Love Will Tear Us Apart by Holly Seddon

Love comes in many forms, and who says you can’t keep up a relationship that was built on a lie. Well, pretty much everyone with half a brain! An intimate account of an unconventional marriage, Love Will Tear Us Apart has some food for thought for all of us.

Genres: Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Published: 7th June
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Series: N/A
Rating: 3

Fearing eternal singledom, childhood friends Kate and Paul make the age-old vow that if they don’t find love by thirty, they will marry each other.
Years later, with the deadline of their 30th birthdays approaching, the unlikely couple decide to keep their teenage promise. After all, they are such good friends. Surely that’s enough to make a marriage?
Now, on the eve of their 10th wedding anniversary, they will discover that love between men and women is more complex, and more precarious, than they could ever have imagined. As Kate struggles with a secret that reaches far into their past, will the couple’s vow become the very thing that threatens their future?

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This book should be a manual for married people, and all people in fact, who want to have any sort of relationship with another human being, about how not communicating properly ruins everything and our dark secrets will eventually come and bite us in the ass.

If you can’t talk to your childhood best friend honestly, then I guess there really is no hope. Or is there? Kate and Paul have known each other since they were little. Even though they came from very different backgrounds, their summers were filled with adventures and they needed was each other’s company. Kate comes from money, but Paul has loving parents who soon take the little girl under their wings. Viv, Paul’s mum becomes more of a mother to her than her actual one.

Now, away to Cornwall on their 10th wedding anniversary things are not looking so peachy. In fact, Kate and Paul barely seem to be able to even tolerate each other. The story is told by Kate, so we never really find out how Paul feels, but judging by his abrasive behaviour, peachy does not apply to him either.

A dark secret and a lot of reminiscing fill the pages of this book. There’s quite a lot of build up, in fact, I dare say, most of the story is just that. There are plenty of flashbacks, not entirely adhering to a strict timeline, so if backstories are your thing, you’re going to enjoy this one. There are no shocking twists or revelations on the way to make you gasp, but this just makes Holly Seddon’s novel all the more relatable.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.