Dual timeline novel set in IDAHO
Romance novel set in HERTFORDSHIRE and Cricklewood
9th July 2026
People in Love by Claire Daverley, romance novel set in Hertfordshire and Cricklewood.
I read this for Grazia Book Club, June 2026.
The author had a huge success with Talking At Night, a word-of-mouth best seller, and so it must be very stressful producing a subsequent novel because the bar is set so very high.
Nora is living with Robin, and they have been together for several years. They have, until now, not thought marriage was for them, but then Robin casually proposes to her. She dithers about inviting her former best love Bren to their engagement party, who seemingly abandoned her when they were in their teens. She still holds a what-might-have-been candle for him. Bren is now actually in New Zealand, so it’s a long way to come and she assumes he won’t. But there he is on the doorstep, on the evening of their celebration.
In their younger years Nora and Bren lived next door to each other, their mothers were (and still are) best pals, but it has to be said they are a curious pair, Nora’s mother in particular seems quite self-referring and pretty damning about the couple’s wedding announcement; his mother seems content to exist within her four walls. Nora reminisces about being able to hear Bren moving around through the wall of her bedroom, which gave her a particular sense of connection, and to this day, she still doesn’t understand what possessed him to disappear.
Secrets, however, will out, and she soon understands what drove him to leave. As they spend time together, backstories are revealed and historical shoddy behaviour cannot be overlooked.
Although Robin is included, it feels at times incredibly uncomfortable for the group of three (and for the reader), as they all wade through the morass of feelings and unrequited love. My baseline mantra to Nora was ‘do not, whatever you do, throw what you have with Robin to the four winds’!
The author beautifully observes everyday life and she can capture the nuanced interactions between people,
which made Talking At Night such a hit. I felt this novel kicked off well, but then I really couldn’t get the sense of the remaining connection between Bren and Nora – we are told he knows her so well, but those are merely words and their “fit”, for wont of a better word, didn’t feel sufficiently strong to upend her current life. The story then became quite woolly and a couple of revelations and crises added interest, but didn’t altogether rescue this story of rumination and triangles.
Robin randomly has a few chapters to himself. The lack of speech marks throughout made this a slightly cumbersome read.
Location isn’t particularly strong in this novel.
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