‘This Time Next Year’ (2020) Book Review
This Time Next Year Synopsis from the Publisher:
Their lives began together, but their worlds couldnât be more different. After thirty years of missed connections, theyâre about to meet againâŚ
Minnie Cooper knows two things with certainty: that her New Yearâs birthday is unlucky, and that itâs all because of Quinn Hamilton, a man sheâs never met. Their mothers gave birth to them at the same hospital just after midnight on New Yearâs Day, but Quinn was given the cash prize for being the first baby born in London in 1990âand the name Minnie was meant to have, as well. With luck like that, itâs no wonder each of her birthdays has been more of a disaster than the one before.
When Minnie unexpectedly runs into Quinn at a New Yearâs party on their mutual thirtieth birthday, she sees only more evidence that fortune has continued to favor him. The gorgeous, charming business owner truly seems to have it allâwhile Minnieâs on the brink of losing her pie-making company and her home. But if Quinn and Minnie are from different worlds, why do they keep bumping into each other? And why is it that each fraught encounter leaves them both wanting more?
Review: This Time Next Year was my last book of 2021. At least the last book I’ve finished (unless I speed-read through my current book in the next few days!). It did take me a while to get through, but that had more to do with life and work than anything else. While this book is touted as a love story, etc., it’s… really not. It’s about two people, Minnie and Quinn, who are born minutes apart on New Year’s Day.
Their lives are unknowingly intertwined for the next thirty years (as told through various flashbacks) before Quinn rescues Minnie from a stuck toilet door in a club, and they eventually realize they were born in the same hospital on the same day and their mothers knew one another.
Over the course of the novel, Minnie and Quinn have various run-ins and become sort of friends while sorting out their lives. The book shifts between Minnie and Quinn and there are honestly not that many scenes with Quinn and Minnie *together*. It’s mostly Quinn dealing with failed relationships and his agoraphobic mother or Minnie and her parents/best friend Leila.
I don’t want to give away too much of the book, but if you’re looking for a steamy romance, you’re not going to get it here. Quinn and Minnie are more or less platonic throughout the book, even if there is some attraction. The book really focuses on their development as individuals rather than as a couple. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed reading about both of them, even if there were some cringey moments to deal with.
I could have done without some of the slapstick comedy and the overly quirky side characters, but for the most part, the character development was enough to carry the book despite its lack of romance (and honestly, of the plot).
Sophie Cousens has a really lovely writing style and I’m excited to read her next book. I’m sort of hoping there’s more romance within it than there was in This Time Next Year, but even if there’s not, I’m sure I’ll still find it entertaining.
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