Title: If I Never Met You
Author: Mhairi McFarlane
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: March 24th, 2020
eARC provided by publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
“f faking love is this easy… how do you know when it’s real?
When her partner of over a decade suddenly ends things, Laurie is left reeling—not only because they work at the same law firm and she has to see him every day. Her once perfect life is in shambles and the thought of dating again in the age of Tinder is nothing short of horrifying. When news of her ex’s pregnant girlfriend hits the office grapevine, taking the humiliation lying down is not an option. Then a chance encounter in a broken-down elevator with the office playboy opens up a new possibility.
Jamie Carter doesn’t believe in love, but he needs a respectable, steady girlfriend to impress their bosses. Laurie wants a hot new man to give the rumor mill something else to talk about. It’s the perfect proposition: a fauxmance played out on social media, with strategically staged photographs and a specific end date in mind. With the plan hatched, Laurie and Jamie begin to flaunt their new couple status, to the astonishment—and jealousy—of their friends and colleagues. But there’s a fine line between pretending to be in love and actually falling for your charming, handsome fake boyfriend…” (Goodreads)
I was hoping to really enjoy this one. The cover is cute and the premise sounded like something right up my alley. Who doesn’t love fake relationships? There were times that I enjoyed what I was reading and other times where I just wanted to skim.
But, let’s just move right along to the review and start with the characters.
How would you deal with a break-up being 36 years old and having been with that person for 18 years? Laurie gets to face this terrible situation that also gets worse. I really felt for her because I can only imagine being that age and feeling like you have to start completely over. Plus with how dating is now, I would want to start over, ha. She is very independent and strong-willed. I like how she stuck up for herself a lot.
My only complaint with her was how long she wallowed in pity. It lasted for a long time in the beginning of the book and most of first 30% felt like it did a lot of repeating. I think that the book could have been shortened quite a bit early on and it wouldn’t have changed the rest of the book.
Jamie is an okay character. I don’t really think there was anything that made him stand out. He was an average womanizer who decided that he wanted more. Read it before and I just wish there would have been more to him. It probably didn’t help that he was only mentioned a couple times in the first 30% and didn’t have a bigger role until almost halfway through the book.
Besides her ex-boyfriend, the minor characters were very minor. Even her ex-boyfriend at times became very minor once various plot twists were over with. I wish there would have been more from them.
As for the plot, it was decent. There were certain plot twists that surprised me and really intrigued me to keep reading. There were also some plot twists that felt unnecessary and just felt like they were added for the sake of drama. I mean I like drama but it can’t just be all willy nilly. I also wasn’t a fan of the ending. It felt rushed and I absolutely hate rushed endings!
Overall, this book just missed the mark for me as a whole. It was too slow in the beginning to keep my interest and the rest of the book just lacked too much for me to fully enjoy.