I was eager to read this book as I felt as though I was going to really enjoy it based on the blurb and the cover. However I found this book to be REALLY hard to get into, when typically I usually really enjoy books that change perspective and time frames. Because of this, I probably wouldn't read any more of this authors work or recommend to anyone else.

This book has such a unique and clever hook, I knew I would love it from the blurb alone. But the entire novel did not disappoint. The emotional pull of it really stood out for me. It was a very special read and one I will be recommending. Anyone who enjoyed David Nicholls' One Day will fall for this, for sure!

A heartwrenching book exploring the theory of shared memories at the end of life. Robbie is seeing pinnacle moments from Jenn's life following their involvement in a collision with a truck. He tries to make sense of why she is showing him glimpses of life and what this all means.

Oh my days...I absolutely loved this book.

Robbie and Jenn get together after being separated for 8 months and are heading back in the car when the unthinkable happens.
Robbie then enters into Jenn's memories and tries to make things right as the lorry hurtles towards their car. Can he save her??

A brilliant concept of a story...a fantastic read.

Jen and Robbie have finally got back together after eight months apart when they are in a car accident, then Jen`s life passes not before her eyes but Robbie`s, of her childhood, teenage years, when they met and most importantly what happened the eight months they were apart.
Can he make amends for the past and do they have a future together.
A great moving story with a tearful ending.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC and I give my honest review.

Three and a half stars.

Robbie and Jenn had been an item for several years, then they broke up for eight months. They have just got back together and are on their way home from the hospital where Jenn works as a doctor when they are in a head-on collision with a truck.

When Robbie comes to, he finds himself watching Jenn as a young girl. As he is swept at random through various key moments in her life he begins to suspect that he is somehow seeing 'her life flash before her eyes' and the key to saving her rests with getting her to wake up before its too late. However, as Robbie sees his behaviour through the eyes of a spectator he realises he may not have been the best boyfriend, can he save Jenn and prove that he can be the boyfriend she deserves?

I liked the writing in this but I found it very hard to see why Jenn loved Robbie because he was just so unlikeable and because the flashbacks zoomed around (and I didn't really pay any attention to the years) I didn't really get invested in either character. Frankly I was more invested in Fi and Max or Marty and Hils and their stories.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

My first book by this author. I like time travel/dual time zone books, so this one sounded really interesting. We meet Robbie and Jenn who, after being separated for some time, have got back together. On their way home one night, Jenn is about to tell Robbie something, when they are involved in a car accident. Robbie then finds himself going back through various times in Jenn's past to try and work out what it was she was going to tell him.

I really liked the sound of this story. I liked both the main characters, and found Jenn's early years stories interesting. However, I found the book really complicated. The time jumps weren't in any particular order and it wasn't very clear where we ended up in time. The storyline was very slow and I found myself a long way into the book before it started to pick up the pace. It was quite a sad story though and isn't a typical love story. It was enjoyable in parts, but mostly I found it quite a difficult read.

I’ve read similar books to this one and on the whole I did enjoy The echoes of us. I have just one complaint though and that is the rather clumsy way Robbie was made to understand what was happening. There was no need to introduce this element into the story and it did spoil it for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Grab the tissues. A sorrowful tale a little sketchy, but a great story. Recommended.

How fragile love and life can be. A book of self-reflection and realisation, protagonists full of does making them entirely human. The time travel was a little confusing and I found myself speed reading some of Jenn and Robbie's story but all in all a good read with a fabulous end.

In a Nutshell: The blurb calls this “a captivating love story on an epic scale”, and to a certain extent, it is. But the ‘epic’ part of it takes time to get used to. Too jumpy and random for my liking. The ending saved my rating to a great extent, but I doubt that every reader will be as happy with how matters come to a close. This is an outlier review.

Plot Preview:
Robbie and Jenn, who were together for five years but then separated since the last eight months, have finally reconciled. But just as Jenn is about to tell Robbie something on the way back home, a truck comes hurtling towards their car. Robbie is immediately thrown into Jenn’s past, where he watches her across various ages and situations, and thus learns more about her life than she had ever told him. But why is Robbie suddenly a spectator to Jenn’s past? Can he figure out what went wrong in their relationship eight months ago? Can he repair the damage and modify the present to give them a better, happier future?
The story comes to us from multiple timelines in Robbie’s first-person perspective and also in Jenn’s third person point of view.

Bookish Yays:
💖 The ending: The book truly grabbed my attention only in the final few chapters, and especially with the ending, which is beautifully written. The ending is what saved my rating.
💖 Many introspective moments: It is said that during moments of death, our entire life flashes before our eyes. But why is Robbie seeing Jenn’s life instead of his own? The book tells you this in an interesting way.


Bookish Mixed Bags:
💓 The “time travel’ in this story doesn’t follow the typical pattern. Robbie is thrown back at various moments of Emma’s past, but he is just the spectator and for the most part, can do nothing except watch. This means that the book functions more like a typical multi-timeline story instead of as a time-travel story. I get why this was done, but it didn’t help my interest level.
💓 There’s a secret that is dangled in front of us many times. When it finally comes out, it is definitely an unexpected revelation, and an interesting one too. But the way in which it comes out feels almost like an infodump.


Bookish Nays:
💔 So many timelines! There are jumps not just across years (1999, 2014, 2009, 2019,…) but also time across time periods such as “two days later”, “five weeks later”, “two weeks before”,… I simply couldn’t keep track after a point. It might have been easier if the timeline were linear but the jumps are totally random, and often occur even within chapters. This might still work for those who go with the flow, but I am diligent about knowing and keeping track of where the story is, so it didn’t work for me.
💔 To add to the above, the narrative focus also jumps between Robbie’s first-person and Jenn’s third-person perspectives, sometimes within the same chapter, and at times, more than once within the same chapter. So we aren’t just changing across timelines but also across narrators and grammatical voices a multitude of times throughout the book. The flow hence feels very haphazard.
💔 The proceedings are slow and repetitive for most of the way. Things get interesting only from chapter 32 onwards. While I was invested in the initial few chapters, I soon got bored of watching Robbie watch Jenn and introspecting about what to do.
💔 Much of the plot seems to lay the blame for the relationship breakdown on Robbie’s shoulders. However, there is way too much miscommunication from Jenn’s side. Can a person be blamed for now knowing some things about his partner when his partner herself didn’t reveal anything? This book reminded me why I hate the miscommunication trope so much.
💔 The connection between the lead couple didn’t seem strong. This might partly be as they had broken up and just reunited, but even otherwise, each kept so many things from the other that I didn’t feel strongly about either of them, nor about their relationship.
💔 The above also means that both the main characters are almost like unreliable narrators, both towards each other and towards us the readers. We know a little about them and the people in their lives, and later, we learn facts that contradict the earlier revelations. Not a fan of this writing trope.
💔 I don’t know about other readers, but having a Jenn and a Jill in the same story was very confusing, especially as both are often in the scene together.


All in all, this might still work for readers who love introspective or mawkish romances. It is not for those who prefer happy-happy love stories as this is more on the emotional side. It is also not for those who enjoy time travel stories because that label isn’t completely accurate.

I do appreciate the creative idea of the premise, but the execution was very disjointed and dragged out. It might have worked better as a novella.
I think this is a debut work. And if yes, I must admire the scale of the author’s imagination and the intricacies of the plotlines. Though the tracks didn’t work for me, I admire how she knew where she wanted the story to go, and led us there, albeit in a roundabout way.

Mine is an outlier review, so please do read other reviews and take a call. But if you do want to give this romance novel a try, I’d advise against the audio version, if and when it comes out. Only the most focussed of audio listeners would be able to make sense of all that hopping across times and characters.

2 stars. (With 1 star being for the exceptional final 18-20% of the book. Everything else put together gets only 1 star.)

My thanks to Headline, Mountain Leopard Press, and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Echoes of Us”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Jenn and Robbie are reunited after 8 months, can Robbie prevent a road accident by looking back at their relationship ? An enthralling theme, until the very end of the book .

Jenn and Robbie seem like the perfect couple but when they are in a road collision, Robbie has a series of flashbacks and thinks that maybe things aren't quite as he remembers.
If only he can find out what Jenn wanted to tell him on that day, maybe he can make it right and she won't die.

This is a debut novel and I think it was good. I found the timeline confusing as it jumped back and forth a lot. And was a bit confused at the ending but overall I was invested ans wanted good things for Jenny and Robbie. I loved their friendship and relationship. I look forward to Emma’s next book.

Thanks goes to net galley and the publishers for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review and for Emma for writing it.

✨ARC ✨

This book is amazing. Since reading, and loving the Seven Year Slip, I’ve been looking for another romance book with time travel. This is book was perfect. The romance felt believable and by the end I was crying 😢. The ending, while sad, was perfect (just remember the tissues).

Highly recommend ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book had me from page one and I didn’t want to put it down wanting to know what happens to Robbie and Jenn
Such a well written book the first I have read by this lady but certainly won’t be the last
Thanks Netgalley

This book is absolutely stunning.

Robbie and Jenn have recently reconciled after a while apart. Whilst in a car journey, a truck hurtling towards them forces Robbie to visit some of Jenn's memories. Understandably he is very confused at the beginning as he can't understand why he sees Jenn as a child with her parents on a beach then moves through other timelines such as the night they meet, Jenn in school, their first fight, and so on. He wasnt a part of all of these memories but they must mean something when put together. He soon realises that Jenn has a secret and he needs to find out what it is.

This story is beautiful. Robbie and Jenn's characters are wonderfully developed and it is a fantastic take on the fragility of love and also self-reflection and realisation. Robbie and Jenn are human, they have made mistakes, they have flaws and the story feels so real.

The trials and tribulations they experience are emotional and I couldn't help but feel for both of them at separate times in the book. If you are looking for a novel with depth that will move you, this is for you. I usually am quite a fast reader but I really had to take my time with The Echoes Of Us and savour it. Beautiful.

I loved this book. It's not a genre I often read but it was highly recommended to me by friends as something a 'little bit different'. At it's core it is a love story but not the sugar coated type we are so often confronted with. This is real life with all it's complexities and uncertainties. It's a great read and a really authentic depiction of the beauty and heartbreak of love.

The Echoes of Us by Emma Steele

Oh my, where to start.. I just finished this book and my heart is broken. It is such beautiful, sad and captive story. This story is about Jenn and Robbie and their ‘meant to be’. On the beginning it is a bit confusing because there are timeline jumps and pov switching, but when you get used to it, everything comes to right place and gets very emotional. This book made me feel sad because it shows that we do not appreciate every little things we have daily. And if we could get a chance to see our lives and our actions from the side, I’m sure we would be shocked.
I have to admit, I've never read anything with a shared death experience and I found it very original and refreshing. Bravo to Emma, very unique move.
#TheEchoesOfUs is one of those books that stays in your mind long after you finish it.

Thank you Emma Steele for such deep and sad story and thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC.

Publisher: Headline | Mountain Leopard Press
Pages: 432

Oh my heart just shattered 💔

Okay so the time jumps and pov switches are initially a little confusing but after a few I got used to it and actually really enjoyed the time hopping and seeing the memories and Robbie and Jenns journey.

Oh they were just made for each other. I just wished they knew it sooner. 😪 I adored both Robbie and Jenn as characters, I felt they were super relatable, in their personalities and how they made mistakes etc.

I've never read anything with a shared death experience and I gotta say I found it super intriguing.

As much as I always wish for a happy ending some books just don't need them and the impact this book has had on me just wow. Appreciate the little things and live everyday to the max!

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.