View source for The Day We Met by Roxie Cooper

{{infobox1
|title= The Day We Met
|sort= Day We Met
|author= Roxie Cooper
|reviewer= Karen Grace
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary= A slow-burner. A love story spanning ten years with the story perhaps mirroring the relationship - an exciting, intense start, a mundane middle and a dramatic ending. However, the totally unexpected but fitting ending more than made up for the sometimes seemingly slow pace.
|rating=3.5
|buy= Maybe
|borrow= Yes
|pages=464
|publisher= Ebury Publishing
|date= February 2019
|isbn= 978-1529102468
|cover=1529102464
|aznuk=1529102464
|aznus=1529102464
}} 
This is an epic love story spanning ten years of 'will they, won't they'.  Stephanie and Jamie are 'meant to be'.  When they meet on an art course they have an instant strong connection but both are with other people.  However, what I loved was that it's not a 'typical boy meets girl, falls in love and lives happily ever after' story.  In fact far from it, without wanting to give too much away, the ending was both refreshingly unexpected and achingly poignant.
 
The main characters, Stephanie and Jamie, are also very real and flawed. At 26 years, Stephanie is vibrant yet sad, clever yet indecisive and stubborn yet anxious whilst Jamie is passionate and creative but unfilled and unconfident. It's a story of embracing your imperfections and finding a person who loves you warts and all.  It's also a fascinating exploration of how people grow as they age. How the characters deal with the complexities of life (families, careers, love, health and happiness) and the decisions (and mistakes) that they make, to ultimately become the best they can be. 
 
Author Roxie Cooper writes thoughtfully and beautifully, producing a moving, heartbreaking, romantic and honest love story. However, my main criticism is that whilst ten years makes for unique character development, it does also create a rather slow-pace.  It's perhaps a bit like the relationship itself - an exciting, intense start and a passionate, dramatic ending but the middle was bit mundane and sluggish at times.
 
This book is written in my favourite style with chapters alternating between Stephanie and Jamie.  The chapters are also fairly short, making it an easy read, and thankfully each chapter is dated like a diary entry because with the story spanning a ten year period at times it was difficult to keep place.
 
So, overall I'd say an easy, thought-provoking read with a great ending that totally made up for the slow-ish pace and changed my opinion of the book. Other love stories that you might like are [[After You by Jojo Moyes]] or [[The Fault in Our Stars by John Green]].  You might also enjoy [[A Class Act by Kate Lace]].
 
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