Rea Book Reviews: These Days of Ours by Juliet Ashton

Kate and Becca are cousins and best friends. They have grown up together and shared all the most important milestones in their lives: childhood birthday parties, eighteenth birthdays, and now a wedding day as they each marry their childhood sweethearts, Charlie and Julian.

Kate has always loved Charlie - they were meant to be. Then she discovers that life never turns out quite how you expect it to. And love doesn't always follow the journey it should.

But best friends are forever, and true love will find a way, won't it…?

These Days of Ours by Juliet Ashton is a storyline that grows with our main charters from the early years beginning at Kate’s 5^th Birthday Party right up to her 40^th and books like this really appeal to me as I feel like we really get to know the characters well as we watch their personalities grow as they face different life events. The focus of the storyline was the love between Kate and Charlie who were childhood sweethearts who separated in the early years but their lives have always been entwined and their love for each other never truly fizzled out but will true love find a way of reuniting the couple?

Although romance is at the core of this storyline there is also the strong bond between Kate and her cousin Becca who are more like best friends but are polar opposites of each other and I take my hat off to Kate with how much of Becca’s destruction she put up with. The early friendship group between Kate, Charlie, Julian and Becca was my favourite part of the book and where I really felt like we got to know our characters. Looking in on the foursome they really were a mismatch and even at this point I found myself wanting to bash Kate and Charlies head together as it was so obvious they still held a candle for each other and were so perfect for each other too.

I love how each chapter brings us to a new event in the characters’ lives from Birthdays to Weddings and funerals and even Divorce parties so you can tell there was a rollercoaster of emotions throughout this book! This was a clever way to move the story on through different points of their lives. The author managed to pull the wool over my eyes through this book too and when something Becca had done was revealed I was in total shock and wanted to scratch her eyes out!

This was a book that took you on a journey of romance and friendship with its emotional ups and downs that will have you laughing one minute and bringing a lump to your throat the next and I thoroughly enjoyed this modern vibrant read.