Review: You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning

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Review

5 “Pancake relationship” Stars!!

You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me is the first book I have read/listened to by Sarra Manning and I can say with certainty that it will not be my last. She has written a beautiful story full of witty humor, character growth, developing friendships and finding love where you least expect it.

Neve is smart, beautiful, funny, sort of awkward, and a bit of a geek. I couldn’t help but love her. She is 25, has never been in a relationship, and is tired of loving someone without being noticed.

She was so fed up with unrequited love and platonic love and all the other kinds of love that weren’t passionate, romantic, can’t-live-without-you, I-have-to-have-you-right-now, the-beat-of-your-heart-matches-the-beat-of-mine love.

Neve has been crushing on her Oxford Student adviser for six years-the first three years they were together at Oxford and the last three years he has been away in California working. She has a grand plan to get William to notice her and love her when he returns home. She sets out to lose a lot of weight and she wants to gain experience before her beloved William returns to London.

There was no time to prevaricate and procrastinate and keep faffing about with a vague plan to work her way up from light flirtation. She had to do something now. And the something she had to do was find a man, any man…

This is where Max comes into the picture. Though their initial introduction began on the wrong foot, Neve eventually decides Max is a perfect candidate for her so-called “pancake relationship.” She needs experience with a man but she sets some ground rules: no handholding and no sex. She wants to gain everything else from the pretend relationship so that she will be ready for a real relationship with William.

Neve is upfront with her intentions and reasons for wanting a pancake relationship and Max is more that happy to oblige. He enjoys one-night stands and is not looking for a real relationship, so this pancake relationship is fine with him.

As time passes, things start to change. Neve and Max form a wonderful friendship. They enjoy each other’s company, make each other laugh, and they start to open up to each other. Their relationship continues and we see the attraction and chemistry between the two of them. No one understands their pancake relationship but it works for them.

But when Neve wasn’t explaining it and it just was, it was starting to feel natural. As if Neve was exactly where she needed to be, which was with Max.

However, their relationship has an expiration date. William is due home soon and Neve and Max are trying to make the best of the time they have left while she struggles with her feelings.

Then she flopped back on the bed and wondered why, when she was so close to getting what she’d wanted, it felt as if she was losing everything.

Relationships, real or fake, are never perfect though. Neve and Max have formed a true bond by the time their relationship comes to an end and Neve is confused as ever about her feelings and their relationship doesn’t end like she plans.

That was the worst thing about having a relationship with someone, even a pretend relationship. You opened up, let someone in, and when it was over, they had all the ammunition they needed to completely destroy you.

I adored this book. I loved Neve and how she changes throughout the story. She has the biggest heart and it was so heartbreaking to know how she was treated and what she went through when she was younger. It was hard to listen to Neve focus so much on her weight and her goal.

She was finally beginning to understand that her fixation on being a size ten had been another excuse to spend her life in preparation, instead of living it and taking risks and maybe getting hurt in the process.

The only thing that started to get on my nerves about Neve is how self-deprecating she was. I understand it was a huge part of the story by I wished she would have felt better about herself earlier on in the story.

Max was wonderful. He was charming, sexy, and funny. He was great with Neve and I loved their relationship. He helped Neve open up and become more comfortable with herself. He supported her and he adored her for who she was. Neve and Max were such a sweet couple!

‘We both got so obsessed about that first pancake being thrown away that we forgot something really important,’ Max explained, and he looked incredibly pleased with himself. ‘That first pancake tastes just as good as all the other ones. It’s not its fault that it was first in line and the pan wasn’t hot enough so it got a bit lumpy and misshapen.’

This book was narrated by Julie Maisey and it was FANTASTIC. The narration was so good that I almost didn’t want to read it. I’d rather listen to her voice. She did an amazing job switching between voices and the way she spoke made me feel like I was in the characters heads. Even though it is an extremely long audiobook, it is so worth it! I loved this book!

 

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