This book was just beautiful. The way the words helped give the most beautiful visuals, with the description of the art pieces, the scenery and provided the best feelings to make you feel like you were actually witnessing two peoples love story. I cried, laughed, and felt the love heartbreak and lost Casey and Holly both went thru. The synopsis of this book captures it perfectly. I am grateful to have read it as an arc with netgalley.

This book was good, but the eleven-year time jump definitely bothered me. It just felt like too long to jump forward in time, and it didn't seem like the characters had grown at all during that time.

**Massive Spoilers Ahead**

Yeah sorry, this one is an absolute no for me, unfortunately... but first, let me start with the stuff I liked. I liked the writing style well enough, the basic premise was good and I was sucked in to see how it was all going to come to a head. However, unfortunately, this is where my enjoyment ends.

The main issue I had with this book was cheating - which is just a huge no for me in general but this book also handled it terribly - and the way the aftermath of the cheating was handled. Casey is an asshole, she was an asshole 11 years ago when she and Holly first met and she's still an asshole now. Yeah, Eva is annoying and self-obsessed but Casey chose to be in a relationship with her and had plenty of time to back out of the engagement before she ever even went back to Berlin. Even Casey's little sister calls her out and says "You just don't want to end it because you enjoy all the money and nice things that Eva's influencer lifestyle affords you" - so it's a bit rich that Casey gets annoyed that Eva posts everything online and is getting their wedding sponsored etc when she enjoys all the benefits from it. But because of the way Eva is represented it kinda seems like we're meant to not care Casey cheats on her, like somehow Eva deserves it.

Not to mention how fucking dirty she does Holly, starting up a relationship with her and sleeping together for a week and never telling her about Eva. Casey's whole family, co-workers and best friend tell her over and over and over what a bad idea this is and that she needs to end things with Eva first and then tell Holly everything but she doesn't want to deal with the fallout so she keeps avoiding it. Holly straight up asks her if she's had a recent relationship and Casey said no, she had AMPLE opportunity to explain the situation to Holly.

THEN when Casey gets caught out she never even seems to be sorry to either Eva or Holly, she's just sorry she got caught and that Holly's pissed. She never shows any real empathy as to how she's hurt them and every time she recounts the story to someone she prefaces it with "I know it looks bad on paper but it wasn't like that" GIRL WHAT? IT WAS EXACTLY LIKE THAT?? Just because YOU checked out of your relationship with Eva and considered it over it doesn't mean it was. Oh my god, she's actually insufferable.

And what might actually be worse is when Holly has a conversation with her best friend about this Holly admits she also would have cheated on Tom if she had met Casey when they were still together, and that she only maybe would have told Casey and Tom about each other AFTER hooking up with Casey. So girl WHY ARE YOU EVEN MAD THEN??

This book tried so hard to make it seem like they weren't bad people but honestly, it would've worked better if they both just admitted they were bad people and they didn't care about the people they hurt. Like at least be honest in your nastiness. These two are honestly made for each other.

Also wtf was with the random coke snorting scene? I'm not against drug use in books but it seemed so weird these 30-year-old adults would just randomly do a drug as hard as cocaine every now and again. It happened one time and was never really addressed ever again (except for Eva asking if she cheated while high, which she almost did).

Thank you to Netgally and Sapphic Stories Publishing for an arc in exchange for an obviously very honest review.

What would happen if these star crossed lovers ever got a chance to be together again? Casey and Holly’s brief encounter gave them all the feelings in such a short amount of time and left them pining for one another for years. Could a chance to be in the same city again be too much of a good thing? My heart truly felt for both these characters, I could see myself in both at different times in life. A sapphic romance with all the feelings and drama, I love how the author wrote the characters to have life problems that felt very real. I truly enjoyed this read and would read this authors work again

I will be completely honest, I DNF'ed this book two chapters in. The premise was so enticing. I was so looking forward to a lesbian second-chance romance! The title is super cute. However, I could not find any chemistry between the characters. I know the two main characters supposedly have a whirlwind romance, but it didn't feel like that. It felt like they just met and then were seeing each other and then one left. I'd really like it if there was more showing of how intense their feelings were for each other, not just telling the reader they'd never felt something this strong before.

Massive thank you to net galley for providing me with this arc.

I went into this super blind I actually requested it based off of the cover I know you shouldn’t ever do that but oh wow how this paid off in this instance. This story is a love story about how time can’t pull you apart either and the friendship chefs kiss.

Holly was a character who I just wanted to give the world she deserved it, I swear I would give this woman the world if I could! But that’s a side note, the relationship and this idea that even after Eleven years that spark is still there honestly goosebumps, this was such a fun read and I highly recommend to anyone who is wanting something to get stuck into.

Truly how can you feel so in love with characters who only have one book I cannot wait to see what comes next from Samantha!

Please if you are going to read this however just look at the trigger warnings prior as it deals with a few heavier subjects but if you can read it then I highly recommend!

(SPOILER WARNING!!)

Now I have a lot to say about this book, and most of it, isn’t positive.

But I would like to say that I am in the minority in this opinion, as I write this all of the reviews are 4 stars or higher. Please keep that in mind.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this.

The overall rating I’d give this is about a 2.5/5 but since I can’t give it that, I’ve rounded it up to 3.

In the beginning we learn about both of them attending the same Uni in Berlin and meeting each other there. For me it really seemed as though they moved FAR too fast. They had only known one another two weeks and had decided they were in love, relationships aren’t built that quickly. Even less so ones that stick with you for eleven years.

To add onto that Holly went onto say how she was willing to leave University and move to England to be with Casey. Why. On. Earth. Would you do that for someone you’ve literally just met?? It’s super unrealistic.

The British slang really got me, I absolutely HATE when people over-use it in books. It makes me genuinely want to claw my eyes out.

Casey and Eva, I hated them together, I get that you’re supposed to want Casey to get together with Holly but my god, I absolutely despised Eva. She annoyed me so unbelievably much.

Getting married after only being together for a year also struck me, I get there’s a running joke ‘lesbians move fast’ but that’s all it is, a joke.

All Eva wanted to do was post to her social media constantly, everything to do with the wedding, the ENTIRE proposal, her entire life was set in front of a camera. Casey and Eva couldn’t work well together, and I honestly don’t understand why they WERE together to begin with.

Casey wouldn’t even tell Holly her last name, yet suddenly she was perfectly fine with Eva putting her entire life all over the internet?

I really believe that neither Casey or Holly were in love, not in the beginning anyways, maybe they were infatuated, but they didn’t love each other. I can’t imagine sex being that good though, to the point you can’t stop thinking about it eleven years forwards.

Jaz, or jazzy, I really disliked her at first, her entire personality was just drugs and sex.

The drug-use in this was a little weird to me. They all acted as though this is just a thing normal thirty year olds do all the time, snort coke and fuck whoever is closest.

Holly moved on from Tom far too quickly, a week after they had ended and she was already off to have sex with Casey? Especially after she had confessed that she DID love him. Definitely not.

On top of that, it was really shitty of Casey to sleep with Holly while she was still with Eva. It was a horrible thing to do, and after the fact everyone in Hollys’ life was telling her to forgive her and get back with her, honestly, I think she was right not to want to. I wouldn’t have either.

When they were in Berlin Casey was SURROUNDED by people who KNEW she and Eva were together, all of her colleagues and work friends were there, and knew, about her and Eva, yet decided to play along and NOT tell Holly?

She was also showing Holly off way too much for someone who was actively cheating. Someone definitely should’ve told her, and the fact they didn’t, makes all of her friends super untrustworthy.

There’s also a lot of repetition, it felt as though it was the same situation happening over and over yet slightly different. Until eventually something else happened and then, you guessed it, that repeats too.

Now, after all of that nagging, the things I actually enjoyed:

From the beginning, about page 1-140 I was extremely bored with this story. I was fed up with it, it felt as though nothing interesting was happening and I didn’t care about any of the characters, but after that I really did start to get into it.

Once Holly and Casey actually met up, the story felt interesting and I was actually enjoying them being together. Before then though, I was not convinced they liked each other in the slightest. It was one big infatuation in my mind.

The family dynamics were probably my favourite part, I loved the way they acted with their families and how they both were different but still filled with love.

I felt genuinely sorry for Holly and her brother when her mum passed away.

The sex scenes, while few, were surprisingly, well written. A lot of sapphic books I’ve read have had sex scenes drier than the Sahara desert. In this book though, were actually quite good.

(I did bother me though that afterwards there was always crying and it was always something stupid like ‘I’m just so happy you’re here’.)

Casey and Holly had genuine chemistry, I believed that they wanted to be together. But this only occurred after page 130. (estimated)

After Holly and Casey had that break up of sorts, Jaz actually became a person, I could actually feel for her and it wasn’t just ‘drugs and sex’ for her anymore. I liked that she stopped Casey from sending too much about herself on the texts to Holly, and she was right in saying how selfish it was of her.

Casey WAS extremely selfish, most of the things she did in this book, was extremely selfish. I’m glad she got called out for this quite a few times, by both her sister and Jaz. It was definitely needed, and well deserved.

Chandice was probably my favourite character in the whole book, she the second she was introduced, had a personality and did her own thing. I was kind confused about her age though, It mentioned her being fifteen or something along those lines but then she was talking about writing a novel? So I really wasn’t sure.

Extra stuff I had to add:

Blake lively is fucking gorgeous.

When Eva said that one Christmas carol line to Holly, I just about lost it, that was so funny to me.

It confused me a bit that the descriptions for the characters came later in the book? And a lot of characters don’t even have one, we don’t know what quite a lot of them look like, so we just have to guess, it’s not great.

Random characters kept getting brought up and I can’t lie, I didn’t know who any of them are or what they did. There was too many to keep count of.

—

To me this book was nothing more than okay, it definitely isn’t my favourite and I don’t think I would read the full, proper thing when it comes out.

I really enjoyed reading this, it had everything that I was hoping for from the cover and description. It had a strong romance element perfectly and I enjoyed the story overall. It left me wanting to read more and I enjoyed the use of Berlin. Samantha L. Valentine has a great writing style and made characters that were realistic and glad I got to read this.

I have been on the biggest reading lull lately. I haven’t had the interest in reading like I normally do. I read the description of this book and a couple of glowing reviews, and decided to give it a try. I was promised grief and emotion and this book delivered! So many emotions. I love that this wasn’t necessarily the happiest of love stories but there was still a happy ending. The characters grew separately and then together and it was a beautiful journey to read.

Meet Me in Berlin gripped me from the start. Holly and Casey are both lovable, complex characters. I loved how this author wrote flawed characters with grace and care. The book flowed well, was written beautifully, and is a sweet romance. I thought the author did a great job of writing people making mistakes, making amends, and setting boundaries. Jaz is the best supporting character and I loved the family dynamics. There were so many funny, tender moments.

More than a decade ago, Casey and Holly met in Berlin. They had two weeks, and then they fell out of touch—with only a half-serious promise that they could meet again. Same time, same place, same day…however many years in the future.

Now, each woman is at a pivotal moment: Holly’s career takes an unexpected turn, and she’s realizing that her three-year relationship with Tom is not what she wants out of romance; Casey is thriving at work but regretting saying ‘yes’ when Eva, her social-media-influencer girlfriend (now fiancée), proposed…and livestreamed it. What Holly and Casey still have in common: they can’t get the other out of their mind. They’ve both done their best to move on, but without real success—and so they both find themselves on flights to Berlin, from opposite ends of the world.

This is one of the better romance novels I’ve read in a while. I always have a bit of trepidation about self-published books (even if an author has hella talent, they might not be willing or able to invest the same level of resources for editing, proofreading, etc., that a traditional publishing house can provide), but the desire to read a romance novel set in Berlin won out, and (o happy day) the book exceeded expectations (and, per the author’s notes at the end, did receive multiple layers of professional editing). Berlin ends up being a relatively minor part of the story and setting, but the character development is really interesting. I sort of love that in their initial relationship, Holly moves way too fast (or, starts talking about moving way too fast), and Casey freaks out. It’s realistic, but also, it’s something where 1) Holly sees that it’s too much and 2) they end up talking about it (…eventually). That’s reflective of the rest of the book, too: the characters sometimes make mistakes, but they talk about them—Holly and Casey talk about things; Casey talks with her family and friends; Holly talks with *her* family and friends; said family and friends aren’t afraid to deliver a verbal smack on the upside of the head when (vaguesauce to avoid spoilers, but Casey, I’m looking at you) actions don’t align with best practices.

I’m on record many, *many* times as disliking unredeemable villains, and I was afraid for a while in "Meet Me in Berlin" that Eva would be one of those villains. Tom hits a nice balance; he’s a good (if uninteresting) guy, and maybe in another context he’d be the right long-term person for Holly…but that’s not the context in which she finds herself. Eva is…less palatable…and gets pretty awful at times, but even she (to say nothing of her family) is given some complexity and room to grow, and that’s *always* what I want from romance novels’ stock of cartoonishly evil exes.

Something readers should be aware of: there ends up being a fair bit more about grief (and declining loved ones) in here than I expected, and it packs a punch, especially if that’s something you’ve spent more time than you’d like thinking about. (I’m curious about the author’s first book now, but I understand that there’s also quite a bit about grief there, so I may pace myself.)

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley.
I really liked this book that spans during 11 years of the lives of British Casey and Australian Holly that initially meet and fall in love in Berlin when they are 20 and on uni exchange there. They get a couple of great weeks there but then Case panics and flee back to London and they lose contact. They never really forget about each other though and 11 years later they meet again in Berlin, Casey is there on a business trip trying to get away from her fiancé and Holly on vacation after losing her job and breaking up with her boyfriend. They get back together, and they both think they have found their happy ending. However, Casey is not telling the truth right away about that she is still engaged and when Holly finds out she breaks it off and goes back to Australia even though Case says she has now broken up with hear fiancée. It is a lot of back and forth but in the end, Holly realizes she cannot live without Casey and they finally have their happy ending,
It was a great read that I highly recommend. So much love and back and forth between the characters until they finally realize they are meant for each other.