Ten Years, by Pernille Hughes, is a laugh-out-loud romance that will keep you flipping through the pages until you come to a very satisfying ending. You can, and probably will finish this one in an afternoon. Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with an ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

This book starts at the Funeral of Ally. Her best friend and fiancé Charlie are devastated at the loss of someone they loved so dearly. They also hate each other and after the funeral go their separate ways until almost a year later they receive an email from Ally. This is the start of doing things from her bucket list that she never had the chance to do because she died so young. At the end of the bucket list Charlie and Becca once again go their separate ways until a chance meeting throws them together once more. They have a drunken passionate night together that Becca regrets. What she is unable to see is that she and Charlie are perfect together. Something that Ally realised before she died.
I found this book very slow to read and didn’t like the fact that it jumped months and sometimes a year at a time so I found it hard to keep up with.
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest views.

This book starts out at Ally's funeral. This isn't a spoiler it literally happens on the first page and it's in the synopsis. Charlie and Ally were engaged to be married. Becca and Ally were best friends and Charlie and Becca hate each other. This book deals with the grief that people go through after a loved one has passed away, so we get to see how both Becca and Charlie cope with Ally's death over the course of ten years most of which they only meet up once per year. 

I read the synopsis for this when I first agreed to read it and was intrigued but by the time I got around to reading it I had forgotten what it was about so I went in blind. To me this book was perfect. It gave me everything I want in a book. The fighting/banter between Becca and Charlie was amazing. They were cruel to each other at first just for the sake of being cruel but by the end it had turned into them just speaking the truth mostly in a loving way. I loved how they went from enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers and yes I meant to write that twice. There was always something they did or said that made them take 1 step forward and 2 steps back. I will say I would have liked the romance to be more on page instead of fade to black but that is just a preference. it doesn't affect my rating of this book which you can tell from the rating I give it below. I would have also liked more of them actually being together because I just love romance and I want to read all about it. 

I loved that this showed how people deal with grief differently. Becca and Charlie both grieve in very different ways and while I didn't always agree with the choices they made it always felt real. The things they did never felt like they were out of character or didn't belong. 

This is the first book I have read by this author, and it definitely want be my last. I loved this book more than I was expecting and I am so glad I gave it a chance. If this sounds like something you would enjoy I highly recommend you giving it a try.

This book has been compared to many books that I really loved, for instance One Day, Me Before You and PS I Love You, so needless to say I was worried if it would live up to such high expectations. There really was no need to worry!

I loved this story and how we saw Ally's best friend Becca and Ally's boyfriend Charlie grow as people after Ally dies much too soon. Ally's bucket list forces these two enemies to spend time together in the years after Ally has died. Becca and Charlie really rub each other the wrong way, but are still bound together. It is quite the journey we as a reader go on joining Becca and Charlie on their bucket list adventures and seeing how grief, time and experiences change them.

The story deals with grief, love and life in general and I can honestly say I will never look at gummy bears the same again!

Ally the fiancé of Charlie and the best friend of Becca has passed away after a cancer battle. Although they both loved Becca they really do not like each other! On the first year anniversary of Ally's death they have to meet up and scatter her ashes on Snowden. Here they are given a ten year challenge (hence the title) of a kind of bucket list set by Ally to complete a challenge each year on her anniversary. At first all these challenges show is how very different these two characters are but, as time passes they start to bring the two together. A very emotional read but, still enjoyable.

This book was just not for me. I found myself very bored. It seemed liked this book dragged on. I also really did not like the writing style of this one.

The premise of this was so beautiful, especially with the bucket list storyline. However this fell short for me and felt incredibly unrealistic. I don't feel the characters had enough chemistry, let alone respect, for eachother to warrant a 10 year love story. It felt very forced, and the fact that Ally would want them to be together just doesn't sit right with me.

A captivating emotional, romantic story that is perfect for PS I Love You fans.

As Ali's best friend, Rebecca, and fiance, Charlie, deal with their grief after her death, it is discovered that she has left them a bucket list of locations where she would like her ashes spread. Once a year, Rebecca and Charlie get together to celebrate Ali's life for the next ten years. It is not long before their feelings for one another become apparent, but can they focus on the future, or will the thought of Ali haunt them too much to act?

This story of grief, love and life after the loss had me feeling it all! I adored Rebecca's feisty character and the way Charlie leaves all his life's decisions to a flip of a coin. As the story developed, the frustration with them both was real! Funny, sensitive, romantic and dramatic.

This is beautifully written and would make a great screen adaption—a recommended read for all hopeless romantics.

I loved the promise of this book, as a huge fan of One Day I hoped this would live up to that title.
Becca and Charlie met at university and have never been the best of friends. They have bickered, argued, mocked, offended and all together rubbed each other up the wrong way, they have been connected by one person only Ally, so with Ally’s death you would think they could go their separate ways and never see each other again, but Ally has left a bucket list and both Becca and Charlie are determined to see it through.
Over the course of the next 10 years their lives collide as they deal with their grief, love and loss of Ally.

As I said I wanted to love this book, however I wasn’t really drawn to either character and didn’t find myself enjoying it quite as much as I hoped. I did feel they developed as the book went on but it was slow going in my opinion.

Ten Years follows Becca and Charlie over a decade. In the prologue, we meet Ally, who falls in love with Charlie and is Becca’s best friend. The first chapter, set in 2011, is set at Ally’s funeral. Becca (still Ally’s best friend) and Charlie (by then Ally’s fiancé) are both there. They can’t stand each other and are pleased they won’t ever need to see each other again after that sad day.
We fast forward a year, to 2012 and Becca receives an email – from Ally. Her deceased friend has instructions for her, things she wants her to do. Both her and Charlie have to visit Ally’s mum, Valerie, on the anniversary of her daughter’s death. So much for never seeing each other again… Valerie is wonderful, such a lovely character – and a great contrast to Charlie and Becca’s constant bitching and point scoring. She passes on an instruction from Ally – her wishes were that Charlie and Becca scatter some of her ashes at the top of Snowdon.
And so begins a series of tasks where the two enemies are forced to spend time together…
Ten Years is a moving account of grief, yet the book is never bogged down by it. There is a lot of humour throughout and both Becca and Charlie are realistic, if often infuriating, characters you come to care about. I was really shocked at some of the things they say to each other! Ouch!
You also get to know Ally. Even though she dies very early on, her presence is there through her messages and through Charlie and Becca’s conversations and memories – and the fact they are seeing each other at all. This made it seem less bleak really, because Ally’s presence was there and she accompanies them on their yearly adventures to fulfil her last wishes.
The novel shows how people deal with loss and how they try to move on, while never forgetting the person they loved and lost. They is a lot of depth to the book, but it never feels heavy. It’s much more than “just a romcom” though. In fact, I wouldn’t even describe it as that. There’s a romance, sure, but it’s more about how two people change over a decade and how their relationship changes with time and maturity.

I've never really been a romance reader, not because I'm not a fan just I've never found a book whose premise has captured me enough to want to read it. Everyone in the book community seems to be all over romance at the moment and I thought it was about time I give it a go. This one popped into my email and I jumped at the chance.

Ten Years is a slow burn, enemies to lovers romance, following Becca and Charlie. They've been connected for years due to their best friend and girlfriend, Ally, but they've never been more than sworn enemies. Ally creates a bucket list when she dies and sets Becca and Charlie the mission of completing it. Together. Over the years, the pair come to terms with their grief but also to their changing relationship.

Sometimes you read a book and it turns out to be exactly what you needed to read at that moment and I think Ten Years was that for me. I'd been feeling a bit reading slumpy and after a few pages of this one I was hooked. This books takes you through every emotion, anger, joy, sadness and also quite a bit of laughter. It's so expertly put together.

The dynamic between Becca and Charlie is so unperfect that it ends up perfect. Charlie loves the outdoors and walking, Becca always wants to take the lazier option. Becca is a wannabe actress, but with a bit of failing career and Charlie never fails to make a joke about it. The pair bicker until it turns into a full-blown argument, but they fit.

I enjoyed seeing the progression over the years, the stages of talking then not talking to each other, the changes to both of their careers, Becca's family and dating lives. Most of all, their ideas and attachment to Ally. They continue to grieve and she's never forgotten about, but their grief comes through the different stages.

Another thing I admired was the realistic tone still present in the book. You have the difficult life issues that Hughes dealt with brilliantly, but due to the journey she'd created the relationship felt so real. The characters both expressed their feelings surrounding Ally and any romantic possibility, you could see the indecision and the emotion as they try and figure out what is right for them but also what would've been right for Ally.

Ten Years came at me at the right time and completed captured me from the first page to the last. For all the romance lovers and non-romance lovers (like I was!), I'd definitely recommend giving this one a try.

I wanted to like this more than I did. There were some aspects I loved, like the creative premise and the way the book handled grief. However, I struggled a bit with the couple’s chemistry. All in all, I enjoyed it.

The write up on this book loosely reminded me to P.S. I Love You, which is my all-time favorite romance book. So I grabbed a copy. Unfortunately for me, this book fell flat. While the premise was good, the execution wasn’t. Ally and Charlie are engaged. Aly and Becca are BFFs. Becca and Charlie rub each other the wrong way. Unfortunately, they are thrown together to complete Ally’s bucket list after she passes.

I found the characters one dimensional, and frankly boring and not very likeable. The story is slow moving and predictable. I found I had to sit myself down and focus to read because I didn’t feel connected to the characters. The book moved slowly then seemed to fast forward towards the end. Ending was predictable.

Thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

the plot had a lot of potential - kind of like 'one day', which is a film i adore - but i felt like it was too slow to the point where it became unbereable. i struggled to get through it, but i can understand that someone else might enjoy it!

I really enjoyed Charlie’s character, and found he had the most eye opening change when it came to feelings and what he chose in life. He explained himself and watching him realize what he’d been doing all these years was like letting go of a breath you’d been holding and smiling in the end.

Becca was a bit more complicated. She came from a broken home, found Ally as a BFF and thought she’d always have this person as her cheerleader, by her side. When Ally dies, Becca continues to flounder in her life. No great relationships, no good jobs, no place to call home.

As Charlie and Becca get thrust together by Ally’s bucket list (with the help of Ally’s mom Valerie), by spreading her ashes in various places while both have to do things that are not in their comfort zone, they turn from enemies to friends. But still keep it real by calling out each other’s bs.

I enjoyed the the meets and then a year went by. I liked the dual POV and what was going on in their lives. I know what in the end the outcome of this story would be, but the journey to that point was a roller coaster of feelings, fails and friendship.

Thank you to Harper Collins UK, Pernille Hughes and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

A fantastic book which stays with the reader, beautifully written and some very difficult subjects dealt with sympathetically.
Ally and Charlie are in love when tragically she dies before her time. Because, Ally’s best friend hates Charlie and the feeling is mutual !
Ally wants them to complete her bucket list together - interesting premise when they can’t stand each other. They decide to undertake one task a year. This is their story and how they deal with grief in their own individual ways
I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend. - a classic
Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins and Pernille Hughes’s for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review

This book was a mixed bag for me. As it deals with grief in a timely way for my life, I found it hard to read at times. But then sometimes I laughed, which felt really good. But a lot of the time, I spent angry with Becca, who is undoubtedly the most miserable person I have ever read about.

I’ve always said you can enjoy a book when you don’t like the characters, so I give this 3 stars because the story is good. It’s thoughtful, and I like how it unfolded. But I cannot get on board with Becca at all. She argues for the sake of hostility. She’s just so mean, and I spent most of the book angry that we were at another nitpick, another fight, another put down, another “I’m better than you,” and it got really exhausting.

Outside of the constant fighting, there is a fun story. I liked the various locations and activities involved with the bucket list. Hughes writes the story descriptively, so you can picture exactly where the characters are. People live on in our memories, and I think this story is a shining example of that. So while this had some ups and downs, it has some very favorable reviews, so I would encourage people to give it a try.

An emotional tale of second chances and living again. I’ve loved the readalong for this and the chats and thoughts from the other readers really added to the experience.
A brilliant character lead story with Charlie and Becca stealing the stage - this story is full of emotions as we follow their lives over the years. I loved the idea of the bucket list for Charlie and Becca to follow for Ally’s wishes and enjoyed the twists and turns in their journey as they were forced to work together and overcome their grief. Their battles of wit over the ten years were enough for me to want to bang their heads together but I could totally get where they were in their journey with grief and love - a wonderful read.

I’m not normally a massive fan of the enemies to lovers trope, but this book made me rethink my own views about the trope. From the outset we can tell that both Becca and Charlie love Ally, and dislike one another intensely. When, a year after Ally’s untimely death, they are brought together to go though Ally’s bucket list, it forces them to spend one moment each year together to commemorate Becca’s best friend and Charlie’s lost love.

I loved the different bucket list stops, from climbing Snowdon, to afternoon tea on a vintage bus, attending a festival, cycling the London to Brighton Bike Ride on a tandem, and returning to ‘their’ tree on their uni campus. Each of the items ticked off the bucket list brought changes to their relationship, and they begin to very slowly realise that they bring out the worst and the best in one another.

This was such a beautiful study of grief and how differently we grieve, even contemplating the survivor’s guilt that life goes on, when it has stopped for the person who has died. I loved the way Becca and Charlie grew up as the years progressed and found their true selves. Neither of them were the same person they had been at the start of their time following the death of Ally. They both had a growth arc that showed how perfect they were for one another, even if they couldn’t necessarily see it themselves.

Honestly this book had me laughing and crying throughout, and I found that when I had to put it down I was still thinking about it, which is always the sign of a great book.

4.5 Stars

“You can’t hide from grief, it’s in you. You have to accept it and accommodate it to work through it.”

Ten Years by Pernille Hughes is our first book by this Author, and what an absolute blinder of an introduction to her work. We bloody loved it! The way she tells a story with such detail, attention, and visual imagery, as well as the intensity of emotions and the depth of her characters -well- it reminded us of the wonderful Sarra Manning and Lia Louis. It was so good, and we loved pretty much everything about Ten Years!

‘Losing Ally had been losing half of himself. For months he couldn’t work out who he even was without her. Moreover, the Charlie who’d been left behind was miserable, angry, and lost. He didn’t like that Charlie, with his unshakeable cloak of sadness.’

Ally, Becca, and Charlie. A three-clover friendship held together only by Ally suddenly becomes two when Ally passes away and Becca loses her best mate and Charlie his beloved fiancé. Much to their surprise, Ally leaves them with a bucket list of where she wants parts of her ashes scattered. So, what do two people who pretty much ‘hate’ each other do in order to honour the memory of their loved one? Well, they decide to carry out one item from the list once a year to minimise contact. These celebrations of Ally become so incredibly special and creates a bond that grows in strength, year by year. However, old animosity is hard to break but sometimes Charlie and Becca ‘doth protest too much, methinks.’

“Whatever. This is different. You belonged to her. Me being with you is disloyal, it’s wrong. What would she think?” Loyalty was everything to Becca. He knew that.

This is a superbly written enemies to lover’s romance with a few twists and bags of surprises along the way. It’s a story that looks at friendships and love, examines the celebration of human flaws and differences, with understanding and compassion. It explores living with grief and learning about yourself as well as the importance of self-reflection and growth. Such a wonderful novel that stole our hearts and made us feel everything in Charlie and Becca’s heartbreak, grief, guilt, and love story spanning ten years.

“I’m not prepared to give you up. I love you, and that’s the reason you should say, ‘Charlie, you’re so right, let’s do this’” ….
“What is it you think you’ve stopped? Me loving you? That’s not how that works. Just because you say it can’t happen doesn’t make it so.”

Ten Years read as incredibly real, and we felt as if we knew these characters and were a part of their story. It had bucketloads of angst and tension as well as extreme emotions and passion, with scattered laughter to break up the darker moments. It was a life and love story through ten years of hurt, anger, grief, laughter, sadness, and love. A slow building love story written with sensitivity that perhaps caused it to feel a tad long, although we never felt it to be repetitive. Rather, we needed to know if Becca and Charlie were going to be okay and that they found themselves in a place where they could be happy and settled after such personal tragedy. Find themselves as well as love. What an immense journey, we cannot wait to pick up more books from this Author!

‘They’d been enemies, then mates, then lovers, then enemies again, then apparently mates again, so perhaps…’