I loved this book! If you had to sum up what happens it could be covered with a basic "a man and woman meet with friends and go on a long walk", but there were so many layers to discover through the process that are revealed with impeccable timing.

I want both Michael and Marnie to be my new best friends and spend time with them - their characters being charming, funny, kind, intelligent... without being perfect.

The book ends in exactly the correct way rather than being shoehorned into a form that may not have worked for the characters journey.

One Day is one of my all time favourite novels...and while this wasn't quite One Day, I thoroughly enjoyed it! There were so many genuine laugh-out-loud and cringy moments and I was willing the two leads to get together with all my might! It also made me contemplate doing more walking...even though Nicholls hardly romanticised it. A wonderfully, warm, funny and beautifully observed book that I will definitely recommend.

This is a book that does NOT disappoint, It is as beautiful and moving as anything else the author has ever written - and perhaps all of his works will always be linked back to One Day - but this novel is as near perfect as possible. The characters are well written, there are some fantastic moments between them - and the story moves at such a pace that you will keep turning the pages.

An uplifting story. Despite the complex relationships, the ease with which we join the characters on their walk felt so vivid. Beautifully written & felt compelled to stay with the characters to their final steps of the journey, willing them to find their way to each other.

As a direct result of watching ‘One Day’ on Netflix and friends recommendations after loving it I decided to read the authors new book

WHY HAVE I NOT READ THIS AUTHOR BEFORE! was my first thought a few pages in

It was like eating crumpets with butter ( not margarine ) on, devine and sublime and everything Inbetween, you don’t want the experience to end!

Gorgeous writing and use of words and language, scenic description’s conjuring up the best of the English countryside, realistic romance and at times real giggles of laughter at some of the ‘happenings’

Truly adored the 2 main characters and felt sadness when the book ended as wanted to carry on knowing them and being part of their story

Magical storytelling,just wonderful in every way and hoping this too will be on our screens in the future

A good read. The story features two quite complex characters living lonely lives after the breakdown of their marriages but as they meet during a walking holiday they become friends in and awkward but charming way. It's beautifully written with some humour, sensitivity and its full of warmth and charm

This is a love story for those readers who don't "do" the romance genre generally. It's more about relationships and how we make and break them.

The mutual friend (Cleo) of the 2 lead characters, Marnie and Michael, is trying to set up Marnie with the "flashy" Conrad on a walking tour along the Coast to Coast Path - 10 days through the Lakes, Dales and North Yorkshire Moors.

Marnie has become somewhat reclusive since the break up of her marriage, Covid and WFH. She is a copywriter (I learnt more about what that is) and her natural environment is the city of London. She's broke and broken , but goes and gets herself kitted out with walking boots and other walking gear.

Michael on the other hand is all kitted out as he is an experienced walker familiar with such routes . AS a Geography teacher he is also used to pointing out features of glaciation, used to using a compass/ GPS, maps etc and telling pupils all about their physical environment. He too is "broken", after his relationship recently ended or has it?

The walk starts with the larger group, but people gradually drop out for various reasons and leave Marnie and Michael to finish the walk together. Will they finish it and if so will they be "together".

There are lots of funny observations and a lot of dry humour - for example all the accommodation have Wainwright- inspired names for the rooms. There are funny comments on the steamy novel Marnie is copy editing and an incident of is that a GPS or are you just glad to see me?

Besides the humour there's a lot of empathy and understanding of relationships and how people can fall out of love and in love. You feel that Nicholls has a rounded view of the whole experience that we label as "love" and that its process and progress is more than 2 individual people, but the sum of these 2 parts as well.

There's a lot of wisdom and warmth with the added dimension of their journey through a beautiful, but often rain-drenched landscape and the connections they don't make/make with it . Brief maps head up each walking day, so that will appeal to readers familiar with these places or inspire other readers to maybe try the walk themselves.

The story may not end where you expect it to...

After having recently re-experienced One Day through the Netflix series (I read the book when it was first published) I was bracing myself for a sudden plot turn. You'll have to read the book to find out if that happens.

a page turning, "easy" read with something to say about the nature of love.

I loved the comedy, gentle satire and empathy. Such a warm and loving book in many ways. Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

@currentlyreading__
Book 25 of 2024

Thank you to @NetGalley, @hodderbooks, @sceptrebooks and @davidnichollswriter for the e-arc of ‘You Are Here’ ahead of publication later this month. I have read everything ever published by Nicholls so being accepted to read his upcoming book was a real jump for joy moment. You just know from the moment you open a book by Nicholls that you have a few hours of being totally invested in the characters’ lives and that they will live on in your bookish memory - Stephen C. McQueen and Josh Harper, Brian Jackson and Alice Harbinson, Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, Connie and Douglas Petersen and Charlie Lewis and Fran Fisher. And now we have Marnie and Michael to live on amongst the others.

Marnie lives alone in her London flat following her divorce from Neil and feels that life is passing her by. Friends have married, mated and moved on. But Marnie’s friend Cleo invites her on a walk and rather than pass the offer by and feel the joy of missing out and cancelled plans, she accepts.

Michael, grieving after his divorce and a traumatic event is depressed in the house he shared with ex-wife Natasha so he walks and walks and walks. Fells, moors, hills and mountains - anything to ease his pain whilst indulging in his solitude. His friend , fellow teacher, Cleo invites him on a walk to spend time with others.

So Marnie and Michael meet on this epic walk coast-to-coast. Usually basking in their respective solitude, Marnie and Michael talk love, life and death. They discuss how Heathcliff is a more of a dick than once thought, how fish batter is merely a container and everything in between.

I loved it but I didn’t expect anything other than sheer admiration for the characterisation, rugged settings and the on-point humour. It is sad, hysterical and hopeful. The maps at the start of each chapter added that sense of realism that this trek was in motion and that two isolated characters can’t help but be brought together.

A definite five stars from me. Get it on 23rd April. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️



#bookstagram #bibliophile #bookworm #book #booknerd #bookstagrammer #kindle #netgalley #davidnicholls #youarehere #davidnichollsbook #coasttocoast #hodderbooks #sceptrebooks

Having recently reread One Day, I was super keen to get started on the newest offering by David Nicholls and my goodness, it did not disappoint. You Are Here follows Michael and Marnie, who meet thanks to a mutual friend, as they bond and recover from their respective breakups and difficult circumstances by walking coast to coast.

As always, Nicholls has created characters that we have all known, encountered or been. The description of the landscapes were lovely and even the additional characters seemed fully formed and believable.

I devoured this book, empathising with these adults looking for second chances in the exact same way I did with Emma and Dexter and their back and forth when I first read One Day as a teenager. I adored Marnie and her awkward, over-thinking nature and was rooting for her all the way through! I was left desperate to know more about the two of them and how the next stages of their lives would go (there are not many authors whom can create characters that you become this attached to!)

A resounding 5/5.

I won’t waste your time with a synopsis. The blurb is there for all to see and it’s quite accurate. One Day is one of my favourite novels and I was beyond excited to read You Are Here. When I was approved for an ARC, I began to read immediately, literally devouring the short chapters. Unfortunately, it was a thundering disappointment.

Marnie initially came across as a character of my heart. Bookish, stuck in a job which gives her little satisfaction of late, cherishing her independence, with a deep love for London. I mean come on, she carries her much-loved Wuthering Heights paperback everywhere. This alone should have been enough to make me adore her. And I did, I swear to God I did, until she started to make an utter fool of herself. She became insufferable. The way she throws herself into a heinous secondary character is embarrassing. Her bimbo-girly giggles at the most inappropriate of times. I am sorry to say that she acted like the exact type of woman I loathe and she ruined the entire novel for me. After all, when you have a weak main character in a story of 300+ pages and a cast of two characters (almost exclusively…), the odds are not in the reader’s favour. I actually felt sorry for Michael for having to deal with three banshees. Marnie, Nat and Cleo. Their characters were sex-starved hyenas.

No, thank you. I am a scholar, not an idiot.

Now Michael seemed to me as the driving force of the novel. A man in love with his loneliness, insecure but true to his principles, condemned to meet women who want to change him because THEY ARE WOMEN AND THEY ARE ALWAYS RIGHT, DAMN IT! I am so tired of this bloody trope in Contemporary Literature. Just stop.

In fact, I felt that poor Michael put up with Marnie’s idiotic irony for far too long. But then again, we teachers are blessed with endless patience when dealing with all kinds of idiots. In any case, these two are important contestants in the competition for the most boring, lifeless, irritating couple in literary history. Characterization in combination with dialogue that seemed straight off the cheesiest Hollywood rom-coms made for illiterate zombies turned this novel into a nightmare.

It’s a pity. It truly is because Nicholls excels in creating atmosphere and in communicating the sense of place through vivid descriptions. I could ‘’see’’ London, the moors and the rugged beauty of the British coast. Even the various hotels and B & Bs. And then, you have a short scene describing an unnecessary, shocking death and Marnie’s response was so inappropriate I would have slapped her right there and then had she been an actual person crossing my path. Girl, you want to open your legs, we get it. Have some decency, for God’s sake! Find a bush or something.

So, 300 + pages of two cardboard boxes walking and walking. And talking and talking. Do I need pages after pages after pages of interactions that make me vomit and a female protagonist who embarrasses herself every time she opens her stupid mouth? I certainly don’t. For me, this novel is easily included in the disasters of this reading year.

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/

Thank you NetGalley and Sceptre for sending me an advance copy of this novel.

I've been a fan of David Nicholls for years and I've watched him go from being a comedic author (Starter for 10, The Understudy) to writing romances (One Day) to literary novels (Us and Sweet Sorrow) to this new romantic comedy. Whilst I have loved all of his books, You Are Here feels like he's gone back to his roots. It's a pleasing and funny novel, telling the story of Michael and Marnie embarking on a coast-to-coast walk and set (mainly) over a week. Both characters are at a crossroads in their lives and meet at precisely the right time. However, that doesn't mean it's all plain sailing. It wouldn't be much of a novel if it was all easy...

It's a sweet story and a simple read, one that I'd recommend during a rainy weekend or as a holiday read. I won't give away spoilers but I do think fans of One Day will like this, especially with the new TV series being out. (Good timing, Sceptre. A small part of me wonders if Nicholls has had this novel in the vault for some time and was waiting for the right time to release it...?)

Ah, either way. A great novel. Glad I read it and it's amazing how David Nicholls can change hats and write in such a range of styles.

Forever a fan and look forward to his next book.

4 stars.

Another winner by David Nicholls. Really enjoyed the slow build of the relationship between Marnie and Michael. Funny, poignant, and beautifully descriptive of the scenery of the walk. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

David Nicholls is great at writing a really down to earth and realistic love story that pulls at the heart strings without ever coming across as twee or overly sentimental. Fresh from watching the Netflix adaptation of One Day and being reminded of how much I loved that book, I was thrilled to be approved to read the ARC for his new novel.
Here we meet Marnie and Michael, both single and still recovering in their own ways from their past relationships. I loved that this story took place on a coast-to-coast walk which gave the characters time alone for long conversations and to slowly warm to one another. In another context this would have felt unrealistic for two characters who love solitude and are dealing with their past traumas, so it was a slow burn but I never felt that the story dragged. So many lovely observations and witticisms about life over the course of the book which make it very readable.
I only wish, without wanting to give too much away, that there was more to the journey at the end.
Thank you Sceptre publishing for the advanced copy.

Marnie is lonely. She lives alone - works from home and has few friends.
Michael is divorcing, is suffering the results of an assault and likes to be alone.
They have a mutual friend Chloe who loves them both and wants them to be happy.
They are thrown together in the most awful English weather on a long walk.
Can they find happiness, friendship and maybe more.
I loved this book. Beautifully written and you just have to get to the end to find out what happens|

A real down to earth love story. Greatly reflective of our times and modern relationships with the beautiful backdrop of the very British coast to coast walk from Cumbria to Yorkshire.
A group of friends including Marnie and Michael, not all up for this challenge, decide on starting the Coast to Coast walk and battle against all the weather and terrain. Friends from London and Yorkshire, some so out of their comfort zone and others naturally in their elements. The relationships and friendships develop over the miles and the very different experiences of pubs, b&b’s and hotels! Hilarious and uncomfortable, the observation and sensitivity around relationships is genius. Marnie is a copy editor who has become isolated in her world, Michael is quite lost in his life.
The history around these two unravels and reveals beautifully just as the terrain and hills, rivers and lakes do. Thought provoking and real, the writing is intelligent.
A wonderful tale that is at its very essence brilliantly British.
Loved this book and have always wanted to do this trail but it’s making me think twice!! It’s tough and gruelling at times.
Thank you NetGalley and Sceptre publishing for the early read, much appreciated.

David Nicholls really knows how to pluck at the heartstrings and his previous books have left my heart in tatters. This book is no different. Michael is, say the very least “lost” and can’t see a way back. Marnie is hurting and finds it easier trying to avoid life in the outside world. When the two characters meet their lives change dramatically. This book has some very funny and wry observations on life and relationships. It’s a story of understandings and misunderstandings of truth and lies and ultimately of dashed dreams and hope. The author commands us to stay on the emotional roller coaster throughout. I did however feel that the book became just a little dragged out at times towards the end. However, as is David Nicholl’s ability as an author, he drives us on to stick with it to the very worthwhile end. Most enjoyable.

Ahhh, so I know there's a lot of fuss about Nicholls' 'One Day' at the moment because of the Netflix series, but that's not what brought me to this book. I absolutely loved Nicholls' 'Starter for Ten' (great book, lovely film) and hoped for more of the same.

I can confirm that 'You Are Here' is also a great book. Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.

This book alternates chapters told by Marnie (long term single and lonely Londoner) and Michael (getting divorced, keen walker and countryside-lover). They're brought together by a mutual friend on a loooooong walk across the Lake District and then - who knows? - maybe even over to the opposite coast. The epic journey starts with a group of unlikely walkers setting off from the west coast of the UK with accommodation booked along the way. The weather isn't great, the walkers aren't all very keen, and gradually the numbers dwindle - allowing new friendships to be built between unlikely characters.

On the surface, this is a book about a journey. Each chapter has a little map of the area covered and Michael (a Geography teacher) can provide lots of detailed information about rock formations and suchlike - not always filling his companions with joy! But it's much more about people and Nicholls is brilliant at characterisation. Even all the minor characters are recognisable types and I found myself comparing them to people I know and anticipating their actions ('Oh, of course he'd do that!')

For me, the star of the show was Marnie. She was sweet and funny, clever and determined, occasionally sulky and definitely out of her comfort zone in her new walking boots and waterproofs. The chapters narrated by her character were so relatable and hilarious as she worked through proofreading a dodgy semi-pornographic thriller, grappled with her loneliness but also kind of enjoyed the solitude, worked through her feelings about the other characters - and gradually let down her defences as she relaxed into her new friendship, making her extremely vulnerable. She's also prone to some random conversation contributions which made me laugh out loud. I really loved her.

I liked Michael too, but there were more frustrations there - in comparison to Marnie's openness, he was much more closed. It was good to see the slow revelation of his character through the long conversations had during the walk, but he clearly was carrying a lot of baggage too (not literally - he didn't even have enough pants for the journey and only one good shirt!) A good guy, but one I was rooting for not to hurt Marnie.

This is a charming and generally uplifting book; it really explores the possibilities of new friendship and love, even after people have taken a bit of a battering by life. I found myself relating, laughing and really caring about the characters. I didn't want to put this book down until I knew that Marnie and Michael were going to be OK, either separately or together. In fact, I kind of miss them now I have put it down - and that's got to be the mark of a great book.

Getting to know the characters on a walking holiday. Both having suffered through a marriage breakdown. They open up as they walk, hurts secrets and fears discussed.
Could it be the start of something?
I enjoyed the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. The characters were so likeable and it all felt very real - I mean I can’t believe I’m seriously considering the coast to coast walk myself!
It’s hard not to compare all Nicholls books to One Day - which I also love. I’ve not really like other books I’ve read by him but I’m so glad I gave it another go. 4 stars

You Are Here begins by introducing us to Marnie, a 38-year-old copy-editor living in London, a natural introvert who has become more and more reclusive over time, exacerbated by the Covid-induced move to remote work and a breakup with her ill-matched husband. Her friend Cleo, a teacher, has been trying to get her to re-emerge into the world, and against expectations, it’s a big trip to the north of England that finally works. Cleo’s colleague and friend Michael, a 42-year-old Geography teacher and general loveable nerd (also recently separated), is planning to walk the Coast-to-Coast path - crossing England from the Irish Sea in Cumbria to the North Sea in North Yorkshire. Cleo arranges a group of fellow adventurers - including Marnie - to join him for the first part of the trip in the Lake District.

Joining them on the trip (after several dropouts) are Cleo’s son Anthony, and an F1-loving fitness obsessive called Conrad, who oddly seems to be the target of Cleo’s matchmaking for Marnie. While the trip begins well enough, typical Northern English weather soon intervenes and sees most of the crew giving up and either taking cabs back home or favouring their hotels over further rain-sodden trudges. Michael (obviously) and Marnie continue along their way though - Marnie initially mainly because she wants to get the value out of the expensive kit she bought for the trip and doesn’t want to lose the ability to use her fixed train booking. As time passes, despite her initial protestations, Marnie seems ever more drawn to the endeavour of walking, and - inevitably - to Michael.

In classic Nicholls style, this is a book about two seemingly mismatched people slowly realising they’re in love with each other. This is something the reader can see a long time before they can, but even when Marnie and Michael start to realise there’s something there, they aren’t quite able to make things run smoothly, and manage to self-sabotage by throwing obstacles in the way. It’s a formula that has worked very well previously, so there’s no real need to change it. It’s hard to find many other authors who can make age-old stories of love feel so fresh and engaging. There’s a depth to Nicholls’ explorations of romance that make it less about itself, and more about characters gainiing a deeper understanding of themselves through their romantic successes and failures. Time and again in his books, we meet characters who we will to understand where their best romantic interests lie, but they fail to see it until its either too late, or almost too late.

Again typically, it’s brilliantly structured and written to the point where it’s hard to put down. Here the Coast-to-Coast walk acts as a pleasing additional structural impetus to all of this. The ‘will they, won’t they’ of the relationship is mirrored in our desire to see Michael achieve his goal of reaching Robin Hood’s Bay, and the geographic and meteorological hurdles thrown in his way mirror those in the pair’s burgeoning relationship. And as usual, the emotional core is more than balanced out by charming mood-lightening humour throughout.

Its central characters are brilliantly drawn, three dimensional and relatable in so many ways, and they rightly dominate the novel. This does leave the stories of the other characters feeling like something of a sideshow: the introduction to Conrad is hilarious but his potential is rapidly exhausted and leaves you rather thankful that he ran off to London at the first opportunity; Cleo is literally nothing but a way of bringing the two main characters together, and her son Anthony is invisible for the most of the book, popping up occasionally to act as some sort of reminder of the fact that the key pair are getting on a bit and don’t yet have kids of their own.

These are minor criticisms though - it’s a joy to read, with central characters you love and care about, humour aplenty and some far from superficial observations about the nature of love, friendship, aging and life in general. The setting, and lovely little maps Nicholls uses to illustrate the book’s sections (rather cleverly too, towards the end) add to the book’s interest and readability. I’ve always fancied doing the Coast-to-Coast, only put off by the thought of the type of accommodation available en route - a concern this book very humorously does absolutely nothing to dispel! Despite that I can imagine that the cross-country paths of Northern England will be busier than ever this summer, packed with tourists looking to conjure some of the romantic magic that Nicholls has rather wonderfully captured here.

It will be deservedly popular - immensely readable and a whole lot of fun, yet far from superficial. (8.5/10)