Last Time We Met by Emily Houghton | Book Review

“If there was one thing she’d learnt over the past few months, it was how to calm herself down. To soothe her own pain. To be her own support system. Maybe that was what happened when you had your heart broken… it grew back harder and more protected than before.”

ONE PROMISE
Aged thirteen, best friends Eleanor and Fin are inseparable. Convinced it will always be this way they make a pact – to go to university together, always live near each other, and if they’re both single at 35 they’ll get married.

TWO DECADES
Eleanor and Fin haven’t spoken in fifteen years. Life has run away from them and they’re both far from where they’d dreamt of being all those years ago.

CAN THEY STILL KEEP THEIR WORD?
It takes tragic circumstances for Fin to come back into Eleanor’s life, but everything has changed since the last time they met. Is it too late to mend their friendship? Or is there a chance they can keep some of the promises they made?

31. Last Time We Met

Emily Houghton’s debut novel-Before I Saw You– was one I fell hopelessly in love with, and it still remains a favourite today. I was already tracking her next release when the publisher sent me this advance copy. And now, having read it, I was reminded why she retains her spot on my list of authors I’ll always look forward to reading.

At its most basic outline, Last Time We Met is a friends-to-lovers story. And yet, the way Emily Houghton tells it makes it stand apart.

With Eleanor and Fin’s shared history, the narrative switches back and forth to reveal relevant bits of their lives. It explains their awkwardness in the present day and gently pushes them forward.

I loved how the people around Eleanor and Fin infuse an energy that drives them to work their way through the bottlenecks. Particularly Sal, Eleanor’s colleague and friend, is a character with boundless energy that is absolutely infectious.

Houghton balances her story-telling with highs and lows that take you an emotional rollercoaster. The premise peels away the layers that bind our perception of love, loss, family, friendships, and simplifies our understanding of relationships. The romance is heart-wrenching but despite everything, you find yourself rooting for Eleanor and Fin from the beginning.

An emotionally rich, character-driven story with a brilliant cast, it inspires hope and promises new beginnings. I do warn you though, reading this will take everything to hold yourself together and not fall apart in a complete mess.

Last Time We Met by Emily Houghton. Published in August 2022 by Transworld Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK. This ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Transworld Publishers.

Book 31 of 2022.

Aquamarine Flavours Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.

Available on Amazon*.

About Photo: At a community art class Eleanor attends, one of the themes is forget me nots. Eleanor thinks aloud how it can be interpreted as flowers, the colour blue, or not wanting to be forgotten by someone.

I decided to make forget me nots as 3D paper flowers. These use 80gsm paper and are cut using a template by Abbi Kirsten which I have tweaked for size. The backdrop is a grass mat with a sheet of EcoCushion Paper Wrap laid on top for texture. 31. Last Time We Metb

About the Author: Emily Houghton is an Essex girl at heart, but now spends most of her time between London and Suffolk. Growing up, Emily was always very creative but put her dreams aside to focus on academia, graduating from Bristol University with a first in Biological Sciences. She then entered the corporate world, spending seven years working in digital product management at Tesco and Barclays. It was during a sabbatical from work, whilst she was travelling around India that her first book was born and the first draft is still written on her phone.

After a whirlwind few months, Emily quit her corporate job to live her dream of writing full time. A true Gemini at heart, she’s got many interests and is a trained spin and yoga teacher. She has a curiosity for life and has a passion for all things well-being, one day hoping to create her own retreat space with a lot of dogs! Her writing, whilst centering around love stories, often touches on deeper emotional themes such as self-love, healing and the power of finding yourself.

You can connect with her on Instagram and Twitter.

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