Published By: Boldwood
Pages: 272
Released On: 06/09/2026
It’s the first day of term, and the lives of three new university students are about to collide. They’re going to introduce each other to more friends too. People who will be in their lives forever.
They’re young when the weddings start. Tash and Adam seem destined for each other, only 22 but with a baby already on the way. Even when a chance remark from Adam’s best man about their other friend, Hayden, puts everything at risk.
By the time the second wedding comes around, everything’s changed. And even more by the third…
Because it turns out, our soulmates aren’t always who we think they’ll be. And life has a funny way of switching things around. Just when you least expect it.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I have never hidden my love for Laura – as she is well aware – and I have read all her books bar two, which I do own and I promise will get to read soon (so many books so little time). But basically, her books start at five star and then it’s up to it to keep that high, and not once have I ever had cause to drop a star because they have all been so perfect.
Once again we have a beautiful cover.
The majority of Laura’s books I’ve read are speculative fiction, almost fantasy in a way. But recently, I’ve read a few that are more like your traditional contemporary novel, and I was concerned that maybe I wouldn’t enjoy them as much because they don’t have that magical element. But they do. It’s just the magical elements are the characters, the emotions, the nuances of everyday life, rather than the obvious magical elements. The fact that you can identify with the characters and their situations gives it that edge.
What I particularly liked about the way it was written is that, hopefully, each reader will identify with a particular part. Now, I haven’t been married or had children so I can’t identify with those bits, but the Uni bits I can, the friendship groups, going to weddings etc. which brings the reader closer to the characters and the story as a whole.
Each section is narrated by Tash, Adam, or Hayden. It was a really clever way of giving us there POVs but keeping it concise and easy to read. Apart from those three, we follow the same cast of about a dozen characters through University to marriage and parenthood. I didn’t find them all likeable, but that’s reality, you can’t like everyone. But they were all interesting to read about. And even though the whole story is told through Tash, Adam, and Hayden’s POVs, the other characters aren’t on standby, we get to see their own lives grow and change.
I admit I was a little concerned to begin with. I wondered that having half a dozen weddings attended by the same cast of characters, that it might get repetitive and dull. But somehow, and I’m not sure how she’s done it, but each is similar enough to feel familiar and like we are a part of this group, but different enough that each section feels fresh. And I actually think by having the same characters throughout it, it means we can dive deeper into each character with each wedding, rather than having to start with new characters each time.
It’s not got the heart-in-mouth moments of a thriller, or the fantastical elements you may read with your jaw dropped in a fantasy novel. It’s very normal, very everyday. And that’s where I think it excels. There is nowhere to hide. The prose must be engaging, the storyline capturing, and the characters strong – and she’s managed all three. It doesn’t hide away from the difficult moments but overall it’s so uplifting and has such a level of hope that it’s a joy to read.
According to Google, the average page length of a novel is 250-350 pages (300-350 is my sweet spot), so this is closer to that lower end, and yet you never feel shortchanged. And whilst I owuld have loved to have kept reading, I think if she’d made it much longer you might possibly get to the stage where it feels repetitive. As it is currently, she’s got the right balance. And by being relatively short, it means I finished it in just two sittings because it’s so easy to read and absorbing.
How does she keep bringing out banger after banger after banger?
Books By Your Bedside 