This Love
'The new One Day' The Sunday Times Style
-
-
4.0 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- £5.49
Publisher Description
Named a BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH by the Sunday Times Style, Apple Books, Prima, Cosmopolitan, i NEWS and Stylist
'I loved This Love' Elizabeth Day
'Astute, tender and utterly joy-filled. This is the love story we've been waiting for' Elle
'This is a book I will return to again and again . . . It's beautiful' Jennie Godfrey
When Mae and Ari meet their final year at the University of Leeds, their connection is magnetic. Mae, whilst stubborn and no stranger to breaking hearts, needs Ari's bright light to guide her out of her self-centred ways; Ari, vibrant, charming and reeling in the aftermath of a scandal in New York, clings to Mae as his grounding anchor.
As the years sweep by, the two traverse the tumult of life: toxic partners and hidden secrets, the heavy weight of grief, and a complicated, unignorable desire to start a family . . . If they can hold onto one another in the face of the relentless past and the inevitable future, they might discover how to build something beautiful out of their expansive, boundary-breaking love.
Spanning ten years of extraordinary friendship, This Love is a vivid and epic tale of finding your soulmates, building an unconventional family and the limitless, ever-changing forms love can take - perfect for fans of Talking at Night, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and One Day.
'Touching, surprising and gloriously enjoyable' Harper's Bazaar
'I was bereft when I turned the last page . . . [This Love] will stay with me for a long time" Nina Pottell, 'Books of the Month', Prima
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Spanning 10 years of a friendship that begins at university, This Love’s One Day comparisons are inevitable, but to stop there would be to do Lotte Jeffs’ charming novel a disservice. The novel begins in 2014 at university in Leeds, where Ari and Mae meet in the smoking area of a nightclub. Ari’s recent arrival from New York is shrouded in mystery, while Mae is a third-year who is still somewhat traumatised by an incident that occurred in her teen years. From there the novel flows as easily as the immediate chemistry between them. The university years are fun and nostalgic, while the later years bring their own share of heartache as both friends find their feet. This Love is about finding your (platonic) soulmate, about queer love, and about finding that one person who gets you more than anyone else.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jeffs (How to Be a Gentlewoman) delivers an endearing if overlong tale of a queer friendship. Mae, a headstrong lesbian, meets fashionable Ari at a gay bar in Leeds, England, where the two are enrolled at university. Mae is in awe of Ari, an American who transferred from NYU, for his effortless magnetism. She grows confused and jealous, though, after Ari comes out to her as pansexual—she worries he'll fall in love with another girl and abandon her. Their trust is further eroded by Ari's effort to brush under the rug a painful scandal that caused him to leave New York, involving his homophobic father and his affair with a much older professor. The narrative tracks Mae and Ari over the decade after their graduation, as they continue to negotiate the shape of their friendship and consider raising children together. The writing can be clunky, especially the dialogue ("By our age you should know for sure if you like red wine or white wine best," Mae says to Ari, frustrated by another woman's bisexuality. "It's a cop-out to say you like rosé. I don't want to drink bisexual wine"). Fortunately, Jeffs adeptly develops the characters through their flaws and transformations. Patient readers will be rewarded.
