The Years of Loving You

The Years of Loving You by Ella Harper

Age: Adult
Category: Romance
Rating: 5 stars

Helen Thinks: Only in her thirties, Molly has the wind knocked out of her when she is diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's. She hopes it’ll make her marriage to Sam stronger but he becomes practical and detached from her so she turns to the other man in her life - her best friend, Ed. Molly and Ed met many years ago at a party and it was instant love for the pair of them but life kept getting in the way so they became strong friends instead. Ed is absolutely heartbroken by Molly’s news and is suffering his own heartbreak due to his fiancee calling off their future nuptials on the night of their engagement party. The Years of Loving You shows Molly as she comes to terms with her diagnosis but also shows us the journey of Molly and Ed’s friendship from that first star filled night where they immediately fell in love to the present day.

This was my first Ella Harper novel. I saw it advertised on goodreads in the corner labelled “because you read...” and the cover grabbed my attention. Within seconds of clicking on the link I had opened up a new browser to my local libraries page and reserved it. Boy, am I glad i did! I sat and read this entire novel in approximately two hours because I just couldn’t put it down. Harper’s writing was flawless.

Harper has developed characters that are three-dimensional and you find yourself feeling alongside of them. When Molly was told she had Parkinson’s at such a young age I was devastated for her. When Sam started being all analytical and practical about her diagnosis I was practically yelling in my head that it’s tears she needed, a hug maybe. And I absolutely adored and treasured Ed with all his family problems that he kept secret and were therefore the primary cause as to why life kept getting in the way of what could have been a blossoming relationship between Ed and Molly. True fangirl at heart and thanks to Harper’s extraordinary writing, I was shipping them from the get go but to obviously avoid spoilers I won’t be revealing which way it goes at the end.

The use of flashbacks can often be annoying and usually pointless but throughout The Years of Loving You that was never the case. The flashback moments were related to what had just happened in the present day and I believe they helped cement a relationship between us as the reader and the characters on the page.

I feel like I could rave on about this book for an eternity. I don’t know why this novel out of everything I have read this year has had such an impact - maybe it’s because we all have that friend in Ed’s position? The love that once could have been but never happened so friendship was the only way forward? - but it has and I am most definitely going to be reading some more of Ella Harper’s work in the future.