I Love You I Love You I Love You
By Laura Dockrill
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“It’s wonderful being a kid like that. You think trauma is just sliding off your skin, when really it is the opposite; it’s sinking in deep, like the most painful tattoo ink of a word or picture that you absolutely hate, directly into your nervous system, that nobody else will ever see unless you one day are loved or desperate enough to show it.”

I was initially drawn to this book based on the cover art and after reading the blurb I was really intrigued.
Laura completely captured the feel of consuming, obsessive love to the point where I felt I was in love with Lowe. Ella’s inner monologue was so convincing that I truly felt I was experiencing each emotion with her, and that I may actually BE Ella. The experience of being a young teenager in the 90s was SO SPOT ON that this book felt like going home to me. Her descriptions of things only a 90s kid could experience had me almost in tears at some points. Then Ella’s experiences as a 30 year old were just so scarily accurate as someone just turned 30. I cannot express enough how much I loved the way this was written.
The way you only got to see Lowe from Ella’s point of view and experience him through her eyes was so interesting as I found myself wondering alongside her - does he like Ella? Is he in love? At one point I wondered if he was real! The reality is you really don’t know anything about Lowe other than Ella’s opinion of him.
The two time lines were perfectly done and went together seamlessly. I absolutely adorned this book and will recommend it to anyone who loves dual timelines, romance, unrequited love stories or ANYONE who has been in love or grew up in the 90s!
Thank you to HQ and the author for the ARC. It really was a privilege to read this one!

Isn’t this an absolutely stunning cover ❤️ I was so excited to read this book but was left a little bit deflated, exasperated and maybe even a little bored by the end.

The story is told from Ella’s point of view and the timeline switches between “now”, where Ella is in a long term relationship that feels a little lacklustre and “then” which chronicles Ella growing up from her teens into adulthood and all the while being in love with Lowe but not being able to tell him.

The plot is a friends to lovers trope mixed with a dose of miscommunication which works well with the younger Ella. There are some great laugh out loud moments detailing the teenage angst of first love, self consciousness and all the usual friend and family dramas that come with being a teenager and are so relatable. However, the story dragged in places; the plot felt like it was being stretched for too long without any real substance. The miscommunication trope wasn’t as convincing with the older Ella who had so many opportunities to declare her feelings but never did. I was also bored with the over detailing in certain scenes which didn’t really add to progressing the story.

I love unrequited love, I love first love and I love the sliding doors kind of love too but unfortunately this love story didn’t quite work for me.

I have just flipped the final page and I AM NOT OK. This book is an absolute hurricane of nostalgia, taking me straight back to the painful awkwardness of my teenage years and holding my sticky hand through the agony of growing up - and old - clutching a love that never gets spoken of. Beautiful storytelling and a resolution that hits just the right spot at the right time. Perfection.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and HQ for the advanced copy of this book.
I loved this book so much! I was crying along to their heartache and cheering along to the triumphs. This was one of my most anticipated reads for this year and I'm so glad it didn't disappoint!
The characters were so beautifully written. I loved the friendships and how they were central to the characters despite this being a love story. I particularly adored how the story wove between 'then' and 'now'.
Thank you again for this advanced copy and a truly wonderful read.

Lowe and Ella meet as teenagers. Friend zoning each other they never romantically get together.
Are they each others destiny? Just friends? Or never meant to be?
Life takes them in different directions but they still cling to each other.
Will they or won't they?

Wow. This was an emotional one! I was so invested, and can't imagine forgetting these characters in a hurry.

I really enjoyed reading about Ella's teenage years, she's a similar age to me so everything felt so nostalgic and relatable. The way Ella felt about Lowe was so well-written, anyone who has ever been in love will recognise parts of themselves in the writing.

It wasn't all big, emotional scenes. There was plenty of light relief in the form of Ella's friends and family, with some funny bits thrown in to stop the plot from being a bit much.

I would 100% recommend this. It was emotional and thought-provoking and I loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advance copy to read.

To say I loved this book would be an understatement. Elle is in her 30s with a steady boyfriend, a job but feels like something is missing from her life. It's told from Elles POV but over dual timelines as we uncover a lifelong long with her best friend Lowe.

This was an incredibly nostalgic read, reminiscing over the late 90s to early 2000s. The writing was so authentic and brilliant. I really felt like I was living through the words of the story. Everyone remembers their first love, the way it makes them obsessive and desperate to be around that person. The author captured this heady feeling so perfectly.

I feel this will be a romance book I'll be recommending forever.

Yes, at times it was frustrating with the miscommunication trope but it also really made the story. The whole way along you are screaming at the characters to just be vulnerable and show their feelings.

One of my favourite reads so far of the year.

This just wasn’t for me. Not necessarily because it was bad or anything. I just don’t enjoy the “lost 30 something woman” trope and I don’t like split timelines. I’m sorry !!

I Love You, I Love You, I Love you follows Ella who at 30, is living with her long term boyfriend but can’t help feeling like something is missing from her life… that something being Lowe, the boy she has loved since was 14.

We flit between past and present from Ella’s perspective and see her meet Lowe for the first time and see her fall desperately in love with him almost immediately. The pair soon decide to be ‘just friends’ but that might end up being Ella’s biggest regret.

God, I loved this book. The flashbacks scenes were so nostalgic and as someone who grew up in that era I really felt like I was reading about my childhood.

I adored Ella and Lowe but they were very frustrating in parts, I just wanted to shout at them - if you don’t like the miscommunication trope then this won’t be one for you, I don’t usually but I think it worked in this book.

All in all a great read, the only reason it’s not 5 stars is I felt the ending was slightly rushed and could’ve benefited maybe from an epilogue or one more chapter.

I had a lovely time with this nostalgic will-they-won’t-they. The 2000s references hit the spot perfectly and I was rooting for Lowe and Ella the whole time. I love a flawed character and I loved Ella’s character growth.

I absolutely loved this book, it created such a feeling of nostalgia for growing up in the 2000s and having that teenage angst and first love. In this case, Ella and Lowe continue long into their adulthood with the back and forth, will they/wont they.

I will admit that to begin with I found the narrative really punchy and fast-paced, almost to the point of frenetic and I worried it would become tiring to read. Saying that, I was creased with laughter only a couple of chapters in by the dry wit and humour, as well as the relatable overthinking, catastrophic reasoning of Ella. It was the humour and the journey of Ella growing up that really made me want to read on, rather than any burning love for Lowe. Towards the end of the book, as we read more of Ella as an adult, I had either become accustomed to the frenetic energy or Ella had actually matured! Either way, I finished this book feeling like I knew and loved Ella.

Overall, a life-affirming, hilarious and addictive read. Can’t wait to see what else this author has to offer in the future!

Finally a big thank you to hq for granting me early access in exchange for a review .
This is Laura’s first adult novel and I was super excited to read especially after years of following her on social media and relating heavily to her openeness on her struggles with Postpartum mental illness.

This was a fantastic trip of nostalgia and an evocative experience of memories from the early 2000s.
Absolutely packed with humour and dry wit which are always the best type of comedy in my opinion!

Friendships ,family, work and love life are centre stage of this dual timeline.
Perfectly embodies and encapsulates the emotions good and bad we have as a teen but also as an adult when surely we’re meant to have it all figured out right ?

A life affirming and uplifting yet sometimes sad book about life and the journeys we go on with ourselves and others .

I can’t wait to read more from Laura

I *LOVED* this, to the point of being addicted and resenting anything that got between me reading it. A sweeping epic telling the story of two people who are meant to be together, but are their own worst enemies in stopping that happening. Again. And again. And again. A beautifully profound love story which is only heightened by the autobiographical elements. Ideal for my fellow 30-somethings who grew up on Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging before getting stuck as Bridget Jones.

I was very excited to read this debut novel by the author and it did not disappoint. It’s just goes to show the intricacies of relationships and how we never really know what the other person is thinking/ feeling. I loved the ending of this story and it’s defo my fave read of the year so far

I wanted to love this, it fell a little short for me personally.
I thought it was stirring up some late teens early 20s emotions but it kept me waiting too long for a kiss and gave me Angus, Thongs vibes with the throwbacks. I think it will be a good read for some but just not for me.

Warm, tender and brimming with longing I really enjoyed this romance.

Uniquely written, it brims with nostalgia and the complexities of first love. There is a real sense of poignancy and angst to the prose but that's balanced perfectly with its gentle humour.

It made me reflect on my own first love and cringe in embarrasment.

I'm afraid that I'm definitely the wrong age group for this book. It was sold to me as being like 'One Day' but in fact it's page after page of teenage angst and the characters are just incredibly irritating. Ella continues to act like a teenager throughout the book and her inner dialogue doesn't get any more mature either. Perhaps, as other reviewers have said, it's a book for millennials which definitely excludes me :)

This is a story about unrequited love. Protagonist Ella fell in love with Lowe when they were teenagers but it takes fourteen years before it all comes together. Of course, it does. This is romance, and it's a good example of the genre. The hook is 'will they? won't they?' Some of the misdirection works well, to keep the tension strong, but there were several moments where the narrative felt like it was dragging a little bit - quite a lot - and actually, it's a testament to the quality of the writing that Dockrill managed to (and I'm going to use the phrase) string it out for 400 pages, but Ella is a compellingly drawn character, and romance lovers will love the contemporary nature of this novel. It's a good debut, and I'm very grateful for the ARC from NetGalley and the publishers.

I really enjoyed this romance novel. It was easy to follow and had a great cast of characters. I loved the author's writing. I highly recommend it.
💖 Thank you to netgalley and HQ publishing for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Omg this book. I read it in a day! I just couldn't put it down. The characters are so strong and relatable. I loved Ella so much and her life and behaviours often made me laugh out loud. Her relationship with Lowe is just gorgeous, so slow burning and gradual but there are points that just make you want to cry out in frustration (in a good way) and weep,
Loved this book. Didn't want it to end and I will be shouting about it everywhere.