I really enjoyed the first 30% of this book and then end. Love triangles aren’t my thing so when a different man enters the picture I was so frustrated! Haha! Overall it was a sweet/fun read and I would definitely recommend to to rom com lovers that don’t mind love triangles 😊

Hannah is enjoying her life in London when she receives a call intended for someone else. Davey was intending to call for a job interview from his home in Texas when he accidentally calls Hannah. This chance encounter sets the two on a course of texts, phone calls and video chats. Through the ups and downs of their changing lives, we are left wondering will they or won’t they connect? I enjoyed the plot and the cast of characters.

Thank you to Elle Cook, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell for an advance copy of this book for an honest review. It was such a delightful read.

I'm not a particularly emotional person but this book made me cry. Going into The Man I Never Met, I expected a heartwarming friends-to-lovers romance and while there are certainly moments which were up to my expectations, this book is so much more than that. Elle Cook has written an amazing, monumental novel which is so, so much more than I expected from a cartoon cover.

Such a genuine and heartfelt read. I really enjoyed reading the dual POVs and though that the relationship between Hannah and Davey seemed authentic. I do have to say that I wish the ending was a bit more fleshed out than it was, but overall, I thought the book was so sweet.

Davey! We were lucky enough to score an ARC of The Man I Never Met from @lornacookauthor

An answered wrong number leads to a new relationship with beautiful future possibilities only to fall apart before it’s truly begun. This one will have you in tears and demanding a HEA for these two!

I absolutely devoured this book. The writing was absolutely beautiful and I loved the chemistry between Hannah and Dave’s when they first begin texting. While the path of their relationship takes lots of twists and turns that will have you feeling all the feels it is absolutely worth the ride!

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I must admit, I am not much of a romance reader. In the beginning, I debated on whether to finish this book. But at one point in the story, my interest increased and I am so glad that I kept reading.

Hannah and Davey, the main characters are likable and interesting. I liked that each of them had some good friends and great parents behind them. I also liked that the story took readers to some interesting locations throughout the book.

A wrong number is what gets Hannah and Davey together. They hit if off and begin texting and doing FaceTime calls. Davey is moving to England and Hannah is so excited to meet him in person. She goes to the airport to meet him when he steps off the plane. But he never arrives.

For me, this was the turning point in the story. I had to keep reading to find out what happens to this couple. As with any decent romance, the ending in wonderful. I loved it and highly recommend this to anyone feeling the need for a good romantic story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review.

So many feelings!

A wrong phone call places two strangers in each other's orbit.

Hannah is single and living in London. She is a young woman who is happy with her life, she spends time with her best friend and her friend's husband.

Davey is British but he has been living in the USA since he was a child.

When Davey calls Hannah by mistake, their paths will intersect. The same night Davey send a text telling her that he got the job. He is going to be moving to London. More texts followed over the next few days. They graduate then to phone calls and lastly to video calls over the next few months. A friendship begins until new feelings start developing on both sides.

As Davey's move becomes imminent, the two can stop thinking about it and be excited to finally be together. Hannah decides to pick him up at the airport but Davey never shows and the reason behind it is a big one.

Thoroughly enjoyed this love story of serendipity mixed with hope! I liked both characters and I was rooting for a happy ending. The secondary characters were also quite interesting and good friends all around.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story starts out with Hannah. She’s walking back to her apartment and her phone rings. She sees that it’s an American phone number. This man misdialed and was actually trying to make an over the phone job interview. he was a little bit late for it but ended up getting the job. He texted Hannah and told her he got the job and Hannah texted back and said congratulations. From there they kept talking. She learns his name is Davy and that he will be moving to London for his new job. But within days of Davy leaving tragedy strikes Davy and he is forced to put his life on hold.

I loved this book so much. I cried during that plot. I was so sad for Hannah. This is honestly my favorite read of 2023. I will definitely be buying a copy of this book. It was such a beautiful ending to an amazing story.

Such a wonderful, heartwarming story! Well written characters that you don't stop rooting for throughout their journeys. Perfect for any romance readers who want a well thought out plot & don't stop rooting for HEA.

This book was cute and I would recommend it to someone who reads the occasional romance book. For me, I was a little disappointed with the plot line. I have read a lot of stories lately with the wrong phone number, dial, and they keep in touch plot line. It just seems to be overdone and a little far fetched for me.

Hannah and Davey's story is so complicated, and so beautiful. I have to say, I really loved the complications that each character faced - Davey with his cancer and Hannah with her unfulfilling relationship and missing/loving a man she's never met. Hannah is that lovely heart of gold personality that you can't help but love, and the fact that she's with some gym-bro douche is maddening. George (the gym-bro) is an all too familiar character that I've unfortunately crossed paths with many times, so he was written with incredible accuracy. Davey, sweet and broken Davey...his fatal flaw of pride? I ate it up.

Overall, I sincerely really loved this story.

It took me months to finish this. I did not enjoy this book very much, I think it was not the time to read it and at the same time it was not what I expected. I feel like I was expecting a feel good romance but I found a deeper and sadder book than the one I was willing to read at the time. It wasn't the book's fault, I don't think The man I never met is a bad book.

I would recommend it for readers looking for a contemporary fiction book with a bittersweet romance and lots of drama.

I loved Hannah and Davey, except that his name is Davey for a grown man haha. But this story was so cute and kept you rooting for both of them individually and together.

I don't often get emotionally wrecked by a book, (cold as ice) but this knocked me around. I thought I was going to be reading a cute rom-com, and loved the chance "meeting" of Hannah in London, and Davey, an American in Texas, when he accidentally called her number instead of the job interview he was supposed to be on. After his interview, he texts her to let her know that he got the job, and they start a friendship via texting, that soon evolves to phone calls and video calls. I loved the modern day epistolary vibes as they communicated, and felt it reminiscent of classic 90's rom-coms like You've Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle. Soon the countdown is on for Davey to fly to London to start his new job, and Hannah waits for him at the airport, but he never arrives. Then, everything took a rather unexpected dark turn, when Davey explains why he didn't come, and tells Hannah that he can no longer speak to her. They both move on with their lives and difficult situations, while never fully letting go of each other, and always turn back to their old messages and photos they sent to each other, catching glimpses of one another being online or typing a message that never gets sent.

Being a contemporary romance there of course is a HEA, but I feel like I can't go much further into it without giving away the major plot points/twist. But suffice it to say I found this a heartbreakingly relatable story. It's not the book I was expecting to read, but it made me think and it made me feel all the feels.

This story was interesting and engaging, but it took a dark and unexpected turn that was a little surprising in light of the description and over of the book. That being said, I did enjoy the book, and I would recommend it to a friend. I am anxious to see what Elle Cook writes next!

Thank you to Random House Publishing for my advanced copy!

Imagine that you get a random wrong number call one day. But, instead of quickly passing it by, you started to talk to and even fall in love with that person. That’s the premise of The Man I Never Met. Even worse, when it finally comes time to meet, it seems like forces beyond your control are keeping you apart.

I really enjoyed this one! I thought the premise was really intriguing and I’m a sap for long distance relationships with witty banter back in forth in messages. (Think The Flatshare if you’ve read that.)

This one does include alternating POVs, but introduces that aspect a little late in the game in my opinion. It made definite sense narratively, just surprised me.

Oh my beating heart!

I love this book! This is the type of love story that if it was a movie, it will be something I can watch over and over, or read more than once. I barely put it down for the last twenty four hours and thank the heavens it was the weekend or I would have not been effective at work.

Hannah is from London and she received a misdialed call- twice, from a man named Davey who was in Austin TX and was calling for a supposed to be job interview. Davey finally got the number right and sends Hannah a message later telling her that he made the interview and was offered the job. Few more text exchanges and they found themselves in some sort of an unlabelled relationship. Davey is relocating to England for the job and Hannah is meeting him at the airport, but Davey did not come, he was not on the plane and Hannah was lost.

What happened after the airport was the thing that made this book unputdownable. Believe it or not, it got me. I was teary eyed. I can not fathom of how good and decadent this curve ball was but it was realistically heart tugging. I love the ups and down of the plot, I enjoyed all the characters in their little perfect parts, I was on the edge of my seat rooting for a great ending to give me a romantic, hopeful and sweet satisfaction.

It was serendipity. It made me pick up my copy of Room with a View and will probably give it another go because it was special in this book and add a visit to the poppies field in Tuscany to my bucket list. How can I not?

Thank you Dell Publishing via Netgalley and PRH Audio for the gifted copied in exchange of my honest review.

I was bored. Hannah was very lame, how did she not know George liked her? And the whole can't facetime without makeup boom testicular cancer. It was slow, yet exceedingly rushed when feelings were involved. I DNFd at 25%

I enjoyed this one! I liked that it wasn’t overwhelmingly gushy. I loved the start of Hannah and Davey’s relationship and how their feelings quickly developed. I felt that middle dragged on, mostly because I hated George so much. Overall, very sweet! 3.5⭐️ rounded up

What I Liked

The book is mostly narrated by Hannah, but we get occasional pop-in perspectives from Davey that shed additional light on what’s happening for him. I really thought this choice worked well and felt more natural than the books that force a chapter-by-chapter alternating POV. 

Hannah and Davey both have to grow and change throughout the book, and I enjoyed seeing them develop as characters. This arc felt quite real and authentic, and I appreciated that they both made mistakes and learned from them. 

I thought the friendships in this book were really well done overall, and I loved getting to know all of the characters and seeing what they mean to one another. 

The Man I Never Met takes on some heavy topics, and I thought they were overall handled fairly well, save maybe one thing I’ll mention briefly below. 

What I Didn’t Like

I thought the book was a bit slow to start. We spend a good deal of time with Hannah and Davey planning for the future the synopsis has already told us isn’t going to go to plan, and I felt like I wanted to get to the heart of things a bit more swiftly. 

This next bit will be perhaps a minor spoiler, so skip to “SPOILER OVER” you don’t want small plot hints. 

I had a really hard time with Hannah’s rebound relationship in the book. It felt quite controlling and unhealthy, but that’s never really addressed or unpacked. This is something I’m personally sensitive to, so I’m not sure how much it would bother other readers. 

SPOILER OVER

In all, The Man I Never Met is a touching story about missed connections, timing, and a little bit about fate. I very much enjoyed this book, even if I had to take my time a bit due to the emotional weight of it. I recommend this book for fans of love stories that stray to the serious side of life while still adding a sprinkle of true love magic.