Bestselling author Mhairi McFarlane returns with another heartfelt romantic comedy perfect for fans of Josie Silver, Sophie Kinsella, or Sally Thorne.
One of Shondaland’s 5 Must-Read Books for March and a Best Romance of 2020 by Amazon, OprahMag, Insider, Buzzfeed, Bustle, Cosmo, PopSugar, and BookPage.If faking love is this easy… how do you know when it’s real?
When her partner of over a … BookPage.
If 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…
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I’d never read this author before, but now I will work through her backlist! The writing is just top quality and the humor is so sharp! She took the age-old faux boyfriend trope and gave it terrific depth and feeling. I loved every minute of it.
Mhairi McFarlane’s voice is as clear as a bell — she makes you laugh, but she also makes you feel. I adore her!
I went into this book without reading the blurb because I love everything from this author and I suggest you do the same as the story will hold so many more surprises that way. Anyway, I loved, loved this story. I flew through it in just a couple of days. From the meet-cute (sort of) to how and why the romance developed are a few of my favorite romance tropes. I know I’m being very vague but it’s just because I don’t want to spoil any aspect of the story for you. And James, the leading ma, yum, he sure was book-boyfriend material and the proud owner of a cat at that.
The only complaint I have is that the baggage related to each of the protagonist’s families was riddles with pretty heavy, sad occurrences, and I get they were needed for the two main characters to bond over, but I still wished the author had found a lighter way to bring out raw emotions, I usually prefer my romcoms sad-topics-free.
One of the many brilliant things about this book is how it slowly reveals itself, picking apart the beliefs of the protagonists as well as the reader, and dropping little stones into a bucket of water until the truth comes spilling out. So often we get so accustomed to a situation that we think it is normal. For Laurie, she’s been in a relationship for 18 years, and not only is this her normal, but she feels lucky. She thinks she’s got a good one.
But when her boyfriend dumps her out of the blue she’s left with her whole world cracked. They were not only living together, but they work together, and when she finds out he is seeing someone else, everything falls apart. It calls her to question everything about her relationship and her life, including her absent music producer father, a star from the ‘Madchester’ days of house music.
Into this maelstrom comes the gorgeous Jamie. He needs a foot up at work, yet everyone thinks he’s an immature player. He proposes a fake romance to Laurie. It will help him look credible, and help her get revenge on her ex.
But of course the path of fake love never does run straight, and as Laurie and Jamie grow closer, those around them start losing it. Mhairi McFarlane has talked about wanting to write a book that spends a lot of time detailing the reality of grief following the end of a relationship and she has done an amazing job. It is so painful at points that I was begging for the romance to heat up. She also deals deftly with misogyny both in and out of the workplace as well as race and prejudice. Even the gorgeous Jamie has his own issues, and being as good looking as he is comes with its own set of problems.
I loved this novel. It’s brilliantly written and a book that makes you think.
Hilarious, warm, and life-affirming.
I must insist that you read this book immediately before or after The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon, one after the other. The women in these stories are strong and intelligent, making their way in a tech world that wants to push them out, and with no time for bullshit. The pretend boyfriend trope in If I Never Met You is a gem. If everything you’ve told other people is a lie, how do you know what the truth is? Anyway, just read both of these and thank me later.
4.75 Stars!
My first McFarlane story and I am dizzy in love.
Laurie and her fierce intelligence – Wow! I loved her. Even while she questioned her self-worth and dealt with the insecurities over her ex, it made her real. She was never a doormat.
Jamie was self-assured, intuitive, and smart, but he also had a history that he didn’t feel the need to clarify to unimportant people. This made him a target for manipulations of the truth that pulled at my heartstrings. I also liked that he respected other peoples choices in life and didn’t give much credence to what others thought of him. Except for Laurie.
This was a slow-burn fake relationship story, but it became so much more than that as the story progressed. It dragged up the darker side of office politics, sexism, and racism. And through it all, it highlighted the strength and steadfastness of the main characters. Characters that had an endearing friendship before it turned into more. In addition to that, the representation of women’s friendships were some of the best. I was reduced to near-tears at how moving Laurie and her closest girlfriends were in their support of each other.
This book covered a lot of bases, but it all worked and I was surprised at how deeply I enjoyed it. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was due to a little blip at the very end that I wasn’t keen on. So minor that it almost wasn’t worth mentioning, but it did take away from what could have been perfection for me.
This was my first Mhairi McFarlane book and oh my gosh I can’t wait to go read ALL of her books now!! I loved it so much.
Laurie is dumped by her boyfriend of eighteen years (yes, you read that right), so her and her male coworker, Jamie, devise a plan to fake date in order to get back at Laurie’s ex and help Jamie secure a promotion. As all of us romance readers know, fake dating is one of our beloved tropes, but it can sometimes veer on, oh, being completely and totally unrealistic. However, that wasn’t the case here! The pacing of this book was slow IN A GOOD WAY. It wasn’t a situation in which the characters jumped into bed/had a friends with benefits sitch and then realized it was something more. It was a slow, growing attraction out of friendship more than anything else and actually seemed like it COULD happen. There were also several twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting that kept the plot fresh. The characters were likable and both the male and female protagonists had fantastic depth that made you understood why they were the way they were. I’m surprised the phrase “impostor syndrome” never came up, because Laurie certainly had it (girl, you can be a law firm partner!!), but Laurie was still depicted as a strong, bad@$$ career woman, despite her less than stellar relationship with her male colleagues. Sometimes it really is enough to be good at your job. I would highly recommend this book and can’t wait to read more of McFarlane’s work.
It was an okay book. She did do a good twist at the end that I didn’t see coming.
I love McFarlane’s voice! It is my first book by her, but won’t be my last. Her depiction of Dan and Laurie’s break-up was on point–excellent writing. I loved Jamie! Some of the secondary characters were a bit over the top for me but didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the book. I’ll be digging into her backlist! Highly recommend.
Sweet romance about an older woman finding love both for herself and male lead. Great character development and depth.
20 Years. What would you do if after being with someone for 20 years they tell you that they don’t want to be with you anymore? That is what happened between Laurie and Dan. They had been together 20 years; they worked together and were even talking about having a baby. Dan decided suddenly that he didn’t want to be with Laurie anymore. What does she do now? She talks to Jamie a friend at work and they decide to make Dan jealous by starting a fake relationship, which will also hopefully help Jamie be taken seriously as well as get a promotion.
As Laurie and Jamie get to know each other they also get to know themselves. They go from being just colleagues to friends. Now that Laurie finds herself single and heartbroken at thirty-six, she now also finds herself trying to find out who she is, especially without Dan.
This was a great read. Sometimes you read a book that makes you smile in parts. This book made me smile the entire way through.
A definite must read.
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a free copy I exchange for an honest review.
If I Never Met You isn’t a typical light romcom; there’s so much to it. Laurie and Jaime must deal with some heavy issues from their past and present as they navigate a mutually beneficial, fake office romance. I appreciated the witty humor in the book, and it was often good well-timed comic relief from some of the more serious topics. I liked both Laurie and Jaime individually and as a couple, especially their growth. I was cheering for them to turn their fauxmance into the real deal. If I Never Met You is a realistic and entertaining read.
This is a book I didn’t know I need to read. It had been on my TBR for the longest but forgot why and took it off. Thankfully, I had requested the audiobook from the library and forgot about it. I’m so thankful that i didn’t cancel that request.
Laurie’s life, personality, and some of the things she goes through resonated with me. Laurie is a 36 year old successful lawyer living with her boyfriend of 18 years. Book starts off with a doozie, Dan breaks up with her. The reason? The same-ol’ story of the man growing bored and wanting excitement and blaming the woman for the boringness. Completely disregarding that without her, he wouldn’t have reached the position he’s in, he’s also a lawyer at the same law practice.
For weeks, they’re able to hold off the office gossip but it’s when Dan’s dirty little secret gets out that it all comes out. Dan had an emotional affair with ANOTHER lawyer and not soon after breaking with Laurie, got her pregnant. When one of the reasons for leaving Laurie was that he didn’t want to be a father….jackass!
Jamie Carter is known as the manwhore of the office who is out to take everyone’s jobs. Seriously, the office gossip was like being back in high school but pettier. Jamie is very ambitious and wants to move up the ladder but his reputation is a huge roadblock to doing so.
My heart and soul was aching for Laurie up until the elevator incident! Both being hard workers, Laurie and Jamie tend to stay later than everyone else and it just happened that one day they both were heading out the office when they get stuck in the elevator for hours. With no cell reception!!! As they’re forced to talk to each other, they get to know each other a little bit and Laurie’s perception of Jamie gets a little better.
After their time in the elevator, JAMIE, I love that it was Jamie that came up with it and not Laurie, comes up with an idea of fake dating which would benefit both of them. Jamie looks good with the partners and Laurie sticks it to Dan, Jamie is hotttttt AND younger.
Things get fun and hard once they start their act. It’s hard to believe what people will do out of jealousy. Soon enough, their act isn’t that much of an act. They start to get to really know one another, grow to respect the other, have each other’s back when all the stuff in the office went down.
Again, I felt like I was Laurie at times. She goes through so much and I’m so happy that she found Jamie. It’s satisfying to see her with someone who doesn’t blame her for their unhappiness. Also goes to show that appearances can be misleading, especially about someone’s true self.
I’m not sure if it was because I listened to the audiobook that my emotions were all over the place because I really liked the narrator too! Her accent and her speed talking made things 10x funnier or 10x emotional. I will admit that some of the Britishness of it was lost, couldn’t follow sometimes, but that just gave Laurie that much more personality.
I would sooooooooooooo love to come back and visit Laurie and Jamie…fingers crossed!
Mhairi McFarlane blew me away with If I Never Met You!! This book was not something I was expecting at all. Yes, it was predictable at times and yes, the ending you can guess a mile away but come on, it was PERFECT!! Laurie and Jamie are an unsuspecting couple that you can’t help but fall in love with. Laurie was the star of the show for me though, she was that BFF you always wanted but never had. She was gorgeous without knowing it and she was brilliant!! A story that will stay with for me awhile and a new author that I plan on reading more of.
I was completely vindicated in this second book of McFarlane’s I picked up. She does so much more with the“fake lovers” trope than almost any other writer I’ve come across. This bi-racial, smart romance makes you cry as well as laugh and swoon. An absolutely brilliant book.
When pretend turns real, good things can happen.
When Dan announces to Laurie that he want to breakup after eighteen years together, she’s understandably upset. The more she learns about Dan’s life after their split, the more depressed she becomes. Then, she gets stuck into an elevator with a coworker, and life takes a curve.
This was an okay romance. The characters started off as dislikable, and there was a lot of crude language. Then, suddenly, it turned into a sweet and touching love story. It’s like it was two different books – beginning and end—joined together.
This book is filled with crude language, whiney characters, obscure British slang, and lots of pop music references. Much of the slang and the music references were obscure to me.
As I said, it was an okay read, but nothing special that hasn’t been approached in one way or another many times. I don’t think I’d recommend this book to a friend, but maybe to an enemy.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. I thank them for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.
If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane is a love story that starts off as anything but. Laurie was out with her friends. Dan seemed anxious that she come home, but she was having a good time. When she got home, he had news for her: he was leaving. The eighteen years they had been together was not doing it for him anymore and he needed more excitement. This book is the story of how she got over him, and maybe, how he didn’t get over her.
What a terrific story McFarlane has told. IN the modern world, many people think that monogamy for a lifetime is passé. Maybe they are correct. Laurie didn’t feel that way and she missed Dan and their life together. She was frightened she would lose her home (their home) because she couldn’t afford it by herself. They were both lawyers working for the same law firm. Would it become awkward? They managed to keep it a secret for a while, not lying, just not discussing it. Of course, that didn’t work. Laurie was a fabulous character. Determined not to show her emotions in public despite the fact she had plenty. What a different way to look at a situation too many of us have lived through. She made it, despite it being a difficult journey and it was fun to be with her during it. She had interesting friends, and a clever boss. She knew who to put her trust in and she came out on top. I enjoyed this book and encourage you to give it a try. Women’s fiction at its best!
I was invited to read a free ARC of If I Never Met You by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #netgalley #ifinevermetyou
Such a fan of this author. Amazing characters, so much nuance. They are so well written i feel like i know them. Loved this book!
I liked the book but was disappointed in the ending … they jumped into marriage? Really? It didn’t seem like they were compatible enough for that