I'm a huge fan of David Nichols' One Day and he did not disappoint in Sweet Sorrow. This is another love story with relatable and genuine characters. This is such a lovely book that deserves more hype. Thank you for my advanced copy.

*received a free copy from netgalley for honest review* So pretty much just read this bc I saw it on bookishfirst lmfao I don't really care much for coming of age stories ngl and don't care for romances much either BUT this wasn't bad.


Like it wasn't my cup of tea, and it was about theater lol which is another thing I don't care much about but again the book wasn't horrible lol I liked the characters and the story.


the only thing I didn't really care much for was how they would jump from present day to past and it didn't really have any, indication? it was a digital ARC though so for all I know they might have added spacers or something to make it more clear. Not bad though, but some scene imo were super gross lmao

David Nichols has a way of telling love stories. This book is another one of his which has a theatrical topic woven into the story and I just love the mixture of it.
The character of Charlie seems like such a genuine and relatable character and his actions and feelings made me think what I would do in his situation. The supporting characters, their actions and developments seemed believable and I grew fond of some of them and was happy to see the back of some others.
It’s a lovely book and I can definitely recommend it.

“I had never in my life, before or since, been more primed to fall in love. Catching that fever, I felt sure, would inoculate me against all other worries and fears. I longed for change, for something to happen, some adventure, and falling love seemed more accessible than, say, solving a murder. But even though I thought she was lovely, I was not touched by some wand, there was no flourish on the harp and no change in the lighting. If I’d been busier that summer, or happier at home, then I might not have thought about her so much, but I was neither busy nor happy, and so I fell.”

Without any desire to sound tragic, I’ve never been in love - and while for the most part it is hard to miss what you’ve never had, sometimes a real life romance, or something in a story or on the screen catches me off guard. Reading this provided one of those moments, I felt myself living vicariously through Charlie and longing for these feelings, which I think is a pretty solid achievement from the author. And perhaps a sign that isolation has me feeling lonely. (Thank god for books?!)

I love David Nicholls’ other novels - Starter For Ten is one of my favourite books, Us and One Day are superb (I haven’t read The Understudy but it is patiently waiting for me on my bookshelves) so I had high hopes for this, and wasn’t disappointed. Some of the characters could be a little (a lot) annoying, but that’s just a reflection of real life, surely. The storyline, the fusing together of the story with that of Romeo and Juliet (parting is such sweet sorrow, after all) and the flash forward to the present day at the end of the book, tying up loose ends, made for an enjoyable read. Considering our current situation, a story of passionate first-love and a whole lot of trying new things and figuring out your place in the world provided perfect escapism. I’ve seen some comments about the slow pace in other reviews but lets face it, I’m not going anywhere fast.

Thanks to HMH for the reading copy via Netgalley!

3.5★
“. . . and it occurred to me then, just as it does now, that the greatest lie that age tells about youth is that it’s somehow free of care, worry or fear.

Good God, doesn’t anyone remember?”

Sweet sorrow this is – a tender, nostalgic reminiscence of Charlie Lewis, now in his thirties, about his 16-year-old self - not sporty, not a nerd, not an outcast, not handsome, not ugly, and not exceptional in any way. But also not without friends, though his are hardly a gang. They’re just a loose bunch of kids that have grown up together, punching each other on the shoulder, kicking gravel, sneaking alcohol. Nothing exciting.

Nicholls knows his boys, what makes them tick – or not. The quick shame, blush, anger, and frustration.

“As a student, my distinctive feature was a lack of distinction. 'Charlie works hard to meet basic standards and for the most part achieves them;' this was as good as it got, and even that slight reputation had been dimmed by events of the exam season.”

This is boys in England in the summer of 1996, with no social media, no mobile (cell) phones, just hanging out together in real life. The highlight of the day might be getting some contraband liquor and playing pool or watching DVDs in someone’s basement, then eventually starting a wrestling match, usually stopping before bones are broken. They are struggling to grow up.

“Of all the markers on the road to adulthood — voting, driving a car, legal drinking — the most elusive for a Merton Grange boy was to see a bra-strap without pinging it. To not be a dick: this was the great rite of passage that we had yet to pass through.”

But Charlie has a bike – nothing flash, but the pedals work – and he likes to read. The bike and books are his escape from his bickering family. He’s upset with the changing dynamics at home.

“From the ages of, say, twenty-one to sixty-five when they officially became old, I had always assumed that adults stayed pretty much the same, and parents in particular. Wasn’t this the definition of adulthood, an end to change? Wasn’t it their job to remain constant?”

Yep. That’s pretty much how a lot of us see our parents, at least, when we’re in school. We seem to give a lot more leeway to aunts and uncles, I think, but Charlie’s in for a lot of changes. Mum’s fed up with Dad’s drinking and depression.

“‘So are we . . . bankrupt?’ I saw her shoulders stiffen.

‘Where did you hear that?’

‘You and Dad talking.’

‘I wish you wouldn’t eavesdrop.’

‘You were shouting, so . . . ’ ”

As I said, not a happy family. Later, he complains to his mum about a major change in circumstances.

“‘You’re old enough for all this now, Charlie.’ She held the door open. ‘And if you’re not — well. Time to grow up.’”

Gee thanks, Mum.

Out on his bike, lying in the sunshine in an empty field with a book, he is stumbled across by a girl running away playfully from friends. When she twists her ankle, he has to help her back, thereby leading him into an entirely new loose collection of mostly young people at Fawley Manor, a big old house where they have congregated.

They fancy themselves a troupe of players, and beg him to join to help put on “Romeo and Juliet” (from which “sweet sorrow” comes, of course). Yeah, right, as if he can act. But that Fran Fisher is awfully cute and funny and smart and she seems to think he is, too. Goodness knows why!

And so it goes. David Nicholls studied English Literature and Drama and worked in London as an actor for several years in the 90s. (https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/david-nicholls)

Among his many other writing credits, he wrote an updated version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (part of ShakespeaRE-told), which was nominated for several awards. Here are some of the media awards. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390141/awards

I loved and recommend Us, about a middle-aged couple splitting up, which I read several years ago. (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1452103965 )

Had I known his experience with Shakespeare, I might have enjoyed this more. Charlie is exasperated with the in-jokes and the mock-Shakespearian banter that the other “actors” play around with, and I was certainly running out of patience with all the semi-quotes and showing off by too many characters I didn’t care about. I reckon some of them, both quotes and folks, could be thinned out.

I was so exasperated myself that I nearly gave up more than once. I was feeling as if I was at someone else’s reunion where I didn’t know anybody and there was nobody I really wanted to meet. I’m glad I finished, because he has some wonderful insights and ways of describing the little interactions between people of all ages, and I enjoyed them. And I liked grown-up Charlie very much.

I think it should appeal to young people, particularly those interested in theatre, not because it’s theatrical but because it may echo some of the relationships they have had (or wish they’d had). And I think it will definitely appeal to adults who have participated in amateur drama, especially in their youth. I certainly recognised the kids from my school plays.

I will definitely read more Nicholls, and I thank NetGalley and Mariner Books for the preview copy.

Charlie Lewis graduates from Secondary School with few prospects due to his miserable grades. His activities include hanging out with his hard-partying friends, a part-time job at a petrol station, and worrying about his depressed father. Everything changes when he joins an amateur theater company as Benvolio in order to get to know the dazzling Fran Fisher ("Juliet"). Like Romeo and Juliet, they fall spectacularly in love and experience the thrill and "sweet sorrow" of first love.

I have changed my rating several times while sitting here trying to decide what to write about this book. I am dithering between three and four stars but I am going to go with ………...three.

Basically it was a pleasant read. The characters were okay if a bit annoying. Oh except for Charlie's mother who was awful. Charlie himself had been dealt a very rough deal and meeting Fran was probably the saving of him.

Mostly it was a fairly normal coming of age tale interspersed with lots of Shakespeare, which was rather well done. The dialogue was often quite funny and the ending, set many years later, rounded everything off nicely.

So a nice book and an easy read but for me it was not in the same ball park as "Us".

A special thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

High school student Charlie Lewis is unremarkable. He has just finished exams and is waiting on the results. To pass the time, Charlie works part-time, rides his bicycle around, and looks after his depressive father post divorce.

Everything changes when he meets Fran. But, if he wants to be with her, the price to pay is Shakespeare—Charlie must join the Company even though it could cost him the respect of his friends. He commits to playing Benvolio in the Company's production of Romeo and Juliet.

Sweet Sorrow is about how the path to becoming an adult is often rocky, the power of friendship, and how confusing relationships can be.

One Day wrecked me—and I mean that as a compliment—so you can imagine how thrilled I was to get an advanced copy of Sweet Sorrow. But I have to be honest...at first I was skimming, mostly interested in the bits with Charlie and his clinically depressed father and then Nicholls hooked me and didn't let go until the last word.

1997's Britain is the setting for most of the novel. Grown up Charlie, on the verge of getting married, is looking back to the summer he fell in love. Exploring first loves is something that Nicholls does best—he captures the innocence and nostalgia like nobody else.

Infused with humour, this coming of age novel is relatable and poignant. It too reads like both a Shakespearian tragedy and comedy.

I thoroughly enjoyed One Day by David Nicholls and was looking forward to this one. Sweet, nostalgic romance, but felt a little flat.

"This is a love story, though now that it's over it occurs to me that it's actually four or five, perhaps more: familial and paternal love; the slow-burning, reviving love of friends; the brief, blinding explosion of first love that can only be looked at directly once it has burnt out. A single word can only carry so many meanings, and maybe there ought to be different words for something so varied and weighty. For the moment, this one word will have to bear all of the above, and married love too."

I couldn't put this book more succinctly than that. Charlie grows through this book, a dual timeline of his current day and that short, hot summer of his first love, potential felony crimes, and the inevitable growing apart of friends once school ends. He joins a play to alleviate the day in day out boredom of summer, only to attempt to gain the attention of a girl there, one who will ultimately prove to be his first love. The story is told in fits and starts from the depression of his home life to the fun of working on the play with friends he never expected, and was a decent read but not something I'd rave about. Good for one read.

Well, this successfully took me back, and no mistake. However I don't just mean to say it took me back to the 1990s – for one thing the characters are a decade younger than myself – I mean in the negative way that this took me back to "Starter for Ten". So much of this (person with hang-ups about their education finds an intimidating female) has DNA in common with that first book. We don't have the love triangle, and we don't really have any mystery over a whole extent of the plot, for what we have is a middle-aged chap reminiscing over his first love. Before now he's told his current partner she popped his cherry, and we have also been told she's going to come back into his life, but the fact they get together (just like where, when it first arrives) is a foregone conclusion. Yes, there are still things for us to find out – how they ended, what will happen in the here and now with her return to proceedings, his criminal activity – but on the whole, for a romance tale, there is a surprising amount of this that seems to offer no surprise whatsoever.

So, if the core of their time together wasn't so winsome, this would be a dirge. And it does at times show the lack of editing, but it's good fun, if not as humorous as some of this author's previous. The lad, fresh out of school (and with personal and educational problems that are perhaps a little too heavily laboured), stumbles into a month-long drama workshop, building to a public performance of Romeo and Juliet. I said I was taken back – and yes, all the games with hacky-sacks, Zip Zap Boom and stretching exercises are spot on. I know this world – even if I never got given a broom-handle called Stick for a sword. There seems a heck of autobiographical detail here, but I have to assume it's heavily fictional, for the reason in my second sentence.

And ultimately the book is not so much about the romance between the two leads, nor is it exclusively about the production of the play. It's about how we might look forward in our lives, and finding satisfaction with what is to come alongside not finding the past too disagreeable. The book says we don't need the limelight every night, and neither should we react to the lows, but finding an even path to the future is the most satisfactory way. This is certainly satisfactory, and leaves many nice warm impressions – just enough to earn four stars, despite me really wishing for much more concision at times.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

David Nicholls never disappoints. I simply adored this book and all it stands for! First love set against a production of Romeo and Juliet.

Charlie and Fran are experiencing first love and Charlie must decide if the challenge of being with Fran is worth the risk of losing his friends and being known as a theater person whose "company" almost has a cult status.

As in traditional Nicholls fashion, he brings characters to life that we all can relate to. I'm sure many of us have gone through challenges like both Fran and Charlie go through. You will fall in love with these characters.

Another great masterpiece from David Nicholls!

This book was about a boy that is getting ready to get married to the love of his life that takes a glance into the past at his first love and the events of around that time in his life. Charlie Lewis has parents that are separated and he lives with his father who is suffering from depression. His mother has moved on and lives with her boyfriend and has taken his younger sister with her. He has a part time job at a gas station under the table. One day, he has escaped from home and is reading when he meets someone who will change his life forever. Her name is Fran and she is part of a theatre troupe that is staging Romeo and Juliet that summer. He becomes part of the troupe to get closer to her and finds himself in many ways. As always, this author is amazing at character development and makes you really feel his writing. I will definitely be recommending this book to others. Thanks for the ARC, Net Galley.

Overall a gentle, kind, enjoyable book, albeit a little slow for my taste.
A coming of age story, full of classic teenage angst, love, emotions and all that goes with trying to step into the big wide world.
While this book took a while to get going, stick with it; watch the story unfold and get lost in the story telling of Mr Nichols.

I loved One Day by David Nicholls, a book that stayed with me long after I'd turned the last page. Which means Sweet Sorrow had some huge, book-shaped, boots to fill. I opened it expecting great things. To a degree, I got that - a complex story about first love and the agonies we sometimes go through as teenagers when we don't feel right in our own skins.

Unfortunately, what I didn't get was a real connection to the characters, something to keep me staying up late at night turning pages. I liked them. I just didn't love them. I don't know if this is because the central character was male, though as I've read plenty of other books with male protagonists and loved them, probably not. I don't know if was the era - I was starting my life in the early '90s, not starting my working life, and I struggled to relate to the teenage angst.

More than anything though, I struggled to relate to Fran. Charlie felt real. I got him, understood why he was such a mess. I didn't get Fran. I know she was Charlie's ideal girl, designed to 'fix' his life. But by making her so perfect, it made it hard to connect. I felt I was seeing the flaws Charlie wasn't and it was driving me potty.
The other thing that left me feeling a little adrift was the speed of the story as soon as Charlie's teenage years came to an end. I felt like I flew through a lot of his life. Again, I get why but it wasn't what I wanted given I'd put so much time into his teenage angst. I think I wanted a slightly bigger payoff.

This doesn't mean it was all bad it wasn't. There are moments when I got completely lost in the world David Nicholls created, the pictures he painted. It's just I didn't stay in that world from start to finish. So a good, but not great book, for me.

A coming of age novel that magical emotional time when a teenager falls in love.A story that will bring you back to your adolescents the fun the drama the turmoil.#netgalley#hmh

Growing Pains

A tragicomedy says the book's synopsis, and that's exactly how I would describe this book. What happens to the protagonist Charlie in this summer of '97 rather fits the first category, but David Nicholls describes all this in a way that made me smile several times while reading.

This book is a coming-of-age story of a 16-year-old whose world is in a complete upheaval (the family is bankcrupt, his parents freshly separated, school ended and his best mates going their own ways). This boy now has to care for his depressive father, work 12hours a week at a petrol station and kill the rest of the many hours in between. As luck will have it he meets a theather cooperative for youths. Something he really doesn't want to be involved with. Shakespeare? Get out! But then he lets the sweet girl named Fran convince him to at least try reading for a role.

As I said, the story of Charlies captivated me. Not least because I remember this particular summer quite well myself. I finished school in 1997 as well, and 2 long hot months lay before me. Though my experiences weren't as exciting as Charlie's, I see some similarities.
All the same, I had to struggle a bit to really get into the story. Charlie, or rather David Nicholls, often takes the scenic route and detours to here and there. This breaks the dynamic of the story a bit and was lengthy in places. But after about half the book I was really engrossed in the story.

I really liked it that "Romeo and Juliet" was not only an accessory but really part of the plot. I could picture the teenagers rehearsing their lines and playing their roles and trying to understand this centuries old play. That way, even minor characters (also including Charlies parents) became individuals.

Sweet Sorrow for me was just sorrow. I could not get into this book at all. It drug on and on. I eventually just gave up.

I enjoyed this book, though I wouldn’t call it a fast read. It’s a remembrance of a teenage boy’s first love, his complicated family and school life, and just the general anxiety that stage of life brings. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it was well-written and enjoyable.

"Perhaps all families have these fleeting moments when, without ever saying as much, they take each other in and think, we work and we fit together and we love each other and if we can remain like this, all will be fine."

Charlie Lewis is a sixteen year old, lost boy during the summer of 1996. An endless summer stretches ahead of him, and to pass time he bikes around town and reads in forgotten places. On a particular day he finds himself eye to eye with a girl that will change his life.
Life isn't something that Charlie particularly likes; with a dysfunctial family and never-ending working hours at a petrol station, he feels trapped. Maybe that is why he finds himself accepting the offer of the lovely girl he meets - to join a play. What starts out as an attempt to impress a girl will soon uproot his entire life. Making Charlie question life and its unfairness while also teaching him how far we are willing to go for the people we love.

I always start out each new year by reading One day by David Nicholls. It has been my favorite book ever since I first read it. However, this year I started out by reading Sweet Sorrow. And it did not disappoint. It was, as Nicholls' books always are, bittersweet and nostalgic. It transported me to a time in life when I was lost and wondered, just like Charlie, what the point of life was. Angry at the world for throwing its disasters at me, and feeling as if nobody understood me. Charlie learns that sometimes we outgrow the friendships we thought we would have for the rest of our lives, our loved ones disappoint us with their choices and that if you do not grab life by the horns it will pass you by. It tells the story about a boy who discovers love and how it can change you into a better version of yourself while also forcing you to face the ugliness of the world.
Sometimes we find ourselves, in places we never even thought of to look in - and that is exaclty what happens to Charlie Lewis.