I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did, but it was charming. A bit of a weeper, but theme of grief and loss was dealt with well. It was a little slow moving especially at the beginning and took a bit too long for the two characters to sort themselves out.

This is a difficult book to review because I enjoyed it, but also rolled my eyes a lot.

I read it in one sitting, as I was enjoying it and did want to see what happened. I thought the way the author portrays the different experiences of grief was done well, and I could see the way Becca and Charlie's relationship evolved over the years. It was a beautiful and realistic portrayal of moving on from a partner and best friend's death, the difficulties in doing so, and how love can evolve from this. I enjoyed the bucket list idea, as it felt like their forced proximity was occurring in a natural way and showed their love for Ally.

However, their dislike of one another felt childish, dramatic, and irritating (and not in a good enemies to lovers way). The way they acted and spoke to and around one another was more reminiscent of a child than anyone supposed to be in their twenties. The reason for their rivalry was a disappointment, and served to further my view that they were childish and ridiculous. The time jumps later on in the book didn't feel as natural as at the start, and it felt like some tropes were thrown in "just because". They didn't really feel as though they'd developed the story in any significant way. I think this was why I didn't feel invested in their relationship.

Overall this was enjoyable book, but as a romance I was a bit disappointed.

I liked the way the story unfolded although it was a little predictable. Ally directed Charlie and Becca from beyond the grave, like conducting an orchestra. She knew her two friends would do anything for her, even after death. For Charlie it took a failed marriage, for Becca a large dose of self belief and confidence to realise they were meant for on another.

10 years follows 2 “sworn enemies” Becca and Charlie over the course of 10 years as they navigate their way through relationships, careers and the grief of losing their best friend and fiancée respectively.

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc of 10 Years. It was a beautifully written story that just ran a little too long for my tastes. The will they won’t they went on for so long and when they finally did it felt forced and unnatural.

My biggest complaint however is would it have killed the author to make one remotely likable character. Becca was childish and awful, her mom more of the same. Valerie was manipulative and meddling. Charlie was self centered and cruel. At no point did I find myself rooting for anyone in this book. Even the dead fiancée was portrayed as awful at points. That blow out between Becca and Charlie wasn’t telling each other “hard truths” it was horrible and I have no idea how they forgave each other.

ten years being an enemies to lovers with both characters having a common friend or in this case fiancee and best friend was right up my alley, especially with seeing the depth behind how charlie and becca's dynamic came to be. the pacing of this one was slow but more of a steady slow burn as they both go through grief of losing ally and begin to bond closer over time with the bucket list ally left for them. though being a romcom, hughes writes the dealing of loss in such a raw realness with how they feel as the years pass more and more. there was also the aspect of right person wrong time even though they didn't know it until they finally got along more unfortunately after ally's passing. i empathized with becca the most as we get to read more of backstory of how she became the character she is with how her childhood and past affected her in the long term. this is truly a solid romcom recommended for anyone looking for more of a slow paced emotional read predictable along the way.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

After the death of their best friend Ally, frenemies Becca and Charlie are left with the task to complete her bucket list. The storyline follows Becca and Charlie’s journey over the next 10 years as they follow through with each task.

Ten Years is a slow burn. The book has love in it but I wouldn’t necessarily consider it strictly romance. The storyline is more “happy for now” than “happily ever after”. The main characters are so petty and awful to each other through most of the plot and I found them really dislikable. Ten Years is quite short so maybe the characters just needed to be developed more.

My favorite part of the book came with the twist in the end.

This is the first book that I have read from this author but I’d like to look into some of her other work in the future.

Lovely book!! I adored all that characters and the development was great throughout. Kept me wanting more. I would definitely recommend!

Full disclosure, the first thing that attracted me to this book was the cover... on the grounds that I'm a big X-Files fan and the picture of the couple reminded me of a stylised Mulder and Scully! I'm glad it did because I probably wouldn't have been drawn to it otherwise, and I very much enjoyed it. Despite the obvious disadvantage of a lack of aliens, government conspiracies and the FBI, Ten Years turned out to be a brilliant read.

Charlie and Becca both love Ally - Charlie as a fiancée, Becca as best friend of many years - and her death, at a heartbreakingly young age, leaves them bereft. What it doesn't do is bring them closer together - they quite convincingly don't get on. However, over a period of years, they are forced by a task set by Ally to spend time together around once a year (this structure reminded me a bit of One Day, though it's a long time since I read that). Meanwhile, life goes on and work and relationships change and evolve around them. We know they're going to end up, somehow, together - but getting there makes for an excellent read.

The highlight of the book for me was the character of Becca, an aspiring but largely unsuccessful actor, who I loved. I totally believed in her character, good and bad (she definitely has flaws, pretty large ones in fac) and she was hugely entertaining to read about.

Many thanks for the opportunity to read and review!

A great story full of heartache and love! So much happening and written in a beautiful book keeping you hooked in from start to finish

This was a corker, I love a love/hate relationship almost as much as I love a tale that takes us on a journey over a number of years and this did not disappoint.

We follow Becca and Charlie in the years following Ally's death, we see their relationship grow from distaste to mutual respect to attraction. I thought the characters were really well written, likeable although definitely definitely flawed. We see the tenderness of friendship and we watch the relationship growing, another one that I flew through.

Recommended to fans of Mhairi McFarlane and Sarra Manning.(my faves!)

Set over 10 years between 2011 and 2021. When Ally dies her two best friends are overcome with grief and find it hard to move on without Ally. Charlie Ally’s fiancé finds it hard to make decisions and Becca deeply misses Ally. Becca totally dislikes Charlie and will be glad not to see him again after Ally’s funeral.
Almost 12 months after Ally dies Charlie and Becca receive an email from Ally requesting that they both visit Valerie, Ally’s mother on the anniversary of Ally’s death. Valerie has a task for Charlie and Becca.
I loved the way the characters interacted. Charlie and Becca hate each other but their love for Ally and Ally’s mother brings them together regularly over ten years to remember Ally.
This was a love story about friendships and grief.

I was initially captured by the description of this book.
This is not a genre that I usually read but I felt that a change would be good . I’m so glad that I did .
This is such a well written book that deals with loss and love . No spoilers here just to say that this book is well worth reading.
Credit to the author .

This book is an elaborate tale of two people and their relationship through the loss of a loved one.

I was invested in the beginning (although put off by the fact that the person who had died (Ally) was Charlie's fiancé, and by the fact that both Charlie and Becca's attitude towards each other seemed just petulant and somewhat annoying.

But still, I felt that the book was quite fleshed out in exploring the characters' states of mind through the years. the development felt quite natural and the obstacles believable.

However, i do feel like this stretched out way too much - I completely lost interest towards the last quarter of the book as things just felt repetitive and somewhat contrived, making it feel too long and less natural.

Thank you to NetGalley for supplying this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows Becca and Charlie as their recover from the loss of Ally, their best friend and fiancée respectively. It falls firmly into the haters to lovers trope. At the beginning of the book they have a spat at Ally's funeral and it is established early on that they can't stand one another. However Ally has left them a posthumous bucket list to complete. Tasked with scattering some of her ashes each year whilst completing various challenges (climbing up Snowdon, cycling from London to Brighton...) the two find that maybe they don't hate each other quite so much after all??? Note, some spoilers ahead.

Although the story and the plot were nice enough, there was something missing from this book for me. It lacked any real punch. The characters, one of whom is repeatable described as funny, and goes on to write a 'Fleabag' style TV show, are wooden. They lack any of the 'funniness' or 'charm' that either are described as having. There are some very unbelievable actions that we have to turn a blind eye to to accept them as plot points (being engaged to someone for three years and them having no idea your last fiancée died, as if no one else would bring her up in conversation). And there are whole sections that are just dull.

It wasn't all bad. I thought the story was sweet, and it was a good, light read. If you wanting an easy read and enjoy the haters to lovers trope this may be the book for you.

Beautifully written characters that come alive drew me in.A story that touches on each emotion from grief romance joy.This is a book I will be recommending.Even after I read the last page the story stayed with me.#netgalley #ten years.

I enjoyed the gentle pace of this book but I found it predictable. Charlie and Beccas love story seemed to be a very will they or won’t they affair which seemed to drag on a little bit to me.

The story did portray grief very sensitivity and accurately. I’m struggling with this at the moment and I resounded with the fact that everyone grieves in their own way at their own pace. There isn’t a one size firs all template.

I do feel that many readers will love this book. Fans of romantic fiction will definitely enjoy the love story .

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for my chance to read this gentle book.

While I generally found this story to be pleasant, I could definitely do with some trimming—I think the book itself is longer than necessary, and certain scenes go on for way longer than I cared to read them. As a love interest, Charlie is a pretty major pushover, which can also be frustrating to read (he really loves to get into relationships he doesn’t care about), but I liked Becca well enough as a heroine.

I enjoyed this one, it was a story about grief, loss and human feelings. But I was a little slow for me to get into the story and feel what the characters are going through; making it a 3.5 stars read for me.

3.5. Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC. I was very excited to read this book because it sounded really good. And parts of it were… But other parts to me seemed to drag on way too long. 10 years is a really long time to decide of two people either should or should not be together – and at times I really didn’t love either character. Charlie’s fiancé, Ali, dies, and leaves him and her best friend, Becca, to fulfill a bucket list for her. Sounds great, right? But then it somewhat slows down. I think my favorite part was the last 50 or so pages when there was just simply more action and dialogue. That said, it was still an enjoyable book and I still love the concept.

As someone dealing with loss, a lot of the parts about grief resonated with me but other than that, I just didn’t find this book to be very interesting.

I wasn’t at all invested in Charlie or Becca as characters and didn’t really care if they fell in love or not. Rather than reading because I enjoyed it, I was reading to finish it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc!