Always You And Me by Dani Atkins

3 days ago 8

My enormous thanks to Dani Atkins for sending me a copy of her latest book Always You And Me. It’s my absolute pleasure to share my review today.

You’ll find Dani featured on Linda’s Book Bag on other occasions in interview and review here.

I had hoped Always You And Me might be one of my My Weekly reviews for April but sadly recent restructuring and redundancies mean I already have seven reviews pending new reviews are on hold at the moment.

Always You And Me is published in paperback by Lake Union today, 1st April 2025, and is available for purchase here.

Always You And Me

From the bestselling author of Fractured comes a moving, heart-mending and uplifting novel of love, hope and second chances.

Then…

On the eve of her wedding to Adam, Lily’s best friend Josh unexpectedly walked out of her life, and she hasn’t seen him since.

Lily and Adam are blissfully happy, until he falls ill. As she cares for him in his final hours, Adam asks her to make a mysterious promise: to find Josh―and forgive them both.

This winter…

Tracking Josh down isn’t easy, but fate seems determined to bring them together. Cut off in his remote Scottish cabin by a fierce snowstorm, Lily and Josh explore their tangled feelings for each other, stretching back over the decades. But when she discovers the shocking reason behind Adam’s unexpected last wish, she’ll need to trust her heart completely…

Can Lily and Josh choose love―and find forgiveness and lasting happiness together?

My Review of Always You And Me

Lily has a promise to keep.

Always You And Me is one of those books that grasps your heart from the very first page and simply doesn’t let go. It’s totally wonderful and I adored it unreservedly.

There’s an intensity of emotion because essentially the narrative revolves around Lily, Adam and Josh with only a very few minor characters so that it’s as if we are discovering the innermost thoughts of these three. Lily’s narrative voice is perfection and Dani Atkins uses that voice to delve into Josh’s heart so that as we learn about Lily we also learn about Josh and vice versa. They are as interwoven as two strands of DNA. And yet it is Adam who initiates the action. It is he who has shaped Lily and Josh’s destiny. Although he is not physically present for almost all the novel, I felt I knew him intimately, because Lily showed him to me with scalpel sharp clarity and yet, as is true of all relationships, she didn’t know everything entirely. Indeed, I thought the way the characters developed in Always You and Me was superb.

The plot is magnificent. It is so realistic, so absorbing and so compelling that it doesn’t feel like fiction at all. I truly forgot I was reading about the lives of characters in a book. Obviously I can’t spoil the read by revealing too much, but I found every aspect of the story realistic and heart-breaking in equal measure. At the same time, there is wonderful, natural humour that frequently comes through direct speech, making Always You and Me feel balanced and absorbing.

Themes of love, family, the way our past shapes our present, grief, marriage, loyalty and parenthood are threaded throughout the book, providing a tapestry of life and humanity in a beautifully written narrative that makes the book flawless in execution.

I’m aware I haven’t said a great deal but if you read the story for yourself you’ll appreciate how hard it is not to reveal too much and spoil the read for others. Achingly romantic and deeply emotional, Always You And Me is utterly wonderful and not to be missed, even if I was completely broken by it. This will be a hard book to beat for my favourite read of 2025.

About Dani Atkins

Dani Atkins is an award-winning novelist. Her 2013 debut Fractured (published as Then and Always in North America) has been translated into over twenty languages and has sold more than half a million copies since first publication in the UK.

Dani is the author of ten bestselling novels (Fractured; The Story of Us; Our Song; This Love; While I was Sleeping; A Million Dreams; A Sky Full of Stars; The Wedding Dress; Six days and The Memory of Us) and two eBook novellas: Perfect Strangers and When I Awake.