<i>Never Saw You Coming</i> was a fantastic read. I read More Than Maybe last year and I loved it but, I have to say, that I loved this book more. I think this is Erin Hahn's best book. The discussions in this book about faith and the church were really interesting to me because as a Jewish person that lives in South America (and has never been to the US) I always wondered how that kind of upbringing affected people and especially young women like myself. All my knowledge about this topic has always come to me from media (news articles, movies, tv shows) so this book was really insightful.
I loved Meg's quirkiness and the way that she was unapologetically herself above all else. Micah was great too, he was really inspiring as a person, and I loved their relationship a lot.
I also loved all the MTM cameos, they were hilarious.
And DUKE!! he was amazing!! One of my favorite characters in this book. I adored the friendship between him and Meg, and Micah.
I would highly recommend this book, and i can't wait for Erin's adult debut!!

I appreciate how this book was more than just a typical young adult romance.
The characters were well-developed and weren't primarily focused on their love lives all the time.
Meg and Micah had good chemistry which is always a huge plus.
One of the strengths of the novel was the story wasn't so dependent on romance instead the characters also had other things going on in their lives. The author set up two interesting story line with religion . It helped contribute to this being a cute story but with substance.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Discussions of self harm and suicide, mentions of death related to drunk driving

4.5 stars

Never Saw You Coming is one of my most anticipated books of 2021. I was absolutely stunned when I received the notification that I had won an advance copy on Goodreads. This book was both everything I hoped for and also completely unexpected. It doesn't shy away from the hard questions and instead dives head first into an examination of faith, love, forgiveness, religion, family, and also hypocrisy. Even though I don't have experiences like Meg or Micah with church/religion, I appreciated the vulnerability and raw honesty of their journeys. Hahn made their struggles so genuinely heartbreaking and relatable. The love that blossoms between them was so tender and beautiful. The writing was incredibly heartfelt and the message of being loved just as you are, without conditions or exceptions, was so powerful.

Family relationships play a large role in the story and I loved how found families were just as critical (if not more so) than families of blood. Duke also definitely needs his own book now ;) The cameos by my More Than Maybe favorites was wonderful and the epilogue was a beautifully perfect way to bring everything full circle. Meg and Micah's journey isn't an easy one, but I really appreciated the author's note at the end, which helped put things into perspective for me. I can imagine that Never Saw You Coming might be quite polarizing for readers, but it will also be a great comfort to many as well.

*I voluntarily read an advance review copy of this book*

I loved this book so much!!! Erin is amazing, though, so how couldn't I? Lovable characters, amazing plot, I highly recommend you put this one on your tbr if you love Erin's work, or just love romance!

Erin Hahn's YA romances have an uncanny way of pulling me in and keeping me invested through the last page, and this was no different! This book felt unlike any other YA I've read in its exploration of Christianity, the church, purity culture, and more. Meg's story would have meant a lot to me as a confused youth group kid and still did as an adult disillusioned with the church. Her relationship with Micah was beautiful to watch unfold, and each of their individual relationships to their families and their faith were complex and thoughtfully portrayed. The prose was beautiful, the themes relatable, and I loved the appearances of characters from Hahn's last book. I would enthusiastically recommend this book to teens and adults who find themselves questioning their relationship to religion (or even not questioning it)--this would give them a lot to think about, while telling a beautiful love story to boot.

This book had a little too much God for my own personal tastes, but it fills a much-needed space on my library bookshelf and I know it will speak to a lot of teen readers. I'm excited for them to find it.

After finding out her father she’s lived with her whole life is not her dad, Meg goes to visit her real dad’s great grandmother and his brother. She decides to stay and meets Micah whose dad is in prison. Meg and Micah hit it off and become close. Because both come from religious backgrounds, they know that no matter what or who you are God loves you. Great book.

Erin Hahn saw a lack on the bookshelf: an empty space for teens who believe in God, but want to believe in themselves, mess and all-- and she filled it beautifully.

In NEVER SAW YOU COMING, Erin Hahn follows two teens in two different crises. Meg, after just receiving news that shakes her understanding of herself to its core, takes a gap year in the Upper Peninsula, where she meets (and falls for) Micah. Micah's father is soon to be released from prison, having been sent there for pastoral misdeeds that not only divided the community but broke Micah's family.

Both Micah and Meg are facing deep questions with the essential heart of: who am I and what is the difference between the Church as an institution and personal belief. They also wrestle with chastity and modesty culture and how far they should go/want to go, and what desiring another person is like for the first time in your life.

Neither saccharine, nor inspirational, Meg and Micah believably navigate their journeys in this book in a way that feels necessary. Teens of faith, who ache a more grace-filled, accepting, and loving Church, will latch onto this book, and teens who don't believe will still enjoy the love story and family journeys in this book.

Completely original and necessary. Brava, Erin Hahn.

I wish I had this book when I was growing up. The way Erin Hahn handles a deeply traditional and religious upbringing with the complexities and contradictions of real-life, human fallibility, and just being a teenager with raging hormones--well, it's perfect. There's so much empathy there. I loved both main characters, Meg and Micah. I feel so tender for them as they fall in love, as they try to navigate who they are becoming, and who they were raised to be. And in true Hahn fashion, there's plenty of swoon and banter in this book. It's a romcom with less com and more substance. You will laugh at all the jokes between friends, and Meg's wit and sarcasm, and you will cry with both of them as Meg and Micah deal with their families. I don't want to give too much away, and I can't really summarize such a deep book. Just read it. Find yourself a cozy place to be, and settle in.

Never Saw You Coming by Erin Hahn was an exceptionally good book about two teenagers, Micah and Meg, grappling with their pasts (or in Meg’s case, her mother’s past). These internal struggles stem from growing up in religious households, but learning that there are levels of hypocrisy and a lack of forgiveness when it comes to people at the church.

Told from the perspectives of both Meg and Micah, we really got to know the characters and the inner conflicts that they are experiencing. Despite the seriousness of the conflicts they are facing, the overall story is uplifting and funny at times. I loved the blossoming romance between the two characters, and appreciated how realistic it was.

I was especially excited when I realized that Never Saw You Coming is a spinoff from Hahn’s book, More Than Maybe. While it’s not necessary to have read this before reading Never Saw You Coming, I really enjoyed reading Meg’s story and the cameo’s from the first book were fun.

Overall, I would recommend this book! A big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read the book and give my honest review.

This is my favorite Erin Hahn book to date. I loved the characters and their journeys so much. I flew through the book and had a hard time putting it down to do other things. Five stars isn’t nearly enough.

I am a big fan of this author and when I realized this was a story about Meg, I was thrilled. What the author does in this story is takes many of the ideals of Christianity and conservative Christianity, and discusses them through the characters of Meg and Micah. Both characters are dealing with their own personal issues related to their faith in their family, and are able to find solace in each other. I think this is a very powerful story and I think that it has a very strong thought provoking message. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion

*ARC provided courtesy of the publisher*
I really enjoyed this book, even though I’m not convinced I was the target audience for it. That’s a good thing. As an avid reader of YA, I really like Meg and Micah as protagonists. Although I’m not a Christian, or all that familiar with the issues Meg and Micah face directly, I am religious and I do really appreciate the way the author writes about their struggles and the entire cast of characters’ relationship with God, the church, and each other. I thought the characters were well developed. I liked their relationship and I like that their storyline progressed realistically and didn’t rely on communication issues as a foil. However, I do wish that it was more diverse and that we were introduced more to the other characters, who really feel like background characters.. (I wish I could give it 3.75 but I’ll round up to 4).

This book felt complicated to me. Many people will love this book and I loved it about 65% of the time.

I thought this book was going to be one of those sweet little teen Christian romances. But what I got instead was a book that is heavy on the theology debates using two younger adults who have had some major upsets in their lives that would make them question God AND a sweet little teen romance. I know next to nothing when it comes to the heavy the religious content is in this book. I only know what I believe from my limited knowledge and point of view. So this is it.

This book reminds me of a documentary I once watched about these girls who pledge a chastity promise (complete with a ring) before their pastor/church and go to a yearly chastity dance with their fathers (which looks fancier than prom)…some of them are so extreme they claim they won’t even kiss a boy until they’re married, or even be in the same room with a boy unless they are chaperoned by a father figure…and then we have the few girls that fell off the chastity wagon just to offset the overwhelming tones of the other 90% of the cast.

Meg reminds me of these chastity girls. She’s 18 and rebelling; if you call wearing a tankini, kissing a boy, and showing some shoulder actual rebelling. Which I don’t. That said, I absolutely love her. Meg is a wonderful girl and anyone would be lucky to have a girl like her in their lives.

Micah (who is also a wonderful person anyone would be lucky to have in their lives) is contradictory. He’s a pastor’s son. Only the pastor got nailed for stealing money from the church and sleeping around. He says he’s agnostic (If I am remembering correctly). But I don’t think that’s what he is based on everything he says in the book.

Micah totally says multiple times that he believes in God and his revelation in the church supports that thought. Along with telling Meg a bunch of super conservative Christian info that he believes. So what I think he is supposed to be is, non-denominational. Because his father tainted that relationship he had with his church life, which is part of Micah’s major struggle throughout the book. And oh boy, when you near 40% of the way through this book does the religious talks start ramping up hard for a while.

Meg talks about singing in church and Micah has a revelation when he accidentally hears a tiny bit of a speech given in the same sermon. He talks God with Meg on the top of the ‘mountain’ giving these extremely religious views of how even thinking a thought that isn’t pure is a sin but god offers grace and understanding about such things and has known you would have these thoughts since before you were born so it’s fine…yeah. Not agnostic by a long shot my friends.

This book tries to be inclusive too. Dane is not quite sure what he is, but with a strict military background father he’s mostly afraid to explore. Dane is the most natural inclusion character of the book. I appreciate Dane.

For example a not so natural inconclusion, Meg just bomb drops out of nowhere that she thinks her stepfather (who is currently in the middle of divorcing her mother after over a decade of being married) is probably gay. How does she know this? Why are we getting this info? No idea. Does it get mentioned again…well not for the next 15-20% of the book because they are too busy going on with their teenage-hood lives and having conversations on how kissing and thinking about wanting more is totally a sin but God must be okay with it or why would we have these thoughts and feelings? *cough* free will? *cough cough*

Back to trying to be inclusive though. Meg tells Micah about her friends Cullen and Zack back home, who are obviously in a relationship. Fortunately, I think their names were mentioned in passing right at the beginning of the book so I don’t think this ‘we’re inclusive’ talk is quite as random the bomb drop the step-dad one was. I could go on. But I’m not.

Conclusion

I’m going to be honest, this book flipped back and forth between being really cute and somewhat irritating me. To me it felt like I was reading a massive example of the word contradiction. But that feeling is 100% based on my own life experience. Maybe there are people out there who hold all these conflicting ideals in their hearts and I’m just totally missing them from my life.

Maybe I just hang out with too many hardcore Catholics and non-denominational people with no one in between

Anyhow, this one just missed the mark for me. I’m sure other people will absolutely love it. It’s well written with super loveable characters who have a cute romance going on.

This book was such a breath of fresh air! The story was sweet, heart wrenching, empowering and so REAL! I loved everything about this book. Hahn was able to spin a beautiful story that was warm, witty and flowed so well. I love how it was just explanatory enough; not too much, not too little, just enough. The peak into the hypocrisy of the church really resonates with me. As someone who grew up kind of in between the two, I can envision myself in either Meg's or Micah's shoes. This hits me on a very familiar level as I'm sure it will several others. There is a great message in this story and I'm so full of warm fuzzies after reading this. After reading Never Saw You Coming I discovered it was a follow up to another book. You can believe I will be reading more of Hahn's books, especially if any of them are remotely as engaging and charming as this one.

Thanks to Netgalley for an E-Arc of this book. I think Erin did a phenomenal job. Meg and Micah are two young adults at the end of their teen years dealing with tough situations with their parents. Meg moves to Marquette to meet some of her family that she didn't know that she had growing up. Just a very short time after her move there, she meets Micah, who is dealing with his own situation regarding his family. The two click right away and are accepting of each other's family issues. They find strength, comfort, love, and acceptance together. Erin does a great job of portraying that life is messy and not perfect. We see Meg and Micah struggle with issues and question different things as they grow up and learn to be on their own. Also, she deals with the tough topic that there are many churches where the people that make up the church body are very judgmental and have double standards. Many teens will relate to this book and find comfort that if they are questioning who they are as people, they aren't alone. Many people out there (even outside of social media) portray only the good parts of their life or make their life look perfect. I really like how Erin made the characters feel real and had their lives be messy, and had them questioning things. Teen me definitely could have used this book.

WOW another great story written by Erin Hahn. Never Saw You Coming grabbed me from the start and I couldn't put it down. I love when a book has a dual perspective because it adds something special to the story. Meg and Micah are great characters and I think everyone should read this book because it really opens your eyes to many issues.