Eight Perfect Hours

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You know how sometimes you just need a feel-good book to reboot your heart after a long week (month…year)? Well, this fit the bill perfectly. Destiny. Fate. Serendipity. The red thread. Is all life prewritten? Are souls joined or fated at birth? Q: The Chinese proverb about the red thread appears at the beginning of the book and throughout the story as something Daisy mentions in her letter to Noelle. What does the story of the red thread mean to you? Why did you want to include it? Louis has a way of making all her characters human. They’re layered, and even when unbelievable things happen, Louis makes them believable. And oh so charming.My heart ached for Elle. Her loneliness, her wistful hope.

Believable, heartfelt, sweet, and genuine, Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis is a novel that will carry you away and give you hope, when you need it most. While I thought it was a tad unrealistic, I adored it and admit to hoping such relationships existed in real life. I read Dear Emmie Blue earlier this year and became utterly besotted with both Emmie and the book! So any Lia Louis book became a must read for me. And I’ll admit that I went into this book with extremely high expectations…probably unreasonably high. While this book did not charm me exactly the way Emmie Blue did (I am forever an Emmie fan!), I still adored it. It is a romance but very little is actual moving forward romance. There was simply too much time spent with the old boyfriend. At 60% I was still wondering who she would end up with. 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 authorThe characters in Eight Perfect Hours are so vibrant that you could easily imagine their story played out on the screen. Who would be your dream cast for the characters in the book? Noelle’s old best friend who died when they were teenagers believed a Chinese proverb about an invisible red thread that connects those that are destined to meet and sure enough, Noelle and Sam now can’t help bumping into one another. Eight Perfect Hours is a feel-good book that had me rooting for these two caring and likeable characters who after a chance encounter on the motorway now can’t stop bumping into one another. I loved the plot and the idea of the invisible red thread – I’d never heard of the proverb before. Enter Sam Attwood. A very attractive American who is also stranded on the motorway. When Sam notices Noelle’s distress, his first instinct is to help. Noelle notices that if everything that went wrong that day in the snowstorm hadn’t happened, she and Sam may not have met. Do you think this is a random string of events with a happy accident? Or fate? How does the theme of chance versus destiny continue to play out over the course of the book?

Nell is doing the best she can taking care of her mother and cleaning flats to earn money. Her former beau Ed has returned home and though he still doesn’t approve of the way Nell caters to her mother, he and Nell still spend time considerable time together. Sam is one of those serendipitous encounters. They meet during a snow storm. And again when the mutual parents are in the hospital. And agin…..

Customer reviews

It’s a solid 4.5 for me, and since it’s an unedited ARC, I’m forgiving the surprising number of grammatical errors. My main complaint is that it was initially difficult to buy into Noelle’s insta-attraction, but after the story got into its groove, I loved it. It’s the perfect cozy romance for the holidays or any time of year! This one didn’t quite have the same emotional punch for me, as DEAR EMMIE BLUE, maybe because I didn’t feel as much spark (it could be rated G) or maybe because much of the book takes place while the characters are apart, but the author does a fantastic job of coming full circle and returning to the secret held within the camera, much as she did, with the secret associated with the balloon in the last book. When Noelle and Sam discuss the way they lived life after dealing with the deaths of people close to them when they were younger, Sam says he was afraid to stop living and we know that Noelle is afraid to live too much. What do you think of these different reactions to dealing with loss? Do you have any experience with tending toward one or the other?

Our main character, Noelle Butterby, has just left her college reunion heartbroken and now she’s stranded in a snowstorm on the roadway. Her older car is unreliable, and she can’t charge her phone. A handsome stranger in a nearby car comes to the rescue and the two spend “eight perfect hours” together talking and connecting. Then the road finally clears up and they go their separate ways.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: Noelle is returning from the class reunion that she attended despite the weather advisories which implored that you stay at home, because she was desperate to retrieve the camera and the letter that accompanied it. Although she was given the letter, it turns out that the camera remained buried for now-the earth still too solid for digging-due to the blizzard like conditions! 🌨❄️🌬 The author opens the book with the proverb regarding the invisible red thread. (Are you familiar with it?) In fact, once she knows her mother is okay, she doesn’t want to be rescued. Not only is she sharing great conversation, she has time to just be. Be herself. For the first time in a very long time. And they share eight perfect hours.

Another aspect that I liked about this one was that the author was able to strike a good balance between lighthearted moments and the more serious ones, which I felt made this both a fun read as well as one with good emotional depth. This book is not only about finding love of your life, it is about finding yourself, your life purpose and by recognizing your true potential pursuing your dreams. I swear my whole body feels like it’s alive, and I’m nothing now but stars.” Lia Louis, Eight Perfect Hours In the next car is a handsome American named Sam. who comes to Noelle’s rescue and the two spend the next eight perfect hours together until the roads are cleared.In the novel, people like Daisy, Charlie, and Ian are as much family as anyone biologically related to Noelle. What is the novel saying about chosen family and the lifelong connections we make with those who cross our paths? In this romantic and heartwarming novel, two strangers meet in chance circumstances during a blizzard and spend one perfect evening together, thinking they’ll never see each other again. But fate seems to have different plans. I also enjoyed the side story of Elle’s friends, Charlie and Theo. Once again, very believable characters, and theirs is an important and timely story I was excited to see represented. Q: Do you have any favorite books, movies, or tv shows that helped inspire you as you were writing Eight Perfect Hours? Special thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for sharing this amazing reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.