WHAT IF I NEVER GET OVER YOU

Two star-crossed lovers cross paths more than once.

Ellie, from London, and Ash, from North Wales, meet in Lisbon when they’re both traveling after college graduation. They instantly bond, especially over the fact that they’re both traveling alone because their best friends have died. They spend an enchanting three days that feels like the start of something big and make plans to meet up again in Madrid in a week’s time. Ellie heads to the Algarve to meet her parents. On the specified date, Ellie shows up but Ash doesn’t. In the heady days of their burgeoning romance, they forgot to trade last names even as they shared their most heartfelt dreams: Ellie to be a gardener rather than a designer in her family’s furniture business, and Ash to study space. Years pass. Neither is able to find the other again, despite much searching on both their parts. In that time, Ellie becomes the gardener she dreamed of being, and while Ash still loves the stars, he isn’t able to pursue the graduate work he had planned. When Ellie lands a coveted spot on the gardening staff of a 500-year-old private estate, she is floored to discover that Ash, her long-lost and long-sought Ash, is actually Ashton Berkeley—destined to become viscount when he inherits the estate, and dating a woman named Rebecca. He’s as shocked as she is to find her once again. This is a charming, beguiling tale: There’s tension between the two characters, their families, their expectations about their own futures and any potential future they might have together. There is chemistry. There are misunderstandings and there are solid conversations. There are dreams and love and nature and the stars.

Delightful, pure escapism in a fairy-tale romance.