Back in August I was lucky enough to host an extract from This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens in a post you can see here. Since then I have been desperate to read the book and I’m enormously grateful to Rachel Kennedy for sending me a copy of This Time Next Year in return for an honest review and for inviting me to participate in this blog tour.

Published by Penguin imprint Arrow in ebook on 1st August 2020, This Time Next Year is out today in paperback and is available for purchase through the links here.

This Time Next Year

Get ready to fall for this year’s most extraordinary love story

Quinn and Minnie are born on New Year’s Eve, in the same hospital, one minute apart.

Their lives may begin together, but their worlds couldn’t be more different.

Thirty years later they find themselves together again in the same place, at the same time.

What if fate is trying to bring them together?

Maybe it’s time to take a chance on love…

My Review of This Time Next Year

Minnie’s aversion to New Year’s Eve is understandable!

In This Time Next Year I think Sophie Cousens has written exactly what would be requested if a reader sent a list of ingredients for what they wanted in the ultimate romantic story. I loved every moment of finding out about Minnie and Quinn. This Time Next Year is the perfect winter book. It warms the heart and soul of the reader and puts a smile on their face. It’s sheer escapism, mixed with a dash of reality and an added, impossible to define, sparkle that is just wonderful.

There’s a witty and effervescent plot that races along, mainly from Minnie’s perspective, so that she becomes incredibly real to the reader. I was absolutely desperate for her to have a happy ending to her story and feared the tantalising relationship she has with Quinn might not work (in spite of the owls!) until I was beside myself wanting to race through the story to find out what happened, whilst simultaneously not wanting my enjoyment in the book to be over. I thought Minnie’s friendship with Leila was sensitively and realistically handled by Sophie Cousens and the author’s depth of understanding of what makes us who we are, particularly with regard to Quinn and Tara, was pitch perfect. I rather feel I’m a little bit in love with Quinn myself. I adored the natural dialogue because it added to the humour and uncovered character brilliantly. Sophie Cousens writes with a visual filmic quality that would make This Time Next Year a sublime Christmas romcom film.

Alongside a fast pace, humour, plenty of action and cracking characters, This Time Next Year is a narrative with conscience. By all means read and enjoy it as pure entertainment of the most engaging kind, but looking just below the surface, Sophie Cousens explores many themes that will resonate with so many readers at a much more profound level too. Mental health, friendship, family, loyalty, commercialism and community, conformity and difference make This Time Next Year a compelling book to believe in as well as to be diverted by.

I thought This Time Next Year was absolutely wonderful. It brought the occasional tear to my eye but it made me laugh too. Reading This Time Next Year made me completely happy because of Sophie Cousens’s skilled narrative style. What could be better than that? Don’t miss this gorgeous, heart warming read.

About Sophie Cousens

Sophie Cousens worked in TV in London for over twelve years, producing The Graham Norton Show, Big Brother and Ant and Dec. Sophie has previously published an eBook only romantic comedy novel How To Get Ahead In Television which was shortlisted for the 2015 Romantic Novelist Association Awards. She relocated from London to Jersey and balances her writing career with working for an arts charity, taking care of her two small children and enjoying small island life.

You can follow Sophie on Twitter @SophieCous.

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