REVIEW: You and Me, Always by Jill Mansell

In You and Me, Always by Jill Mansell, This year on Lily Harper’s twenty-fifth birthday, she will receive a posthumous letter, as she does every year, from her lovely mother who died when Lily was a young girl. And although she looks forward to the letters, it’s bittersweet as she knows this is the final one her mum had written. Along with it Lily gets a present, a treasured piece of her mother’s past which has her scrambling to find out more about the mysterious man who has ties to the gift and her mother’s youth: Declan Madison.

‘Every letter ended with those same words: You and me, always. She and her mum had said it to each other each night at bedtime; it had been their mantra, their secret promise to each other.’

As Lily begins her search into her mum’s past, she also meets handsome actor and screenwriter Eddie Tessler. His visit to Stanton Langley is supposed to keep him out of the media but it isn’t long before he’s found and must move on again. Lily can’t help but notice the attraction between them and even though she should be helping her dear friends Coral and Patsy find men, she can’t ignore what she feels. So when her affable childhood friend Dan tries to step in and caution her about the type of man Eddie is, Lily must be careful not to get in too deep.

“I’m not embarrassed.”
“You’re still bright red, though,” Dan pointed out. “Hey, it’s fine. A bit of harmless cyberstalking never hurt anyone.”
“I haven’t been cyberstalking! I looked him up on Google, that’s all!”
“Twenty-seven times,” Dan murmured.

Jill Mansell never disappoints. And with her newest heartfelt release, You and Me, Always, she proves to us once again why romance readers across the globe love her books.

“I love her. I just really and truly love her. And the thing is, I love her too much to risk ever doing anything about it.”

I really do love Jill Mansell’s writing voice. I am always entertained with the quirky characters she creates and the funny situations they find themselves in. Plus, in each book we basically get to know a whole community. In this case it was the picturesque little UK village of Stanton Langley in the Cotswolds. While it may have been a tourist’s paradise, the charming people who live there year round took care of their own, especially Lily, after the death of her mum. That sense of family is what draws me to these stories, time and again.

As you can expect with this novel set in a family-type atmosphere in a tiny town, there were several characters to keep track of, but Lily was really the main focus. I enjoyed her interactions with those around her and thought she was a strong, independent young woman who had a pretty good sense of who she was. We don’t always see that in a character in their mid-twenties, so that was a nice change. The story behind the letters Lily’s mother wrote for her to be given to Lily on her birthdays was super touching and where the book’s title actually comes from. There was also a bit of a love triangle in Lily’s case which was done very well. It felt like things progressed at a natural pace and wasn’t rushed. And what a great ending! I loved the outcome between Lily and her beaus.

This story was told from multiple POVs so we got to see things from the perspective of men *and* women, in a range of ages from their twenties to their late forties. I thought that was such a gift as a reader. It made the storytelling that much more fun with so many characters to get to know well. Each of them had their own backstory and issues they were dealing with: Eddie hiding from the paparazzi; Coral healing from a tragic loss; Patsy’s unbelievably bad luck at love; and Dan’s unrequited feelings. As with many of Mansell’s characters, I liked that they (mostly) stuck by each other and showed that even though they may have been flawed and made mistakes, they were genuine and only wanted the best for each other.

You and Me, Always managed to be touching and comical at the same time. We got to watch as Lily and her crew individually fell in love, we saw friendships tested, learned secrets about the past, and watched the group heal together, finding their HEA. Highly recommended as a perfect summertime/beach read!

Book Info:

Published July 5th 2016 | Sourcebooks Landmark |

From the bestselling author of THREE AMAZING THINGS ABOUT YOU and THE ONE YOU REALLY WANT comes a deliciously romantic and poignant read about love, loss and how nothing can stay hidden for ever… If you love the novels of Cathy Kelly and Sophie Kinsella, you won’t want to miss Jill Mansell.

On the morning of Lily’s twenty-fifth birthday, it’s time to open the very last letter written to her by her beloved mother, who died when she was eight.

Learning more about the first and only real love of her mum’s life is a revelation. On the same day, Lily also meets Eddie Tessler, a man fleeing fame who just might have the ability to change her world in unimaginable ways. But her childhood friend Dan has his own reasons for not wanting Lily to get too carried away by Eddie’s attentions.

Before long, secrets begin to emerge and Lily’s friends and family become involved. In the beautiful Cotswold village of Stanton Langley, nothing will ever be the same again…