This has to be the most deceiving book I’ve ever bought. I was expecting a Christmas book. Based on the cover and the blurb, I was CONVINCED this was gonna be a cute holiday read taking place probably on Christmas eve or something. I also thought a good chunk of the book would take place during those eight hours.

Dude.

First of all, the eight hours take place in March. Second, those eight hours are done by like the 3rd chapter and nothing particularly interesting or cute happens. The rest of the story is literally from April through October, like?????

Now the story itself is not bad, I don’t absolutely hate it. The premise was cute and although the characters didn’t have sizzling chemistry, they were still cute enough. I’m just massively peeved that the cover is so misleading. I was in a total Christmassy mood and this book completely butchered that.

Again, it is an okay book, just know that it is not a holiday book whatsoever.

 Eight Perfect Hours is a sweet “meant to be” story. Noelle and Sam meet when their cars are stuck next to each other during a snowstorm. Eight hours later the roads are clear and they go on their way not expecting to see each other again And yet their paths keep crossing in unexpected places - again and again. This story was underpinned by grief, regret, anxiety and depression but the characters do grow, move on and let go so it isn’t unduly heavy. Some of the meetings and connections feel contrived and unrealistically coincidental, so this is best enjoyed in a go-with-the-flow manner rather than read through a critical, analytical lens. 

cute book. not really much to say tbh. HOWEVER, i did like the whole fate aspect of it because i think it’s something nice to believe in so the fact this book plays into it is cute :) 

5.0 stars
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TW: Death, Grief, Car Accident, Mental Illness, Suicide, Infidelity. 
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Lia Louis had done it again and has gained an auto-buy on my list. This book had me feeling all of the motions, I laughed, I cried, and wanted to throw my kindle across the room. The plot of this book hooked me immediately, I love the fact that this book had me questioning fate and love at first sight. 

Noelle Butterby is on her way home from her college reunion when a blizzard leaves her stranded in her car for the next 8 hours, with a dead phone, and no idea of when she'll be back - Noelle finds herself in a state of panic. In walks American Sam Attwood to offer some assistance, the two of them hunker down together and spend what is eight perfect hours together. I felt my heart flutter during the entire scene where the two of them were in the car together, Noelle and Sam have amazing chemistry together. After the night is over, the two strangers part ways, under the assumption they'll never see each other again. Fate has other ideas as the pair often run into each other countless times over the next few months. 

I really appreciated how realistic the characters were, they both had flaws that were acknowledged and had problems that were acknowledged during the course of the story. Although I was madly in love with the characters, I had really hoped for a bit more fizzle from our characters and wanted a bit more romance between the two of them, there are certain plot points that make this tricky to do. I really appreciated how vulnerable our characters would get, and seeing Noelle work through problems in her life, and realize that she has so much more self-worth and in the end got everything she deserved.

I enjoyed this soft sort of uplit-esque  romance… it’s actually not QUITE romance but it has romantic elements in it- it’s sort of reminiscent of that golden era of Brit “chick lit” (hating to use that nomenclature but you know what I mean) from the late 90s/ early 00s that was women’s coming of age stories. In that way, this is very similar to this author’s previous novel (Dear Emmie Blue). It’s about family and friendship, but also about loss and grief and being stuck and reconciling either being okay with that feeling or doing something to change it, without privileging the latter option as most books do. 

The  premise of this book is that Noelle is kind of stuck in a rut, grieving the loss of her childhood friend, looking after her housebound mother, and mourning the end of a long term relationship when she meets Sam on a highway when they’re both stranded due to a blizzard. Over the next few months they continue to meet randomly through no effort on their part leading them to question what fate is trying to tell them,especially since they’re both battling demons and dealing with blasts from the past.

This is a book that happens very much in Noelle’s head. It’s not that there is no plot action, there is, but you have to have a lot of patience with Noelle’s worries and fears and internal monologues and doubts. I found that I related to her a lot but perhaps because of that I found her a little tiresome at times because it was a lot like looking into a mirror of my own psyche and staring down all my issues. Noelle rambles a lot and arguably her internal monologues can run on and tend towards the precious- but overall I found her endearing. 

I thought the way the author tackles mental health in this is quite good and I found realistic and diverse. Consider if this might be a little triggering if you have struggled with mental health or have had to take care of someone with severe mental health struggles. One major theme of this novel is grief and the ways people deal with or don’t deal with it- a lot of Noelle’s internal monologue centres around her trauma over losing her friend and this is reflected by the way she lives her life and also mirrored through Sam.

I feel like I struggled with this book in the sense of the romantic relationships. One thing I liked in this book as in the previous book is the way past romantic relationships are not villainised but rather seen through a lens of reality and seen for what they were- both the good and the messy with some 💩-holery that happens without you consigning entire characters as 🍑-holes. That said, I think because of the nature of fate as a character in this book, it made the actual relationship-building parts a little weak and underdeveloped for me. It’s not that I didn’t love the characters and the role of fate, but I wanted more of Noelle and Sam together on page. For such a “real” book, their epic love story felt a little rushed and unsubstantial because of how fate-based it was. And the thing is that when they were together it was good, at least from Noelle’s POV- Sam barely speaks now that I think of it, but there could have been more.

There are certain changes that happen in the book that seem out of nowhere and certain problematic family dynamics that are never resolved. If you like things tied up in and tidy now, this might be a struggle- but I liked the realism of leaving things open-ended in some aspects especially since this is otherwise such a fate-driven novel otherwise. 

Overall, I liked this and recommend it perhaps not as much as Emmie Blue but still it’s a wonderfully uplifting read. Many thanks to Simon and Schuster for the complimentary copy!