BOOK REVIEW: Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis

Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

On a snowy evening in March, thirty-something Noelle Butterby is on her way back from an event at her old college when disaster strikes. With a blizzard closing off roads, she finds herself stranded, alone in her car, without food, drink, or a working charger for her phone.

All seems lost until Sam Attwood, a handsome American stranger also trapped in a nearby car, knocks on her window and offers assistance. What follows is eight perfect hours together, until morning arrives and the roads finally clear. The two strangers part, positive they’ll never see each other again but fate, it seems, has a different plan. As the two keep serendipitously bumping into one another, they begin to realize that perhaps there truly is no such thing as coincidence.

Review:

Eight Perfect Hours was unfortunately not for me.  With a very different writing style and characters I couldn’t ever connect with, this book and I never meshed.  It felt like this should have been a powerful story.  One that I deeply resonated with.  And I kept trying till that very last page, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

“What?” Sam says, a smile at the corner of his mouth. I realize I’ve stopped talking and I’m just looking at him.
“Just—you’re here. Don’t you think this is so… mad?”
“Mad.” Sam laughs. “Seems to be our thing.”

Noelle Butterby was on her way home from an event at her old college, when she got stuck on the road during a snowstorm.  Thankfully fate had her parked next to a kind stranger, Sam Attwood.  Not only did he allow her to charge her phone and stay warm in his car, but they had a wonderful time chatting and just being with one another.  I enjoyed their interactions; it felt like they were instant friends and possibly soul mates.  But when the roads cleared, they both went their separate ways.  Until fate had them running into each another again and again.

“Destiny,” I say with a laugh, although I’m not sure the laugh was real enough to convince anyone, because destiny is exactly what I was thinking about when I saw Sam push through those double doors.

I have to say that Goodreads fooled me.  Many readers had this marked as a holiday/Christmas story and it is not.  The beautiful cover on the front has a wintery vibe and that’s because we start this story in March.  This is not set around Christmas time.  Bad on my part for not researching more, whoops.

“You said you’re never there,” I say into the darkness. “But you’re there for your dad. And you’re here now. Aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” he says thoughtfully. “And I always seem to be. When it comes to you.”

I went into this book loving the idea that you are meant to meet someone.  I never believed that until my husband and I ran into each other three times in one day at college.  Everywhere we turned, the other one was there.  And it kept happening for the next week.  It was like fate was trying to push us together.  So the premise of this story fascinated me!  And I absolutely loved how that played into this story.  As we watch Noelle and Sam’s lives unfold, they kept running into one another.  Even though they were both from different countries.  And sometimes it was during the hardest moments of their lives.  They were there for each other.  They formed a friendship and a bond.   I hoped it all would eventually it would lead to more.

“I knew there was a reason I kept bumping into you,” I say, tears sliding down my cheeks. “I know you didn’t. But I did. I think I knew deep down, all along.”

But ultimately, I couldn’t ever feel anything for Noelle and Sam.  Not only was the writing very different and distinct, which I struggled reading, but I also couldn’t connect with any of the characters.  It didn’t help that the both of them seemed to be with someone else during the book, which I’m not a fan of at all.  So I hope if you pick this one up, that you end up enjoying it way more than I did.

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