in love with, both very real, flaws and all, and it is their friendship that is at the heart of the story.

It’s a book about putting the “what ifs” in life behind us and learning to move on. There is plenty of sadness and the book deals with some difficult topics, but they are sensitively handled and perfectly counterbalanced with lighter moments and genuine joy. It’s an intoxicating combination that makes for a truly fabulous read and I adored it from beginning to end.

I adored this book. It flows really well and the writing is engaging, drawing you in to the story of two young women, Scarlett and Evie. Scarlett’s voice is a first person narrative and that suits her situation really well. Scarlett and Evie are best friends, sharing a flat and supporting each other. Scarlett is pursuing her dream of being a clothes designer; Evie is a musician but is going through a tough time. She’s not handling it well and nothing Scarlett says or does helps her and the pair are squabbling more than they ever have before.

Then something happens that changes everything. That one moment in time that alters both Scarlett and Evie’s futures. Becky Hunter’s novel considers the nature of love and friendship and asks us all to think about what we might do in such circumstances.

Becky Hunters characters are very well drawn and it is easy to imagine these young women with everything in front of them loving life and enjoying the closeness of their friendship. When it all starts to fall apart, the most profound impact is on Evie who is left feeling alone, wondering if she has been betrayed and feeling she has nothing to look forward to.

Two people come into Evie’s life to change that. One is Nate, whose involvement in an accident brings him face to face with Evie in the worst possible circumstances. The other is Astrid, a young neighbour of Evie’s who is learning to play the violin.

This is the cast list for Becky Hunter’s beautifully wrought novel that has a strong emotional core. We follow Evie’s emotional journey through anger, grief, negativity and profound sadness, all the while questioning herself.

What if she had said something different to Scarlett? What if she had listened to her instead of wallowing in self-pity? As the women review their friendship, looking back across the years you get a real sense of who they are and how they laugh and love. It’s a great way to understand characters and soon you feel as if you do know these women. As a result you laugh and cry with them as their story unfolds.

I loved how much fun and laughter there is in a novel that could so easily have become cloying and overly sentimental. But Becky Hunter never falls into that trap and there’s a good mixture of pleasure and pain as these stories develop.

As a result there’s a huge amount of enjoyment in this book and a lot of hope combined with some genuinely uplifting moments that made my heart sing for these characters. This is a book that got to me, that touched my heart as I laughed and cried along the way.

Verdict: Funny, engaging and a well-wrought portrait of friendship, grief and also hope, Becky Hunter’s One Moment is a poignant, life -affirming read that brings joy.

Becky Hunter, stand up and take a bow because this book is PHENOMENAL. Like literally just wow! What a beautiful and unputdownable read.

One Moment is filled with moments that make you emotional and also some moments that will really make you smile. The book is filled with grief, love and a strong theme of female friendships.

Hunter has completely pulled me in from the very beginning. This is a book that stole my heart very early on. This is a superb debut from beginning to end and unique in every way.

This is a book I knew I was going to love, but still exceeded my expectations. It’s just brilliant from beginning to end. I have devoured page after page in one sitting, refusing any adult responsibility until I had devoured that very last page.

Sometimes a book touches you deeply, One Moment is definitely one of those books. Scarlett and Evie and great characters. We journey through with Evie after she loses her best friend.

Hunter is able to pull your heartstrings whilst keeping you completely engaged in the story that is unfolding. This is a truly unforgettable debut read and one that should be on everyone’s TBR.

One Moment is a gorgeous and completely wonderful debut from Becky Hunter. I have nothing negative I can say about this book. Definitely get this on the TBR.

Scarlett dies when she shouldn’t have. If she hadn’t gone to help she’d still be alive. But then Evie wouldn’t have met Nate, the man she thinks is responsible for Scarlett’s death. It’s an emotional rollercoaster of a read. I loved it and as it’s a first book I’m expecting even greater ones to follow. I cried a fair few times which is a good sign, really

“We are all a product of the choices we make. That’s so true, isn’t it? But we are also a product of the choices other people make.”

The beginning of this book starts with a death: Scarlett’s. But Scarlett is now somehow in a place where she can relive her memories and watch those she loves struggling to cope in the aftermath of her death. Evie, Scarlett’s best friend, is completely lost without her and seemingly giving in to her MS diagnosis. This book follows both of their POVs.

I’m truly having an incredible year for books so far! I thought I’d found my favourite book of the year previously, but now this one is definitely up there alongside it. There is so much depth to the story, the characters and their feelings.

“A butterfly effect. Life is a string of them, I suppose – or multiple strings, all knotted together, impossible to untangle.”

One massive character within this story is a man called Nate. A misfortune with Nate was what unintentionally led to Scarlett’s death, and now he’s popping up everywhere when it comes to Evie, a need to know who Scarlett was, a need to try and make things right in his own way and an unintentional pull to Evie. As he pushes Evie through her MS, challenging her and showing her she’s more than her illness, Evie and Scarlett both need to learn that situations aren’t always black and white, irrelevant of your own need for a ‘bad guy’ to blame.

This book truly gripped my heart and brought me to tears more than once. Evie was the perfect character for the situation (it was brilliant seeing the representation of a hidden illness), and I loved that Scarlett wouldn’t have necessarily been a likeable character for me personally while alive, but her growth in death was heartbreaking and inspirational.

Incredible, incredible, incredible! I can’t recommend it enough.

Thank you to NetGalley, Becky Hunter and Atlantic Books (Corvus) for this DRC in exchange for an honest review.

One Moment by Becky Hunter
*I received an E-Arc in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley and the publishers, Atlantic Books

Blurb:

The day Scarlett dies should have been one of the most important of her life. It doesn't feel fair that she'll never have the chance to fulfil her dreams. And now, she's still ... here - wherever here is - watching the ripple effect of her death on the lives of those she loved the most.

Evie cannot contemplate her life without Scarlett, and she certainly cannot forgive Nate, the man she blames for her best friend's death. But Nate keeps popping up when she least expects him to, catapulting Evie's life in directions she'd never let herself imagine possible. Ways, perhaps, even those closest to her had long since given up on.

If you could go back, knowing everything that happens after, everything that happens because of that one moment in time, would you change the course of history or would you do it all again?

My Thoughts

Aside from looking at the cover, I went into this book blind. My mind said this would be a light hearted romantic, chic-lit kind of book but - on reading - it was more than that.

Hunter’s debut is a story of two best friends and how one of their lives is shaped by the unthinkable. With the romances for both Scarlett and Eve weaved into the book, you could say it lived up to my pre-conception. However, the book was so much more about love between friends, loss, grief and finding yourself in the midst of this grief as well as in the midst of a health condition.

Though it did take a bit of time to gel with the two characters in this book, and the romantic interest when he eventually crashed (no pun intended) into this story, it’s an interesting story about friendship and how it isn’t always easy but also how friendships do have a lot of impact on the people we are.

I’m not sure what’s next for Hunter but I’m certainly interested to find out.

After reading a few heavy books, I really needed something a bit lighter and despite some of the heavy topics the way One Moment covers it was a welcome guest of brighter air.

Evie and Scarlett have been friends since childhood, but Evie, for very valid reasons, is currently at a low point in her life. Scarlett on the other hand is full of positivity and life, until she bumps into Nate who triggers the event that leads to her early death. Scarlett stays with us as the main narrator of the book as she watches what happens next in Evie’s life.

I found this book very hard to put down as I wanted to know what would happen to Evie and how the story would resolve itself. I like how Hunter handled chronic illness, and how to find the balance between acknowledging that things have changed whilst not allowing the illness to completely define who you are. I also appreciated Scarlett’s attitude to how she wanted to be enjoyed and remembered in a positive manner.


This book is published in early March and I think lots of people will enjoy this. If you liked One Hundred Years Lenni and Margot then you should definitely think about getting hold of a copy.

Touches some tricky subjects incredibly well.
Grief, loss, female friendship.
It hits the nail on the head quite a few times.
It made me smile more than once.
A few times I felt the narration didn't engage me as much as the rest of the story, these were mainly in Scarletts bits.
An excellent debut, that makes me interested in what might come next.

What a lovely debut!

Meet Evie and Scarlett. They’re best friends, and always have been.

Evie has MS, a crippling and unpredictable disease that has slowly changed her, leading her to shrink her world and shut herself away.

But with Scarlett’s untimely death, she’s going to have to overcome more than her disability, she’ll have to cope with grief and learn to move forward, making unexpected new friends along the way

From her afterlife limbo, Scarlett revisits her past and witnesses the consequences that her death has caused, unable to interfere but biding her time to make sure her loved ones are ok.

If you were to die tomorrow, what would you change in your past?

Endearing, joyful and full of hope, this book is a great antidote when you’re feeling down, in need of some motivation or looking for something to devour quickly.

Thanks a lot Corvus and NetGalley for the opportunity to read.

Thank you for NetGalley for providing me with this book for review. Oh my this book is amazing, is so heartbreaking but heartwarming in equal measure. I will definitely look out for more books from this author.

What a beautiful book Which explores the love between friends Evie and Scarlett.

Scarlett’s sudden death turns Evie‘s world upside down, her hopes and dreams for the future are entwined with Scarlett that navigating a new way ahead without their friendship seems impossible.

As I read the story I felt so much for Evie, battling with her own illness ,her grief was evident and sometimes overwhelming but also a little hope began to emerge.

This book celebrates friendship and love. It is filled with a many wonderful thought-provoking moments and I finished it with a tear in my eye but also a warm feeling in my heart.

Not necessarily my normal genre but I really enjoyed this novel. It’s not a spoiler to say that Scarlett dies at the start of the novel and the story is then told from her perspective and that of her best friend Evie with whom she shares a flat. I love the way this book dealt with a chronic illness and how refreshing to have a main character with a disability. A book that looks at friendship and love, grief and illness and importance of communication. I will remember this cast of characters for sometime and wish I knew what the future holds for Evie and Astrid. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel in return for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this one, and it wasn’t a bad read but I honestly found it very middle of the road. I thought I’d love the ghost element and although the MS rep was really great to read I felt the story itself is one I will forget very easily.

A good debut, but not a stand out unfortunately

I wanted to love this book I was read to cry bucket and felle for the characters. I think it's a good story but I didn't care for the characters adn the story fell flat.
Not my cup of tea
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This book is like white bread. Bland. I’m afraid I just never got to like any of the characters or even feel any of them had any personality. Where was the fun that young people who choose to live In London have? They were not talking or thinking like young people. The twist with Scarlett from the beginning could have been put to more powerful use. It wasn’t my favourite plot device but I didn’t reject the book because of it. I just don’t think I found it interesting enough to care much for what was happening. Unlike some other readers I did think the end was predictable but if you like this sort of book I suppose you don’t expect it to end badly. It was an ok holiday read but I would probably not finish it if I got into something else a bit more dynamic.

A really well-written romance, this gorgeous story from Becky Hunter tugs at the heart-strings even more with its extra dimension of strong female friendship from beyond the grave.
When Scarlett dies in a tragic accident, her spirit lingers, looking out for her best friend Evie, whose recent MS diagnosis has made her shrink from the world, Because of the accident, Evie meets Nate, but can she ever forgive him for the death of her beloved friend? Or forgive Scarlett, for appearing to move on without her? And does he even want a committed relationship? As for Scarlett, will she every be able to finally rest in peace?
Told from Evie and Scarlett''s point of view, this is an engrossing and heartbreaking story with strong, empathetic characters. Each has his or her strengths and flaws - they're genuine people. caught in a challenging situation, all trying to do their best for themselves, and for each other.
The story explores friendship, love, loyalty and family ties. The varying threads come together seamlessly as the narrative flows its way towards the story's resolution - which holds surprises right up to the end.
I loved it.

Outstanding debut book loved this book and without giving any spoilers away would highly recommend it
Many thanks to publishers & NetGalley for proof of this book

One moment by Becky Hunter is such a beautiful book. I am not ashamed to say I cried reading this story. Filled with such tender moments that when you finish the book you will be filled with hope. Parts so uplifting. Pick this book up when it hits the shelfs in March.