This book is about an older man who is trying to make right a wrong from his past.
Henry is so likeable and I just wanted everything to be ok for him. I felt everything was tied up a little too well at the end. However the book is full of lovely characters who you can’t help but warm to

I love a quirky tale with interesting characters at the heart of it. Finding Henry Applebee is just that. A train journey to Edinburgh for Henry and the young girl who comes to his rescue at the station tells a beautiful story of love lost and found, family connecctions and the importance of being open to adventure.
Henry is in his eighties and Ariel barely out of her teens, and yet this beautiful intergenerational friendship helps them both to find the roots and answers to questions.
I could literally read this book again and again it is so beautiful and complex as author Celia Reynolds takes us on a journey of regret, but optimisim. Spanning sixty five years the tale of Henry and his lost love interweaves with modern times and reminds us that although times change, people don't.
I highly recommend this book especially for lovers of A Man Called Ove and Elinor Oliphant is Completly Fine.

Finding Henry Applebee is a lovely read. It's heart-warming, emotive and full of characters you become fully invested in. It's everything you want in a book. One you will feel the urge to pass on to everyone you know and one that would make a fantastic read for a book club as it has so many talking points.

A lovely story of three people who meet on a train trip from London to Scotland and how their stories bring them together. The characters were well developed and I really invested in them. A truly lovely read.

I really wanted to give this four stars, but I couldn't. I liked the characters even though they were all almost unrealistically kind and pleasant. However I just couldn't overlook the fact that they were two dimensional at best. The storyline was the same. It could have been richer and had more texture, but it was shallow and insipid. Overall, I was left feeling almost as if I had read a short story that had somehow been made to stretch over 427 pages.

When Henry sets out on a journey he meets young Ariel also on her own journey and the two of them find each other and themselves in this lovely read.
Genuinely a nice read but wasn’t for me unfortunately. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This is a story about the unlikely connection three strangers make on a train journey from London to Edinburgh. Henry Applebee is an 85 year old man traveling to Edinburgh. He has lived a long life but he never forgot the girl he met in Blackpool in 1948. Losing her was his biggest regret. He never loved another and his search for her has led him to Edinburgh.
Ariel is an 18 year old girl traveling to Edinburgh. Her mother’s dying wish was for Ariel to deliver a mysterious package to her friend, Mia. Ariel has tried to take care of her father and younger brother but it’s a heavy burden for a girl who is also grieving the loss of her mother.
Travis is an American musician with a father that doesn’t get him. The only one that understands his passion for music is his hero, Uncle Frank.
It took me a while to get into this book and at times in the beginning, I wanted to give up. Henry’s story is the most compelling and interesting but in the end I was charmed by the relationship forged by the three travellers.

A train journey from London to Edinburgh where three people - Henry, Ariel and Travis, are all on their own separate missions. A train journey which takes them on the journey of their life and gives their world the most unimaginable and incredulous future that they always wanted.

Such a poignant and emotional read. Henry Applebee is a legend! And I am so pleased at the outcome! A delightful story that will make you smile, laugh and cry. Celia Reynolds is so talented - an incredible plot with wonderful characters, with their lives all cleverly intertwined. I loved the parts set in the Gower - such wonderful descriptions given throughout. You felt like you were on the train with them all, looking out the window. When the train broke down I was so nervous that they would not get moving again as they all had special places to go that evening - very tense!

Such a moving story with so many important messages. Listen to your heart, believe in yourself and always always follow your dreams. Do not take someone else's word - always find out for yourself as you cannot always trust the motive of others.

Finding Henry Applebee
By Celia Reynolds

Finding Henry Applebee is such a heartwarming read I truly enjoyed. I love reading about second chances, and of course reading about eighty five year old Henry Arthur Applebee is such a delight. Set on his ways and trying to do something about a regret from sixty five years ago really captured my attention. But throw in a stranger or two, a teen named Ariel, and Travis a young jazz musician and the trip from London to Edinburgh all of a sudden takes a marvelous turn in this journey that is heartwarming, charming and uplifting.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this with the book club.

Finding Henry Applebee is just ok. The plot takes quite a while to get going and when it does it’s fairly predictable. I was able to discern the “twists” pretty early on and the other plot lines added little interest. I think the story was over sold at the beginning which led to a slow middle and a disappointing end. I found the likelihood of someone still being in love with someone they essentially had a one night stand with over 65 years ago very unlikely but perhaps I’m not romantic enough to appreciate that.
I was interested by the setting as I live in Swansea but even this annoyed me with the use of “Oystermouth” - a name not used in reference to the area - instead of Mumbles grating on my nerves throughout. I can see where the author was trying to go with this book but although it’s fiction it was a bit too much to suspend my belief at.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of the book in exchange of an honest review.

I loved this book - heartwarming and delightful.

Henry has one regret so he boards a train from London to Edinburgh to find the woman who disappeared from his life decades earlier. He meets Ariel before boarding the train who has a mission of her own. The third traveller, Travis, has his own issues to resolve.

The story brings the three individuals together and allows each to resolve their dilemmas - even if not as expected.

A book I will be recommending.

This is a beautiful story about love, never giving up on hope and the unlikely friendships.

Henry Applebee, an eighty-five year old, is making a journey to Edinburgh with the hope of finding the woman who he met sixty-five years previously.

On this journey he meets Ariel, a troubled teen who is making her own journey to Edinburgh in search of answers.

The two build up a comradery on the train where Henry has invited Ariel to join him. On this journey we learn of Henry’s story and the importance of this trip to Edinburgh. A story that crosses decades and is full of love and heartbreak.

The two are joined by Travis on their train journey in the neighbouring seats. Another with his own reasons to be travelling to Edinburgh.

What I loved about this book and this story was that despite the three strangers chance meeting and their own individual stories that their lives become interwoven in ways that you least expect.

The friendship that the two youngsters build with Henry is heartwarming as is the outcome to their stories.

This story shows us that there is always hope.

Yes there were a bit too many coincidences but it’s fiction so anything can happen. It was a nice story but also very sad, a lifetime of a lost opportunity. I enjoyed it.

Finding Henry Applebee is an emotional journey. Henry is travelling by train to Edinburgh on a mission to right a wrong from 65 years earlier. A mishap at King’s Cross station leads him to Ariel Bliss. He then invites her to travel first class with him after discovering she is travelling on the same train to the same place following her assistance to his mishap.
During the long train journey stories are told and they meet Travis.
Once in Edinburgh a series of events occur that will leave Henry and Ariel linked for life and solve a 65 year old mystery.
I enjoyed this book but I did find it quite easy to predict what was going to happen at each point of the book. Nonetheless it is worth a read and it is relatively easy reading. I would recommend this book if you are after something that is very easy and quick to read.

Finding Henry Applebee, by Celia Reynolds
So great to find another feel good happy-but-sad story to read this weekend. A tiny bit predictable, a tiny bit too coincidental but I didn’t mind. The book has great characters, primarily the 85-year-old Henry and 18-year-old Ariel but also a couple supporting actors. There are two timelines, a love story, a train trip to Edinburgh Scotland, an Elvis impersonator, a book store, a mysterious package, a single dad, a little brother, a 20 something sax player, a coming of age story, and a found family. This book is more than 4 stars but not quite 5 (though I may change my mind). I definitely recommend picking it up. I requested and received this advanced copy to read and review from the publisher One More Chapter (Harper Collins UK) and NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

Such an enjoyable and fun read. I loved getting a chance to review this.

The story follows two generations and we not only have the dual timeline of Henry in 1948 with present day, but also perspectives from Ariel, Travis and Frank.
The different stories come together in Edinburgh.
I really became interested to know how they would all come together but it was a delightful journey.

I wasn't sure at the start if I would enjoy this book but it soon became a delight to read! 85 year old Henry Applebee is going on a train journey to Edinburgh to try to track down the love of his life from many years ago. When he suffers a nosebleed at the station, teenager Ariel is the only one to help him. She is also going to Edinburgh in search of a friend of her recently dead Mother. Henry offers her his spare first class ticket as his planned companion let him down at the last minute.
On the train, they meet Travis, a musician, also going to Edinburgh to meet up with his Uncle. They all plan to meet or find someone in Edinburgh and they form an unlikely friendship on the train. As their trip and their lives intertwine, a lovely tale develops with both happiness and sadness added in.

Loved this story, you knew the connections were there but how they all play out is spectacular and so enjoyable!

This was a beautiful, charming story that managed to be both poignant and uplifting at the same time. I read this book after a run of quite gritty reads, so this was a nice refreshing change which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The story follows the three main characters Henry, Ariel and Travis as they travel from Edinburgh to London for different reasons. The descriptions of the journey were beautifully vivid and made me feel that I was right there in the carriage with them. I felt each part of their journey personally as if I was living it too, with all the setbacks they encounter making me feel very nervous that they wouldn’t be able to finish their journey.

The characters were wonderful creations and memorable ones that I’ll remember for a long time to come. I loved how the author gradually lets us learn more about the characters and their past lives so that we get to see why they are like they are. They started to feel like old friends and I enjoyed following them on their journey as I willed them to succeed in their mission. I especially liked Henry’s past with the wonderful descriptions of the years after the war and the dance halls that I’d loved to have seen!

Overall I absolutely loved this charming story that made me laugh and cry as I read. There’s a wonderful message behind the story about unlikely friendships and how it’s never too late to change things. The ending was brilliant and I finished the book feeling sad that it was finished, while wishing that I could find out what happens next for them. This book was similar in style to Harold Fry so if you liked that book I think you’ll like this one too.

Huge thanks to Claire Debby for inviting me onto the read along and One More Chapter for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

Finding Henry Appleby by Celia Reynolds is a eloquently told story of love and regret. Told from the perspective of three, Henry, an 85year old ex serviceman who is searching for his first love, Ariel a student on a mission set by her dead mother and Travis, a young saxophonist visiting his relative whilst finding his feet in the UK. All meet in the first class carriage of the London train bound for Edinburgh, apprehensive about what they will find at their final destination they share their tales together. The separate stories are all elaborated on as the train journey proceeds, with Edinburgh releasing the secrets on their arrival,
My favourite was Henry, the descriptions of Blackpool in the past, of how fragile relationships can be and the lack of advancement in communications give Henry's story a sad side and he very much regrets his behaviour however, is very much looking forward to owning his mistakes and fixing the problem.

The characters are very believable, all the side characters have charm as well. It's a nice story which encourages thoughtfulness and kindness to others especially strangers, as you never know who they are or what they are going through. I found it a slow burn of a read but still very enjoyable.

Thanks to One More Chapter, OMC read along and NetGalley for the ARC.