Miss You
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Sometimes it's the people you miss who matter most.
"I couldn't put it down" Sophie Kinsella
"Funny, poignant and really rather lovely" Guardian
"I adored this book: wildly romantic, heart-achingly sad, warmly funny" Daily Mail
Tess and Gus are meant to be. They just haven't met properly yet. And perhaps they never will...
'Today is the first day of the rest of your life.'
That's what the plate in Tess's mum's kitchen says. And for a while, it seems like it might be true: Tess has just finished her A levels and is holidaying in Florence before going on to university and then Great Things. But that's before tragedy strikes.
For Gus, the tragedy has already happened. He and his parents have come to Florence to pretend they're a normal family, but they all know that's not true, and Gus can't wait to escape.
The first time Tess and Gus meet, they don't speak. The second time, they exchange nine words. The third time, three sentences.
Then they return to England and their separate worlds and that, as they say, is that. Or it would be -- except that the universe seems to have other ideas, even if neither Tess nor Gus realise it.
MORE PRAISE FOR MISS YOU
"Lots of books get compared to One Day and Me Before You but few pass muster. Miss You by Kate Eberlin certainly does and I'd highly recommend you make it your summer read of choice. I promise you'll be sobbing all over your sun lounger and will feel all the better for it" Stylist Magazine
"Gloriously romantic . . . One of those rare books that has you laughing and crying at the same time" Prima Magazine
"Brilliantly constructed, with wonderful characters you'll be cheering on, this romantic story is full of poignant moments, has huge heart and massive feel-good factor. Engrossing and entertaining" Sunday Mirror
"Just the thing for long Summer nights" Good Housekeeping
"Thoroughly deserving comparison with David Nicholls' wonderful One Day (and I don't say that lightly), this is commercial fiction of the very highest order" Bookseller
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Eberlen's debut novel, Tess and Gus first meet in 1997, while traveling in Florence. Both are awaiting the results of their college entrance exams, and both seem to have bright futures: Tess as a writer and Gus as a physician. Gus, however, is awash in grief and guilt following the death of his overbearing older brother, unreasonably blaming himself for the fatal accident. And Tess is about to experience a loss of her own, as her mother's cancer advances and Tess's future grows less certain. Over the course of the next 16 years, as they individually fumble through romantic shortcomings, familial frustrations, and professional setbacks, the two narrowly miss one another several more times; these missed connections, however, are never particularly clever or dramatic and the narrative fails to build a case that the two are, in fact, meant to be together. In the end, Eberlen's novel is more successful as a chronicle of the way grief and loss shapes young people's life choices than it is as a romance. Consequently, the denouement lands unconvincingly.