this was a really beautiful story of love, music, fame and family 🩷 i LOVED the two different timelines and the different POVs, especially Emily's. it took a while to grip me, but from about 40%, i was hooked.

it's pitched as perfect for fans of Taylor Jenkins-Reid and to be honest i don't see that, but not in a bad way. i think this story is its own style and should be credited as such - i've never read anything exactly like it and i'll definitely pick up this author again!!

(gifted - arc)

When We Were Young is a love story for anyone that has fallen in love, got caught up along the way, and made mistakes…this book is for all of us! If you loved Daisy Jones & The Six, you will really enjoy this book. Will dreamed of making it big in the music industry. When his song he wrote about Emily leads him to stardom, and brings them together, Will feels on top of the world. However, with fame comes distance and pressure that Will and his bandmates all grapple with. When We Were Young weaves a story of love entwined with the heaviness of mental health struggles. It is a story of moving through grief and finding forgiveness. When We Were Young releases July 17, 2025, add it to your summer TBR!
Thank you to Netgalley & Avon Books UK for sending me this book. All opinions are my own.

Liv is 16, music-obsessed, and currently captivated by the late Will Bailey, a talented musician whose life was cut tragically short in the 90s. So when she discovers that her own "boring" mum actually knew him (and more than just “knew” him), everything shifts. Her mum, whom she’s always seen as ordinary, suddenly has this past that Liv never expected and a connection to Will that she refuses to talk about, blaming herself for his death.

Back in 1994, Emily was an art student and Will was a busker. Now, in 2016, she’s a single mum working in a school office, quietly carrying the weight of the past, focusing on raising her daughter.

Told across dual timelines (1994 and 2016), the story moves between past and present with a rhythm that’s easy to follow and compelling. Multiple POVs give a fuller, richer picture of the characters’ lives, and far from being confusing, they pull you in. I was completely hooked by the end of the first chapter.

The characters are well developed, and the secondary characters are surprisingly strong too (Magda deserves a special mention, loved her!) The book deals with themes of grief, guilt, and healing with sensitivity. I appreciated the mention of the "ask twice" campaign, a subtle but powerful reminder woven into the narrative.

This was one of those books I flew through in a couple of sittings it flowed really well. It’s heartfelt, haunting, and hopeful, with an ending that wraps things up just right.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books for the ARC.

You know it took a while to get into this book but it ended up being so beautiful!

I personally would have changed how some of the reveals were done… but overall it was beautiful!

This is perfect for fans of Daisy Jones and the Six.

A beautiful story of loss and love.

Thank you for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Avon Books UK for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own

These book is set in two timelines spring 1996 and spring 2016, this book also has multiple points of view but it’s very easy to follow what is going on. Will is an aspiring musician and he comes across Emily an art student while he is busking. By 1997 Will’s band is playing at Glastonbury and Emily is preparing for her first gallery show. Emily ultimately ends up going on tour with Will and they spend an unforgettable summer together.

In 2016 in the present timeline Emily’s life mostly resolves around her 16 year old daughter Liv, Liv digs into her mums past and finds out her mum knew Will. Bailey and does not know how her mum came to know someone like Will Bailey.

This book broke my heart in places and then stitched it back together at the end, it was a story about coming to terms with your past and forgiving yourself. It was quite a cathartic read and I thoroughly enjoyed and would not hesitate to recommend.

For anyone who has ever loved deeply and lost, this novel will resonate in ways that feel both heartbreaking and healing. It’s a gorgeous read that explores how we carry our pasts with us and how those we love whether they’re still with us or not continue to set us free.

Interweaving dual timelines, When We Were Young explores what it means to have loved and lost, and reminds you that the ones you love can set you free. Pick up this gorgeous hug of a book and get transported to a beautiful place wraps itself round you like a cosy blanket. It has warmth, charm, laugh-out-loud moments and a wistful nostalgia. I absolutely loved it.

Bittersweet, evocative and quietly devastating, When We Were Young is a beautifully told story about love, loss, and the enduring grip of the past. Elaine Hastings delivers a heartfelt dual timeline that explores both the magic of young love and the scars it leaves behind.

In 1994, Will and Emily are both on the cusp of something extraordinary. He’s a gifted musician, she’s a dreamer with paint-stained fingers, and together they burn brightly in a world that feels full of promise. By 1997, they’ve shared a summer of music, art and heady first love. And then, just like that, Will is gone.

Fast forward to 2016, and Emily is a shell of the vibrant girl she once was. A single mother with a teenage daughter, her life is safe, small and far removed from the chaos and colour of her youth. But when her daughter, Liv, discovers the truth about Emily’s past with Will Bailey—now a cult icon in music history—the past is no longer something Emily can keep locked away.

The dual narrative is expertly woven, each timeline enriching the other. I found myself aching for young Emily and Will, fully immersed in the magic of their early love, while feeling the quiet ache of older Emily’s guilt and grief in every page. Hastings captures the rush of first love with a painter’s precision and a songwriter’s heart, but also the heavy silence of everything left unsaid.

Liv’s discovery of her mother’s past adds a compelling generational thread, and their relationship becomes a quiet triumph in the latter half of the book. It’s not just about what was lost, but what can still be reclaimed.

When We Were Young is raw and poignant, yet also filled with hope. It’s a book that will break your heart and help put it back together again, just slightly changed. Hastings handles complex emotional territory with grace and clarity.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

When We Were Young is a dual timeline romance, bouncing between 1994 and 2016. In 2016 Emily’s daughter is obsessed with a musician from the 90’s. She discovers her “boring” mother had a relationship with said musician. The two spent an amazing summer together when then student Emily and then busker Will met and Emily went on tour with Will’s band sometime later. For fans of “Daisy Jones and the Six”, this is a story of the past, the present, love, loss and music. This is not what I would call a “contemporary romance” as some of it is set in the past and its has more of a golden hour love and loss vibe compared to more the popular romance novels today. This book was a far cry from what I usually prefer to read so it did take some time to hook me into the story.

This is a story about a woman coming to terms with her past, love, family (Child/Parent Relationship), and friendship. The daughter brings up a name from her mother’s past, which sets this story in motion. The story goes back and forth between the daughter looking into her mom’s past, the mom reflecting on the past, the father figuring out his part and the past. Part of what I enjoyed about this book is the portrayal of an ordinary every day mom and the daughter discovering her mother’s relationship with a lead singer of a famous band. We sometimes forget parents lived full lives before us. I also liked how the story had a couple love stories in it but didn’t diminish the feelings involved in either relation- the love stories shared similarities and differences and it did not portray either love right or wrong, just different.

I gave it four stars because it was a great book but I reserve five stars for books I think have a more general mass appeal or really touch me to the core. This was a really good book in it’s genre.