Fix You by Carrie Elks
Published: 4th February 2016
Publisher: Corvus
Pages: 355
Available in Paperback and on Kindle
Blurb
On New Year's Eve, 1999, Hanna and Richard meet. She is a born and bred Londoner with plans for a career in journalism. He is the son of a wealthy New Yorker and destined for Wall Street. As Hanna and Richard go back to their own worlds they keep in touch, and when Hanna has her heart broken it's Richard she turns to. They reunite and fall deeply, madly in love.
But they can't possibly imagine the ways their love will be tested. Fifteen years after they first meet, neither can bear to hear the other's name spoken. Then one day Hanna walks into Richard's office and reveals a shocking secret. Richard must decide if he can forgive her. And both need to choose whether to take a second chance on happiness, or if their love is beyond repair?
But they can't possibly imagine the ways their love will be tested. Fifteen years after they first meet, neither can bear to hear the other's name spoken. Then one day Hanna walks into Richard's office and reveals a shocking secret. Richard must decide if he can forgive her. And both need to choose whether to take a second chance on happiness, or if their love is beyond repair?
Review
Fix You by Carrie Elks is the love story of Richard and
Hanna spanning over twelve years. Richard and Hanna first meet on New Year’s
Eve 1999 when Hanna is filling in as a waitress for her mother at Richards’s
stepmother’s party, as soon as the pair first lock eyes with each other it’s
obvious that these two have chemistry. Initially they stay just friends as
Hanna spends more time with Richard’s younger sister Ruby. Until Hanna gets her
heart broken and Richard steps in to comfort her and finally they get together,
or so you think but as the distance between them and a series of tragic events
occurs Ruby bails out on the relationship leaving Richard heartbroken. As the
years pass their paths cross again and again but will they ever find their happily
ever after.
The initial chapter begins in 2012 when Hanna visits Richard
in New York and drops a massive bombshell on him, which had me gripped as when
someone drops the “we have a baby” line drama usually follows. We’re then taken
back to 1999 where Richard and Hanna first meet. They seem an unlikely match
the goth-clothed, snappy British teenager and the all-America clean cut
business student but they have an instant chemistry which oozes off the page.
They form a friendship over email and through various family gatherings but I
was just longing for them both to get together as a couple. When they finally
did I was so happy as these two belong together. But the happiness was short
lived and then torn apart again.
I did feel that the middle part of this did drag a little
bit, there’s so many things that get in the way of them being together that I
did start to get a bit annoyed. I also felt annoyed by the ending as I felt the
story came to a natural ending a couple of chapters before the end of the book
and I’m not sure what these chapters added to the story.
I loved how real life events were captured in the book, such
as the beginnings of social media sites which we take for granted today and the
devastating impact which 9/11 had on the world. Without these influences we wouldn’t have seen
just how self-sacrificing Richard had to be when he joined the family business
and gave up his dream and also how tough it must have been for Hanna to walk
away from him again.
If you’ve read “One Day” by David Nicholls then you may
enjoy this book as the set-up is similar with us dipping in and out of Richard
and Hanna’s lives over the years. I did find this a more enjoyable read. I
laughed and cried at various points in this book and was overall more emotionally
connected to the characters.
One last point, I did find the sex scenes in this book are
quite detailed and lengthy so if you’re not a fan of that then be warned.
Overall I found Fix You to be an enjoyable and emotional read
which for the majority of the book kept me gripped with what was going to
happen next between Richard and Hanna. I’d like to give this book a rating of
4/5 as it wasn’t quite perfect for me. I’d also like to thank the publishers
for sending me this copy to review.
