My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a trope I had not read before and be warned—this story starts quite heavy on the angst and the topic of grief is woven through the entire narrative.

This is an enemies to lovers story about Becca and Charlie. They lost Ally—Becca’s best friend and Charlie’s fiancee.

Becca and Charlie have a complicated history and have disliked each other for years. They reach an uneasy detente for Ally’s funeral and then find themselves carrying out her last wishes over the course of the next 5 years.

They are definitely enemies at the start—cruel and unkind to each other, exasperated and unyielding. The thawing of their relationship happens slowly, as their mutual love and abiding grief for Ally ties them together in the tasks on their list and they learn more about each other and themselves as the years progress.

Their interactions are often harsh but there are more and more moments as the story progresses where they find commonality and kindness. They both grow as characters.

The story is told in an episodic way, with alternating POV, and time skips to each year they encounter each other. It is useful to note the date stamps for the headings.

The theme of grief and loss runs through the entire book. It is deftly handled and the rawness and loneliness of it is very well written. It permeates the story far more than I’d expect for a romance but it works and is integral to the character’s identities and eventual growth.

There are many lovely moments—hikes, tea shops, festivals. There is romance but it’s muted—the trope of the dead best friend puts a damper on much of the chance to have romantic exposition, particularly as it is a situation the characters struggle with as well. Grief is compounded by guilt.

I found this an engaging read. The characters are interesting and layered but definitely prickly and flawed in an extremely realistic way. Their personal traumas predate their loss of Ally and their stories really dictate who they are and how they act and react. It was very satisfying to have them reach a HEA/HFN.

Spoiler alert: there is a twist at the end that I really did not like and that I could have done without. It completely soured the end for me. I might have rated it higher without it.

3 1/2 stars

i didnt love this book. honestly i could never get over the dead best friends boyfriend trope.
honestly im not a massive romance fan but this 100% was not for me.
i almost stopped reading at multiple points

This is not your typical romcom book, and starts off on a very sad note of the leading characters, Becca and Charlie’s, best friend and fiancé, Ally, passing away. Becca and Charlie are then left to pick up the pieces of their lives. This book jumps between both of their points of view and jumps in time over the years as Becca and Charlie work together to complete Ally’s bucket list. While they start out as sworn enemies, as time goes on things begin to shift between the pair and they work through the bucket list tasks. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a fresh perspective for me and unlike anything else I’ve read lately. This book does focus much more heavily on the grief process for the characters and their growth through that vs. romance however. While their is the element of romance towards the end, even that was viewed through the lens of how they reconcile that with their best friend being gone. I did really appreciate how the author showed how there are so many layers to grief and no one right way to get through what will be a lifelong process ultimately. This won’t be your typical light hearted romance, but still worth picking up and enjoying! Just bring some tissues!

Absolutely loved this book & I was hooked the moment I started to read it.
Well written with some great characters I loved it from beginning to end.
An emotional read with a very sad start but develops beautifully with lots of laugh out loud moments.
The death of Ally hits her fiance Charlie & her best friend Becca really hard.
Unfortunately these two can't stand one another & they have history from when they were all at Uni together.
Ally has given them the task of finishing her bucket list together & scattering some of her ashes in all the places there tasks take them.
How are they going to accomplish this when they can't stand each other &they always argue.
They have to meet up once a year to complete each task so they need to find a way to get it done for Ally's sake.
Lots of bitter sweet moments & bickering along the way with plenty of attitude especially from Becca that had me laughing to myself.
Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Are you really supposed to only have one True Love in your lifetime? Ally was Charlie’s True Love but she died from Cancer unexpectedly. Ally’s best friend Becca is also devasted. Brought together by grief, Charlie and Becca agree to scattering Ally’s ashes according to her bucket list over the next five years. The problem is that they are polar opposites and despise each other. But isn’t there a saying that opposites attract? As Ally and Charlie meet up each year on the anniversary of Ally’s death, these frenemies share some tender and hilarious moments. The thing is, they a, re two people who know each other best. Charlie is someone who can’t make a decision to save his life, unless he flips a coin. Becca is so set on being independent that she is always pushing people away. Only later, as the onion peels, do we find why these characters are who they are. As the years progress and they try to move on, Becca and Charlie come to rely on each other but will the stars ever align? Charlie says ‘Some days I feel like I’ve lived more than one lifetime, so, couldn’t we be right for each other this time around?’

This was a page turner and I truly loved reading it. It’s just a cozy read, sad at the beginning but the hope it emits is contagious. Very character driven, the author did a great job at developing the characters, leading the reader along but not spilling the outcome. Some surprises and aha moments. A fast read, I really did not want it to end. I look forward to reading more from Hughes. Put this in your bag for a great beach read!

Many thanks to #netgalley #tenyears #pernillehughes for the opportunity to read and review this book.

When a romance book tackles grief, you never know what you will get. Or how many tears you will shed. Sometimes you just need a good cry. Other times you just want to step outside of your fluffy love stories box and delve into something with a bit more meat to it. TEN YEARS was that for me.

I recently reviewed a book where the main character hated the love interest for 15 years, sees him at the high school reunion and boom! they are in bed immediately. I complained that it was too quick considering how much she hated him for all those years.

In TEN YEARS, it's a long, very long, slow burn of somewhat mutual hatred for … ten years. Almost too excruciatingly slow. I know, I know. However - it was worth the wait.

Grieving over Ally - Charlie's fiancée and Becca's best friend - the two are thrown together by Ally's last wishes involving the two of them meeting yearly to spread her ashes while accomplishing her unfinished bucket list.

Having hated each other from the first moment at "uni" to seeing Becca and Charlie's ups and downs in life and with each other, we see how grief can affect people long after their loved ones are gone.

When stories span a decade or more I sometimes get frustrated and want to skip to the end (I never do), but with TEN YEARS I was ready to travel years with them in hopes that they would end up together.

Thank you to Harper Collins UK/One More Chapter

I rate TEN YEARS five out of five stars.

Wow!!! What a book! This gave me all the feels and my heart!!!!! Oh my heart! I loved every bit about this and could not put it down!!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you so much HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, and NetGalley for this opportunity.

I thought it was a light novel, but I've never been so wrong. It was something unusual, but definitely enjoyable.
The writing was straightforward and smooth and an easy read for someone that is reading in English for the first time.

There is no doubt that I will read more books by this author in the future.

The cover gives away how Ten Years is going to end, but the story is well worth the read. There are very predictable moments and moments where the reader has to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the story, but all in all, it's an enjoyable romantic story.

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

My first book to read by this author but definitely not my last! Such a beautifully written novel that made it hard for me to put his book down once I started it. Highly recommend!!

Definitely a Chic Lit type of book. Unusual topic, but believable. Main Characters and scenarios well described. 10 years for growing up from Uni students to young working adults. Sad circumstance of a dead friend, Ali, bringing together her best friend and her fiancé.

Was the story predictable? Absolutely! Did I enjoy it any less? Absolutely not!

I went in knowing this would be the usual enemies to falling in love story. However, the characters in my opinion had such growth over the course of the story. I enjoyed seeing their growth and finding their way to each other.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️



#TenYears #NetGalley #OneMoreChapter #bookstagram #booknerd #books #reading #readersofinstagram

This was a interesting book. I really enjoyed the way the time line jumped through. Where you still got both characters updates but you kind of jumped through their lives. It was really interesting to watch the character growth between each chapter.

The ended didn’t do it for me, it isn’t a trope I typically enjoy. But I did enjoy reading about both Becca and Charlie.

4/5 - just because of the trope. The writing was incredible and I really enjoyed reading this one.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book.
It started with ally dying and her fiancée and best friend completing ideas of her bucket list each year to remember her by. At the start of the book I really wasn't rooting for them however as the book goes on I really start to root for them. I think loved the character development in this book from completely devastated to rebuilding there lives post ally and maturing.

For a novel in the romance genre be warned, the story begins on quite a heavy note. It's an enemies to lovers story about two people Becca and Charlie who lose their best friend / fiance Ally, and meet once a year to carry out her final wishes.

For me I felt the balance was slightly more swayed towards the enemies side of the trope. Charlie and Becca can't stand each other (poor Ally), bicker constantly and have some really horrendous fights, which made them quite hard to like.

The begrudging at first but convincing development of their friendship worked well and I did like they way they looked after each other, and encouraged growth in one another, even if the method of snipping at each other seemed quite a harsh way to go about it.

The sense of time threw me a bit in places, as the episodic nature of events accelerated the relationship between Charlie and Becca without much interaction but enabled a lot of change to take place in their lives. I did enjoy the settings and scenarios for the tasks and pivotal moments taking us to Snowdon, Cannes, homes, afternoon tea, a tandem bike etc as I thought these brought the story to life and created space for the lighter funnier elements as well.

The theme of grief is handled really well but its prevalence perhaps sways the genre balance into fiction rather than a romance.

Overall, whilst there were some sweet moments (mainly on the friendship side of things), I really wanted more romance from the story, and I think this was quite difficult due to the taboo 'dead best friend' trope underpinning it (as underlined by Becca's mention of girl code and the subsequent guilt she experiences).

Thank you to OneMoreChapter and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

From the day they met at university, Becca and Charlie hated each other. A loved one's loss brings them together to complete her bucket list. From enemies to lovers. Whilst the plot of the book is obvious, it’s a heartwarming easy and cosy read perfect for the holidays. I devoured it in a day!
Thanks to One More Chapter, and Netgalley for the advanced reading copy of Ten Years in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the beginning of 'Ten Years', the opening chapter from Ally's perspective was hard hitting and had me hooked. The following chapter captured that feeling, but unfortunately, after that it lost me a bit.

I enjoyed aspects of this book - the way it dealt with grief was beautiful, and there were many passages I highlighted to reflect on later. The romance was the most disappointing part, for me. There were several adorable moments, and the use of popular romance tropes in a unique way was fun, however, the main pairing just lacked the chemistry I was longing for.

I loved Becca as a character, but Charlie was a little harder to love. I don't think their relationship happened in a natural way, their realisation of their feelings felt too sudden for me. I honestly feel that the story would have been better if it had just been about their growth from enemies to close friends. I think that would have been more impactful.

I did enjoy a lot of this book, but I'm rating it 3/5 as I was expecting a deep romance and instead felt that aspect fell short. However, I do recommend this book, the writing is engaging and witty, the concept is fun, and the messages about grief are important.

This was a great wee read. Started off heartbreaking but developed into a gorgeous love story. I love a happy ending and it was a joy to spend time with the characters.

Great for fans of P.S. I love you.

Pernille Hughes has done it again! As always with Pernille’s wonderful books, I knew I was in for a treat and this did not disappoint. The story of Charlie and Becca and the circumstances around their relationship is so emotional and well-written. The narrative did have me a bit teary eyed at times, I must admit. The plot was well developed and I absolutely rooted for the characters. Huge huge thank you for allowing me to read this ARC. Ten Years is definitely set to be a best seller! Highly recommend.

I had high hopes for this book based on the synopsis, but going in, I quickly realized it wasn't going to be what I'd hoped from it, and the writing style didn't agree with me. I found the writing style a little jarring in the way it handled emotional responses, and I didn't like the way the story was being set up. Because of this, I didn't finish this book.