#BlogTour: A Song Of Me And You by Mike Gayle @AlainnaGeorgiou @HodderBooks @mikegayle #ASongOfYouAndMe #MikeGayle

Book Synopsis:

Helen and Ben parted as heartbroken 18-year-olds and went their very separate ways.

Twenty years later, mother-of-two-teenagers Helen is still in Manchester, a part-time primary teacher, stunned by the behaviour of her love-rat husband. In an old T shirt and scruffy jeans, she feels at the lowest point in her life.

And suddenly, impossibly, Ben is standing on her doorstep. Tired maybe, lonely even, but clearly still the world-famous, LA-based multi-millionaire rockstar he has become.

Can you ever go back?

For Helen and Ben, so much has happened in the years between. But just to sit in the kitchen for a while and talk – that would be nice.

Before the world comes crashing in.

My Review:

Oh my goodness Mike has done it again as A Song For Me And You is a beautiful, heartwarming read that’s very emotional.

Firstly I really loved the characters in this book who were all very real and easy to warm to – apart from Helen’s horrible ex. I really felt for Helen as I think we’ve all been there at the low moment in life wondering what went wrong. I thought it was so lovely that Ben came into her life at the moment when she needed him the most. It was really nice to see them grow closer and I loved the fly on the wall glimpse the reader has of their relationship as we are witness to their most intimate conversations.

The author covers some quite thought provoking topics in this book which I’ve continued to think about long after reading. It was especially interesting to see the impact the breakdown of the marriage had on everyone, especially the children. It was very emotional to follow the characters through everything and watch them slowly heal.

The book has a great pace to it and I soon found myself absorbed into the story. There always seemed to be something happening to keep my interest and even in the slower moments I found I didn’t mind as I was so invested in the characters. I think I went through every emotion whilst reading, laughing one moment, feeling intense anger and then sobbing my heart out. The ending was quite bitter sweet and while I was hoping for a different ending, maybe that wouldn’t have made the story so real.

Huge thanks to Alainna from Hodder books for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Mike Gayle was born and raised in Birmingham. After graduating from Salford University with a degree in Sociology Mike moved to London with ambitions of becoming a music journalist. This didn’t happen however and following a slight detour in his five-year plan he ended up as an agony uncle for teenage girls’ magazine Bliss before becoming Features Editor on the now much missed Just Seventeen. Since those early days Mike has written for a variety of publications including The Sunday Times, The Guardian and Cosmopolitan.

Mike became a full time novelist in 1997 following the publication of his Sunday Times top ten bestseller My Legendary Girlfriend, which was hailed by The Independent as ‘Full of belly laughs and painfully acute observations,’ and by The Times as ‘A funny, frank account of a hopeless romantic.’

To date Mike is the author of twelve novels including Mr Commitment, Turning Thirty and Wish You Were Here. His books have been translated into over thirty languages.

You can read more about Mike’s books here.

After stints in Manchester and London Mike now lives in Birmingham with his wife, kids, two sheds and a rabbit.