All is right with the bookish world, another publication from Emma Cooper is coming… I have loved Emma’s books since I first discovered them, giving a very swift five stars to her first and second publications. When we first launched our online Book Club and bookshop, Emma was the third Author that we featured because her books are just something else. Her third publication slipped a star rating down to four, because I’ll always have a favourite and that didn’t top it. But nevertheless it was still an absolutely stunning book. It did mean that I opened the first few (digital!) pages of It Was Always You with a slightly nervous feeling. Would it be the best of Emma Cooper’s publications?  Would it be something different? There will always be a special place for The First Time I Saw You – but there’s a new space in my bookish heart for this one. Another firm five stars… read on to find out why…

Emma creates characters that you can’t help but fall in love with. Meet Ella, Will and Cole. The three main characters within this book that you can’t help but like, flaws and all. Emma Cooper has an incredible talent for weaving ordinary characters into storylines that will grip you from start to finish. She writes about their ordinary lives but in such a way that it’s fascinating. In the middle of these incredible characterisations, Emma drops little references to childhood, times gone by and… AND… music. Oh yes indeed… the big music references that made The Songs of Us so beautiful are back sprinkled throughout this novel and I loved those so much.

I never like to rehash the blurb in a review, and to give away any of the plot would spoil it. For me a review is firmly about how the book made me feel and what I loved about it. So to sum it up… this book is powerful, immersive, absorbing, nostalgic and… it will break your heart. Probably a few times, but it will put it all back together again too. Emma’s good like that.

Keep your eyes peeled for a signed edition coming very soon to your favourite (!) indie bookshop (us!) – more information to come in the Summer.

About the Book…

Would you choose a different life if you had the chance?

Two people. One chance to turn back the clock.

The unforgettable new novel from the author of The Songs of Us. If you love Cecilia Ahern and Holly Miller, you’ll adore this heartwarming novel.

On the last night in October 1999 the clocks went back, and Ella and Will’s love began.

A teenage Ella sat around a bonfire drinking with her future husband and her oldest friend Cole.

As Ella wandered away from the group and found herself leaning against a derelict
archway before passing out.

The next day, Ella remembered fractured images of a conversation with a woman
in a green coat and red scarf but dismissed it as a drunken dream.

Twenty-three years later, with her marriage to Will in trouble, and Cole spiralling out of
control, Ella opens a gift which turns her life upside down: a green coat and red scarf.

When she looks in the mirror, the woman from the archway is reflected back at her.

As the last Sunday in October arrives, Ella is faced with a choice.
Would she choose a different life, if she could do it again?

Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publication: E-book 1st June 2022, Paperback 1st September 2022.

About the Author…

Emma Cooper is a former teaching assistant, who lives in Shropshire, with her partner and four children. Her spare time consists of writing novels, drinking wine and watching box-sets with her partner of twenty-four years, who still makes her smile every day.

Emma has always wanted to be a writer – ever since her childhood, she’s been inventing characters (her favourite being her imaginary friend ‘Boot’) and is thrilled that she now gets to use this imagination to bring to life all of her creations.

The Songs of Us was inspired by Emma’s love of music and her ability to almost always embarrass herself, and her children, in the most mundane of situations. She was so fascinated by the idea of combining the two, that she began to write Melody’s story. Working full-time with a large family meant that Emma had to steal snippets of ‘spare’ time from her already chaotic and disorganised life; the majority of her novel was written during her lunchtime in a tiny school office. She never expected to fall so deeply in love with the King family and is overwhelmed that others feel the same.

She has three loves in life: reading, writing and her family…oh, and music, cheese, pizza, films – Maths is not one of her talents.

Connect with the Author…

Facebook
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Website

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher and author for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Check out my blog for more book related posts and to enquire about future reviews, blog tours and cover reveals.

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