This was definitely a rollercoaster of emotions. A story of lost love and second chances, I found myself rooting for the main character Helen. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. For me this is Mike Gayle at his absolute best. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review #asongofmeandyou

Everything Mike Gayle writes is brilliant, including this book! I found myself very invested in the characters and plot, not least in this 'one that got away' narrative. I found this novel to be a beautiful and poignant read, and look forward to Gayle's next work.

Mike Gayle is the master of relationship story telling and A Song of Me and You continues to follow in this vein.
Helen - a forty-something mum of two is dealing with the aftermath of her husband's affair.
Ben - lead singer of one of the world's most popular bands has 'gone missing'.
Until, Ben turns up on Helen's door - Ben and Helen were in a relationship for a few years when they were in their late teens. As the story unravels, secrets come to light, Adam (Helen's ex) becomes even more of a mysoginistic know it all and Helen's teens also begin to take more of a lead role. But, can you ever turn back the hands of time, can you recapture what you have lost in your youth - can relationships ever be reforrmed?
A Song of Me and You is a delightful, escapist read - with a twist that I did not see coming.

Mike Gayle did it again! Another amazing read! This book played with my heartstrings so much, but at the same time, I adored every word that I read. Such beautiful writing, an excellent storyline, and an ending that I didn’t see coming…

The book follows Helen who is a teacher living in Manchester. She has two kids and a crumbling down marriage. Ben on the other hand is a famous musician, who is struggling with his fame and wants to get away from it. Ben and Helen also share some history, they dated almost 20 years ago just as Ben slowly rose to fame. However, they haven’t seen each other in 20 years, not until Ben knocks on Helen's door one day…Will they help each other to find the answers they both are searching for?

Loved how three-dimensional all of the characters in this book are. I adored Helen, as she is so nice and caring, but sadly whole life that she built for herself and her family, is crumbling down. She deserved better. Ben is a lost soul and he realises that he doesn’t have anyone to help him but Helen, as Helen believed in him and was there for him from the very start. I loved how the author portrayed Ben not as a rich and stuck-up musician, but as a real human with flaws and surrounded by loneliness despite the great fame he is living in.

Nothing in this book was sugar-coated. It is raw, full of harsh realities of life, and heartbreak, but it also has brilliant and heart-warming moments of love, support and care. All of this made me feel like I am reading about real people and their real lives.

The ending! OMG! I was not prepared for it…It shocked me as I wasn’t expecting it at all, but at the same time I wanted more closure, and the last chapter to be just a tad longer.

Overall: Another sad, heart-wrenching, and emotional story from Mike Gayle that also has so much warmth and love. I loved it so much and will be recommending this to everyone! Can’t wait to read more from Mike Gayle (hopefully) soon!

What a beautiful read. This is the first book I've read by this author and wow what an introduction. I really enjoyed everything about this story full of warmth and charm and such great characters loved Helen and Ben's renewed relationship after they got together again when Helen's marriage ended and Ben was trying to hide from the media due to tragic circumstances. It was a such and interesting read and a really emotional page Turner and I'm not ashamed to to say I shed a few tears but they were of joy as well as sadness. Looking forward to reading some more books by Mike Gale

Another wonderful read from Mike Gayle. Helen and Ben parted as teenagers, years later they meet up again, when famous but disillusioned rock star Ben turns up on newly separated Helen's doorstep. The story of how their love rekindles is enthralling. Good holiday reading .

I always love a Mike Gayle book and this was no exception. Helen and Ben broke up when they were 18 to go their separate ways. 20 years on and Ben is a world famous rock star and Helen is a separated mum of 2. When Ben turns up on her doorstep wanting to escape from his manic world, Helen agrees he can stay. But can you ever go back? I love the characters in this story , and it's a bit of a tear jerker too! Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

Outstanding.
From start to finish I was fully invested in this story of love, heart break, of rediscovering yourself and how you are seen by those around you.
I didn't know what to expect really but this pulled on every emotional heart string.
I highly recommend.

A symphony of second chance and first love, that could've been the most harmonious ever.

Thanks NetGalley, Hodder and Stoughton for the arc in exchange of an honest review.

Synopsis -

High school sweethearts Ben and Helen had to break up due to inevitable circumstances. Now 45 year old Helen, a mother of two, is recently separated from her cheating husband Adam and to her utter shock, Ben, the celebrated rockstar from the world famous band ‘Bluelight’ appears on her doorstep out of the blue after over 20 years. Nostalgia and the immediate future collide, as the two friends have to now navigate this impossible situation.

Review -

My heart went out for the loving, kind and caring Helen, who struggles to deal with her broken marriage and cranky teenagers kids. Helen’s situation was so unfair, that I was furious and annoyed with her prick of a husband 😡- I wished I could slap him and cheered for Helen, when she does something even better! 😈

Gayle handles the highs and lows of motherhood, children dynamics, the home wreaking havoc an affair can inflict and the woes of a freshly separated middle-aged woman - with great tenderness, keen observation and sensitivity.

Enter Ben, the sensational rockstar from LA, the first love of Helen’s. With Ben, Gayle portrays how it is not all rosy for the rich and famous, how they are only human, as lonely, vulnerable and gullible like normal people, touching upon the ill-effects of the glamorous world on their mental health and well-being.

I loved seeing Helen and Ben walking down the memory lane of their love, heartbreak and friendship. Although they were dealing with their own crises and challenges, there was hope, a building anticipation of their budding romance for the second time and the promise of a future together.

I absolutely loved the first 70% of this book. But sadly it took an unimaginable turn, that totally threw it’s rhythm and pitch off the scale, 😣becoming an unbearable screech rather than the soothing melodious ‘song’ it ought to have been. 😕

The ending was also a letdown as it meanders into unnecessary unrealistic threads and failed to salvage what little was left. 😫.

That said, Mike Gayle is a brilliant novelist who can write emotionally rich and poignant stories. All the Lonely People is one of my favorite books of all times and I always recommend that to everyone. So onto the next one from him for me!

This was a bittersweet read! To avoid mentioning any spoilers, I'll say that I loved spending time with these characters and going on the journey with them. It's heartfelt and charming and definitely tugs on the heart-strings!

I always enjoy a book by Mike Gayle, characterisation is so important and really brings the story alive. This one is a bit different, he usually writes about the everyday life of ordinary people but here we meet a world famous rock star. However, we soon realise celebrity life is not as glamourous as we might think.
This is a really enjoyable drama with some absolutely heartbreaking scenes which I would certainly recommend.

Another brilliant Mike Gayle read with the classic love and sadness. I loved the characters in this books, all brilliantly depicted..it's a sad story on many levels but at the end love still wins the day, just maybe not as you'd expect from the start..it didn't have me in tears like half the world away but I still loved it. Thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for my arc

A Song of Me and You by Mike Gayle is a love story about Helen and Ben, who were teenagers in love and then they broke up and went their separate ways. Twenty years later they meet again, when Helen is a divorced mother of two teenagers and Ben is the very successful and world famous millionaire rockstar.
A fabulous, sad, funny, emotional story told by a very successful storyteller.
Highly recommended

I’m not usually a fan of romance fiction, being a bit too old in the tooth for hearts and flowers, but give me a story of second-chance love featuring more mature protagonists and I’m in. All the more so when it’s by Mike Gayle, whom you can always depend upon for an emotional, escapist read.

Meet Helen, part-time teacher and single mum to two teenagers, after being abandoned by cheating husband Adam. Helen is careworn and valiantly fighting to keep things together both emotionally and financially.

Meet Ben, superstar rock icon and Helen’s first love. They haven’t seen each other for over two decades, when Ben suddenly turns up on Helen’s doorstep. He’s had enough of the rockstar lifestyle and is close to mental collapse. Helen provides refuge, while his agent and the rest of the world fret and speculate over his disappearance.

What follows, as Helen and Ben open up to each other about their unhappiness and reminisce about their youth is a love story waiting to happen. Gayle has a knack for creating unique but relatable characters, and I was so rooting for these two to rekindle the passion.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the shocking turn in the narrative that sent it spinning off in a direction I didn’t want it to. But I was already committed, so through the emotional wringer I had to go.

This is a story that lives up to Gayle’s “all the feels” reputation, plucking at the heart strings as only he can do.

The ending was perhaps a little too clichéd and saccharine for my taste, but then I’m an old cynic. I’m sure it will appeal to the vast majority of Gayle’s loyal fan base.

I can hardly believe it's been 25 years since I read Mike Gayle's first book but I am assured that it has. I was keen to read this as I have enjoyed his books.

It's the age old story, girl meets boy, boy leaves due to difficult family life, boy becomes a globally successful rock star while girl is cheated on by her idiot husband. Boy turns up out of the blue and the story begins.

Despite the improbable situation it is believable and plausible. Some of it was a little slow and the teenagers were annoying but then again that's not a shocking revelation.

I don't want to say more in case I give spoilers, you will need to read it for yourself. Mike Gayle can hold on to his crown and celebrate his publishing silver jubilee with pride.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the ARC.

Mike Gayle has captured the essence of the music scene in his latest novel "A Song of Me and You".

This is such a beautiful, timeless classical story of a love reignited. I became a bit obsessed with Helen and Ben and felt as though I was living their life for a time.

This author's words can lift me up one minute and then dropped me from a great height the next. He is exceptional at making his readers feel every single emotion his characters are facing.

What more can I say except it is bloody brilliant!

Can you ever go back?
Helen and Ben parted and went their separate ways at 18.
20 years later, Helen is mum to two teenagers and has an unfaithful husband & Ben is a world famous rockstar with the band Bluelight.
Suddenly Ben is standing on Helen’s doorstep
A wonderful read and you’re quickly immersed and their lives and invested in the characters.
Heartwarming, bittersweet and very emotional - the colliding of two very different lives but one story of true love.
You think you know where the story is going but there’s a massive twist.
Beautifully written, perfect for any fan of second chance romances.
Thanks @mikegayle @hodderbooks & @netgalley for the eARC

This is easily one of my top ten books of the year-I loved it. If you liked Daisy Jones and the Six or if you are a fan of Paige Toon’s Johnny Jefferson books, then you will absolutely love this one! I was hooked into Ben and Helen’s story from the start. I loved meeting Helen. She is trying her absolute best to be there for her kids and do the right thing by them. Like a lot of parents with children who are about to go off to university though, she is struggling with her own sense of identity. She has a fabulous best friend and a mum who help to build her up and amplify her voice but she has an ex-husband who is trying to undo all of the good work that she has done.

Then we have Ben. Ben is a celebrity, and it is always fun to read about celebrities in novels. I think they must be so much fun to write because you can make them have the most extravagant life style and do the most unthinkable things and Ben really does seem to have it all-on the surface. Underneath all of that, Ben is just like you and me and is struggling just as much with his sense of identity as Helen is. I love the idea that he is attempting to come back to his roots in this book in a sense but only subconsciously, consciously he has made a decision to try and escape it all and I think that was incredibly brave of him.

This book deals with the celebrity lifestyle, yes, but it also covers issues that you and I face in our everyday lives and, most importantly, it deals with mental health in men, a bit of a buzz topic right now but something that still isn’t talked about as openly as it should be. I love the way Mike Gayle writes characters of all genders, but I’m always interested to read his male characters and hear certain love stories from their point of view. I couldn’t put this book down. It made me laugh, it made me cry and it will definitely stay with me for a long time-highly recommend!

The wait was finally over, to read and review the new Mike Gayle offering. Some interesting characters, but well written and very enjoyable. Thank you for the ARC.

Well written, heartwarming, sweet and very romantic. I started and couldn't put it down as I rooted and felt for the fleshed out characters.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine