In Ten Years we join Becca and Charlie navigating the years that follow them losing their best friend and fiancée respectively, Ally. As it transpires their love for Ally is essentially the sum total of their common ground which is unfortunate for them as Ally's last request was for them to complete the bucket list she was never able to.

Thus Becca and Charlie are thrust together in Hughes' fresh take on the 'enemies to lovers' trope which feels so brand new that forces you to question at times whether it will be these two who end up together... Will it be? You will have to find out for yourselves.

Becca is feisty, headstrong and thick-skinned as they come. Charlie is privileged, indecisive and has a go with the flow attitude which leads to instant fireworks... Fireworks in terms of non-stop arguing and generally getting on each others wick. I took an instant like to Becca's endearing salt of the earth attitude. She holds no punches and takes no prisoners. On the other hand I didn't warm to Charlie and this is definitely intentional by Hughes who has crafted realistic, flawed and sometimes raw characters which is really refreshing. The readalong group was definitely divided in their opinion on these two!

My like for this story grew the more I got to know and understand Becca and Charlie. This was an entertaining read which I recommend as something different from the run of the mill contemporary romances which was reminiscent of David Nicholls' One Day.

A really good read. Predictable but enough will they/won't they to keep you guessing. I loved the idea of Charlie and Becca doing tasks together because Ally, Charlie's fiancee, Becca's best friend had made it her dying wish. A lot of fun in the banter around the tasks, and I loved the familiarity. Good fun read even though it was dealing with the aftermath of the premature death of a young woman. #netgalley #tenyears

I really wasn’t liking either Becca or Charlie. But as I read more and learnt more about each character and understood them and what Ally meant to each of them I did actually end up liking both of them.

I really loved the bucket list idea and seeing how Becca and Charlie had changed each year when they came to doing the next bucket list challenge.

This is definitely not your usual enemies to lovers story so if that’s what you are looking for maybe this isn’t for you. It does deal a lot with the coping of losing someone important in your life.

I was really rooting for them even if Becca was perhaps a bit harsh on Charlie sometimes.

Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources and One More Chapter for having me on the tour and for my gifted ebook.

What's it about (in a nutshell):
Ten Years by Pernille Hughes is a poignant story of grief, moving on, and finding love where you least expect it.

Initial Expectations (before beginning the book):
From the cover, the story looks like a love story. And the description tells a tale that is potentially an enemy's to lover's tale that with a death of a loved one as the impetus for their changing relationship. Bringing in a death could mean that the story has extra sad and reflective layers.

Actual Reading Experience:
What I loved the most about Ten Years is how it took me on an emotional journey from page one until the end. I shed happy tears at the end, and I never do that! The book starts with the death of Ally, best friend to Becca and fiancé to Charlie. A book that begins with such a moving scene must continue bringing the emotions as the story unfolds, and I felt like it did.

I also enjoyed the realistic depiction of how long it would take two people who loved the same person to allow themselves to fall in love with each other after that person's passing. Their relationship was also full of ups and downs, which is equally believable. Their path to finding a romantic partner in each other was never going to be easy, and it wasn't.

Characters:
Becca is a prickly woman who is determined to make it in acting. She doesn't like Charlie and is not afraid to let everyone know about it. But she loved her best friend, Ally, and would do anything for her even after her passing.

Charlie is a man who tends to avoid those things in life that are hard, including telling anyone significant in his life about his dead fiancé. He is likable despite his failings because of his love for Ally.

Narration & Pacing:
The story is told in 3rd person narration which works perfectly with telling both Becca's and Charlie's tales and going back and forth in the timeline. The pace was moderate to slow, but since I read it in little increments for a read-a-long, I didn't mind this. I definitely think this is a book best read slowly.

Setting:
The setting is in the UK, and the main characters go to different spots in the country and live there. I love how other locations are part of the bucket list plot. I feel like the ever-changing settings fit in perfectly with this story about growing and changing.

To Read or Not to Read:
If you are looking for a story that will move you and have you crying happy tears, Ten Years is just the book you are looking for.

I love an enemies to lovers to trope and this did not disappoint. Charlie and Becca do not get on, this is an understatement! Their story is set over ten years and we follow them on this journey, the ups and downs they face while dealing with grief and the different effects it can have on everyone. It’s both funny and sad, a wonderful array of characters and a good pace kept me hooked.

If enemies to lovers trope is your go-to then this book is for you.
Charlie and Ally have been dating since uni. Becca and Ally have been best friends since uni. Becca and Charlie don’t get along but they co-exist for Ally’s sake, that is, until Ally passes away from cancer, leaving them a bucket list of things to do with her ashes and forcing them to get together once a year and cross an item of the list. Each year as they grew older and distance themselves from their grief in different ways, it changes how they see each other and therefore it affects how they handle the bucket list item. Each year when they went to see Ally’s mom to get the ashes for the trip, she would remind them of how much they each meant to Ally and so that must mean something (that they’re meany to be together)
To be honest, I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between them a lot of the time. It really didn’t hit til almost the end and then it hit with a major wham! I did enjoy watching them grow and change over the years and seeing them look back to what brought them to this point.
Thanks to One More Chapter and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review

“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…’

It begins with Ally, the person who ties Becca and Charlie together. The final line of the prologue lets you know that what follows is an emotional story, and it is. Becca and Charlie share two things their unequivocal love for Ally and their animosity towards each other. Demonstrated at Ally's funeral, you concede that going their separate ways is best for all, but Ally's bucket list changes everything over the following ten years.

The story is full of emotions that immerse the reader in Becca and Charlie's lives with and after Ally. The author creates flawed characters that draw the reader's empathy as the characters learn to live without the woman they love. The many poignant moments are balanced with humour as Becca and Charlie learn to like and trust each other.

I like this story's characterisation, believable emotion and uplifting qualities.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Ten Years was a beautifully written book about an awkward and painful topic. When Becca and Charlie lose Ally, they both assume that they'll no longer have to suffer one another's company. After all, they only put up with one another for all this time because of their love for Ally. She was Becca's best friend and Charlie's fiancee. However, fate and Ally have other plans. When Ally's mother asks them to consider taking a portion of Ally's ashes to a "bucket list" location together in her memory, it starts an annual tradition that they both agree to see through regardless of their animosity for each other.

Over time, Becca and Charlie start to somewhat care for one another. Not that either of them will admit it. Life moves on and they fight over how things are handled along the way. Becca believes that Ally's memory should always be the guiding star and has difficulty moving forward. Charlie struggles with moving on but throws himself into it. It's just another bone of contention for them that keeps them at odds.

As the years pass, the reader can't help but wonder when these two will realize that they are the two meant to be together. Even though you know that's what the entire book is working it's way towards, you still aren't sure these two can pull it off. There are just so many things standing between them. But if it's meant to be, then things will work out.

This was a unique and interesting storyline. Even though there were times I felt like sitting these two character down for a long lecture, I still enjoyed the way it all played out. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

I adored this book! Initially, I was expecting this to be a lighthearted romance but it is so much more than that. This book alternates between Charlie and Becca’s perspectives and spans across a ten year period. Following the death of Ally, we see her best friend and her boyfriend complete a series of bucket list challenges despite hating each other. As the years pass by, we see the characters grow, develop and mature and we follow their successes and failures as they navigate life after Ally.

The thing I loved most about this book is the journey it took me on and the range of emotions I felt while reading it. Even within one chapter, I could go from laughing out loud to feeling grief or sadness in the turn of a page. The character development was fantastic - I felt like I knew the characters and was really rooting for them to find happiness. Despite the long chapters, the ten year time period made this book feel really fast paced and I just wanted to keep reading to see what happened! I 100% recommend that everyone reads this book - 5*! 🙌🏻

Thanks to One More Chapter for the gifted copy of this book.

A solid 'will they/won't they' romance. This wasn't groundbreaking for me but an easy, enjoyable read.

This made me a little uncomfortable as it was dealing with a terminal illness. I found it very sad but uplifting at the same time. Nit really sure how I feel about this book. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Tragic and beautiful all in one. Having seen the hype around this book I just had to read it. While it was good it didnt quite grab me like I had hoped for. At times I felt the plot could of been rapped up a little sooner. I did love how different the two main characters were to each other, the complete opposites which really gave a boost to the whole story.

I loved this book! It’s been compared to One Day by David Nichols which is a very bold statement as that’s one of my all time favourite books BUT it totally lived up to it!

Ten Years follows Charlie and Becca who are forced to come together after Becca’s best friend and Charlie’s fiancée Ally tragically passes away. She was very young and still had a bucket list of things to do, so she asks Charlie and Becca to continue her bucket list and scatter a little piece of her along the way. The pair then meet up once a year every year and the book catches up with them then.

This book was such a brilliant representation of how messy grief is and how there is no one size fits all way to grieve a loved ones death.

I adored Becca’s character, she is incredibly flawed and makes stupid mistakes but I loved how human she was. I couldn’t help but root for her and what her to succeed.

This book was so brilliant but also very sad in parts and definitely made my heart hurt more than once - but the sadness is worth it in the end!

My first DNF. I just couldn’t get into this book at all. After hearing about it from @natasha_notes and how she was reading it as part of a book readalong, I requested it from @netgalley and started it right away.

The storyline I thought to be a good idea but for me, it was a slog. The storyline line was too drawn out for me and the characters very annoying.

For me, it didn’t hit the spot and I’m super sad about it but I just couldn’t face picking it up. It took me 3 days to read 25% and that’s when I knew I had to stop. As sad as I am and I don’t have many positives (which is unlike me) I’ve had to put the book down.

I am not sure how I really feel after reading Ten Years. What I did feel was that it dragged on just a bit too long and a bit of a slog at times. However there were some bittersweet moments.
Thanks to the author and Netgalley for this ARC

I raced through this book and really enjoyed it. Obviously having a best friend and a fiancé who has died is heart-breaking and this is how the story starts out but its written so well and is the basis to the whole story. Following Becca and Charlie over the years as they come to terms with Ally's death and the journey it takes them on was both infuriating but fun. Infuriating because you just know they belong together but they don't see it. I've never read a book like this before and I look forward to reading more form this author.

In TEN YEARS, Pernille Hughes shares the story of Charlie and Becca. Enemies as well as Fiancé and best friend to the remarkable Ally, they mourn her death each year by completing tasks she asked them to do each year following her death. Together, they brave the world without Ally as best they can, hating and loving and encouraging one another only as sworn best enemies can do. I rooted for them individually and together, loving how the story unfolds in natural, beautiful rhythm. I received an advance copy of this novel and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

3.5⭐

I was fortunate to receive a copy of this ARC from One More Chapter to join the readalong for this book!

I found it very slow to start with. It didn't really pick up for me until the second wedding of the book. I found it very hard to like Becca, Charlie or even Ally (not wishing to speak ill of the dead!) Both Becca and Charlie were clearly heavily affected by their upbringings, but there were few redeeming features in my opinion. The epilogue just added to my feelings of manipulation by the characters!

Sadly this definitely wasn't "One Day" for me but an enjoyable enemies to lovers story.

This book had me laughing and crying from start to finish and by the end of it, I was an emotional wreck. But, as heartbreaking as I found some aspects of the book it was equally funny and uplifting.
Grief is never easy to navigate but trying to do so with someone you don't like makes it a tumultuous journey. Becca and Charlie bicker nonstop but interspersed between arguments are some of the sweetest moments you can have between frenemies. The little considerations they had for each other spoke volumes. They knew each other inside out and when it truly mattered they were there for one another.
The annual bucket list tasks were tinged with sadness but quickly overridden with humour by their snarky one-liners and madcap ways. They were actually a joy to read and I couldn't wait to see what they get up to next.
Despite the heavy theme of loss, every page is enthused with humour. Becca is hilarious without even trying to be and I couldn't help but laugh at some of the things she said to Charlie to get on his nerves.
I loved watching the pair develop a friendship over the years and eventually find a HEA with each other.
A brilliant book that will stay on my keep shelf.