If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane
Genre: Romance, Romantic Comedy
Rating: 
Synopsis
As if getting dumped wasn’t bad enough Laurie has to see her ex at work every day. After she learns his new girlfriend is pregnant, Laurie must do something.
Jamie Carter needs a girlfriend to impress their bosses. A plan for a fake romance is hatched, but for Laurie, their staged social media romance starts to feel a little too real.
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Thank you to William Morrow for providing me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Review
Did you like To All the Boys I Loved Before? Would you like a more adult version of it? Then let me point you to If I Never Met You. This is clearly a fake dating trope, which I love, but there was something sweet about it that totally gave me TATBILB vibes.
The start of the relationships makes sense, Jamie wants to get ahead at work and Laurie wants to get back at her ex. As fake relationships go, this one seemed plausible, especially since the time frame seemed short. I also liked that they used social media to “prove” their relationship. This book wasn’t chock-full of awkward PDAs. Rather it was two people who spent time together, and really got to know each other. Jamie and Laurie were both great characters. Mart and strong and flawed in a real and relatable way. I liked the maturity that both of them showed.
I also liked how both of them seemed to see something different in both each other and themselves. I’ve read a lot of the fake dating trope and I don’t always “buy” the relationship. I had no trouble believing it in this case. This book is not without its flaws, however. I didn’t love the ending and did find that a little unbelievable, especially given how everything else felt so right. I also wish that we had gotten a little of Jamie’s perspective.
