Eight Perfect Hours | Book Review

I just finished reading Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louise ( a recent thrift find)- and I loved it.

Plot (from Goodreads)

In this romantic and heartwarming novel, two strangers meet in chance circumstances during a blizzard and spend one perfect evening together, thinking they’ll never see each other again. But fate seems to have different plans.

On a snowy evening in March, 30-something Noelle Butterby is on her way back from an event at her old college when disaster strikes. With a blizzard closing off roads, she finds herself stranded, alone in her car, without food, drink, or a working charger for her phone. All seems lost until Sam Attwood, a handsome American stranger also trapped in a nearby car, knocks on her window and offers assistance. What follows is eight perfect hours together, until morning arrives and the roads finally clear.

The two strangers part, positive they’ll never see each other again, but fate, it seems, has a different plan. As the two keep serendipitously bumping into one another, they begin to realize that perhaps there truly is no such thing as coincidence. With plenty of charming twists and turns and Lia Louis’s “bold, standout voice” (Gillian McAllister, author of The Good Sister), Eight Perfect Hours is a gorgeously crafted novel that will make you believe in the power of fate.

Thoughts

This book centered largely around fate, and the concept that people who are meant to be together will end up together. Noelle and Sam not only keep running into each other, but they discover several moments in the past that connected them. If you believe in the concept of “twin flames” (which I do), you know that some people are destined to keep meeting up in each lifetime. This is how it feels with Sam and Noelle- like no matter where life takes them, they will keep crossing paths until they end up together.

At first, it just seemed like she ran into him twice by chance, but by the end of the novel, you learn that there are many more coincidences and similarities that tie them together. Having experienced this in my own life, I really connected with that aspect of this book.

Favourite quotes

“An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle. But it will never break.”

The only way to live forever is to leave part of yourself behind. And that's what this is. A part of me.

rating 4/5

Overall it was a nice light read with some deeper life aspects and themes (death, illness, grief, regret). If you’ve ever heard Taylor Swift’s song “Invisible String”, it would be the perfect theme song for this book. It was my first time reading a book by Lia Louis, but I definitely want to read more!

If you read Eight Perfect Hours, let me know what you think in the comments!

D