A romantic read that some will love but I found the jumping around of time periods meant I wasn’t engaged enough in the characters to be fully immersed. For me it was a nice read, not a great read.

I was so intrigued by the concept of this book and was really looking forward to discovering what was going on, unfortunately I was left disappointed. I found the constantly changing timelines very confusing and disjointed and I found myself skipping over paragraphs to get to the end rather than enjoying the experience. Sadly not a book for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC

What a totally unexpected story, not in any way the usual 'romcom'. I found the intensity and the constant switching of times a little difficult, but have to admire the writing. Yes, heartbreaking, especially the end, yes intense, but unforgettable also. Thank you for the chance to read this book.

Well, that was a gut punch of a love story! Echoes of Us shows us the story of Jenn and Robbie through Jenn’s memories as her life flashes before her eyes, as a truck hurtles towards their car. Robbie is also a spectator of her memories, and we see her memories from both Jenn’s and his POV.

Robbie is hard to like in certain moments of the book, and his internal monologue got quite repetitive. Safe to say, he redeems himself. It really gets into the suspense throughout the second half of the book, when Robbie is trying to discover a secret that Jenn started to tell him in the car. The build up towards those last few pages was excellent, I couldn’t read it quickly enough!

A really unique read with an emotional build up, resulting in a bittersweet ending. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I’d like to thank Headline and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Echoes Of Us’ written by Emma Steele in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Robbie and Jenn meet up again after being apart for eight months but whilst driving home they’re faced with a truck hurtling towards them from the opposite direction.

I was really looking forward to reading ‘The Echoes Of Us’ as I like discovering new authors especially if the novel is described as a captivating love story that always grabs my attention. From the first page I became thoroughly confused by the timeline jumping from 2019 to 1999, 2014 to 2001 in just a matter of pages. I wasn’t enamoured enough by the characters to want to finish the book and find out what happened to them, which is a rare occurrence for me. From reading other reviews it’s apparent that I’m in the minority but this is my own opinion and I can see it appeals to others. I hope readers will give it a try and enjoy it more than I did.

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

What an amazing debut book by Emma Steele. I absolutely loved reading it.

The story was heartbreaking, with lots of chemistry.

So beautifully written, and fabulous plots, a story that will stay with you a long time.

I highly recommend this book.

Gorgeously romantic, funny, heartwarming and ultimately, a devastating supernatural tearjerker.. Echoes of Us reminded me of One Day and The Lakehouse, I loved Jenn and Robbie so much, the only thing I struggled with was the back and forth between time periods, I got a bit confused here and there. I can’t wait to read more from Emma Steele, because I adored this.

Huge thanks to the author and publisher for the chance to read this ARC, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review..

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy of this book.

Phewww, a very emotional read. I couldn't put it down, was racing my way through to see what happened. Loved it, cried, would read again.

Robbie and Jenn have just got back together after 8 months apart. Jenn left suddenly and has just a suddenly reappeared in Robbie;s life. They are driving when a truck appears out of nowhere and Jenn's life starts to flash before her. But Robbie can see it too and starts to realise things haven;t always been as they seemed.

For me this was very similar to David Nicholl's One Day. The idiot boyfriend,, the woman who's looking for more. I enjoyed it but it didn't have the spark that made me go wow. Perhaps it was because it seemed too familiar, perhaps because I figured out early on what was happening, I'm not sure.

It was well written and easy to follow and I'm sure there will be many people who will love it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC. 3.5 stars

This is a beautiful debut novel told over different time lines and the two main characters perspectives. A poignant story of love, secrets, grief and what it’s like to see your life flashing before your eyes.

I appreciated how the author also highlighted and discussed the condition Huntington's disease as this is an illness which is not often talked about and I found these descriptions relatable having a friend who lost her mum to this terrible disease

Very excited for this one as I loved The Man I Never Met. So excited to read Emma Steels work and share my thoughts. Will be sharing a full review and thoughts very soon. This would make an excellent book club pick or movie.

I'm left heartbroken. Spending the book seeing Jenn's life. The good, the bad and the ugly. Seeing how things could have been so much different if people just paid more attention.
While there were moments and memories that weren't as interesting for me. They do all play a bigger part in getting her to where she is by the end.
Speaking on the end. I'm broken. It's not the ending I expected.

Wow just wow, couldn't put it down. What a fantastic book about love, for parents, friends, partner's and how it makes us into the person we become.
Good and bad feed into how we feel and process things.
Loved this book

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. This book will stay with me for a long time, the characters were so real and the story was so believable and heartbreaking, I will be recommending it to everyone I know.

3.75 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Headline for the ARC.

I was super excited to read this book. I enjoyed the story concept, however, I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style, especially switching back and forth to alternative perspectives. It was a bit jarring and confusing to read the first few chapters initially but you get the just of it later.

Echoes of You pulls you in and is a fast paced story that really did grip me. I found myself heading to bed early to read, something I haven’t done in a while.
I enjoyed jumping through Jenn’s memories and uncovering their love story in scene snatches. Jenn was compelling, and her journey was beautifully written. The structure meant we could follow Robbie and Jenn’s journey separately and yet also together, and I understood why she loved him.
Emma Steele’s writing is lovely, I enjoyed her sometimes unique yet perfect metaphors and she knew when to let her prose flow and when to write tight, quick moving scenes. It kept me turning the pages and I truly enjoyed this book.
Robbie though became more unlikeable the more we uncovered, and at times I couldn’t help but think she’d be better off with Duncan. Perhaps this was on purpose because of course our best leading men are floored, and Emma did give him his redemption! However, I gave it four instead of five stars because the ending left me a little unsatisfied. It felt abrupt after following them on such a big journey and we didn’t get all the answers. Some readers enjoy being able to make their own interpretation of events at the end, me I like everything wrapped up in a neat little bow, and this didn’t quite do that. Robbie finally uncovered Jenn’s secret (he mentioned it rather a lot, though it was a brilliant revelation, and similar to what I’d hoped for), and yet we didn’t quite find out everything, or see how what happened impacted not just Jenn but the cast of characters we’d met throughout the story.
A thoroughly enjoyable read though, and I’d absolutely read another Emma Steele book.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC opportunity.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. The concept of this book was fantastic, but unfortunately, I didn't feel any connection between Jenn and Robbie so I struggled to root for their relationship. Although I was interested in Jenn, Robbie had little development. However, the final scenes were moving and well written.

I really enjoyed this. There are review out there drawing the more obvious comparison and that’s fine, but let’s not? Because this is a really original idea, well executed. If you already love a book any other book is going to struggle to catch up but I don’t think this needs to be compared. I’ve also read some suggestions the ending was predictable but I didn’t think so, I was hooked until the end and it had all the feels it needed. Despite their flaws, I liked the lead characters and I’d recommend this.

Spoiler alert


The only issue I had was overthinking the ending - not in a bad way but I did keep thinking that I wanted all the other players in Robbie’s life to sit down and have a good heart to heart with him.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Robbie and Jenn had been together for five years when Jenn suddenly receives some disturbing news and runs away, travelling for eight months.

She comes home, at the wedding of their friends they meet and reconcile again, but on the way home a big lorry comes their way, and suddenly, Jenn's life flashes before Robbie's eyes, from the time she is ten years old. Apparently this is called a shared near-death experience.

Slowly we learn a lot about Jenn's difficult childhood, her first boyfriend, her meeting Robbie and their years together. Robbie learns things he didn't know and realises that he hadn't been the best of boyfriends. He swears to be better if he could only learn her secret and thus avoid the lorry!

This is a very confusing and frustrating concept. We're hopping back and forth in time and from POV to POV with head-swivelling speed. It's all about Jenn's secret that she was about to tell Robbie shortly before the accident, and Robbie has it in his head that if he just knows it, they will be saved.
"If I do, she’ll wake. And if she wakes, we’ll live."
I have to say, I didn't understand that at all.

But all in all I enjoyed this book. It's a well-written debut novel trying something new, and I salute the author for that. If you disregard for a moment that we tenseley await the secret to be revealed which requires a ghostly Robbie to shout at memory Jenn, then this is a multi-layered story about relationships - with partners, parents and friends, and that understanding is a question of perspective. We do not always understand in the moment why people react the way they do, because people keep things to themselves. Case in point was Robbie calling the Sagrada Familia "just another weird stone building". He really was often clueless what Jenn needed from him, and he didn't try to find out.

And that ending! What are you doing to me!

"But as time goes on, and things get harder, you need to work at it. Like that unfinished cathedral Jenn wanted me to see, the work love requires never really stops."

3.75 stars

I found the alternating timelines too confusing and was very slow start. Didn’t really feel connected to the characters or story unfortunately.