Book Review: FIVE YEARS FROM NOW by Paige Toon

First of all, look how beautiful is the cover of this novel, so delicate and elegant. I couldn’t stop looking at it.

Then there is the book itself which is immersive, memorable, and completely addictive. I really love Paige Toon’s novels, I can’t never get enough of them, but they always make me cry at the end. In this case, I cried at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end.

The protagonist of this novel is Nell. She spends her time between London, where she lives with her mother, and Cornwall where she spends her holidays with her father.

Nell is five years old when she first met Vian. He is her same age, just two days of difference, and he is Ruth’s son, his father’s new girlfriend. At the beginning, Nell is a little cold towards Vian, but, at the end of the holiday, she is sad to go back to London and leave him behind.

“One day, maybe five years from now, you’ll look back and understand why this happened…”

Five years later, Nell’s mother has moved to France and Nell is happily living in Cornwall with her father, Ruth, and Vian to whom she is closer than ever. But fate separates them and Nell and Vian reunite again every five years, but the timing is never right and things won’t be easy between them.

Once again, Paige Toon created a series characters to fall in love with and gave them storylines that fill you up with emotions. I loved meeting Nell and Vian when they were children and see them grow up, being with them through their happiest and saddest moments. I laughed with them and I cried with them, and I wish they were my friends. It wasn’t only the relationship between Nell and Vian that kept me glued to the page, but Nell’s closed relationship with her father, the difficult relationship with her mother, and I enjoyed reading how she stayed closed to her childhood friends over the years.

I loved that Paige Toon set her novel between Cornwall, a place I am falling in love with thanks to her books, and Australia, a place I really wish to visit. Her descriptions are very atmospheric and vivid, the perfect frame to a beautiful and inspiring story.

I will be thinking about this unique and beautifully written story and its engaging characters for a long time and I’d like to thank Sara-Jade Virtue and Simon and Schuster UK for providing me with an early copy of the book.