A domestic drama exploring the “one that got away”. Rachel first meets Gabe when she is in her twenties and instantly establishes a rapport, but the timing is off. She is already with her soulmate and she dismisses the attraction. Chance meetings again, decades apart, do not dispel the sense that Gabe is the one and the pull grows stronger, as do Rachel’s other commitments to her husband and family. This is a well crafted and highly relatable story about relationships, commitment, responsibility and disappointment.

With thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Us is a fascinating read. The narrative navigates the different seasons, the different characters and the journey over forty years. The brilliance of the author is that she keeps the reader hooked and invested in the destiny of the diverse characters. Gabe, the handsome American shows up in every decade of these years and it is thrilling to see in entrances and exits. As they intersect over the seasons, the story heats up as we see the different possibilities that emerge as the actors get older.

This is a hopeful and uplifting unconventional romantic novel during times when feeling good is in much need. I loved this!

I absolutely loved this book! I loved the main character Rachel! I loved the author! I loved the plot! I loved everything!

This book is not the type of book I normally read but I am so pleased that I did. Wonderful!

I liked the way the author carefully developed the plot. I loved the ending!! Rachel is amazing!! Surely the ultimate role-model.

This book is set over four decades each decade set in a different season.
It follows Rachel, beginning in spring 1986 when she has a chance encounter with Gabe, an American artist. Followed by three more encounters over the next 3 decades.
I found the first 30 - 35% quite slow going and I almost gave up on it, but after that the story telling quickly made it a real page turner as I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next.
This was a good read & I would recommend it.
Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for this advance read.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Us by Fiona Collins is a story of meeting the love of your life but he is the man you married. Rachel marries Jonny and is stepmother to his young daughter Teddy. Rachel has always wanted marriage and children and has a dream to open her own art gallery one day. She meets the American, Gabe whose aunt lives in the village where Rachel lives.
Gabe and Rachel meet up during the years but Rachel always goes back to Jonny.
Until they are all entering their sixth decade and Gabe is back for his aunt’s funeral, will this be the time Rachel goes back with Gabe to America?will they finally have their happy ever after?
Recommended

A lovely story where you know the outcome you want quite early on but need the characters to catch up. It is light and easy to read with emotional threads throughout.

I loved this book, so sweet and a perfect beach read. I am so pleased I got this one. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

It took me a while to get into this one. The first season, Spring, is a description of Rachel’s very nice life in a quaint British village in the 1980’s. She’s engaged to Jonny, an aspiring author and local celebrity but then she meets Gabe, an American artist and she goes back and forth between true love and stability.

In Summer, no spoilers, but Rachel travels to Morocco, where things heat up (pun intended) and I enjoyed it so much more from this point. Rachel and Gabe continue to meet years apart picking up their relationship from where they last left off. It’s a very slow burn, will they, won’t they with some questionable characters in the background.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I mostly enjoyed it but admit there were times when I struggled to get through a section, but more often I couldn't wait to see what happened and to get back to the book. Overall, I really enjoyed this story of a lifelong love, two people who were truly meant to be together!

I was so engrossed in this book. I really didn't know where it was going to go. Felt the storyline was so realistic and I just couldn't stop reading. Fiona Collins is fast becoming an auto buy author.

Thanks netgalley and publishers for arc
Have to say this book was one I picked up and put down a few times before finally completing
It follows Rachel and her life and love and her family and relationships and it’s a sort of will she / won’t she scenario throughout the book with Gabe
Nice book about how to navigate adult friendships and relationships

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Us. By Fiona Collins

If I could, I would give this book more than 5⭐️

Beautifully written, heart-wrenching and poignant, the story of Rachel and Gabe will stay with me for a very long time.

Rachel has her whole life mapped out. After witnessing her parent’s disastrous marriage, she craves the stability her life with Jonny will provide her, but Rachel didn’t factor in meeting Gabe.

The connection between Rachel and Gabe is electric, however Rachel can’t walk away from her perfectly steady life.

Over the decades, fate brings Gabe back into Rachel’s life again and again, making her question whether her perfect life is all she has convinced herself it is.

I adored every moment of this book.

5⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Rachel is all set to marry Jonny and she meets Gabe, she still marries but she and Gabe meet now and again over the decades . A story of enduring love. Wonderful reading.

Unfortunately I was bored by this book. After the first few chapters, i skimmed until the end. provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

'Summer, Spring, Autumn, Us' is a systematic, consistent, gracefully composed story featuring intricately crafted characters. Despite starting off slowly, the plot is fascinating and emotive. This book contains themes of hope, fate, love and loss, making it a worthwhile read.

Rachel's personal development and the growth she attains by the story's completion make for a beautiful leading character.

I have read other books by this author, and this recent one may be my favourite so far. This is a must-have for those who appreciate character development and a happy conclusion.

This is, without a doubt, a story for all seasons - grab a copy today!

This book really starts in 1986 and covers the next 40 years..
It is beautifully written and easy to read.

heartwrenching and heart warming also

really enjoyed this

In the prologue Collins gives me a tiny glimpse of Rachel’s disruptive childhood. Fast forward to spring 1986, the year of the Chernobyl disaster. Rachel is living in Oxford and has found her happily ever after, Jonny. True she has what she’s always dreamed of but she also has other dreams for her future like owning her own art gallery. In the midst of her happiness she meets an American Gabe at a party and feels a strange pull at her heart strings. Should she indulge? After all Rachel is content with her near perfect life and it is what she has chosen? But as Gabe and Rachel’s lives cross over the decades she can’t help but ask if she is meant to live it.

A tale of ordinary lives in a typical albeit charming English village. So what kept my attention and the pages turning. Collins exquisite story telling. It kept my heart on tenterhooks. I was totally immersed in the tale desperate to know how it all ended. Though this is mainly Rachel and Gabe’s story, Collins has done a remarkable job of building all the characters in the plot. I got a real feel for who Jonny, Tatiana, the rest of the villagers and their friends were. They were all so real yet flawed and the novel landed straight to my heart. Though not particularly thought provoking it did make me stop and reflect on life. And the pages kept pulling me in.

Rachel’s courage and integrity impressed me. Would Rachel ever give in to the vibe she feels for Gabe? More interestingly, what would persuade Rachel to change her mind, if at all? This is a romantic, moving, engaging, sometimes funny, sometimes infuriating tale. I devoured it in one sitting. It made my heart swell. I fell in love with the characters and grew attached to them.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Us is beautifully written, emotional, compelling, relatable in so many ways and simply a wonderful novel. I warmed to it instantly and enjoyed every heart twisting single page, until the very end. Thank goodness for the ending, an HEA, in my opinion at least. At last I shouted as happy tears streamed down my face and I was grinning from ear to ear. A sublime uplifting read that I could curl into any time.

Spring 1986. Rachel believes she has finally found everything her heart desires, and is looking forward to a long and happy life with her fiancé, aspiring author Jonny, the man who promises the safe and secure life she craves. But her calm assurance that she is on the right path is thrown into disorder when she meets handsome American artist Gabe, and feels a spark between them that she is determined to ignore.

Over time, Rachel doggedly sticks to the path she has mapped out for herself as loving wife, and step-mother to Jonny's trouble daughter Teddy. She takes on the local art gallery and transforms it into a growing enterprise, but somehow her success is always overshadowed by Jonny's burgeoning career.

As the years fly by, bringing trials and tribulations, Rachel and Gabe's lives touch in different seasons, and each time they feel the undeniable pull of an attraction between them. Whenever they meet, Rachel sees the possible other life she could be living, but is the chance of another life worth leaving behind all she has built with Jonny?

I am a massive fan of Collins' previous wonderful book Summer in the City, which is one I frequently recommend far and wide as a story that ticks all those 'in the feels' boxes, so I could not wait to dive into her brand new novel Spring, Summer, Autumn, Us. I was a little apprehensive, since I loved the last book so much, but I really should not have worried because this book is every bit as emotionally rewarding.

Our story begins in the 1986, and is filled with every conceivable spot on popular culture reference that my 80s loving heart could wish for. Against this back drop, Rachel is a young woman with a painful childhood, whose only wish is to be with a man who will offer her a secure future - and she is sure she has found this with the man of her dreams Jonny... but then she meets American visitor Gabe. Gabe is unlike any other man Rachel has met before, and she finds herself opening up to him in a way that surprises her. There is a spark between them that both of them feel, but Rachel is determined to resist his charms and their brief acquaintance ends with many things left unsaid.

Over the next forty years, Rachel's professional success is acknowledged by almost all, but her personal life is not quite as picture perfect as she would like. Fate decrees that Rachel and Gabe meet again, and each time they do they are forced to confront the fact that something magical could happen between them if only they would let it. Each time life intervenes to keep them apart, by accident or design.

This is very much a story about the path not taken, and it is filled with an atmosphere of yearning so thick that you could cut it with a palette knife. Collin's beautifully explores the dilemma Rachel faces in trying to decide where true happiness lies with heart-wrenching poignancy. How do you decide whether it is best to stick with the life you have created, even if it turns out not quite as you expected, or if you should take the plunge into the unknown based on a feeling, however strong? It takes forty years for Rachel to decide, but when she does you know she has finally made the right choice.

Collins touches on lashings of complex themes in this story, focusing on controlling relationships, infidelity and betrayal, and the impact these have on mental health. The way Collins examines how the relationships that surround us in childhood shape our own notions of what makes a healthy romantic partnership is especially striking. I also love the way in which Collins echoes the theme of seasons throughout the story in literal and metaphorical ways.

This is an epic, and somewhat unconventional romance, filled with light and shade, love and destiny. It looks at relationships from many different perspectives, and really makes you think about the myriad little moments that define the directions we take. It is another absolute winner from Fiona Collins, and I loved it from captivating start to sob-fest ending.

Set in dual years and all the seasons, this was a lovely read. Giving 4 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC

I’m a fan of love stories that develop painstakingly over decades - the Before Sunrise trilogy, for instance - and in books that explore regrets and missed opportunities, so I fell in love with Rachel and Gabe’s story. Thank you for the opportunity to read this!