The Day Our Lives Collided by Laura Pearson

 

Hayden, Tash, and Adam literally bump into each other during their first week at university. Over the next seventeen years, we follow the complexities of their friendship through the weddings they attend.

You can never be too sure what you are going to get when you pick up a novel by Laura Pearson. It could be something with a quirk in the tale, such as the narrative being seen through the eyes of children before they are conceived, or being able to see the different routes your future could take. Other times, the author delivers a 'standard' tale, for example, twins raised separately and suddenly finding each other, or a woman surviving domestic abuse. What you can always be sure of is a story that digs deep into emotional territory and characters that become such a part of you that you don't want the book to end.

The Day Our Lives Collided is a straightforward story about three people who meet at university and form a close friendship. I loved the way in which we followed the lives of Hayden, Tash, and Adam, along with their social circle, through the years by focusing on weddings. Weddings are emotional events in their own right, but using them as a vehicle to examine the way in which relationships, both romantic and friendship, developed and changed over the years really helped to focus on how people were feeling.

Every emotion is covered, but the main focus of the story is how a strong friendship can be damaged when jealousy rears its head. It is impossible to pick a side, as you sympathise with all the characters involved. I simply wanted a happy ending for everyone involved, without the book actually ending. I would have happily read on for another 200 pages, following how the lives of such engaging characters developed.

The Day Our Lives Collided by Laura Pearson will be published on 6th September 2026 in paperback and ebook format. My thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for a review copy.

Author Details

Laura Pearson is the author of eleven novels. The Last List of Mabel Beaumont was a Kindle number one bestseller in the UK and a top ten bestseller in the US. Laura lives in Leicestershire, England, with her husband, their two children, and a cat who likes to lie on her keyboard while she tries to write. Her latest book, The Last Marriage of Dot Brightmore, came out in May.