Henry instantly falls for Halley the second he gets misted by her drenched ponytail. He is enamored and after parting he knows he must see her again. Will Henry be able to find the woman who stole his heart?

This books was a little too cheesy for me and I just didn’t like the writing. Cute premise thought.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Ebook ARC of this story, this is my objective review. Meet Henry (London tour guide and history academic) and Halley (American tourist visiting London, also an academic but in astronomy). They have a meet-cute in London, after which a series of events separates them without a way to contact one another. Henry then sets out on a quest to find Halley via email. As they get to know one another they become closer and must figure out how to navigate a long-distance relationship. This may not be the book for me. It's a cute premise, but it didn't grab me. I found both of them to be sweet but also a bit bland so it was hard for me to invest in their characters, both individually and as a couple. Also, even though it's advertised as a rom-com it didn't feel like one to me, more more like a long-distance romance with some amusing moments rather than laugh-out-loud. I did enjoy the largely epistolary nature of the book through their joint emails and texts. They helped move the story along and made this a quick read, perfect for the beach or vacation.

How much you enjoy this will depend on how you feel about a novel comprising emails, texts, and facetimes. Halley and Henry met in Oxford but she went home and now they're building a relationship thanks to the digital world. This can make for a slow read at times and you might feel that the characters aren't as well developed as they could be but credit to McCauley for recognize and working with a scenario that real life couples deal with. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

This was a cute and great love story! I loved the correspondence between Henry and Halley! This book made me smile, laugh, and cry. Thank you for allowing me to read and review this ARC!

This was a miss for me. I’m just not into reading a book through emails and texts format. Yes, you did get to see the relationship evolve and got insight into their feelings and frustrations throughout their relationship but I found myself skimming a lot. Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy. I’m leaving this review voluntarily

"Once in a Lifetime" by Claire McCauley is about Halley, an American PhD student studying astronomy at Stanford, and Henry, a postdoctoral history researcher at Oxford. They meet briefly in Oxford and feel an instant connection. Their relationship grows through emails, texts, and video calls because they keep missing chances to meet in person.

The characters are very likable and easy to relate to. Halley and Henry have interesting lives and their chemistry is great. However, their instant love felt a bit unrealistic to me. It seemed like they fell in love too quickly.

It was also frustrating how they spent most of the book apart. Their long-distance relationship and constant bad luck were hard to read about. I expected a lighthearted story, but this book made me feel more frustration than joy. It's promoted as a comedy, but I didn't find much of it funny. It felt more like a series of missed connections rather than a rom-com that makes you laugh.

The book's pace was slow at times. I often wanted to skip ahead, especially during the long text and email exchanges. These parts made it hard to connect with the characters since their interactions felt distant.

Despite these issues, I enjoyed the premise of the book and found the writing easy to read. Halley's character could use more development, but this didn't bother me much.

Overall, I liked this book and recommend it to anyone looking for a quick read. It's a good story and while it may not be the lighthearted comedy some might expect, it offers a thoughtful and relatable exploration of love in the digital age.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Joffe Books and the author for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Halley meets Henry while visiting London. By chance, or fate, they continue to run into one another and spend a day together. Henry is over the moon but Halley returns to the US without leaving more than her name.☄️

Henry can’t get her out of his mind and contacts every Halley Hart via email in hopes of finding his Halley.💻

So for Halley and Henry, this was a swing on the sloooowwww burn romance and a miss on the laugh out loud comedy. There were a few parts that cracked a smile but I was hoping for a summer romance read that knocked my socks off and had me giggling out loud.

Follow their cute, get to know you, transatlantic romance via email, text and FaceTime. The dialogue was great but I felt like the book could have wrapped up with less and still been a thumbs up!👩‍❤️‍👨

Sucker for love, especially those once in a lifetime loves, I read through hoping Halley and Henry would find their way to one another! Both were insanely busy in their own respect and this book felt relatable.

I thought the glossary at the end was a fun touch.

Thank you to the author, Claire McCauley, NetGalley and the publisher, Joffe Books, for the opportunity to read this book. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. The book is set to publish July 16, 2024.

#Onceinalifetime #NetGalley

If you love cute romance books that are beach or pool worthy, Once In a Lifetime is the one for you! The book is a little slow at times but it is overall a cute rom-com that reminded me of Emily Henry and Sophie Kinsella.

Once In A Lifetime was a cute story. It was a little hard to get into at times maybe because it was a little slow in spots. The back and forth messaging can be confusing at times but you do get used to it. Henry and Halley run into each other at Oxford on a couple different occasions.
After Halley leaves Henry is determined to find Halley. Emailing until he can. There relationship grows slowly, getting to know each other through email and video chats. The side characters were great for the story as well. Although the story moved slow at times for me and I struggled a little with the messaging, I will defiantly read more from Claire McCauley. This was my first story from her and I will read more!

What a cute and lovely story, the original letter in the first chapter kept me guessing what was happening all the way through - what happened? Did someone die, did they break up? Did they make it? Should have been predictable but it kept me guessing, super sweet story of boy meets girl, different continents, time zones, families, careers and job opportunities do they make it? So well written and descriptive - looking forwards to reading more from Claire McCauley.

this was way more scandy than i expected. teacher studnet romance wowee. i liked the characters and it gave sophie kinsella vibes

Once in a Lifetime, by Claire McCauley, is a fun, easy read.  I was a bit put off by all the back-and-forth messaging, but grew accustomed to it.  Communication through technology is how things are done now and it helped build the suspense that kept me reading.  Will they get a second chance (or is it a third or fourth chance since there were so many meetings in that one day)...I had to know. Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with the ARC ebook I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

Halley was visiting Oxford and had a brief encounter with Henry where they had an instant reaction. Halley is an American PhD student studying astronomy at Stanford, whereas Henry has a postdoctoral position in history at Oxford. This is the story of a relationship built through email, texts, and video meetings due to missed in person connections.
This book is promoted as a comedy, however I did not find much of the book to be humorous. To me this story was more cerebral, and certainly a comedy of errors because of the missed connections, but I never laughed out loud or smiled as I do with other rom-coms. The pace dragged a bit for me and I found myself wanting to skim to get ahead. I was having a bit of difficulty connecting with the characters because much of the writing was text and email exchanges. A big glaring error for me, which I feel really should be addressed, is the dialogue for Halley. Halley is an American who grew up in Chicago. The author has Halley using many British terms (and spelling) in her exchanges with Henry and in her parts of the story that an American from Chicago would not say. I grew up in Chicago, and my mother was also an ER nurse incidentally, and we do not call the trunk of a car the "boot". This is just one example of many that bothered me the whole book.
I would try another book by this author. I felt she made a good effort at a long distance relationship that is built through only technology rather than being in the same place. Maybe if Halley was more believable to me, I would have enjoyed the book more. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for this ARC.

Henry, an English historian and Halley, an American astronomer, have several meet-cutes in one day in Oxford, but never swap numbers so Henry proceeds to spam the inbox of every Halley Hart he can find, until he gets to the right one. This leads to a funny side-story with a different Halley Hart.

From the blurb I got the impression that looking for Halley would be the most important and longest part of the book but he finds her at 16%, and from then on the focus is on a long-distance relationship almost exclusively played out in emails, texts and video calls.

This is really all very sweet if you can cope with the insta-love and the use of "sweetheart", "babe" and "love of my life" from the get go, after they had only met once in person.

Henry and Halley are very cute together but their "will they or won't they meet again" scenario is a bit frustrating, especially that airport scene. The circumstances certainly seem to conspire against them, but I am in a long-distance relationship myself, and you can only make it work if you communicate with each other and not decide on surprise visits at the same time. Compromise is key, as they are soon to find out.

Much is being made of how busy and successful these young professionals are, so busy that they don't actually have much time for a relationship, let alone a transatlantic one. Of course that leads to much handwringing and a third act break-up, a trope I was never very fond of.

Overall this is a nice romance with fun side characters to round out the story. The "Once in a Lifetime" title is a reference to Halley's Comet after which Halley was named as a family tradition. I loved reading about Henry's academic life and his quirky students. The cover is gorgeous.

There is a glossary of English usage for US readers at the back that is so many pages long that it has to be general rather than book-specific. It's a nice touch but I can't quite believe Americans haven't heard of any of these terms. Also, a Yorkie is not just a chocolate bar, it's also an abbreviation for a Yorkshire Terrier and sometimes also a Yorkshire Pudding (at least in my house). Maybe they should have put "marmalize" and "janky" in - I've never heard of them before.

3.5 stars

This book was cute. i do agree with other reviewers that it felt a bit slow which is ok sometimes. I enjoyed the love story and the tropes and ultimately was rooting for the couple to finally make it happen!

I love how one encounter can be so special that Henry feels the need to contact every single person with Halley’s name until he found her and I adore the fact that this meant he ended up contacting Halley’s mom. Halley and Henry are a perfect couple who are so clearly from the start meant to be together.

I love the pace of the plot in the sense that it’s not too fast and the relationship between Halley and Henry doesn’t develop too quickly but there is still a sense of desperation to be together.

I find it so interesting how the author of this book decided to base the majority of this book on email conversations which is not only unique but also reinforces my earlier point about the pacing of the relationship and how it doesn’t seem too sudden or impulsive. The only thing is that I believe sometimes the emails felt too prolonged and it made the reading process feel significantly slower at times as the conversations seemed to be dragged out.

I loved the other characters such as Halley’s mom, I love her entire personality, she is funny and bubbly and yet she is also caring and would do anything for Halley. Then there’s Henry’s parents who I found myself constantly thinking about in the back of my mind whilst reading this book. I also adore the sideline plot of the students and the rooftop, especially when this mystery is uncovered.

I think there are a decent amount of characters and it is easy to remember who everyone is (which I definitely can’t say for a lot of the books I read) overall, I loved this book, it was a perfect summer read and I instantly fell in love with the characters and their unique ways of communicating.

Once in a Lifetime is super cute and a fun premise, albeit a relatively common one. Two people briefly meet in a coffee shop with an instant attraction and then coincidentally meet again later in the day. Seeing the second encounter as kismet, they plan to have dinner, but their meeting is foiled by a lack of directions and her need to catch a train. This sets the path for the rest of the novel where, despite their mutual draw and attraction toward each other things keep going wrong and they start to question whether their ‘once in a lifetime’ relationship will work.
I truly did enjoy the book but it got slow in some areas, which was unfortunate, and probably could have been several chapters shorter. There were also some overused tropes in the story that were frustrating to get through, but I think a lot of women’s fiction and romance readers are okay with some or most of these or writers wouldn’t keep including them.
I loved our side characters, especially the undergraduates and their brief side story. I laughed out loud when our MMC discovered what they were hiding.
The scene at Heathrow had me gritting my teeth with ‘will they/won’t they’ angst, which I loved. That scene was exceedingly well written.
The MMC’s side story with his research project was too in-depth for me, and I didn’t connect to it or care about it. I wasn’t reading Once in a Lifetime to learn about his fictional university research.
Overall, I adored this book and recommend it!

Thank you NetGalley, Claire McCauley, and Joffe Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really thought I would love this book. The cover is cute. The premise sounded right up my alley and perfect for rom-com lovers. However, it just moved at such a glacially-slow pace and I never could connect with the characters. This is my first book by this author -- I would give her one more shot in a future book.

What a fun story to get lost in. It was quite enjoyable, and I liked it was a light book to read. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. A sweet story!

5 stars. A slightly different romantic book that evoked a lot of emotions. I absolutely loved this.

Halley and Henry meet in Oxford, but do not have time to exchange contact information or otherwise get to know each other. However, Henry is left thinking about Halley and decides to look for her. Easier said than done!

Eventually they get in touch with each other and a beautiful love story begins. However, the circumstances seem to be against them - will they ever get to the same place, or was their meeting in Oxford a once-in-a-lifetime thing?

I thought Halley and Henry were characters that felt authentic. There was a lot of realism in the story, which I liked a lot.

I really enjoyed reading this book and couldn't put it down. The author has wonderfully captured the despair that you could read between the lines when the circumstances were not favorable for Halley and Henry's romance. At times I was almost desperate ("please, Universe, let them finally get together").

This was a very well built story and I sincerely recommend every romance lover to read it!

WHAT TO EXPECT:
* Dual pov
* Hea
* Slowburn
* The one that got away
* Third act: break up