STRONG 4.5 stars

*VERY MILD SPOILERS AHEAD!*

I really enjoyed this book! I have been so excited for it, and it did not disappoint. After very briefly meeting Jonathan in Husband Material and then the little snippets AJH has shared with us, I couldn’t wait to really meet the characters and see what he did with them.

I swear, Jonathan might be the grumpiest grump I’ve ever read. He really is quite terrible. And, in true AJH fashion, Jonathan was still a grumpy grump at the end, though maybe with his edges worn slightly down. I think that’s one of the things I love so much about AJH’s books: he writes very flawed characters who still have those flaws at the end of the book, but they’ve found a someone who can compliment them and who accepts them and loves them, and it is just the best.

So, at the start of the book we have Sam, who is running a branch of Jonathan’s successful bed and bath superstores. Sam is pretty laid back, Jonathan absolutely is not, and these incompatible management styles leads to Jonathan threatening to fire Sam and Sam faking amnesia to avoid being fired (and hopefully keep the rest of his staff from also being fired). Forced proximity and everything that goes with that ensues.

There is a lot of semi-heavy family stuff in this book, for both characters. Throughout the book it’s quite clear how family has impacted on the decisions made by both Jonathan and Sam.

Overall, this is a book about how two very lonely people find each other due to a set of rather absurd circumstances. It’s also technically a holiday book, but it didn’t really feel like a holiday book. I think the reason it didn’t feel like a holiday book is because, yes, it’s taking place over Christmas, and that does play a role, but it doesn’t feel as prominent as most holiday books that I’ve read? I don’t know if that makes sense? 😅

Also, also, Gollum and Jonathan are basically the best, I love everything about that, it is fucking adorable.

3.5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!!

It is basically an Office Romance as Sam works for Jonathan who is not liked by anyone in his company. I loved the Humour a lot in this book as the interactions of the couple were amazing. As Jonathan wanted to fire Sam and also the people who work under Sam, Sam had to come up with this whole amnesia thing to stop that from happening. Jonathan took Sam to his house to take care of him and that's when they started falling for each other.

Jonathan is extremely rude, selfish and extremely particular about everything whereas Sam cares about people and is easy going. This created an interesting dynamic between them. There was a lot of family drama in this book as Jonathan didn't have a good relationship with them so Sam helped him get over that.

What this book lacked for me was that intense feeling of love and it had too many interactions including the family members which I personally did not enjoy.

Overall a fun Christmas holiday romcom book to read if you enjoy reading about employee and boss romance with a lot of humour. Though the second half could have been better.

Thank You Netgalley and Sourcebooks, for the e-Galley.

I am sorry to say that this was just an okay book. I'm not sure I liked the main charcters Sam & Jonathan and the romance between the two felt a little forced.
Usually, I love a grumpy/sunshine or grumpy/whatever romance but this one just didn't do not work for me. They both kinda came across as gits.

Both Jonathan's family and Sam's colleagues added warmth and entertainment, but still felt like it was missing something....not entirely sure what but something.

Oh no, I’m sad I didn’t end up liking this one. I’ve read quite a few of this author’s other novels and they’re usually quite charming with a good dash of British humor. This one was just not it. It’s as if the author thought of a cute idea and that idea was all they had, but they had to cobble together a 400 page book out of it. It was so boring, there were two whole separate casts of irrelevant and irritating characters and even the two main characters had no redeeming qualities. The writing came off too-try hard and just wasn’t funny.

But regardless, thank you to NetGalley for the arc

Posted on Goodreads August 3, 2023
Will post YouTube on September 1, 2023
Will post Tiktok on September 1, 2023

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. I have mixed feelings about this book so let’s start with the likes.
I became a fan of this author after reading Boyfriend Material. In this book I liked the close-knit work friends; I think we all would appreciate having co-workers who went to bat for us the way these folks did for each other. Hands down my favourite character was Gollum. Fickle and hilarious, that cat brought levity that I desperately needed.
Now for what I didn’t like.
The staff at the store are genuinely terrible at their jobs. I found it incredibly hard to like the main character when he was going on about what a wanker his boss was because he wanted to fire the inept staff. I was on Jonathan’s side from the start! The entire book seemed to be centred around Jonathan’s “unreasonable” behaviour but I couldn’t see what exactly was unreasonable about his boundaries. I think Del was out of line about the tree, Sam was out of line about the employees and Jack was out of line for smoking in his house.
So the first half of the book was 2 stars for me because I couldn’t get on board with Sam’s whining and terrible decisions. But the second half was 4 stars. I appreciated that in the end it wasn’t just Jonathan who was expected to change, Sam had some growing up to do. They also made a sweet couple. So I split the difference and came to 3 stars overall.

I requested it IMMEDIATELY after Alexis Hall posted a promo on Instagram. Queer Christmassy romcom? Christmas tree carnage? Extremely chaotic family? Fake amnesia? Unconventional roast chicken prep?? SIGN ME UP!

I absolutely devoured every minute of this book. This is my first Alexis Hall novel that I’ve not read as an audiobook, and yes it does hold up. Sam and Jonathan were so chaotic and funny to read about, and the banter in this book carries the same humour as the Luc & Oliver books. I was SO entertained.

I’m all for silly family antics and Christmas dinner is no exception. It really says something about the book that I was able to read and enjoy it in a HOT summer weekend.

I can’t say too much without spoiling it, but it goes about as well as you’d imagine a fake amnesia plot goes. Hilarious. Can’t believe I was lucky enough to read this early and everyone else has to wait till October!?

When this is turned into a Hallmark movie, someone give me a call because I'll be waiting with excitement to watch! Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes and this book had everything I was looking for in a classic, holiday romance.

Alexis Hall is one of my favorite authors and as I suspected, 10 Things that Never Happened was lovely. There is just something so wonderful about a story with two flawed and average people. One owns a small chain of bathroom and home furnishings stores and the other manages one of the stores.

Alexis Hall is so damn good at writing flawed people finding each other and their flaws complimenting each other in the best ways. And the backstories! Ahh! I'm a sucker for a good backstory, solid side characters, and all the sweet moments. And while this book has all of these in spades, there is also the added element of the two MCs not liking each other and being forced to stay around each other due to a lie. It really is perfect.

As I do all other Alexis Hall books, I'll be recommending this one!

This book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another good read from Alexis Hall. Super Christmassy, but not enough to stop it being enjoyable in August.
It is quite descriptive of Sam's work, to the point of it being repetitive and almost boring. That being said, the characters more than make up for it.

Another delightful Alexis Hall book. I really liked both characters and how they grew and connected. It takes place at Christmas but isn't so Christmassy that I still enjoyed reading it in August.

this series is everything I couldve ever wanted! I really love the chemistry between characters and the plot and spice is perfection. I highly recommend if you are looking for a good lgbtq+ book.

You probably can't tell from the cover but this is a Christmas novel. It's almost, kind of an Ebenezer Scrooge/Bob Cratchet romance retelling (though without the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future)

Sam is the manager of a bed and bath store. Jonathan is his boss, the owner of all three branches of the store. Jonathan is a grump and a loner. Sam is less of a grump but he is a bit of a loner for reasons we eventually learn.

In the lead up to Christmas Jonathan wants to fire Sam but instead he is sort of responsible for Sam falling into a display shower and hitting his head. Sam has a concussion, Jonathan thinks Sam also has Amnesia. So Sam ends up living at Jonathan's house so Jonathan can make sure the concussion doesn't kill him and also because he is scared Sam will sue him.

Also Sam's kind of ugly grumpy cat moves into Jonathan's too and strangely seems to adore Jonathan the grump.

Jonathan's family are extremely entertaining and are a bit like a cross between Only fools and horses and Gavin and Stacey. The grandfather is totally Del Boy. Sam's employees are also hilarious and not that great at their jobs


If you have read Husband material Jonathan makes a brief, grumpy appearance at a wedding in that book.

and grumps about a bit because he IS a grump. But maybe there is a heart of gold somewhere under all the grump? Very deep down.
"I've worked very hard to be able to pay for things" is basically his life motto.

This book features Grumpy/sunshine, queer main characters, found family, actual (dysfunctional bit also hilarious) actual family.


Alexis Hall writes extremely British stories. As a New Zealander who's been to Britain twice (not recently) but who has had a life long diet of British TV, film and books I love the quirky, Britishness of the author's stories.

This is the 9th Alexis Hall novel I have read and it was probably one of my favourites. The side characters are hilarious, the main characters are a tiny bit of a mess but not as messy as for example Paris Daillencourt from Paris Daillencourt is about to crumble (his anxiety was making me anxious) or Luc from Boyfriend material and Husband material.

i was hesitant to read this because boyfriend material wasn’t my favorite read but wow! i really enjoyed this one!!! definitely wanting to read more from her!!

this was as good as the first book and didn't disappoint i would definitely read this author again thanks for letting me read this one

Enjoyed this book. Nice quick read. Introduced to Jonathan in Husband Material so nice to see more of him. On the whole Jonathan is quite an unlikable character, very grumpy and very unhappy. Sam was quite personable and a bit of a fly boy with his banter, they form an unlikely romance. Their relationship growth to romance was pretty slow, filed with lots of family drama. The book setting was around Christmas time, I usually find this off putting mid way through the year but I was able to overlook it and it will work well for the publishing date. Liked the banter and humour, as a Brit loving overseas I miss the language. Didn’t love the main characters of Jonathan and Sam as a whole, I liked Jonathan’s family. Gollum the cat was my favourite part of the book.

I couldn’t wait to read Sam and Jonathan’s story. I was hooked from the beginning I adored the Boss/employee, Enemies to Lovers aspects and the fake amnesia storyline. The fact that Sam is from Liverpool was another major benefit. However, it did fall a little flat in the middle. I didn’t necessarily think that the storyline was pushed forward and although Nana Pauline was a sassy character I didn’t see the relevance of her being introduced three quarters of the way through for her then to not contribute much. I would have preferred more snippets of Sam and Jonathan.

Surprisingly even though it was told from the perspective of Sam, I understood Jonathan, who was rather complex and broody, more than Sam. The opportunity was missed to delve into his grief over losing his parents, why he gave up the family business and his reasons behind moving the Sheffield. As someone who lives ten minutes away from Liverpool, I know the value of family to the Liverpudlian community, and I was disappointed that it was brushed over.

That being said, I really did enjoy the story and the characters were a real strength-Jonathan’s chaotic family and the many characters within the Sheffield branch of Splashes & Snuggles.

Read if you enjoy:
•Opposites Attract
•Forced Proximity
•Slow Burn
•Grumpy/ Sunshine
•Boss/ Employee

This is a tricky one to review because everything about it is... fine. It's quite funny, and quite sweet, and quite clever. But what Alexis Hall truly excels at is mental health representation, and that is markedly lacking in this book. That made this novel feel shallow and a bit lifeless compared with some of his others (Boyfriend Material, for example).

Read it if you're after a rom-com full of external complications, but if you prefer your complications more internal, then you might want to give this one a miss.

I absolutely loved this book! Jonathan and Sam make such a good pair and the banter between them was amazing. Their relationship goes from enemies to friends to lovers and I loved every single part of it

10 things that will make you want to strangle the MLs. Jokes aside I almost DNFd because I disliked the male leads so much in that first few chapters, but I'm SO grateful I didn't. The growth of the characters and the world building and just the amount of dry humor made this easily one of my top favorite reads of 2023.

I loved the conflicts that faced the characters and that they wove together and didn't feel forced. I can not get over the cat, the family dynamics and how much I could relate to certain moments throughout the book.

I also really enjoyed the LGBT+ rep that didn't feel like it was about their pain being in the community and coming out, or that it was a conflict they had to face in the plot.

Pick this up.. do it.

I'm really sorry about this but this is a DNF for me and I didn't even get that far into it. Fake dating and marriage-for-convenience tropes taunt my I'm-gonna-pass button but somehow the fake amnesia (which shouldn't have been a surprise and yet somehow was) was just too much for me. I am totally that person yelling at every screen, page, the universe when there is a situation that could be fixed with a conversation. And I get that the point is that the one character doesn't want to listen and the protagonist is faking because he's trying to protect people but it was just too much. This is possibly the longest NetGalley review I've ever written because I have LOVED Alexis Hall's books and was excited for this one and now I'm sad.