Sophie Cousens does it again! I think this may be her best book yet. Audrey is a complicated, not always wholly likable main character that we get to see grow into a mature woman by the end of the book. I love this romance that takes a look at what it means, not just to love someone, but to build a life with them. Cousens weaves the different timelines seamlessly together and the format really adds dimension to the story as each piece is revealed.
I had so many genuine feelings while reading this book! It was deeper than many romances and I appreciated it’s emotional intelligence.
Sophie Cousens is definitely at the top of the romance genre.

The streak continues! Three books by Cousens and I have read each one in under 24 hours because I simply couldn’t put it down!

Sophie Cousens has the ability to pick you up, wrap you in such an engaging story where time cease to exist, and then puts you back down feeling lighter than air. I always finish her books with a smile on my face and a bounce in my step, this one was no exception.

Before I Do revolves around that pesky question “What if?” that many of us focus on when we aren’t 100% sure of the decisions we have made. What if we took a different job? What if we dated someone else? What if we didn’t open the door, answer the phone, said yes to the dress? We follow Audrey through her journey where she constantly questions where her life would be if she had gone right instead of left, taking one action over another. To make matters more confusing, she has the chance to relive one of her “What if’s” six years later, on the day before her wedding.

What I liked about this book: EVERYTHING!! The adrenaline from this book was insane. There were moments that I found myself hopping up and down because I just couldn’t take the suspense of what was happening. I would skip ahead just to see the outcome so I could calm down enough to finish the chapter (I have done this with a couple of well written books so kudos Cousens!) The humor of this book is classic to the other two books I have read by Cousens. Her laugh out loud moments will stick with you, even when you put the book down (I rethought what happened to Ben and found myself laughing unexpectedly as I crossed a parking lot. Poor Ben!). What I honestly love the most about Cousens books are the stories within the story. Along with the humor there are real life/relatable situations and struggles. What Audrey experienced as a young adult and how much of that shaped her life was heartbreaking. Josh's story as a young boy, if I could have reached through the pages and hugged him, I would have!

What I didn’t like about this book: Honestly, it hasn’t nothing to do with the story Sophie envisioned but I REALLY would have liked to have seen Benedict get his comeuppance! Again, I know it wouldn’t have had anything to do with the story but I would have taken it as a bonus or a news flash that he was arrested or his career was ruined in some way for being the awful human being that he was.

True to form, Cousens jumps from past to present throughout the story but makes sure the story is still easy to follow. Written with such truth of what love is versus what love should be, this is a book I would definitely read again and recommend!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a light hearted fun read! I really enjoyed the journey of these two characters. I felt like the plot was well written and overall cute story!

Before I Do was a bit of a miss for me after enjoying Cousens previous books. The prologue sucked me right in and I liked the alternating timelines of the chapters, but a lot of the story was very slow for me. I went back and forth with whether I liked Audrey and I really wish her mental health was treated better in this book. As someone who had more of a traumatic upbringing, I kind of felt like it was glossed over instead of getting her the help she needed. Her mother Vivien may be my most hated character in a book so far this year since she didn’t see the way she treated her daughter and the things she said to her and those around her made things worse.

I’m surprised I loved this as much as I did!! This was my first Sophie Cousens book and won’t be my last thats for sure. Similar to One True Loves by TJR and Love The One You’re With by Emily giffin, Audrey is debating between her current love that she is about to marry and a man from her past. While this had a bit of a serious storyline there were plenty of lighthearted and funny moments that’ll keep you laughing and falling in love with these characters. The ending was AMAZING and I was cracking up while reading. Such a cute little rom com that you’ll definitely want to grab!

This book is not for me. I'm not a fan of the main character.


************************I received an ARC for my honest opinion from NetGalley ******************************

2.5 stars
This book was... fine? I guess? Nothing spectacular. I figured out the entire plot within single-digit pages, so that was a little frustrating. I didn't connect with either Audrey or Josh and didn't find either character to be particularly likeable.
I would not recommend this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC!

This was a miss for me. Dual timelines are great if done well, but this one was all over the place to me. Audrey was a weak character with a poor attitude, especially about herself and her life. Playing victim all the time got old fast.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Before I Do

⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you’re a fan of dual timelines and the love triangle trope, check this book out. There’s a slight bit of second chance love in there as well!

This story centers a lot around Audrey’s journey in both life and love. Her history with not just another guy but her mother as well show her becoming who she is by the end of the book.

Some parts were a little too drawn out and I almost didn’t know which guy I was rooting for at times. I liked who she ended up with but didn’t leave me feeling the same love for the genre I usually feel.

Sophie’s writing is captivating. She had me on page one and I was unable to put this book down. It was an easy and fast read for me. This is my first book from this author. It’s safe to say I’ll be getting all of her books.

Thank you Netgalley for my ARC.

I loved this book. The story really sucked me in from the beginning and I was eager to find out what happened in it. I liked the back and forth timeline and the love triangle. I thought the characters were all relatable and the story had a nice balance of comedy and seriousness to it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I haven’t read a Sophie Cousens book I didn’t love. She’s an auto buy for me. This book is just wonderful. I loved every second of this and read it with the biggest smile. There’s a little roller coaster of what if she marries the wrong guy but I was so ok with it.

Multi-Verse & Multi-Timeline integration? Seamless.

Facing our What-Ifs on a pivotal moment of our lives? Shocking.

Reading how Audrey has grown from her past to current was amazing character development. I think the multi-timelines with this really helped us see how Audrey grew and how her mom, Josh, and Fred fit into her life and their meaning behind their timeline entrances.

This book was full of emotions, rollercoaster of rooting for one, and then not rooting for that person at all. Then rooting for the imperfectly, perfect, relationship. It was easy to read and kept me up many nights to finish the book sooner rather than later. The switching of the timelines was done so well that I never felt lost or had to go back and re-read to “catch up.”

Before I Do was such a great read. I’m a big fan of Sophie Cousens and this book did not disappoint. The book takes place on the day of Audrey’s wedding with multiple timelines. A person from her past brings up many insecurities and makes her doubt if she’s on the right track. This book was funny but also tackled some deep emotional issues and how the past can impact the way we see the world and ourselves. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

It's tough for me to explain a lot of how I felt about this book without spoilers so I'll keep this one short and sweet. It wasn't until about 60% through the book that I realized that I REALLY enjoyed the plot. I for sure thought this was going to go one way but then it didn't and that made me enjoy it even more. This book skips around in timeline and I enjoyed only getting glimpses of situations and not really seeing the full picture until the end.

Forget about the romance and go into this book focusing on the main idea that I think is... It's always easy to fantasize about what ifs but that's just it... those are fantasies.

I highly recommend this book and do your best to go in absolutely blind (except for synopsis!)

Before I Do was such a refreshing read. This is my first Sophie Cousens read and she did not disappoint. It’s a romance, but so much more. It dives into the complex dynamic between mothers and their daughters and the question of soul mates and parallel dimensions. Do they exist? Is it possible we have more than one ideal person out there?

Audrey seems like a typical nervous bride on the surface but underneath her game day makeup and fake smile, you can sense the panic rising. That panic comes to a head when the “one who got away” shows up at her rehearsal dinner. That would be enough to shake anyone, but her wedding ends up being a chaotic event. Every time something goes wrong, Audrey doubts her decision to marry even more.

Audrey is such a relatable character and Cousens does a wonderful job of building her relationships with the people around her. I could sense her connection to each person and it made me even more eager to find out how her story ended.

While I loved the concept for this book, I didn't really care for any of the characters portrayed in it.

The main character is a wounded, meandering soul who doesn't know who or what she wants out of life. And she has good reasons for her issues. It wasn't until she almost lost the one good thing in her life that she finally worked on herself enough to get her act together.

But that's the problem... She is portrayed almost as a victim the whole time, unable to commit or stick with any plan. She's not the type of woman one might aspire to be.

I do enjoy the author's writing style, but as others have mentioned here, the shuffled timeline was almost too much at times. So, overall, this book didn't do it for me.

Thank you to Sophie Cousins, Penguin and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

I started the book with hopes that this would be a light, entertaining contemporary romance. Unfortunately, I got a little more than I expected. I wasn’t sure what to make of the book because there were so many names of people, and there was the current timeline, the recent past, and the past before that. I usually enjoy alternating timelines, but all of the jumping around confused me. In addition, the book went from romance to family drama to women’s fiction. Despite all this, the book picked up after the halfway point. However, it did get better, and I was able to get full resolution with the story; I am pleased with the ending.

This book is quite unusual in that every chapter is in a different time, before and after, the main event, which is the disastrous wedding of the hero and the heroine. I loved the way Cousens executes this multi-timeline approach. The story is mainly from the heroine's POV and is set in England. She is someone who flitted about different majors (courses) at university and finally dropped out. She does odd jobs here and there to scrape together a living. While she feels stuck several years behind her friends who have steady jobs, house mortgages, marriages, etc., i.e., the usual trappings of life of people in their twenties and thirties, she is not very motivated to try to change her life. She is suffering from trauma and that leads her to live a risky, careless life. The hero is sweet, kind, responsible, loving, and upstanding. Just the best, and he loves her unconditionally. I did not like the heroine's attitude to life and how she simply takes from everyone around her, including her fiance. He does all the work, and yet he is shown to be grateful to her just for her presence in his life. The author tries to give her a character update towards the end of the book, but it was too little, too late for me.

Review will be published on Cogitations & Meditations later this month at http://keirasoleore.blogspot.com.

“[If] you’re going to commit to anything in this life, shouldn’t it be love?”

I absolutely LOVED this novel! Before I Do by Sophie Cousens checked all the boxes: love, comedy, friendships, relationships, destiny, what-ifs and more! In this opposites-attract, what-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong romance, Audrey is a dreamer and Josh is well grounded. (Literally! One loves stars and the other plants trees!) But when Fred, aka Photo Booth Boy, who Audrey spent one day with six years ago and has dreamed about ever since is brought to her wedding by Josh’s sister, Audrey starts second guessing everything! Moreover, when their wedding day turns into an actual disaster – are these signs of fate intervening?

Cousens’ wittiness and humor bleeds through the pages and her characters are so easy to relate to and fall in love with. You will find yourself rooting for Team Audrey and Josh, and wishing you had a friend like Hillary in your corner.

Just because we are given a second chance at something, doesn’t mean we have to take it or that it’s the right move – but Audrey has her head in the clouds and has her mother that has been married five times as her role model. Even though Audrey’s thinking can be a tad too much at times, she is vulnerable and trying not to make any more (perceived) mistakes in her life.

I loved some of the quotes through-out the novel: “Love might be easy, but relationships can be hard,” and that “we are simply atoms of stardust.” The discussions on soulmates and destiny really give you something to ponder when you are reading this, and I had to pause and reread some paragraphs again because the outlook of some of the characters was so refreshing. I admit – I went back and forth between who I wanted Audrey to choose, and I completely believe in “signs” as well!

This will be novel I go out and buy to lend out to all of my friends that MUST read this book! I can definitely see this turning into a movie – though the back-and-forth timelines may be a little hard to navigate on film. I give this 4.8 stars (0.2 from perfect because with how many things went wrong for poor Audrey and Josh in this novel – it did get to the point of unrealistic, even if it was hysterical).

If you like romantic comedies, then this book is for you! Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC; all opinions are my own!

Just remember: All the “great love stories end in a dance routine.” And this one included a glitter cannon!