HELLO, AGAIN by Isabelle Broom

What better way to spend a hot summer day than wrapped in a good book, sipping a cold Sangria. And what better read can you find than Hello, Again by Isabelle Broom

Philippa Taylor (Pepper to her friends) has big dreams. When she closes her eyes, she can picture exactly who she ought to be. The problem is, it’s about as far away from her real life in a small coastal town in Suffolk as she can imagine.

So when her elderly friend Josephine persuades Pepper to accompany her on a trip to Europe, she jumps at the chance to change her routine. And when Pepper bumps (literally) into the handsome Finn in Lisbon, it seems as though she might have finally found what she’s been looking for.

But Pepper know all too well things are rarely as they seem. Her own quiet life hides a dark secret from the past. And even though she and Finn may have been destined to find each other, Pepper suspects life may have other plans as to how the story should end.

I read Hello, Again in one day because I enjoyed it so much I couldn’t put it down. It is a story of friendship, love and new beginnings where not every romance turns into “they lived happily ever after”. It is that story that tells you it’s not always about the destination but rather the journey itself. I loved the butterflies, the love at first sight, the live in the moment without regrets. I wanted the fairy tale but in the same time I absolutely adored the reality check of it all, the decisions and the partings.

Pepper is my kind of girl. She is an insecure talented artist with a crazy dress style and in spite of everything she went through, she grows so much throughout the entire story, turning into a wonderful and strong woman teaching us all that although our past may shape who we are, it doesn’t have to necessarily determine who we become in the future

If I am to be honest, I wanted to read a bit more about Josephine and Jorge, to discover the nostalgia of it all and savor every detail but in the same time, I was happy to live in the present and enjoy the love between Pepper and Finn. I hoped for Samuel and I got so mad with Pepper’s mum, with her incapacity of accepting the past without blaming everyone.

Isabelle Broom wrote such a wonderful novel, perfect for the times we currently face. Hello, Again is the go to summer read

coming out 9th of July