The First Time I Saw You: the most heartwarming and emotional love story of the year

If this story doesn't touch your soul, then I think you need to check if you've lost yours! Sophie is a very successful career woman; driven, in fact, with her career being the main focus of her life as she travels around the world. Then she meets Samuel - and he brings her to life, in more ways than one . . . A gorgeous, warm story which begins so easily and draws the reader in until you are fully invested without even realising it, this is a skilfully written novel and one I'm so very happy to have read. A new author for me, but I will certainly be hoping to add Emma Cooper's bestselling novel, The Songs of Us, to my list this year. The characters in this one are beautifully rounded, the story is entirely believable and it unfolds slowly and tantalisingly which kept me focused until the very final page. Obviously written by an author who can get into the head of her characters, I just loved this one and definitely recommend it to all those who love an emotional, heart-touching read. A fabulous book, definitely worth every one of the 4.5 stars I'm happy to give it.

This was a real roller-coaster of a book, will they, won't they finally get together, but with some quite serious issues throughout the story. Sophie is very into her high powered job and has no time for anything, or anyone, else. This is mainly because of a tragedy that occurred when she was younger, making her the way she is now. Then she bumps into Samuel whilst away for a job and her whole life changes. They get closer, but then events conspire to make Sophie run and they lose track of one another and spend the rest of the book searching for/missing one another. There are so many life changing things going on in this book, too many to list, but suffice to say both Sophie and Samuel's lives turn out completely different from how they started. Sam's Irish family were definitely the humour factor in the book, they were so funny and down to earth, I loved them! I must admit the beginning of the book was a little slow for me, but that didn't take long to change and this turned out to be one of those books I was thinking about when I wasn't reading it, and itching to get back to the story to see how it all turned out. There are some very sad and some very funny parts, along with some very frustrating parts when Sophie and Samuel kept just missing one another. A really great read, full of fabulous characters and emotion, that I would highly recommend.