2.5 Stars

I read The Three Loves of Sebastian Cooper and Five Days and loved them both. When I saw Zoë Folbigg had released another book and I read the blurb I was all "count me in!". This one is about love across the miles and it resonated with me because my second marriage was a long-distance relationship. Then imagine my disappointment when I found out this is a re-release of 2018s The Distance.

This isn't a bad book but sadly for me, it didn't work. I'm usually okay with multiple timelines in a story, it is actually my favourite format but I found this one a tad confusing to follow. I did like how the writer introduces one of the characters (view spoiler) I also liked the way Folbigg writes her characters and the way they were brought to life. However, this is not one of my favourites by the author but she will still be an auto-buy/read for me.

Overall this was just an okay read but I loved finding out more about the differing cultures. It was readable but I didn't like it quite as much as the author's other books.

It's not really a review because I didn’t finish it. Just wanted to share my thoughts. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t connect with the writing style or the characters. With multiple characters introduced at once and difficult-to-pronounce names, I found it hard to follow the story.
Not sharing my review on any other platform.

This is a 2.5 rating from me
There were aspects of this book I did enjoy, mostly Cecelie's parts, as her relationship with her twin brother and her best friend were well written, as was the beautiful backdrop of Norway. I felt that Cecelie was a somewhat naive character, younger than her years in part, but overall a storyline I would have liked to read developed more. Her relationship with Hector again felt quite a naive one for two people in their 20s - 30s and there were some technology aspects that I felt weren't as true to life (I think most people this age use a mobile phone rather than a laptop for online chats even in 2018) and that felt a bit jarring. I also felt uncomfortable with some of the language and depiction of Mexico/Mexicans, it got worse the more I became aware of it.
The plot of Kate just felt confusing because I wasn't sure where she fit in as there's no mention of her in the blurb and even when the tenuous link was revealed it just felt like this was a character and storyline from another story that didn't need to be included, and would have been another book entirely. I found the second half of the book better paced but still there were parts that felt a bit baffling and I felt disconnected from things. It just didn't work for me unfortunately.

Told from the viewpoint of three characters, this story is set in multiple locations, from Arctic Norway, Mexico and England.
Cecilie is a young woman who has never veered further than the country she was born in, Norway. She leads a self-contained life and is happy not to be too involved in anyone else's life.
She strikes up an online friendship with Hector, known as The Mexican by many in Cecilie's life, but this becomes something more profound.
Then there is British Kate. A woman who is struggling in her marriage, with a man who doesn't appreciate her, and with a tenuous connection to Hector.
There is a lot of time hopping within the story which can get a little confusing, but essentially, we are following how Cecilie and Hector met in a chatroom, how their relationship developed and all that happened in between.
Kate's chapters did feel a little redundant, as she is not really involved in Cecilie and Hector's story, per se, until the end of the book. Maybe she deserves her own story.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC.

Jeeze this book. I’m not even sure where to start. For one why is everyone always calling Hector “the Mexican” as if he doesn’t have a name? All the writing about Mexico comes off kind of racist too. Very strange. Another annoyance is how many times we have to hear how edgy Cecilie is because she wears doc martens (sorry “DMs”) it’s just very passé. An odd detail to be obsessed with. Oh wait let’s not forget she has an heart shaped face and cook dreadlocks.

And Kate! What a total doormat of a character who brings up to her husband going to meet up with “the Mexican” and her husband tells her “why would you want to see an old Mexican boyfriend? They don’t age well” and points to a day of the dead skeleton as proof. How is this not racist?

The whole book made no sense. Why is Cecilie pining over Hector (for five years!) when she knows he’s engaged, and then he’s married and she’s still messaging him with heart eyes. And he’s writing back! Pilar isn’t the evil one here all the time. She’s just another cast off from Hector.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

This was previously published as The Distance.
Three POV: Cecilie, Hector, and Kate. The first two basically had an online affair - they hadn't met in person, he was never single the entire time they knew each other, and she knew that. That's not ok. I'm not sure why I kept reading since the whole cheating aspect was a major red flag for me. The Kate chapters? Completely useless. Like they belonged in a different book. The timelines were very confusing - I had to keep going back to the chapter heading to see "when" it was. This was all over the place. I liked two of her other novels, which is why I requested this, but it was definitely not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.

The three main characters are Hector from Mexico, Cecilie from Norway and Kate from England. Hector meets Cecilie in 2013 in a Depeche Mode fan forum and they grow close but Hector still marries girlfriend Pilar in 2018, without changing his relationship with Cecilie. Kate is a put upon mother of three whose husband George is unfaithful. It is at first not clear how she fits into the story, and when it does it makes no sense as there seems to be too much of an age gap between her and Hector to have worked as a relationship in her youth.

This was originally published under the title The Distance and I wish I'd realised that instead of thinking this is the author's latest. The original came out in 2018 and I'm pretty certain I read it then and wasn't too taken with it.

It hasn't got any better, I'm afraid. The writing style is still confusing with several timelines, POVs and flashbacks, there is still off-putting bad language in it, and I've never felt so lost in a book, what with an entire character being completely superfluous to the story between Hector and Cecilie.

Also, people don't really inject words from their mother tongue into English all the time, it's very clichéd. Hector and Cecilie's online chats feel pretty awkward, with Hector's "Siiiiiii" to everything. Also, why is Cecilie's family constantly calling Hector "The Mexican"? That feels condescending and racist.

If infidelity is a trigger warning for you, avoid this book as just about every character is involved in it. There is also a casual mention of "I had a relationship with my teacher when I was 17 and he was 34" which gave me the ick.

I wasn't invested in the characters who had absolutely nothing in common with each other. The plot was boring and I didn't like all the infidelity. Not one of the very different lifestyles resonated with me and I particularly struggled with the plot in Mexico.

If you re-release a book after seven years, maybe check out the plot and writing style again instead of just slapping on a nice new cover. Some of the language in the book, especially the Mexican part, is unacceptable.