Eight Perfect Hours

Product Information

Special thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for sharing this amazing reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Another aspect that I liked about this one was that the author was able to strike a good balance between lighthearted moments and the more serious ones, which I felt made this both a fun read as well as one with good emotional depth. Behind me, a driver beeps their horn pointlessly, causing someone else to do the same. As if it’ll help, as if it’ll even have the slightest influence on the lines and lines of bumper-to-bumper traffic. A hot surge of panic bubbles up inside me. I swallow it down. Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis is a contemporary romance that is for those that believe in serendipitiy and twists of fate to find ones soulmate. The story is a slower build as the couple come together time and again.This week, some junior employees of the US bank Goldman Sachs have had a grumble, daring to point out that they are putting in as much as 95 hours a week. If they were squeezing those hours in Monday to Friday – which I appreciate they are not – their numbers on my Former Yugoslavia Work-Life Balance Index (FYWLBI) would be an awful long way from 8-8-8. Ninety-five hours work over five days comes out at a punishing 19 hours a day. That’s some shift. I’ve got their FYWLBI at 19-2-3 – 19 hours’ work, two hours’ free, three hours’ sleep. But if the BBC drama series Industry is anything to go by, the general pattern is nearer 19-4-1, or even 19-5-0. If you spread the 95 hours over seven days, you are still averaging a gruelling daily regime of 14-5-5. Q: This story is told as a first-person narrative from Noelle’s point of view. What made you choose this perspective rather than, say, a third-person narrative that showed multiple perspectives? Why was this structure important for the story you wanted to tell? A complimentary copy was provided by Atria/Emily Bestler Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. My favorite romance novel of 2020 was Dear Emmie Blue, so of course, I wanted to read Eight Perfect Hours.

That said, if you go into this book expecting a “rom-dram”, you’re sure to love it. I really enjoyed reading about Noelle’s struggle to balance caring for her family with having a fulfilling personal life. I loved her friendship with Charlie and especially with Charlie’s husband Theo. (I actually think Theo was my favorite character, despite him having a relatively small role.)Overall, Eight Perfect Hours was a pleasant experience. I just wished I had connected with Sam better.