When a reunion makes you reminisce but also doesn’t go as expected.

Synopsis

Would you give up your dreams for love?

1990: In a hot, humid Hong Kong summer, three young singers are loving life, performing to packed crowds every night in a swanky hotel bar. Twenty-three-year-old Scottish songbird, Moira Chiles is living the dream alongside Carina Lloyd and Lisa Dixon. They work hard, play hard, and always stick together… until one day Moira has to make a choice that changes everything.

Fast forward to…

2025: In a wet, chilly, Glasgow summer, Moira has just retired after singing in Glasgow pubs and Caribbean cruise ships for three decades. Now she’s ready for a new adventure – one that takes her to Hong Kong to revisit a world she left behind. Moira hasn’t seen Carina or Lisa for over thirty years, but will an invitation to join her on a holiday of a lifetime rekindle the friendships that changed her life? Or will stepping back in time expose secrets that could break their hearts?

My review

Thirty years ago, Moira, Lisa and Carina met in a hotel in Hong Kong, working in a hotel bar, having the time of their lives. They were ready to chase their dreams, and they were certain that their friendship would last forever.

In 2025, Moira has just retired from singing  in pubs and on cruises, and she is ready to relive (at least partly) the memories she has of Hong Kong. So with inviting Carina and Lisa to join her on a holiday, she hopes to rekindle that lost friendship. But are the women truly ready to go through memory lane? Or are there even thirty years later, secrets being kept that will only cause heartbreak?

Shari Low is one of those authors that keep on surprising me with their writing skills. And why am I even surprised, as I have several of her books, and I know about her amazing talents.

Yes, perhaps the set  up of many of her stories is the same, multiple main characters, flashbacks to a past with the start of just everything. But let me tell you, those are truly the only similarities, because each story is truly unique and captivating. Oh, and isn’t it lovely how Shari Low manages to let us see some old friends of ours once again?

When we are meeting Moira, Carina and Stevie (yes, I’m leaving Lisa out of the equation for now, but if you read the book, you’ll know why), I was wondering how they would all be connected. They are living their own separate lives, and Moira and Carina don’t even know about Stevie’s existence. Their lives couldn’t be more different from each other, and they are all in a different phase of their lives too.

I could easily write here what each character is like, and what their own storyline is about. But while on itself, it would be a great story too, it’s the fusion of those three stories that turned this book in an amazing reading time.

It is not a surprise that *a lot* happens in a timespan of thirty years, yet I was a bit surprised just how much the main characters have changed in those years. Of course life takes a direction, and you adapt to that direction. But it was even astonishing to read how much someone can change, or has to change.

And we see that with Carina, how she has changed from that free, lively and in a way even wild young woman to the woman she has become after her marriage.

Her life is now at a crossroad, after a devastating discovery. And with Carina we also see that you can lose yourself during life. But also that you can always find yourself again, even if it takes a holiday to Hong Kong to find yourself again 😊.

But the biggest ‘personality’ change we see with Lisa. Thirty years ago, she was the wildest of the friends, having no regrets at all. Yet we read that the Lisa Moira and Carina knew, is the complete opposite to the Lisa that Stevie knows.

Yes, this story started as Moira wanted to be with her friends again, but it quickly turned into a story of discovery. Discovery of who you once were, what changed you, but also what used to make you happy. Also it was a journey of discovering how events can change you, and even can completely change you.

And yes, I have to admit, the dramaqueen in me perhaps expected even more secrets, more devastating ones. However, maybe the secrets in my mind would have bit a little bit too much ☺️.

But it was also a wonderful story about discovering about the people close to you, and seeing a complete different side of them. There are secrets being revealed between the friends, that makes every decision that was made clearer, and even rise regrets about not doing their utterly best to keep in touch.

And most important of all, this was a marvellous story about friendship, the strength of the real kind of it. That even time, events and no contact, will never break the strongest of bonds. And that how one meeting over thirty years ago, can write out a whole new path not only for those back then, but also the people linked to them, thirty years later on, somehow.

Shari Low had the impossible task to fulfil my extreme high expectations. Not only did she once again reach them with ease, but even succeeded them by lengths. But let her be warned now, as the bar will only be even higher now! 😊