Thank you to Beauty and Lace and The Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read The Night We Met by Zoe Folbigg.
We meet Olivia Messina, 43 years young, a cancer patient, a wife, and a mother. She has had a hideous year, full of consultants, nurses, radiographers, and now, in her words – “we’ve hit rock bottom”.
Her husband Daniel desperately clings to hope of new research and treatments…anything for more time.
Olivia asks Daniel, a sports journalist, to write their story for their girls.
Their story began in Australia in 1996.
Two weeks before Daniel Bleeker and his then-girlfriend were due to fly from London to Sydney for a 3-month backpacking experience, she broke up with him. To make matters worse, she insisted Daniel give his ticket to her new boyfriend. Uncharacteristically, Daniel refused, he told her he would still be going!
While Daniel tried to process the shock dumping, heartache, and how lonely he felt as he toured Sydney, in a coffee shop he notices a girl “with hair like a bonfire, bronze skin and burning eyes”. She was completely at ease in the group she was with.
Coincidences do happen and he continued to see her from a distance as he travelled. The fourth time he saw her, they held each other’s gaze and Daniel realised it was more than a crush for him. He didn’t expect to see her again.
In New Zealand fate brings them together. He finds out her name is Olivia. She shares her unique life story thus far in her 20 years.
With all love stories, they need to happen at the right time. This wasn’t their time and they both get on with their lives. Some years later Daniel travels to Milan for work and tracks Olivia down. This time Olivia really notices Daniel and their story together begins.
Daniel, true to his word writes their story. It tells us about their past and their present. It is full of love, sorrow and loss, and family. It’s a celebration of their daughters Flora and Sofia, the dreams they have both achieved, and the journey of Olivia’s illness.
Their story is often very funny and often very sad. One minute you can be the luckiest family in the world and then in an instant it is all shattered.
An excellent read 4 stars.
A selection of our Beauty and Lace Club Members are reading The Night We Met by Zoe Folbigg. You can read their comments below, or add your own review.
ISBN: 9781789542141
I love to read, any book on any topic. I now love ebooks as they are easier to store, I was running out of bookshelves! My other interests are family, gardening and our beautiful King Charles spaniel dog who is my reading companion.
Thank you for this opportunity to read The Night We Met. Sadly it didn’t hold my interest. Tried reading it a few different times but just couldn’t get into it.
This is my very first digital book and I was pleasantly surprised. I found it a very easy book to read, no complicated characters or storyline, just a delightful love story that was endearing and pleasant, with believable people and events.
Without exposing the plot, suffice to say that, sadly all love stories must come to an end at some stage. The ending, though not unexpected, is still incredibly sad and poignant, exposing the realities of life with cancer.
Thank you for the opportunity to read “The Night We Met!” If you are a fan of romantic movies and like a good cry, then this is the book for you. I would recommend it highly.
Thank you for the opportunity to review Amber by Heather Burnside.
I really enjoyed the book.
I found it quite sad reading about Amy as a child and everything she lost. As a mother I found myself quite angry with her mum Loretta for putting Amy and Nathan in harms way, more so for Amy.
As the book jumps between present and past I found it quite interesting because it gave an insight into Amber (formerly known as Amber) and why she ended up living her life the way she does.
It really was a very raw book that really made me think about how lucky I am.
“The Night We Met” is a surprisingly affecting novel that looks at one couple’s love story. There are no surprises in this – Folbigg hews to genre tropes and telegraphs every plot point – and yet it is ultimately quite moving.
The story opens as Olivia lies dying in hospital. Her devoted husband, Daniel, is by her side. She asks him to write their love story down for their young daughters. The remainder of the novel shifts between chapters “written” by Daniel, describing the past, and chapters set in the hospital.
The opening chapter is quite awkwardly written, but Folbigg soon finds her rhythm and the remainder of the novel is written in a style that’s easy to read. Like other novels I’ve read from this imprint, it contains an obtrusive number of typos, and this slightly detracted from the reading experience.
Folbigg often chooses to dodge the more emotional scenes; for example, around terror attacks in London she touches lightly on Olivia’s fear that Daniel is caught up in them, and completely avoids the scenes where she finds out that he’s okay or they reunite. (This is no spoiler; the novel makes it clear even before the attacks happen that he survives.)
Despite this, and the lack of surprises, the closing chapters truly are quite affecting. I was surprised by how strongly they were affecting me. This is a charming love story, believable and with genuine warmth.
The chapters written by Daniel don’t sound as though they’re related in his voice, which is a flaw. However, since you don’t realise till late in the novel that he is supposed to be the narrator, this isn’t actually a problem for the reading experience. It’s only in retrospect, when you realise those chapters were him “speaking”, that it jars a little.
Similarly, I felt this skated very lightly over the inevitable problems that occur in a relationship, including the really serious ones when one partner is facing a terminal diagnosis. However, this is already quite a long book, and it would be a very different one if it was more grounded in reality. Ultimately, this was an authorial choice, and it worked well enough for this novel.
This may sound as though I disliked the novel, but that’s not so: it simply doesn’t stand up to detailed analysis or thought. It’s a pleasant and easy reading experience, quite a charming story, and in the end, affecting. If you’re after a relatively light read that manipulates your emotions effectively, this may suit you.
I loved this story. I laughed, I cried. At times I felt angry and frustrated with what the main characters had gone through.
A beautiful love story which hops seamlessly back and forth in time, giving you the full picture of events, leading to the final chapter, all written as a story by Daniel (the main male character) for his daughters.
Daniel and Olivia’s story takes years to finally come to fruition, but when it finally does, they experience love, birth, death and everything in between.
Being a cancer patient myself, I did at some points find it difficult, but continued on as I was quite drawn in to the characters.
I feel the illness side of the story were very well researched and written, and believably covered every aspect of the fear, denial, constant tests, and above all, hope, which a terminal diagnosis instills not only to the patent, but their loved ones as well.
Easy to read, but maybe not for everyone, as the ending is as predicted from the first chapter, very sad.
Thank you to Beauty and Lace and The Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read The Night We Met by Zoe Folbigg.
Wow what an amazing book, heartfelt and not for those who take on others pain/sadness.
A beautifully written story about the love between two people, their hopes, dreams and losses. I found myself drawn to the struggles of the characters and wanted oh so desperately for it all to work out for them (but knowing deep inside that this was simply not going to happen.)
This was a great read and I found myself emotionally connected and frustrated by what had happened (no spoilers). It would have been better for Daniel to ‘speak’ in a tone which was more a kin to him as I was quite surprised to find that he was the narrator (it didnt ‘sound’ like what I thought Daniel should sound like.)
That issue asside, well worth reading.
I absolutely loved this book! Thank you for the oppurtunity to read it!
Thank you for the opportunity to read The Night We Met.
It was beautifully written and I can see why people would be hooked. In all honesty I only didn’t love it because it hit too close to home at times.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this sad but beautiful love story.
This book hit home to me as my mum has cancer .
It was a story that bought tears to my eyes but I did continue to read until the end .
I love how the characters were bought to life from the beginning to the end.
A sad story but worth a read .
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.
It took me a little to get into it because of the time hopping but once I got used to it I thoroughly enjoyed reading Daniel and Olivia’s story.