"This Love" by Lotte Jeffs is a deeply moving exploration of love in all its forms, beautifully intertwining personal narrative with broader themes of connection, identity, and belonging. Jeffs’ prose is lyrical and poignant, drawing readers into her intimate reflections on relationships and the impact they have on our lives.

The author’s honesty and vulnerability shine through as she navigates her own experiences with love—both romantic and platonic—offering insight into the complexities and nuances of human connection. Jeffs’ ability to articulate the intricacies of emotion makes the book resonate on a profound level, encouraging readers to reflect on their own relationships.

The structure of the book is both engaging and thought-provoking, with each chapter revealing new layers of understanding and depth. The themes of acceptance and self-discovery are particularly powerful, making this a compelling read for anyone interested in the dynamics of love and the importance of embracing our authentic selves.

Overall, "This Love" is an inspiring and heartfelt meditation on love’s transformative power, making it a must-read for those seeking connection and understanding in their own lives.

This Love

Lotte Jeffs

A good read about friendship & love. However I have to be honest and say it was a little too slow paced for me and I didn’t really connect with the characters unfortunately.

For me I found the pacing to be a bit slow, but I did enjoy the exploration of friendship and love over a longer period of time. I think it's a story I would prefer as a film as opposed to a book

Really wanted to love this but sadly found the characters to be unrelatable and the pace slow. Love books about friendship & platonic love but this didn't hit the mark for me.

Amazing book!
I was thoroughly engaged throughout this book and I didn't want to put it down! The author captured my attention from the get go! Five stars from me :)

Absolutely amazing book, loved every page every word every character it’s the best debut this year! Can’t wait to give it to everybody

A contemporary tale of two best friends over the years, from university years to parenthood.

Sounds conventional but Ari and Mar are anything but. Ari escapes New York to Leeds University and meets Mae, a proud lesbian. They soon become inseparable, though Mae struggles when Ari admits he is pansexual, instead of gay as she assumed. Their lives evolve over a decade, with hidden loves, toxic partners, health struggles and more, This Love has been described as One Day for a new generation.

I’m not sure I would go that far, but these characters will stay with me for a while.

I will admit that I found the first 150 pages to be a slow, meandering trek, like wading through molasses. I liked the characters but I wasn’t gripped enough by their lives to pick up the book. Suddenly, I reach the halfway point and devoured the rest in a day.

This may be down to my own perspective; at 34 I am closer to their ages at the later stages of the novel and can relate more to their struggles, to their desires for a family.

Mae and Ari are multifaceted characters with nuance, depth and complicated histories. Despite their differences they are each others biggest supporters in their own way, and the way Jeffs has crafted their individual identities around the other is skilful.

The narraitve jumps around from the past, to the present and into the near future, but is easy to understand and doesn’t muddy the story at all.

I do feel like the end was rather abrupt, and would have perhaps liked to read one more time jump before the finale. When I first finished this, I felt a little flat, wondering ‘is that it?’. After a little reflection I think it is a clever novel that may appeal to different aged audiences, or in fact the same person over a decade of their own life.

I did see some hype on X/Twitter for this novel which I think raised my expectations slightly too high, but This Love is a beautiful look at the strength and beauty in platonic love.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this book, or the way it is written. There are some great moments, neatly packaged in words that will bring a sense of enlightenment, understanding, or kinship to many of those who will read this book in the future. I just struggled to connect with the two main characters, who I just could not get to jump off the page in the way I would have liked them to.

If you are a fan of books that span many years of life of the main character(s), or are a fan of LGBTQIA+ literature in general, this might be the book for you, especially as I seem to be by far the minority, and the characters seem to resonate with other reviewers much more than with me.

A beautiful tale of friendship and found family. Mae and Ari were great characters and their voices rang true and strong as they narrated their story.

Engaging, funny and poignant - this was a great read.

This Love has had excellent advance views on Twitter and so I was very excited to read it.
It’s about the ten year friendship between Mae and Ari who meet at Leeds University after Ari leaves New York following a scandal with his professor.
I so wanted to love this novel but I found it difficult to connect with the writing style which didn’t draw me in and I felt that the characters lacked depth. The last section of the novel was more compelling and moving although I did feel that the author tried to fit too much in towards the end.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Mae and Ari are portrayed with such depth and authenticity, making them truly lovable and relatable characters. The depiction of university life felt remarkably true to life, capturing its complexities and challenges with realism.

Reading about the bond of the chosen family during the holiday season was especially heartwarming. The story beautifully explores themes of friendship, love, and acceptance, highlighting the importance of finding belonging and support in the people we choose to surround ourselves with.

Overall, it was a delightful and ultimately heartwarming tale that left a lasting impression.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

There were some things in this book that I really loved, not least the emphasis on the love between a queer platonic couple, and how this relationship remained as their lives changed. The various types of family, and how you can find and embrace your new without dismissing your/the 'old' forms, was one of the key things for me. I liked how Mae and Ari were very three dimensionally flawed, although Mae was sometimes harder to respond to, usually when her fixed opinions had to adjust to others.

However I often found that I was more intrigued by many of the side characters, I think this is the potential pitfall of this kind of book whrre therd are a lot of love interests, family, work colleagues etc, is that sometimes I just end up wishing I was following one of the other minor characters instead (often Alice!), or wondering what happened to X. And then some minor characters were really mire important than their space or attention in the narrative. Like Kate, who was very short changed in the story. She was basically a cipher and I wanted to know about her but she was just a blank! I can't care about someone if you don't give me anything.

The biggest issue I had though was the timing and pacing, although this is kind of linked to the side characters issue too. Basically the last 10-15% of the book just rammed at least 50% of a books worth into a couple of chapters. There were huge major interesting things happening that got a sentence at most and I was just, huh? It felt like there was a word limit suddenly imposed so the author just decided to list off everything rather than explore it. And after there were so many chapters covering relatively little early on, it just felt unbalanced.

Better editing could have made this a lot better, but it did have some very enjoyable bits too.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC*

This book came up in my Twitter (X) feed a while ago, I think when Laura Pearson shared a review of an advance copy, and I’ve been looking forward to reading it ever since, Described as ‘A queer One Day for a new generation’ by the publisher, I had high expectations as I adored One Day. This book differs in that the two main protagonists are soulmates, but not in a romantic sense. Beautifully written, with realistic, flawed characters, this book covers love and found family in various forms, Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for such an enjoyable read.

I almost didn’t finish this book. I remember an author saying ‘if you get to page 57 and you’re not hooked, ditch it’
I am SO pleased I didn’t ditch it. This is going to be one of my favourite- if not favourite book of 2024.
The main characters, the way the story progresses, I laughed and I cried, an absolute perfect story- thanks so much Lotte

A truly gorgeous read, I loved how Mae and Ari’s friendship was explored – through the different time periods (university, different cities, relationships etc.) as well as through their sexuality and how this fit in to their lives. How beautiful to see representation of families being shown in different ways – building your own family, as well as found family and blood family. Incredible.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

Love love love this book = I couldn't put it down once I started reading it, the story is so touching and has so many possibilities loaded into it.

Mae and Ari meet while they are at university, make a promise and form a bond that is set to last them a lifetime. The time at university is so nostalgic, the hurt and the past experiences seem very real and lived, and as time goes on the chances and mischances that happen weave a wonderful deep story of a kinds of love and friendships.

All the characters seem to be lightly but meaningfully sketched, their interactions ring true and the theme of building a family of your own, in your own time and way, is strong throughout, as are all the types of love that are on display, front, centre and also in the background.

The book made my heart ache and my soul sing - what a marvellous story, read it and enjoy.

I loved this very human story of two queer young people, Ari and Mae, who meet at university and become platonic soulmates. We see their friendship and love explored over a decade of exploring love, work and other life events. It’s not a cosy story. It feels very real, in the way they fall out, the way they manage when the other finds a romantic partner and in the challenges they face in trying to consider what family means.
Ari and Mae felt very real to me, and I was rooting for them throughout the book. Other characters are well-drawn too. There’s a tine-skip which I am a bit uncertain of. I think the story could have developed in a linear fashion and had the same impact, but that’s a minor niggle in a book which is a lovely, very real feeling, read.

I really loved this book, and find the comparisons to One Day irritatingly basic. Please don't let it put you off.

As someone who has been lucky enough to have a multi-decade, fiercely committed queer platonic friendship that started at university, this story resonated deeply with me. I am the flamboyant Ari to a wonderfully reliable Mae. I absolutely could have imagined us making promises to make a family together if that's what we had wanted from our lives.

Thank you to the author for capturing this kind of queer relationship on the page. It's rare that we get to see our multidimensional sense of family in the mainstream.

This love starts with an intriguing beginning, fully queer, following the main characters Ari and Mae from their uni days to 10 years later, having different partners, drifting in and out. The writing is easy to read, though I would have liked it more if it's written more beautifully and a 100 pages shorter, but I do love the poems that the characters wrote.

I love the storyline, though it's slightly unrealistically optimistic. Also the chapters about the future were a bit confusing, was not sure whether it's only in their imagination or real. The second half of the book focus a lot on queer parenting, it does provide readers a point of view and information on the topic as it's rare to see in fiction books in my opinion. I do wish the relationship between the characters were written more in-depth, however, it's a nice queer love story that I enjoyed reading.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced e-copy

I was super excited for this book! There is just so much hype around it!
But I was just left a bit flat. This book was just so 'meh'
I found Lotte Jeffs writing style to be a bit too whimsical for me. It was too descriptive, which meant that it slowed down the plot and the overall pace of the book. But on the other hand, Jeffs characters felt very real and well rounded.

I wasn't overly keen on this book, and think it has definitely been overhyped! The characters were pretty fascinating, but I just found the plot to be too slow in pace to keep me interested.