Really couldn't get along with this book, although I had high hopes from reading the blurb. It felt like it wasn't as gripping as I needed it to be. I get bored too easily!

I have mixed feelings about this book by Jane Harper. I loved the premise of the story with Allison and Dan and Dan instead of telling her of his feelings he makes Allison a mixtape to show her how he feels. Also, the relationship that she has with his parents, it was kind of sweet. Then twenty years later he sends links to songs that they once listened together was different to anything that I have read. They still had things in common.
Even though this book was written well. This book left me with questions. Why would you get back together with someone you haven’t seen in 20 years on a whim and split two families up? People may change in that time. Maybe I am a bit old fashioned. Sorry didn’t really agree with the ending. Three stars from me.

Interesting read and storytelling.

As a firm lover of mix tapes myself I loved the idea of an international mix tape for the modern day! The story is told in the past and the present tense (1979 and 2012) of the two main characters.

Its a fun back and forth ride that is filled with laughs and will have you flipping the pages to find out what happens next!

The characters are wholly relatable and full of such character that you find yourself rooting for them to get to the happy ending you want to happen.

This was a sweet read for the summer and it was nice and easy to follow along with.

This story blends the past and the present expertly. It draws you into the relationships and makes you want to know more. The pacing is perfect. The modern mix tape brought out the emotions that were deeply hidden away and yet lurking near the surface. It was a wonderful way to create the closeness of the characters that were so far away, emotionally and physically.

Jane Sanderson's novel is a huge nostalgia fest of a read with its central theme of how fundamentally music connects us to other people and so effectively evokes an era, personal histories, and past memories as if they happened just yesterday. Mix Tape succeeds in bringing back my past, of how I too made mix tapes to share with close friends, and some of them also made their own particular mixes. This novel takes the reader back to the late 1970s and the music I adored back then. Those mix tapes quintessentially captured an essential essence of who I and my friends were, with our differently flavoured collections of music, taking us back to what we were experiencing then and the intense feelings and emotions, and I still have many of those tapes. It is not surprising that this book resonated in so many ways for me.

In the present, it is 2012, and middle aged music journalist, Daniel Lawrence and novelist, Alison Connor live respectively in Edinburgh and Adelaide, Australia. Each is married, with their separate families, then Daniel sends a song via Twitter to Ali that immediately immerses her back to their shared past as teenagers. In 1978 in Sheffield, Dan and Ali got together with their love of music, but Ali had secrets, trauma and tragedy that cause her to disappear completely from Dan's life. She goes on to move to Australia with her partner, Michael, whilst Dan settles with Katelin in the beautiful historical city of Edinburgh. However, both feel a sense of vague dissatisfaction and an air of something missing in the lives they are living, and neither has forgotten the other. In a narrative that moves from the past and the present, with Dan and Ali's love be reawakened? Will they survive a path littered with obstacles and challenges to find each other again, and what will it cost each of them?

Sanderson gives us a great sense of varied locations and time in this well written story of love, friendship, family, rape, alcoholism, being a parent, and the integral theme of the power of music, I found myself getting engaged with Dan and Ali and their life stories. There is some unevenness in the novel, and it did inspire occasional feelings of unease, but overall its a great read. Many thanks to Random House Transworld for an ARC.

I was offered the opportunity to read the proof copy of this book.

The blurb of the book was very appealing to me, so I gladly accepted.

I did however find the book difficult to read. It switches between two characters and two time periods. I found that a bit difficult to keep track in places. As I only read a proof copy I am hoping this detail will be made more clearer before publication.

The story itself was good and touching in places and I’m sure those of us of a certain age remember there first mix tape. I know I do.

I would recommend this book to a friend.

I wasn't sure what rating to give this book, I changed my mind a few times. At some points it was a 3,sometimes a 4.
I'll start with the good points. I loved Dan, Ali, not so much but I was rooting for her. Her relationship with Dan's dad was beautiful, that bond of friendship and paternalistic support was very well written. I also liked the switching between the current day and the past.

What I didn't like so much was the middle part of the book where the emotions seemed to have been replaced with songs (this might work better if you know or listen to the songs). What should have been the moan emotional high point of the book was, for me, a little underwhelming.

My rating was bumped up to 4/5 as the ending was back on track.

A tantalising book of ‘what ifs’ that challenges your perceptions.

I liked that you get to see the main characters as they are and as they were, it gives great insight and I love books about people and their relationships to each other.

Enjoyable read.

Less than a week ago I wrote in the review for another (very cliched) book "how I long to read about a romance between ordinary people with none of the stereotypical cliches of hate turning to love etc etc'. Well, someone was listening because here it is, a lovely romance between two human beings whose very ordinariness makes them easy to relate to and to like.

Alison and Dan were in their teens when they met in 1979. They split up soon after when Alison disappeared leaving Dan bereft and now more than 30 years later their paths cross again when Dan finds Alison (now living in Australia) is a best selling novelist. He sends her a link to a song which has meaning for them both and soon they are exchanging songs across the oceans.

Alison and Dan are in relationships with other people. Both have children, both have much to lose. When Dan goes to Australia to surprise Alison we don't know whether she will go with her heart or her head.

This is so much more than chick lit. It touches on serious issues not least the reason why Alison ran away in the first place and takes a thoughtful and compassionate approach to affairs of the heart. The use of songs to express what's going on is very good though I confess that it was beginning to jar just a little towards the end, Overall though I loved it and am very grateful to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC.

Loved this story. Music is so powerful and can transport you in an instant and this story did the same. Often tender, heart breaking and joyful, the characters were well written, believable and relatable.

I was so excited to read this book after reading the amazing reviews on netgalley. However, I struggled to get into the story more than I expected. There are some hard hitting topics littered in the book but I never fully engaged with it which meant it took me a few days to finish it. Overall, I’ve given it 3 stars.

If your first love just slid into your DM's what would you do?
I loved that this story was all about the past, but connected two people from across the world so simply. And with the addition of music. I found myself judging the songs chosen by both Daniel and Ali.

This book is a great romance novel that isnt obvious but kinda is. You root for the characters and their happiness, you want Daniel to understand why Ali disappeared, and maybe you ll even look at pigeons differently after reading this book

Loved this book! It completely took me back to my youth with the memories coming flooding back of that era of music! A great story which features some powerful subjects but at the end of the day, the right outcome (in my opinion)! I thought the book flowed along at a lovely pace and showed exactly what music can do. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

A great easy to read story about two people who rediscover each other after many years through the power of social media. In amongst it there is bullying, and violence - not unsurprising but there. Ultimately it is about two people who were childhood sweethearts.
I really enjoyed reading the book, it was well written and flowed. I recommend this book if you want something that many of us can recognise. It is full of great musical links which re-kindle the relationship between the two of them. The fact that they are on either side of the world as they rediscover only ads to the concept.

Music is so evocative, brings back all sorts of memories and plays a big part in our lives.
This book demonstrates that so well. Absolutely loved it.
Strong likeable main characters, well written. Highly recommended

I was so excited to read this book. The blurb convinced me that this would be right up my street!

The story itself is fantastic, two childhood sweethearts find each other decades later and rekindle their love for each other. However, the writing is painfully descriptive, I found myself skim reading parts to get the gist of the sentence/paragraph. I very nearly gave up on this book several times, but persevered in the hope that it would pick up. Unfortunately, the book didn’t get much better. At 80% I started enjoying it and felt invested enough to finish it. I usually find this pull to a book at the 20-30% point.

The story is very deep and pretty dark emotionally. It’s not a feel-good love story, but rather a sad, quite depressing look at life and adultery. The book contains many dark subjects: alcoholism, abuse, rape, death...to name a few!

I would recommend this to someone looking for an interesting read; but if you’re after a happy love story this is not the book for you.

Ali and Daniel shared a deep and meaningful connection as teenagers growing up in Sheffield in the 70s. But Ali's home and family life eventually lead to her abandoning everything she knows. Even her beloved Daniel. Fast forward to the present day, and we find two people living mostly contented lives. Partner, jobs, kids.... All seemingly perfect. But when they find each other again, all bets are off. Music pulls them back towards each other like two magnets, and they seek to heal the rifts of their past.
On the surface this seems like a light and fluffy story, but it is so much more. Dealing with the complexities of family, navigating our way in adulthood and grown up relationships, it also begs the question of how much would you risk, what are you prepared to lose, for a chance at perfect happiness?

Trigger Warnings in the book: Rape, Alcohol Abuse

I just finished reading this love story and it was a romance quite unlike anything I’ve read before. However, it did remind me of a movie that was made in India a long time ago, which was thrashed by the public and critiques because it seemed like the movie supported adultery, which is considered immoral in so many societies, no matter what the reason be.

This is the story of Daniel and Alison, who were deeply in love when they were teenagers. But then Alison had a secret that she was keeping from Dan, and then tragedy strikes her in a terrible way. And she disappears from his life. Now, nearly 30 years later, Dan comes across Alison on twitter. And that brings back a flood of memories. But what had connected them back then, and what connects them 30 years later as well, is their shared love for music. So Daniel starts sending her a song, and she responds with a song of her own. And that is how their relationship and feelings are rekindled across continents.

Each of the protagonists have beautiful families and faithful, loving, intelligent, well meaning partners. But in the book, the author shows that we end up realising the faults in our current relationships, no matter how perfect or stable, when we find our true soulmate. There’s this line in the book, which neatly sums up what a lot of couples go through, or why they falter or go astray:

She had loved him. She did love him. Yes, she’d lost something of herself over the years, but perhaps he had too, perhaps it was a condition of a long marriage that part of one’s spirit must be sacrificed, in exchange for material comfort, children, companionship.

I know the premise of this story may not be digestible to many readers, since it doesn’t take the easy way out for this couple’s re-union all these years later. They don’t really have abusive relationships, or their partners have not died, or anything serious of the sorts. They just realise what is missing in their current relationship, when they find their soulmate. I don’t believe in the concept of soulmates, but well, this is a story, one with a different background, and I enjoyed reading it.

I am a huge fan of music and that was something that was particularly appealing to me in this storyline. The part about the mix tape, brought me back to my own courtship period with the men I have dated. We always had a common bond of music. The man I’m married to now, used to make mix tapes on CDs for me. Sometimes he wouldn’t tell me what songs were on it. Sometimes he would quiz me on the songs, to see if I got them, or remembered them as well as he did. That was his test and I passed with flying colours. Music is something that still connects us. There are no fights that haven’t been resolved over a few drinks and listening to that one song that touches both of us.

I also appreciated all the supporting characters in the book. I could see this book being made into a series or a movie with such a vast array of characters. And each of the characters had their bits of story too. The families and friendships were amazing, real, loving and supportive, with the exception of Alison’s mother, who is an alcoholic. All the stories get a neat ending and it is as good as a happy ending one could hope for, at least for our lead couple.

There are a lot of description about different places in Scotland, UK and Adelaide in South Australia. The author seems to have done a lot of research and work, and overall I found this book to be thought provoking and quite an emotional ride. Even though the lead pair commit adultery, I was rooting for them. I anyway don’t have strict rules about monogamy and I have a different take on monogamy and human nature. Honesty is more important to me in a relationship, as well as freedom of choice and respecting each other. And the lead couple are shown to have that for each other, which is why I was completely with them and wanted a happy ending for them. I’m so glad the author ended the story the way it did.

I would recommend this book if you’re looking for a clean romance, music, bonding over soulmates, lots of supporting characters.

Don’t pick this if subjects on rape and alcohol abuse are triggers for you, or finding love outside a happily married life is something that doesn’t sit well with you 🙂

**Thank you Netgalley and the publishers of the book for sharing this ARC digital copy with me in exchange of an honest review. All reviews and opinions are purely my own and not biased in any way**

Fantastic. This story was well written and the description of Sheffield in the late 70s/early 80s was spot on. Both of the main characters, Dan and Ali were very well described and believable. I don’t normally read this type of novel but definitely recommend it and read it again. The actual playlist of songs was pretty good too!

Really mixed opinion on this book.
It was nothing like I thought it would be I was expecting an easy chic lit read but it was much deeper than than, the ending however totally ruined it for me.