REVIEW: What If I Never Get Over You? by Paige Toon

OUR REVIEW:

I've just finished this novel--maybe an hour has passed?--and I already know that I'll be searching for all of the Paige Toon novels I can get my hands on. What if I Never Get Over You was so easy to read, so hard to put down, that rather than get ready for the family gathering of 17 I'm hosting in a few days, I lazed about and read. 

The story of Ellie and Ash starts in Lisbon where these two have been traveling, post college. She's hitting all of the spots her friend Stella listed as places to see and he appears to be taking a break from life as he knows it. They spend three fun, lust filled days with each other, with the promise of meeting up a week later in Madrid. Things happen and that meet up doesn't happen, and because they didn't exchange crucial personal information (or enough of it), they were forced to move on with their lives without the other in it. Ellie hardened herself into a shell of herself. She was convinced that his not showing up was purposeful and it hurt her so much that spent years just going through the motions of living. Meanwhile, Ash was equally heartbroken and frustrated that he couldn't get a hold of her and felt forced to go through the motions of a life that didn't feel like his own. Jump ahead many years and they find each other and fall head over heels in love, again. And again, they are deeply hurt and fall apart. Years go by again and by happenstance, Ellie learns of some things that change everything, and off she goes to try again. Third times a charm, right? 

All aspects of this romance worked for me: the student travelers, the landscape that feels like a secondary character, the fact that I know absolutely nothing about where this novel is set, and yet could envision it the entire time, the emotionality of it...all of it. I enjoyed it all. And I suspect that as I read through her backlist, I'll enjoy those too. 

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SYNOPSIS:

Three days to fall in love. Six years to try to forget.

Ellie didn’t expect to fall in love while interrailing through Europe. But she also didn’t expect to meet a man like Ash. Three blistering days in Lisbon is all it takes to form an unforgettable connection—a bond deep enough for them to scrap their itineraries and plan to meet again in Spain. But Ellie arrives late, and Ash is nowhere to be found.

Six years later, Ellie has landed her dream job working as a gardener for a viscount and viscountess on their sprawling five-hundred-year-old estate in Wales. She finds peace amongst the towering topiary hedges and colorful gardens, but her idyll is shattered when Ash crashes back into her life. And when it becomes clear why he didn’t show in Madrid, her heart breaks anew—for what the truth means for her, and for his fate.

But they have never been able to resist each another, and when the sparks of their attraction fly, Ellie’s life will catch flame. She will have to make a choice.