I definitely wouldn’t call this book a rom-com. The underlying story of grief and loss experienced by both characters was too serious for this book to be considered comedic. Noelle’s life is kind of depressing, and while Sam provides her with an escape, it isn’t in a humorous way. Usually the hallmarks of rom-coms are scenes of banter and chemistry between the love interests, and there wasn’t really any of that either. There was no steam or even closed-door sex scenes in this book. My favorite romance novel of 2020 was Dear Emmie Blue, so of course, I wanted to read Eight Perfect Hours. In last year’s breakout hit, “Dear Emmie Blue”, Emmie releases a balloon into the sky, containing her biggest secret. 🎈

Imagine yourself becoming stranded on the side of the road during a frightening blizzard, when your phone is out of juice, feeling abandoned, all by yourself in the middle of nowhere. The sobs come out from your throat are quiet realistic expression of your emotional turmoil. But don’t worry: your knight in shiny armor is about to reach your destination to save you for 8 precious, memorable, amazing hours! Are there a large number of coincidences in this book, almost to the point of them being silly? Yes. However, nothing is impossible in a romance novel, and in this second book I've read by Louis, she has a way with weaving these coincidences to make them seem like fate. And that's always sigh-worthy. Snow relentlessly tumbles outside, and as if synchronized, the sea of orange brake lights illuminating the slushy road ahead starts to go out one by one, like blown flames. Drivers giving up, engines killed. Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for the honest review provided here. Similar Books I’ve Reviewed: The road opens and the two carry on with their lives. But fate has other plans for this couple, as serendipity throws them together again and again. Perhaps there is something more in play here besides mere coincidence? Book ReviewFirstly, I hope you’re so busy that you almost forget to come tonight—to be there when they take the time capsule out of the ground. I hope you arrive straight off a plane from… LA, maybe? Indonesia? Oh! What about Queensland, land of hot scuba diving instructors? Well. Wherever it is, all I know is you’ll be so well-traveled that your kids will be named after cool, faraway villages nobody’s heard of and you’ll be the sort to slip into French mid-conversation “by accident.” When we hear Ed update Noelle on his family, she notes that his description is “career and achievement focused. No information on how they actually are” (pg. 98). How does this distinction between what people achieve with their careers and how they’re actually doing show up in other places in the novel? I hope you ride that hot-air balloon, that you spend a summer night sleeping outside somewhere under the stars (no tents). I hope you take that all-night sleeper train. But mostly, I hope you’re happy, Noelle Butterby. That by now, you see what I see—all that power and kindness and light—and you’ve let it rip from inside you. Shown the world that you are here. Q: The passage that reads: “It’s a warm, new autumnal day, the sky is the color of the ocean, the clouds above, feathered at the edges like swirls of cream in coffee” (pg. 203) is particularly beautiful, as is so much of your writing about the world around Noelle. Why was is important to you to set the scene like this and to describe her surroundings in such vivid detail?

But, author Lia Louis writes charming stories about SERENDIPITY and SOULMATES, so fate WILL end up bringing these two together-AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN!I read Eight Perfect Hours in one sitting, in four perfect hours, because I couldn’t bear to put it down without knowing the ending.” —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author