User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
In case anyone is wondering what the formula for happiness is, it's as follows:
1) Move to Scotland.
1a) If you already live in Scotland, leave for a few months and come back and realize how wonderful it is.
2) Fall in love (either in Scotland or with a person who is from / lives in Scotland).
3) Join a ready-made group of friends.
4) Whatever you do for work is beside the point, but it should probably be something quirky that by no means sounds like it pays the bills / substantiates the hours required to qualify as a full time job.
Boom. You're happy.
Reading this book was not all that much fun for me (the romance felt half-hearted at best and I read way more about being a doctor who visits people at home in the UK than anything else), but at least I now have a life plan.
2.5 stars
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18% into this and only JUST realized it's the third book in a series, and also i've read the first book in said series.
if anyone has any spare brain cells they don't need i could definitely use them.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars, rounded up.
According to Jenny Colgan's
500 Miles from You , sometimes a change of perspective can do you good—and sometimes it’s even better.
Lissa is a nurse in London, working in some of the city's grittier neighborhoods. She’s been having trouble keeping it together, though, since witnessing a horrible crime. Her PTSD is making it impossible for her to focus, so her supervisors think a change of scenery will help, and they arrange for her to swap jobs with another nurse.
Cormac is a nurse and former army medic in the small Scottish town of Kirrinfief. He’s easygoing and friendly, a gentle giant, but that calm hides some deeper issues he keeps silent about. He’s only spent a day or two in London but now he’ll be taking Lissa's place while she moves to Kirrinfief.
Although Cormac has an easier time getting acclimated than Lissa, both feel like a fish out of water. Lissa, in particular, is finding it hard to get comfortable in a place where everyone knows everyone’s business and everyone is so friendly and laid back. But little by little, she starts to warm to the town and its people, and they stop thinking she's totally standoffish.
After some initial awkwardness, Cormac and Lissa start emailing each other about their patients, daily occurrences, every little thing, which leads to texting each other. Why is it so easy to unburden yourself to someone you’ve never met?
What happens when they meet each other? And what happens when they have to return to their original homes and jobs?
Unless you’ve never read a rom-com before, you pretty much know what will happen. And even though I did, there is so much charm here to fall for. The characters—not only Lissa and Cormac, but the supporting characters in both London and Kirrinfief—are just so endearing. It took a little longer for Lissa to stop being impolite and disoriented than I would’ve liked, and the roadblocks she and Cormac encounter at one point made me roll my eyes, but I still enjoyed this so much.
I’ve been wanting to read a Jenny Colgan book for so long and now I see why she’s so loved!
Check out my list of the best books I read in 2019 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2019.html.
Check out my list of the best books of the decade at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2020/01/my-favorite-books-of-decade.html.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
Rating: really liked it
I absolutely adored this book. It is beautifully written and tugs at your heartstrings all the way through. Especially apt at the moment when everyone who wasn't grateful for the NHS before has been come aware of the amazing amount of work that they do, and for all of us who had already been touched by the NHS in helping us in various aspects of our lives, hope that people remember the amazing sacrifices, hard work and commitment that they put in and have put in every single day. I for one am hoping that this crisis will make people second think some of the racist comments, bigoted opinions and negativeness after all this has blown over and realise that without people coming to work in our amazing NHS from overseas. We would have an even worse situation on our hands then we do now and that free movement and working together is the only way forward.
It is also a book that shines the light on the importance of organ donors and how the sadness of their death can save the lives of another person who without their donorship would probably be suffering for a really long time. This can bring happiness, a change in lifestyle and a second chance to those who desperately need it.
It is also a story that shows there should be no stigma around mental health and that everyone needs all the love and support that they should be able to receive. No matter what occupation that they work in. Also that our NHS need more support around these things as they get affected by these things on a daily basis too.
It is a story of hope, redemption, starting again, happiness, sadness, light, love, friendship and family. It shows that you should never judge a book by its cover, always get to know the person underneath, that love can stretch miles, and that we all have the strength inside us to defeat our darkest days.
A really beautiful book, fantastically written, wonderfully researched, with fantastic cast of characters, some of which we have met before and a feel good, hug of a storyline that will really brighten your spirits and yes make you cry a little bit too. But where there is happiness there is usually a little bit of sadness too. Great work Jenny. A book you should be really proud of.
Rating: really liked it
Lissa is a tough homecare nurse living and working in South London. Cormac is an ex-army homecare nurse in a small town in Scotland. When they switch lives for three months, a romance blossoms despite their pen-pal-like relationship.
Pros:
- As a fan of Outlander, the Outlander reference made me giggle. And the colloquialisms are fun.
- I like reading books with settings that are not in the United States, and there are /two/ here: London and Scotland.
- Yay for semi-positive depictions of therapy.
Cons:
- Why is there a character named Lissa AND Larissa? There are so many names out there... it totally isn't necessary to have two such similar ones in the same book.
- The narration is garbled and garbage. It starts off as very third-person limited, but as Lissa and Cormac switch locations, we start to get the thoughts and reasonings of minor characters. And even quite a bit of Lissa's London best friend/neighbor's romance. Like, yes, the trans romance is lovely, but not important to the overall story of Lissa and Cormac. If you want to do a trans romance, make this a series, and give Kim-Ange her own story-- do true justice to her and her love.
- The end bit of everything going wrong for Cormac is comedic in tone. And this book has had no previous tone of comedy. Why are you trying to turn what could be a nice and lovely romance into a disjointed rom-com?
- It felt like a second draft, not a complete story written by an author who has published scores of other stories.
On the chaste to steamy scale, it is a 0.5.
Rating: really liked it
Jenny Colgan is an absolute favorite of mine, so of course I was thrilled to receive an ARC of her new book, 500 Miles From You. This author’s books always make me smile, and her books set in the Scottish Highlands give me a major case of wanderlust each and every time.
In 500 Miles From You, we start by meeting Lissa, a nurse who specializes in follow-up care, spending her days driving around London from patient to patient to make sure they’re following doctor’s orders, taking their medications, and getting the treatment they need. As the story opens, Lissa witnesses a terrible hit and run that’s a deliberate attack, leaving a 15-year-old boy dying on the street.
Lissa is unable to shake off the horror, and finally, her hospital’s HR team strongly urges her to participate in a professional exchange program. She’ll be sent to a rural area to use her skills in a different environment, and a nurse from that area will come take her place in London to gain experience in urban medicine.
It doesn’t seem like an offer Lissa can refuse, and between her new assignment and her required ongoing therapy sessions, the exhange may be her only opportunity to heal and recover before her PTSD completely derails her career and her life.
Meanwhile, Cormac will leave his beloved town of Kirrinfief in the Scottish Highlands — where literally everyone knows your name — to live in Lissa’s nursing quarters in London and take over her set of patients. The two never meet, but they exchange patient notes, and over time, develop an email and text rapport beyond the professional requirements.
In my opinion. Lissa gets the much better end of the deal! As always, Jenny Colgan has me falling in love all over again with her depiction of life in the Highlands — the peace and quiet, the quaint small town, the local busybodies, the sense of connection. And frankly, while Cormac eventually finds reasons to like London, the descriptions of the noise, the dirt, the unfriendliness, the bustle all make it clear why Cormac yearns for home.
Lissa’s PTSD is portrayed sensitively. As a medical professional, she intellectually understands her reactions, but that doesn’t mean that she can instantly deal with it. Her progress is slow, and we see how her London habits keep her from fitting in or being accepted when she arrives in Kirrinfief. Eventually, of course, she opens up to her surroundings and to the way of life in a small village, and finds more than she could have thought possible.
Cormac, a former army medic, carries around with him the memories of Fallujah that eventually make him seek a civilian career. While he can relate to Lissa’s trauma, his own past still remains mostly undisclosed. I finished the book wishing we’d learned a little more about Cormac’s army experiences.
The back and forth between Cormac and Lissa is quite cute, and the book ends with all sorts of mishaps that turn their intended first in-person meetings into a series of catastrophic missed chances. But yes, there’s a happy ending — how could there not be?
The texts and emails between Lissa and Cormac are funny and sweet, and the story is a nice twist on the “two strangers fall in love without ever meeting” trope. Somehow, though, I was left wanting more. I felt that their connection needed more time to grow, and wasn’t given quite enough room to develop and breathe — and I was left wanting to see more of them together once they finally connected, rather than ending with their meeting.
This is the 3rd of Jenny Colgan’s loosely connected stories set in Kirrinfief. Characters from both The Bookshop on the Corner and The Bookshop on the Shore show up here (and become friends with Lissa). It’s lovely to see them all — I just wish they’d actually had bigger roles to play, since I enjoy those characters so much.
Overall, this is another winning romantic tale from a terrific author, balancing tough situations and emotions with lighter, more joyous moments and memorable characters.
500 Miles From You can work as a stand-alone, but I’d recommend starting with The Bookshop on the Corner, which is a wonderful introduction to Kirrinfief and its quirky characters. Either way, don’t miss these lovely stories!
Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. Full review at Bookshelf Fantasies.
Rating: really liked it
3 stars! Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
500 Miles From You follows Lissa, a London based nurse, and her traumatic experience with a hit and run of a 15 year old kid she knew. After experiencing the crash, Lissa isn't the same; she is anxious and can't sleep and can't stop crying. It is suggested to her that she goes on an exchange programme in order to get her thoughts in order and to recover. And that is how Lissa ends up in Scotland, taking over Cormac's job and how he ends up in London, taking over Lissa's job.
The start of this novel was incredibly powerful and left me full of hope. However as the story progressed I found myself getting more and more detached from it. There were a lot of descriptions of what Lissa and Cormac were going through in their daily job life but not really any meaningful interaction or story progression.
I truly lived for the small and few moments we got of Lissa and Cormac interacting through their e-mails and later on through their texts but I felt like the experience of reading about them finally meeting up after everything they had gone through was a bit rushed and slightly disappointing.
Jenny Colgan created a very well detailed contrast between London and Kirrinfeif and I was very enveloped in the way the places and the people were described and built.
I didn't hate it, I actually really enjoyed it, I just didn't love it either. It was an enjoyable read with some really powerful moments and sections about real life, anxiety, ptsd and healthcare life.
Rating: really liked it
Nothing. Happened. In 400+ pages. Our lead characters don't even meet until the last 5 pages and the previous correspondence between them held no chemistry. Both just complained back and forth.
Weird perspective shifts, Cormac to Lissa, to a randomly omniscient narrator all within in one paragraph.
Too many loose unexplained ends, too many random medical case details, overly detailed areas that have nothing to do with plot or character development.
Scotland was the only good character. And Ned. Who is a hedgehog.
You don't have to have read the other titles in the series, but maybe you would enjoy this one more. A bumbling book.
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy.
Rating: really liked it
Another winner from Jenny Colgan. This one was a fifth in the Scottish series with all the characters I’d grown to love as well as new ones. This was a sweet story to read and as usual with her books I read it very quickly.
It was funny and sad but as always it all turns out well in the end. If you haven’t read the others in the series you can read it as a stand alone but, I think you would probably want to read the others after reading this.
Rating: really liked it
I’m so effing far behind in reviews. My apologies for this half-assed content these final few days of this sucky year but here’s my lame attempt at bookpushing 500 Miles from You. Basically if you liked The Holiday this should be a winner. The trope is the “switching houses with a stranger” - the difference this time is it is two nurses who make the swap and then proceed to fall in love via a slow burning correspondence type of relationship. It was a delight and I have about seventy-two other Jenny Colgan books on my TBR now.
Rating: really liked it
This is the third book in the Bookshop on the Shore series, but it can be read as a standalone. However, you'll miss the wonderful character connections that make Colgan's books so superb.
I always like returning to a place in a book that I've visited before and getting caught up with everyone again--as well getting to know new characters. I really enjoyed both Lissa and Cormac and their adventures both apart and together. Their very real dealings with PTSD, but also the heartwarming connections that both of them learn to make when they are forced outside of their comfort zones.
If you're looking for a book with great characters, some romance, a bit of humor, and all over good story, then Colgan's books are definitely ones to pick up.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
Rating: really liked it
What a lovely book. I cried at the end. This book really worked for me though the last book in the series bugged me. I think Colgan really brought to life Cormac and Lissa for me. And I loved the illustrations that we got as part of this book. Long time followers know I get a kick out of books that pull you in, and this one does. This book really hit a spot that I needed to tend to right now.
"500 Miles from You" is the 3rd book in the Scottish Bookshop series. You can see my prior reviews. I have to say that this one is a favorite for me right now. The character development of the two main characters works and we get some lovely look backs at the prior characters. Having a book tackling the medical field is definitely hitting a niche in the romance world right now I think.
Back to the book. "500 Miles from You" follows Lissa who is having a hard time as a nurse in London. We know that something happened, which has affected her and caused her to suffer from PTSD. Her supervisor recommends a swap between Lissa and another nurse (Cormac) that is living in Kirrinfief, Scotland. Cormac is quite happy with his life, but realizes that he needs to get out of his rut. The swap though does both characters some good and makes them think what if....about each other.
So I loved the two main characters and the side characters we get like Kim-Ange and of course Nina and Zoe (from prior books). This book just felt like a hug. I don't know what else to say. Reading how Lissa gets some peace and how much she falls in love with Scotland makes me want to rush there for a vacation. I need some peace.
The dialogue was great, I laughed a few times and sighed. I also cried at the end. What a lovely ending to the book by the way. I won't spoil for others, but I thought it quite beautiful and ended things in a lovely way.
Rating: really liked it
The blurb for this book really appealed to me. The nurse practitioner h witnesses something that is really traumatizing for her, and she has PTSD from the event. She is persuaded to do a 3 month job exchange with another nurse, the former military man H, in Scotland. He will get a chance to sharpen his nursing skills in a new environment and she will have a chance to slow down and heal, while still keeping her job. The two of them have never met in person but soon begin to exchange emails and texts about their patients and soon they are chatting about life.
The books is much more chick-lit and less romance. There is a lot of time spent on both the h and H and their experiences being the fish out of water. The h is shocked by how friendly everyone in the small town is, and the beautiful scenery of Scotland. The H is shocked by the crowds, the hustle and bustle of the big city, the smoke. Soon they both learn to enjoy their new environment and get to know people. I liked these parts of the book. But the romance is where I got annoyed. I would have rather just had no romance at all.
I love a book where the characters get to know each other over letters/texts/DMs. Falling in love with the person, without even knowing what they look like. This book was a disappointment on that front. The H/h do exchange texts, but nothing that would convince me that they even had a basic understanding of each other, let alone fall in love. There was no development of feelings, just curiosity. Then comes the same old double standard found in romance: The h goes on a few dates with the town playboy, but nothing comes of it. The H on the other hand, starts sleeping with one of the nurses. Ugh so annoying. (view spoiler)
[At the start of the book, the h has a guy she's been seeing off and on, and her friend lets her know that he's moved on to Yazzi and is now sleeping with her. So she's been ghosted by this jerk. When the H moves into her room, he meets another nurse, who comes onto him, follows him to his room, and he lets her in. Guess who he slept with? Yazzi. Why did the author even have to include this at all? Can't the H just make some friends and go out, like the h did? Why does the h have to sleep with all the same men as Yazzi? The minute Yazzi went into his room, it put a sour taste in my mouth and ruined the romance for me from then on. Even though the H/h had never even met in person, and weren't together in any way, I like for my H/h to not be with anyone else once they encounter each other, I wanted him to keep it in his pants for 3 short months and not sleep with the same woman who was also sleeping with the h's ex!!! (hide spoiler)]Anyway, the resolution of the h and her PTSD was nice, I felt like she did grow as a person and was able to come to terms with her emotions. The last few chapters when the H/h finally decide to meet were sweet and I did feel like the H was putting forth a huge effort to make her special to him. But the romance was already ruined for me by then. Lastly, the book was just too long. At over 400 pages, I skimmed here and there.
As a chick-lit story, I enjoyed it. As a romance, it annoyed me.
Rating: really liked it
Sweet, tender, and heartwarming. Classic Jenny Colgan!
Rating: really liked it
Three and a half stars.
Lissa Westcott is a nurse and loves her job as she really cares for others. But a traumatic incident she witnesses leaves her overwhelmed and not coping. After an episode at the hospital, the suggestion is made that she needs time away from the busy London scene. Reluctantly she agrees to a swap for three months with a nurse from the village of Kirrinfief in Scotland. The plan is to swap with Cormac MacPherson. He is not that keen on London but the swap means an upgrade in his job and after his time in the army, he is feeling restless and in need of a distraction. So the swap is made. But will this work out well for either of these nurses? And will patients accept the change? As well as showing the difference between two different lifestyles and attitudes, the book also highlights in a very real way the need for organs donors.
Despite the traumatic opening, I found this a rather joy filled read. The main characters are both well drawn and the contrast between the two places and attitudes of inhabitants are highlighted throughout. Perhaps a bit biased one way, but never mind. Lissa and Cormac come to understand a bit more about each other and their lives. Could it be more than just a relationship by email peppered with drawings? I loved the little drawing of Ned the hedgehog. It made me smile.
I found Anita the psychologist working from home with family around her a bit unbelievable as a professional. And there were a couple of other incidents and characters that didn’t really add anything to the story, but on the whole I enjoyed this book. Though there are some heavy themes, it manages to still come across as a light read enjoyable, dealing with choices, family decisions, friendship and romance that maintains interest and entertains, even if it is a little predictable.
Having read a couple of this author’s books before I knew what to expect and I certainly wasn’t disappointed in the way things turned out. Chick lit yes, but with a bit of substance as well. Great if you are looking for a heart-warming, feel good read.
Rating: really liked it
I absolutely love Jenny Colgan’s Scottish Bookshop series. 500 Miles from You moved me in many ways and was a powerful story. The main character, Lissa, witnesses a violent crime and is unable to save the victim (someone she knows). The event leaves this traveling nurse suffering from PTSD. To help her recover, she switches jobs with Cormac, who owns a charming cottage in a village overlooking Loch Ness.
I loved every aspect of this story. Yes. It is a love story, but it is a multilayered story. The main story was about overcoming PTSD and the trauma of youth violence. Traveling nurses are unsung heroes, and this book gives us a glimpse to the realities they face and the love/dedication they have to their patients. These relationships are powerful and meaningful for both nurse and patient.
What I loved most about the book is that it highlighted the benefits of living in the Scottish Highlands and the joy one finds in nature and simple living. It also shows why living in London is such an amazing experience. I love books that take me away and feel like I am walking the streets with the characters.
Obviously, the love interests can’t just meet and live happily ever after. The author does an amazing job with a slow build up and then going pedal to the metal as the story arcs approached their resolutions. I ripped through the last 50 pages. The final scene was one of the most touching I have read. I look forward to moving onto another series by this talented writer.
