It’s puzzling that he never wants to come to her flat, and she senses that Elliscombe’s premier taxi driver, Will, has unvoiced doubts about her new boyfriend. Every year, in January, a new Jill Mansell novel arrives, and we readers can look forward to spending many enjoyable hours losing ourselves in the world she has created.

Didi never stopped thinking about him, though, so when he showed up at the hotel she works at, a part of her is joyous. Jill Mansell is the author of over twenty Sunday Times bestsellers including The One You Really Want and Meet Me at Beachcomber Bay. His son Shay is the reason for the book's title, and I really enjoyed the various dimensions to his personality too. Didi and Shay may be of a similar age but they are both from different social circles and different walks of life. Didi is de manager van een prachtig en luxueus hotel in de Cotswolds, waar ze allerlei brandjes blust en haar gasten tevreden houdt, maar niets had haar kunnen voorbereiden op deze nieuwe ontmoeting met Shay, die terug is in Elliscombe en logeert in het hotel.We find out he also worked at Didi’s family’s hotel and because of an incident who ruined his reputation, he left the town and he didn’t come back till he is forced to fulfill his dad’s dying wish! Just because of extra unnecessary angsty, heartbreaking, long chapters, I cut some points and I gave three still I truly enjoyed this book but I wish it could be less angsty more romantic stars. If you're into modern, swift reads set in England with minimal commitment, multiple love stories, PG rating, and Hallmark movie vibes (no judgment here, folks - you like what you like): this book is for you.

However, Mansell's touch with character and description makes the book come alive, and all the subplots and secondary characters are unique enough to make you care about them while Shay and Didi flounder away. This starts on a snowy, winter night in Venice, a completely magical night and a start that ensured I was instantly hooked. Naast Didi en Shay volg je nog meer sprankelende personages, die allemaal hun eigen verhaal en belevenissen hebben, waardoor het boek geen moment verveelt, je je onderdeel voelt van het dorpsleven en je iedereen in je hart sluit. For six months after that they were rapturously happy together and Shay came to work at Didi's parents' hotel in the Cotswolds. Things ended abruptly and when he turns up unexpectedly at the hotel she runs, things are destined to take a whirlwind turn.The synopsis sounded brilliant, but once I started to reading I realised there was more to this book that meets the eye.

TAKE A CHANCE ON ME won the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Romantic Comedy Prize, and in 2015 the RNA presented Jill with an outstanding achievement award. This is the first Jill Mansell book I’ve read and I enjoyed learning about Shay and Didi’s teenage romance, the cause of their break up and what happened when they met 13 years later. Let Jill Mansell whisk you away on this escape from reality read, and enclose you with the warmth and happiness of her words. If I am being honest, I think I requested this book because I was confusing the author with another one I have read. So, when she needs to, she sneaks into Compton House backyard at night and chats to him under his favourite tree, where she scattered his ashes.Jill Mansell is the author of over twenty Sunday Times bestsellers including THIS COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING, MEET ME AT BEACHCOMBER BAY, YOU AND ME, ALWAYS, THE ONE YOUR REALLY WANT, THREE AMAZING THINGS ABOUT YOU and MAYBE THIS TIME. I think my only issue with the this book is that every time I saw the title I started singing that line from "I will Survive" which is just a rather catchy song, and since I was reading a paperback I saw the title a lot more than I would have done had I been reading digitally!