Books Read: Mix Tape by Jane Sanderson

You never forget the one that got away. But what if ‘what could have been’ is yet to come?

Daniel was the first boy to make Alison a mix tape.

But that was years ago and Ali hasn’t thought about him in a very long time. Even if she had, she might not have called him ‘the one that got away’; after all, she’d been the one to run.

Then Dan’s name pops up on her phone, with a link to a song from their shared past.

For two blissful minutes, Alison is no longer an adult in Adelaide with temperamental daughters; she is sixteen in Sheffield, dancing in her skin-tight jeans. She cannot help but respond in kind.

And so begins a new mix tape.

Ali and Dan exchange songs – some new, some old – across oceans and time zones, across a lifetime of different experiences, until one of them breaks the rules and sends a message that will change everything…

Because what if ‘what could have been’ is yet to come?

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I'd like to thank Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour and Transworld for my copy of Mix Tape to review via NetGalley.

Mix Tape came at the perfect time for me after a spell of thriller and crime reads so it was such a pleasure to be taken down a musical memory lane along with Daniel and Alison, teenage sweethearts with a mutual passion for music until one day Alison suddenly disappeared.

Their story is told through a dual timeline; Sheffield in 1979 when as teenagers they met and fell in love despite going to different schools and having different backgrounds, and in the present day in 2012 where we see the direction their lives have taken them. But old wounds are about to be reopened when Dan is sent a link to a Twitter profile for a best selling author who just happens to be Ali. Can you ever truly forget your first love?

For a few brief moments Dan reminisces about their first date and before he can regret it, he sends Ali a link to a song from their first date. This sets in motion a chain of messages to each other with links to other songs that have a significance to their past. For those few moments they are able to forget about their current day lives and remember the good times that they shared together. And over time a new mix tape is created of songs, some old as well as a few new. But what happens when the past and present collide?

This was a story that had me conflicted, I was definitely more invested in the past element of their relationship and wanted to know what had happened to make Alison leave so abruptly without saying goodbye and why she never made contact again. And the more that was uncovered, the more I understood her need to get away but also anger at what she had endured. I had a lot of 'what if' questions wondering how everything would have played out differently if others hadn't interfered.

As for the present timeline I was torn whilst reading this aspect as I knew that if Dan and Ali were to reconnect with one another again then others would be hurt in the process so it was a lose/lose situation all around. However, there was one special moment when Ali returned to Sheffield that did bring a lump to my throat but again it was bittersweet as why did it take her so long to try and make contact with the only other person from her past that ever truly cared for her? 

The musical playlist that developed throughout the book brought back so many memories to me as being a child of the 70s and 80s a few of these were songs or artists that I used to enjoy listening to myself, and some I had not listened to for years, so I might have found myself playing one or two of them shortly after they were mentioned in the book. 

Overall Mix Tape was a nostalgic read, full of romance, regret as well as tackling a few hard hitting topics that I wasn't expecting.