This Love by Dani Atkins

What’s it about?

Sophie stopped believing in happy endings a long time ago, but could this love change all of that?

Sophie Winter lives in a self-imposed cocoon – she’s a single, 31-year-old translator who works from home in her one-bedroom flat. This isn’t really the life she dreamed of, but then Sophie stopped believing in dreams when she was a teenager and tragedy struck her family.

So, to be safe, she keeps everyone at arm’s length. Sophie understands she has a problem, but recognising it and knowing how to fix it are two entirely different things.

One night a serious fire breaks out in the flat below hers. Sophie is trapped in the burning building until a passer-by, Ben, sees her and rescues her.

Suddenly her cocoon is shattered – what will be the consequences of this second life-changing event?

You can buy a copy of this novel on Amazon UK | Amazon US.

Review

Real heroes do exist! This is just the most perfect romance novel, filled with emotion!

This book opened with a bang. I personally love the damsel in distress theme (it’s so me) and this is exactly what you’re going to get here. It feels like this novel was written especially for me! This Love starts with some very tense chapters with Sophie being trapped in her appartment while there’s a fire raging in the building on the floor below hers. The situation felt authentically tense and dangerous and I’m pretty confident this author could have a go at the thriller genre and write a bestseller. I was very happy her witty remarks also relieved some of the tension because I’m not sure my heart would have survived otherwise; I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry while she was trying to escape. That’s the first time I could feel I was in for an emotional read.

When Sophie gets out safe to the ground she’s rushed off to the hospital; she didn’t even get a chance to thank Ben properly for his involvement in her escape. She assumes she’ll never see him again but of course something brings them back together again and again and the blossoming of their love was so beautiful to witness, it filled my heart. Ben is perfect, he’s humorous, he’s caring… He goes out looking for Fred, her cat, without her knowing, for hours, so who’s not going to love a man like that? Sophie isn’t looking for love though…

I had inadvertently opened a door to allow him a glimpse of a room that very few people ever entered. I really wanted to shut it again, right now, only he had one of his big old size twelve feet in the way, blocking me.

They become best of friends and are growing closer together day by day, but then suddenly when he has his friends over, he can’t get her out of the room fast enough. Did she read him wrongly and will she admit to herself what she’s feeling? Can she get over her feelings of fear for the future because what if he would leave her too, like that other person she loved and was so brutally taken away from her?

Sophie we’re all going to die… eventually. No one can alter that. It’s what you do before that counts. No one should be remembered for how they died. But how you lived… well, that’s something that shouldn’t ever be forgotten.

My heart shuddered quite a few times while reading this novel, it ballooned, almost spilled and was punctured more than once too. It was a joy to get to know Ben, Sophie and all of Ben’s wonderful friends. Even if you think you know where this novel is hurtling to and you think you’ve got it all under control, piece of cake, well you’re wrong, so wrong. If you’re really emphatic you’re going to feel it SO hard.

If you want a tear-jerker, look no further because this book will have you laughing and crying and ultimately leave you with a major book-hangover!

This Love is perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes and Colleen Hoover. I’ve found myself a new favourite author!

I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher Simon & Schuster in exchange for my honest opinion.