'You Are Here' is a delightful book featuring a walk in a beautiful landscape. Michael and Marnie are two lonely souls brought together for the walk...and brought to life by David Nicholls masterly act of storytelling. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them both. I enjoyed the highs, the lows and everything else in between. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an arc of this book. I happily give it a 5 star recommendation.

David Nicholls really does write the most wonderful books about everyday people doing their best to navigate the madness of grown up life. You Are Here is his latest novel, which I thoroughly enjoyed, thank you to NetGalley for the early read.

Michael and Marnie are both recently single and are both happy enough being single, making do, with no plans to get back into the dating game any time soon.

Their mutual friend Cleo is would love to see them both moving on from their previous marriages and living a bit more, but they have both told her not to meddle.

Michael loves hillwalking, so Cleo arranges a weekend walking in the North of England and the strangers set upon a few days in the great outdoors, with some country pub overnight stays included too:

This is a lovely story of friendship, saying goodbye to the past and realising that it’s never too late to start again, especially when your original plans just don’t turn out as expected.

Highly recommended!

Really enjoyable read.
Love the short chapters and the easy back and forth between the main characters.
It felt realistic and inspiring.

As someone who is at their happiest when they are in bed, I wouldn't expect a walking story to do it for me. However, throw David Nicholls in the mix and of course its brilliant, awkward, adorable and relatable.

The theme of loneliness struck me in this and at the beginning it totally captured how I feel most of the time. The setting, whilst I'm not an outdoorsy person was also interesting. Nicholls doesn't romanticise the walks by any means. Its wet, dismal, mundane which makes for convincing reading.

I feel sorry for Nicholls' copyeditor and proof reader! In giving Marnie that occupation, I'm sure it added a layer of stress to the production of this book!

I don't think this is my favourite ever Nicholls read, but its everything you want from one of his reads and well worth picking up to see how the story unfolds.

I was thrilled to receive a copy of this book and started to read it immediately as I have enjoyed David Nicholls' previous novels so very much. This was most definitely one of my most-anticipated titles of the year and it did not let me down.

The book’s structure was particularly interesting as each chapter involved a day of the cross-country walk from St Bees in the West to Robin Hood Bay in the East. The naming of each chapter was unusual but each made sense when reading.

The descriptions of the countryside were well written but it was the details of the main characters (who they were, what they were thinking, how their past had shaped them and – crucially – what they didn’t say or do) that made this book so readable. It was very realistic and at some points I felt frustrated and wanted both our protagonists, Marnie and Michael, to do things differently. If it had been a TV show, I would have been shouting at the screen. The fact that I felt so emotionally engaged and invested is always a sign of a fantastic read. There were some heartbreaking moments in this novel but the hopeful ending was more than I could have wished for as the story unfolded.

Thank you very much indeed to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance copy of You Are Here in exchange for an honest review.

Fall in love with Marnie and Michael. Two imperfect people who are lonely in their everyday lives, find love found whilst walking the country. This beautifully written story with a comical edge will capture your heart!

Perfect read for those who enjoy:
- Thought provoking and heartwarming stories
- Gentle beautifully written fiction
- Friendships

With thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for an ARC copy in return for an honest review.

The characters of Marnie and Michael were perfect. They are fun to read and sometimes they will make you think about certain situations or aspects. I really enjoyed reading it. This is the first time reading David Nicholls work. The writing style is good and heart warming

I liked You Are Here, because I think I'm incapable of disliking a David Nicholls book, but I have to say it didn't live up to my expectations either to the premise or to his other books I've read (I only have The Understudy to go). This was a very gentle read, covering two people in their late thirties and early forties as they embark on a walking tour across the north of England and think about taking another chance at love. I do love travel and journeys in books so I enjoyed this aspect of it, but I think I would have liked a deeper dive into their lives beyond this moment and, also, I found Marnie really quite annoying at times 😬 anyway, I did enjoy it overall and it was so readable as David Nicholls' books always are!

Loners eventually find love on walking holiday organised by busybody matchmaking friend

I wish I would have liked this more. I was really lured by the geographical walking setting, having done the entirety of the Coast to Coast myself, some years ago. The Wainwright maps and the descriptions brought back fond memories.

However, I’m afraid I found this romance rather twee and contrived, despite the fact that the there were serious matters being engaged in. In fact, it was when the conversations between the two sad central characters, Marnie and Michael, turned more serious that the book became more engaging to me. I’m afraid I found Nicholls humorous dialogue, when Marnie is demonstrating her urbane wittiness, in flirty conversations, quite trying. As was the rather unrelieved stilted geography teacher dialogue when Michael’s social ineptness was being rather one dimensionally laid forth.

I couldn’t really quite believe either of the two main characters. I could certainly see this turned into a kind of rom-com TV drama, as no doubt actors would give more dimension to characters than how I perceived them on the page; they never quite became fully rounded, for me

I thought this was an excellent book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters were flawed and realistic. Thankfully this wasn't your typical romance story, it was much more complex with imperfect people and a bit dark in places. I loved the wry humour running through the book which added to the realism of the story. Brilliant.

ok - confession time - if this book were by anyone else i wouldn’t have picked it up - it is about hiking after all! as someone with the fitness level of a particularly unmotivated sloth hiking isn’t a subject i care much about however david nicholls is an author i trust wholeheartedly and honestly this might just be one of my favourite reads of the year so far.

like we’ve come to expect from david nicholls you are here is charming, engaging and tugs on the heartstrings. it’s an exploration of loneliness vs being alone, of taking a chance and stepping out of your comfort zone without having to compromise on who you are. our main characters michael and marnie are both single, both live alone and both excel at solitude but after spending time out in the countryside together slowly getting to know one another, we see them open up and consider an alternative to constantly being alone.

it isn’t just michael and marnie either, the british countryside is as much a character and helps create this picturesque backdrop to a bittersweet burgeoning friendship.
you are here is raw, beautifully written and i places a bit too relatable - whether you are planning your own hike across the moors or want something short and sweet to take away on your holidays - you are here is a charming story that won’t leave you sobbing like one day will!

thank you to @netgalley for the early copy and i look forward to seeing david again in a few weeks for the book tour!

'You Are Here' is another hilarious and poignant romantic comedy from David Nicholls, which is sure to delight readers as much as 'One Day' and 'Us'. This will-they-won't-they story is centred on Michael, a 42-year-old geography teacher from York who has recently separated from his wife after (among other things) an ongoing struggle to have children, and Marnie, a 38-year-old freelance copy editor from London who has led an increasingly solitary life since her divorce in her twenties. They are brought together by their mutual friend Cleo, who decides to invite Marnie along on a coast-to-coast walk which Michael has planned across the north of England.

The structure of the walk gives a great structure to this novel as we follow the development of Michael and Marnie's relationship. Initially, they are walking as part of a larger group and give each other a wide berth - Michael is a seasoned hiker and lover of nature, and Marnie is very much not. However, as the party thins out, Michael and Marnie grow closer and share more of their stories.

There is plenty of laugh-out-loud humour in this novel, from observational comedy about Michael and Marnie's jobs (particularly the highly erotic but sloppily written mystery novel she has brought along to edit - 'Marnie had not attended an orgy, though she had copy-edited many') to relatable gags about the English weather and dodgy B&Bs, as well as Michael and Marnie's exchanges.

At the same time, Nicholls is an astute observer of human relationships, and the novel is full of acute, and sometimes very moving, insights into the stigma attached to singleness and childlessness when all one's friends have started family, the pain of estranged relationships with one's parents and the vulnerability involved in trusting someone in a new relationship after being hurt in the past.

As with Nicholls' previous novels, there are a number of surprises within an apparently predictable set-up, which kept me riveted until the very end. This a beautifully written comfort read with real depth too - many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review!

What a joy of a book this is! Where Nicholls' last book captured the aching insecurities of teenage first love, he has now taken us to the perspective of Marnie and Michael, two 'elder Millennials' who have been bashed and bruised by love.

I absolutely loved this novel and completely fell for both Marnie and Michael! Marnie is the lively, fun, city girl, who copy edits erotic fiction for a living, whilst Michael is the quieter, more reserved geography teacher more at home walking the hills than in a room full of people. Their mutual friend, Cleo, brings them together over a weekend's walking holiday that soon becomes a much bigger journey than either of them had anticipated!

Nicholls has such a good eye for observing small details and using them to round out a character, so that I felt like I really knew them both by the end of the novel. There was a line about Marnie getting a haircut a week before a date so that it had "time to settle", which is so spot on and made me smile!

Completely charming, funny, emotional and with such good descriptions of the English countryside that it <almost> made me consider going on a walking holiday... Would recommend to fans of grown up romantic comedies along the lines of those written by Marian Keyes, Curtin Sittenfeld and Robinne Lee.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC. Views are my own.

Maggie and Michael are two middle-aged middle-class people with middle of the road jobs, damaged from previous relationships. They are being forced together on a walking trip through lovely British countryside by a well-meaning mutual friend, then abandoned by the other walkers when bad weather strikes.

The scenery description is well done and at times their adventures are quite amusing, from the disapproving B&B landlady
(No Guests After 10, Please!) to the sad old man renting out his son's room and cooking everything to death in the microwave. However, the death of an elderly rambler they knew from greeting felt jarring and pointless.

Unfortunately, it was mostly slow and drawn-out because all they did was walk and talk, usually at the same time. I skipped whole pages of dialogue as they never seemed to get anywhere, and they felt like second choices for each other - Maggie had been interested in fellow walker Conrad, and Michael was still hung up on his ex Natasha. The book also ends quite abruptly.

I'm quite a solitary person myself, and the idea of a walking holiday would be my worst nightmare, especially if those were my fellow ramblers. I didn't really like any of them except Anthony, the kid. Both Maggie and Michael seem a bit boring, to be honest.

I would be very surprised if they managed to make a ten episode Netflix series out of this one!

It's not a bad novel just not a very satisfying one, as it doesn't give me the feels like One Day did. I'm sure lots of people will love this, but it just didn't keep me invested.

Whats not to love about this novel? Its got stunning scenery, its got unpredictable English weather and its got Marnie and Michael.

Marnies New Years days hit an all time low when a slideshow of her year in photographs revealed exciting things like an oven light-bulb, a recipe for hearty lentil soup, a close-up of an ingrowing hair, her National Insurance number and the flapping sole of a faulty shoe. She resolved there and then that things were going to change and this years photographs would be different.

When friend Cleo organises a group walking break she finds herself all signed up and heading north to Cumbria. The weather wasn't great and gradually one by one excuses are made until all that was left was Marnie and Michael.

The dialogue was witty, the depicted scenery sublime and the characters damaged and relatable. I loved it. If you're looking for a fast paced novel this probably isn't it, this tale of two people walking and talking is a slow burn labour of love about two middle aged people, finding friendship and allowing themselves to let someone in.

Through mutual friends, a mismatched group of people end up on a walking trip together. Due to terrible weather two are left to walk together on the trip, Michael and Marnie.

I loved this one! I’m a huge fan anyway and ‘Us’ is one of my forever favourite novels. I loved the characters, the natural way they discover more about each other and develop feelings over time. I love Nicholls writing, so clever and intelligent. He has this remarkable way of delivering dialogue, he shows that off brilliantly in this book.

There were some laugh out loud moments including the dehydration from cheap bacon and the audition for the SAS. This book is full of wit, charm and warmth. A must read ❤️

I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of this, it’s out 23 April. Equally lucky to read this on holiday - and it makes an excellent holiday read!

Wow! Such a wonderful read, full of heart, discovery and authenticity.

The characters felt incredibly real, and it was wonderful to go along with them on their journey.

Like One Day, this book left me wanting more, we leave Marnie and Michael just at the start of their story, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. The writing was sharp, funny and innately human.

You Are Here
by David Nicholls

There's something about David Nicholl's writing that rubs me up the right way. His use of language, his sparky dialogue, his slightly left of centre characters and his ability to capture the moment in the humdrum and the everyday leaves me feeling like I do when I've caught up with an old friend.

There's nothing sentimental or melodramatic about his romances, but he is able to break down the act of falling in love with such a heaping dose of reality that even ould cynics like me get caught up in the emotion.

I just love him.

This story is every bit as gorgeous as One Day and has all the strong sense of place as Us, with all that we expect from David Nicholls, but with it's own unique emotional journey and an ending that is nothing short of perfection.

Publication date: 23rd April 2024
Many thanks to #netgalley and #HodderandStoughton for the ARC

I have loved all of David's previous books and was very excited to get my hands on a new story.

This is a gentle tale, beautifully told with fantastic descriptions of not only the characters but the vivid landscapes they travel through during the course of the book. There are a few ups and downs along the way - and not just because of the terrain!

I enjoyed reading a love story involving people from a slightly older demographic than usual too.

A mis-matched group set off to walk for 3 days in the Lake District. At the end of day 2 there are only 2 walkers left – the rest being driven home by the poor weather. The scenery and the walking environment are well described. It is interesting making the journey with Marnie and Michael as they make their way along the western half of the coast to coast walk. To see how they interact and begin to learn about themselves and each other.
At some point the story starts to become drawn out and eventually quite tedious. So I ended up not caring about them or their journey.