I loved this book with every fibre of my being, this book to me is what Lowe is to Ella.

Laura captures nostalgia like I've never read before. She's so accurate with her references and its so subtle but consistent that at parts I genuinely felt like I was reading a book about my own teenagehood. Some of my personal faves were the references to the Impulse body spray and Barry M nail polish but there were so many other diamond-like Easter eggs of the 2000s nestled in the pages of this book.

Ella's internal dialogue is ridiculously funny and brutally honest, the awkwardness of growing up is told wonderfully from her perspective and it feels like a really unique book because it isn't trying to pigeon hole itself into the 'coming of age' category, it just takes you on a journey of growth without it feeling forced. There are so many other themes that this book touches on from girl code and friendship to fame and the price of getting what you always thought you wanted. On the surface, Ella does initially get her happy ever after but its so interesting when it's unravelled that sometimes the 'who' you're with can be more important than the 'what' you achieve (ie, relationship milestones).

I loved the whirlwind of chaos that is Ella's existence and both young and adult Ella are so lovable. Young Ella felt so cringey and embarrassing in the best possible way. That element of the book felt like 'Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging' in how brash but simultaneously shy young Ella is. When we meet Ella in her adulthood, she is riddled with a new found self awareness ('I have to protect my work from myself' is one of my favourite thoughts she has) but she's just as characteristically clumsy and awkward as her younger self.

Lowe is the perfect balance to Ella's character, he's confident and cool in such an understated way. I love that he's such a romantic but is also only painted as perfect in Ella's imagination, not in his actions. This made him feel way more interesting and real to read about.

We meet some of Ella's friends, Bianca is an absolutely brilliant character and I'd read a spinoff from her POV to be honest, because she's even more unruly and unhinged than Ella. It was nice to have Ella's friends as a constant in both her younger self POV and adult POV - it made the whole narrative feel more cohesive.

Overall, Laura's writing style is so sticky and fun to read. At one point, Ella refers to herself as looking like an 'uncooked meatball' which is like what? How does someone come up with such an interesting simile?! Being a fly on the wall in this story felt like a true privilege and I've never read something before that is ultimately a cross between 'Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging' & ;Bridget Jones' Diary; with a dash of 'One Day' and 'About Time'.

I really enjoyed this book. The 2 main characters were so well written and the nostalgia as someone who grew up in the same era was just amazing. Highly recommended.

I Love You, I Love You, I Love You is the nostalgic book of my dreams. It’s an addictive, heartfelt coming of age story set in the early 2000s, bursting with sunlight and friendships and first love. I enjoyed every page of it, and I think it’s Laura Dockrill’s best work to date.

This book really took me back — I was thirteen in 2000, one year younger than main character Ella, and happily wearing my extremely baggy emo jeans that were always wet through up to the knees. I was discovering what my music taste would look like for the rest of my life (still emo), navigating friendships and realising that no, not all boys should be ignored. Honestly, this book is like stepping into a time machine and being whisked back to my teen years, and I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that’s quite captured that feeling.

Set back then and also right now, I Love You, I Love You, I Love You follows Ella, her best friend Lowe, her family and her group of friends through times of turbulence, joy, and teenage confusion. It’s about discoveries and feelings, hair dye wands and cigarettes, and perfectly captures what it was like growing up before social media and 24/7 news.

I don’t want to give anything away about what exactly happens in this book, but I will say that it includes a romance for the ages, a will-they won’t-they of epic proportions, so swoonworthy and sigh-inducing that I couldn’t read fast enough. It depicts friendships that will last a lifetime, and a family life that will resonate with generations past and present. It’s so good I want to read it again, giving Ella a big hug as I go. Teenage years can be the toughest of them all, but often the funniest too. I Love You, I Love You, I Love You is brilliant from start to finish, and I do indeed love it times three. What a book!

I love you, I love you, I love you sets up to be a slow burn, swoony romance. From the title alone your expectations are raised and starting this one I couldn’t wait to feel the tension build and the flirty banter.

However it’s a lot slower than you anticipate, the flicking between times is a little confusing at first but it does a good job of building the background between Ella and Lowe.

But somehow it manages to fall a little short. There’s so much time spent around their teenage years that I started to question whether the book was aimed at young adults rather than an adult romance. It was almost a bit tiring to read about teenagers struggles, especially when I wanted to read a romance. And since there’s so much time spent in the past the present building of romance between Ella and Lowe felt even more forced. As though the author was rushing to end it on a happy note and didn’t have enough time to do so.

If the book was paced differently with less teenage tension and if there was more focus on the building relationship between two adults who were previously close I think it would live up to what was described in the blurb.

Elle is the very epitome of teenage anguish- in love but too unsure of herself to allow anything beyond her carefully constructed friendship zone she falls hard for Lowe and a beautiful friendship of letter writing and mix tape editing ensues. However Elle soon feels left behind as Lowe finds fame with his band and disappears out of her orbit into the world of stardom, his name linked with woman after woman.
Jumping between teen Elle and her now in her 30s Lowe swings in and out of her life, sometime unwelcome but never far from her mind.
not your average boy meets girl- the feelings leap of the page through out the 15 or so years the story spans.

I started this book and thought I would like it as it’s a genre that I would normally choose, however 13% in and I am throwing in the towel, it’s just not developing into a story I want to continue with. It is very wordy and lacks clarity and in 4 chapters I don’t know where the author is going with the story as the main protagonist has now gone back in time from a 30 year old to a 15 year old. I am not going to give it a low score just because it’s not for me.

Fun, sassy, thoughtful and dead romantic, a look at first love, unrequited love and working things out eventually. Not your average romance.

REVIEW
cw: financial insecurity, drug use, divorce, bereavement, anxiety

Writer Ella Cole has been in love with Lowe Archer from the first moment they met as awkward, hormonal fourteen-year-olds. But in her attempt to appear aloof, she hides her infatuation and immediately friend-friendzones him. Told through a mixture of flashbacks over fifteen years, as well as the present day, we follow the ebbs and flows of their friendship as well as their respective relationships. But will Ella ever reveal her feelings? And does Lowe even see her as anything more than a friend?

I loved this book. I loved the mixture of flashbacks and present-day narrative. I think it worked best in the flashbacks, as I was hooked from the moment Flashback Ella planned her made-up boyfriend story about Jason, and I was crying laughing by the end of that chapter. The author perfectly captured all of the angst, hopes, and fears of hormonal teenage girls and those awkward teen rights of passage. The sole male exchange student at the girls' school left me crying laughing, and I too identified as 14-year-old 'mixed herbs' Ella, so she was particularly relatable to me.
Her immediate friend zoning of Lowe was so awkward, yet felt painfully accurate. Seriously, I had so much second-hand embarrassment reading this book, but it only made me love and root for Ella even more. At times I wanted to give her a big hug, and at others, I was screaming at her to speak up for what she wanted. I generally hate miscommunication in a story, but this felt so painfully authentic in that Ella was such a fallible, self-doubting character. Her family dynamic was particularly well-written, and the financial (and food) insecurity broke my heart so many times.
Lowe was an interesting character. I enjoyed the one-on-one times he spent with Ella, and loved their banter. My heart broke for him at times, and his grief was palpable, but, he felt like an enigma at times. That might be because we spent SO much time in Ella's head as a teen, seeing him only really through her eyes. I loved him most when he was vulnerable with Ella, and I loved their quieter moments. I also loved the musical aspects of his story, from their shared mixtapes to his band's success. But by far my favourite thing about this book was the humour. There were so many genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. Ella's self-deprecating sense of humour made me snort-laugh so many times, and the tone was so authentically British working class. I don't want to spoil the outcome but those final chapters had me crying one moment and whooping the next.
Hilarious, heartbreaking and swoon-worthy. Highly recommended.

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Heat Rating: .5

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own*

Favourite Quotes:

Turns out, if you want to get a deposit for a house fast – throw a wedding and invite three hundred people.

Despite the squealing, we are not really scared of this man, because he is just one quite small naked man, and we are 700 girls in bottle-green uniforms with facts about the periodic table that would bore an erection to smooshed banana quicker than one could say titanium.

There’s a new thing going around at school where an attractive person, instead of ‘fit’, is described as ‘spicy’. It’s gone one step further where there now seems to be a grading system, where good-looking-ness gets ranked. ‘Saffron’ means the most smoking, because saffron is the most expensive luxurious spice of all.
‘They are so saffron.’
Well, if this is the case, label me ‘mixed herbs’.

Is this what teen spirit smells like? Like Roast Beef Monster Munch?

SHUT UP, BRAIN. SHUT UP, HEART. YOU TOO, FANNY. How dare I fancy somebody? Oh this is a nightmare. WHY IS MY BODY BETRAYING ME LIKE THIS?

To be Lowe’s friend means to be close to him, as close as I can possibly get without ever having to be rejected or forgotten or looked past.

‘When you get famous, don’t forget me, yeah?’ I joke out of awkwardness.
‘I think you’re pretty difficult to forget.’

Lowe is a heartthrob; girls fall at his feet, but he always makes me feel like the only girl in the room.

‘These are the favourite nights of my life. When you’re here. I’m at my happiest when I’m with you.’

The only feeling worse than being heartbroken is having to pretend you aren’t.

Self-care isn’t a new pair of shoes; it’s finding the compassion to say sorry to yourself.

We hug. And time seems to halt. It’s been ten minutes and a hundred years at the same time. We’re just like riding a bike.

Hmm, I think this is being mis-marketed. The hook was that it was for fans on One Day, but I'm struggling to see any familiarities apart from the fact it has a friends to lovers trope. Unfortunately that effected my enjoyment of the story, as it's not the sort of thing I really go for. The characters all seemed quite young to me (although, I'm 38, so it's probably some passive aggressive resentment on my part that I don't share their feelings and beliefs).

If you love a good friends to lovers romance then I'm sure you'll enjoy this, it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publishers for an eARC of this book,

This is my first book by Laura Dockrill, don't think it will be my last

What a gorgeous nostalgic book about first love and heartbreak.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy.

What an absolute belter of a blast from the past! Crammed with nostalgia, teenage angst and the most perfect will they won’t they plot. One of my favourite binge reads of the year so far - is it too soon to want both a tv adaptation and another book by Laura Dockrill?

This story was one of my fave tropes friends to lovers. I loved the time line as it allows readers to get a deeper look into Lowe and Ella’s connection. I liked theme of navigating love in your 20s compared to your 30s. For me although the story and message was beautiful I felt it was slightly lacking something .. parts of the story felt like information that did not help the plot move on and was almost put into the book for the purpose of making it longer only.

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up.

I fear I am not the target audience for this book at all. It was marketed to me as similar to 'One Day,' but instead, it is filled with teenage angst and irritating characters.

Ella behaves like a teenager throughout the story, and her inner dialogue remains immature. As some other reviewers have noted, this book seems to be intended for a different demographic - which sadly I am not.

I totally appreciated all the era/cultural nods. They really were very of their time and gave me all the nostalgia.

As much as this book wasn’t for me, I can absolutely see it being loved by romance fans. So don’t take my word as gospel or let it put you off.

A really enjoyable book which I will certainly recommend to others.
Thanks for the opportunity to read & review it.

Ella and Lowe, best friends since their teenage years. But Ella secretly harboured a deeper love that wasn’t reciprocated. Then Lowe’s life took him in a new direction, fame and fortune beckoned. Will their stars ever align?
A super cute story that will resonate with anyone who remembers teen love. Skilfully incorporating lots of nostalgia from the early 2000s. A perfect summer beach read.

Hands down, one of the best books I've read so far this year

The pure nostalgia vibes this book provoked in me was, 👩‍🍳 💋. I laughed and cried along with Ella throughout her teenage years into adulthood, and Laura has written an honest, relatable book, capturing the emotional rollecoaster we call life perfectly. I actually found myself cringing at points because it was so spot on. Despite the fact I loved going back in time through this novel, it reminded me of why I'm so glad my own teenage years are far behind me 🤣.

I absolutely adored everything about this. And the cover is stunning!
I will certainly be purchasing this when it is released so I can not only re read it in the future, I can have this beautiful book sitting proudly on my book shelf.

This book just transported me back through the decades - to that first love and all the angst and worries and insecurities that go with it. The book made me smile so much, I totally related to every crazy moment. A high energy book about a relationship that you just know needs to become something so much more. Will they, or won't they. I read the book in about two sittings, didn't want it to end.

5 stars. No notes. I fully expect this to be turned into a film or tv show STAT, and if it’s not I’ll be so upset. It reminded me of Love, Rosie (which is one of my favourite films) and it had me reminiscing (and cringing) about being an awkward teenager in secondary school in 2000s. It’s so painfully accurate at times it hurts. Gosh, what a book! I can’t wait to reread it and recommend it to everyone who will listen to me! Absolutely a top read of 2024 and it’s not even out yet!

Thank you so much to HQ + NetGalley for the chance to read this before it gets published, I’m counting down the days! I love you, I love you, I love you is out on 20th June 2024 🩵 #ILoveYouILoveYouILoveYou #NetGalley

I absolutely adored this book! The nostalgia this bought back of the awkward teenage years - house parties at parents houses, cassette tapes & first loves, all tied together with an Elle & Lowe shaped bow. This book moves between present day and the early 2000's, following Elle as she moves through her teenage years with a deep and unmoving, but hidden, love for her best friend Lowe. I loved seeing how their relationship grew throughout the years but their deep connection always remained. Its giving One Day vibes, but possibly even better in my opinion!

Would 100% recommend this book and will be raving about it for months to come!

I loved the concept of the book when I first read the blurb , the older self remembering the younger self , I thought it would be a fun read, but for me what started well became monotonous and boring. For those who grew up in the 90’s onwards I’m sure will enjoy it , it’s well written , just not for me I’m afraid, and as much as I hate to say it I think it’s for a younger generation than mine. :(