Rambling About.. Charlotte Fallowfield's Until We Collide

I admit that when I started to read Charlotte Fallowfield's Until We Collide that I was a bit "meh" over it. When it opens Paige Taylor is seventeen years old and completely smitten with Alec Wright who is four years older, absolutely gorgeous, and dating somebody else. She won't even consider dating anybody else because they aren't him even though he's unavailable.

*yawn*

I get the whole young infatuation thing but it's totally not what I signed up for when I got the book.

But. BUT.... then we fast forward a year and Alec is available and interested in Paige. He takes her to her final school ball and just as she thinks that she's finally getting what she wanted in life she's offered an amazing job opportunity that will take her away from England and Alec.

And thus begins a cycle of collisions and near misses that made me laugh, made me mad, and quite possibly made me shed a tear or two.

I took turns wanting to smack Paige and Alec over the decade-plus span of the book (30 years, actually, from the beginning to the epilogue). The two just never seemed to be able to get it together and it started to drive me crazy. Sure, I thought that she was more than a bit ridiculous at the beginning, as so many seventeen year olds are, but through the years she grew on me and so did he. It helped that through it all we also had the support of Paige's oldest friend, Poppie, and Alec's old friend (who then becomes Paige's friend and mentor), Jean-Luc. They helped to lighten the mood when needed -- and to bring some clarity and stability to the otherwise craziness that was Paige and Alec's relationship. And, of course, there's also Daisy ... but you'll have to read it yourself. Nothing I say could do justice.

Between the laughs and the tears Until We Collide ended up being totally unexpected and absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend it to rom-com lovers and give an easy 5 stars for this delightfully heartbreaking comedy of errors.