I loved this sweet and sad story of two people who are kind of lost becoming found. Alexis Hall tells a great love story, with lots of humor, just enough angst, and enough true heartbreak to make it real.

I lucked into a "read now" offer for this on NetGalley, and you can bet I jumped on that like a cat on a feather toy. And... I will definitely read it (or, more likely, listen to it) multiple times, so maybe that inherently means it should be five stars? But it took me a while to get into the story, and I thought the amnesia plot dragged on a bit too long, so I'm sticking with four. There's plenty of Alexis Hall wit and humo(u)r, of course, but somehow these particular flawed MCs didn't click for me right away. Which, now that I think about it, perhaps means more that I should examine why (for example) I fell for Luc and Oliver at hello, even though they're also both flawed. (And maybe I need to think more about why Husband Material didn't work as well for me as Boyfriend Material did, though really, after my ten-star, want-to-read-it-forever response to Boyfriend Material, pretty much anything would have been a letdown.)

At any rate, this book ends up being a delight, even if (for me) it didn't entirely start out that way. Three cheers!

Another hit from Alexis Hall! Anytime I see a release from this author, it's an instant buy for me, and I was not at all disappointed by this one. The grumpy/sunshine is one of my favorite tropes, and this book definitely does it justice. I knocked off one star because the amnesia trope was far fetched, but it was still a fun read!

"You've come into my life like a beam of very annoying sunshine... I don't know how I'm supposed to go the rest of my life without being kissed by you again."

If you've read other Alexis Hall books (Boyfriend Material, A Lady for a Duke), you'll know that he does grumpy/sunshine, enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, flawed human stories really well. And 10 Things That Never Happened is no exception. This was a fun, if impractical romp, in which overly-relaxed bed & bath shop manager Sam gets called to task by his dickish boss, Jonathan. Right as Jonathan is firing him, Sam trips into a shower stall display, ending up hospitalized with a concussion and an opportunity to fake amnesia. The only thing to do, apparently, is move Sam into Jonathan's sprawling London home so he can be watched over 24/7. What starts as them each trying to save their own asses (Jonathan trying to avoid a lawsuit, Sam trying to save his job) ends with them realizing they both kinda like each other. Both men are flawed, and make some big mistakes, and that's what made the story believable despite the ridiculous scenario. Sam and Jonathan, with their bickering and banter, bring out the best in each other and help each other grow. That's a love story worth reading.

Really, the only baffling part about the book is the title. What ARE the 10 things that never happened? There's no real reference to anything relating to this in the story. Is it supposed to be because of the fake amnesia? I guess they're both pretending the argument leading up to the accident never happened, but it's ambiguous at best.

Overall, it's another fun, silly, but ultimately poignant story of messy love by Alexis Hall.

*****
I received this eARC from Netgalley @netgalley and Casablanca Books @sourcebookscasa in exchange for an honest review.

10 Things That Never Happened will be released October 17, 2023.

My favorite Material World book yet, honestly! Of course if there’s anything you can say about these books it’s that your mileage WILL vary lol, but for me this hit really really well.

The thing about this whole series/world that is really underrated/under-acknowledged imo is the layer of toxicity - which is one million percent consistent with the 90s/early 2000s romcoms these books are inspired by. I started this book In the middle of a deeply annoying work phase… I decided to read it because I knew its tone was going to perfectly match my (slightly toxic) energy and I wasn’t wrong haha. On the other hand that toxicity just exactly balances out the sentimentality, so after all that I still found myself tearing up at the end like “how did I get from work annoyances to this!?”

I will say this book is very Alexis Hall in the sense that the amnesia plot is a “someone is missing a key piece of information” Trojan horse - in fact, we as the audience are the ones that are missing a key piece of information. I loved it! The suspense built and then resolved in an incredibly satisfying way.

Yeah, just a very satisfying book!

What can I say about this absolute joy of a Christmas but not Christmas book? It stars Jonathan Forest, who we briefly met in Husband Material, and Sam Becker. Sam manages the Sheffield branch of a bed and bath store and yes, Jonathan is his boss. Also, you wouldn’t say things in Sheffield are smooth sailing. (Note, you do not need to read either London Calling book before reading 10 Things. I definitely recommend them though, they are fantastic books.)

We have several tropes in this one, but I’ll leave it to the main three — boss/employee, enemies to lovers, and the good old fake amnesia trope.

Generally, I really don’t like any relationship with an unbalanced power dynamic, but to my utter delight, this book handled the boss/employee relationship exceptionally well. The care and concern the characters had with the power dynamic was something I haven’t seen in a book before, or if I have then it isn’t handled this well often.

Let’s be honest, you can’t go wrong with enemies to lovers and fake amnesia. The amnesia plot was well crafted, too. Don’t get me wrong, it would be terrible in real life … but bad things done for a good reason with a side of absurdity is terrific fun in a book.

To top it off, it really was the least Christmasy Christmas book of all times … and I loved that! Somehow it had all of the stress with none of the magic which was incredibly refreshing. (Not to say I don’t love cheesy hallmark Christmas books/movies, but this really was a breath of fresh air for a holiday book. All of the family fights, none of the prince of a small European country in disguise.)

I adored the quirky cast of characters. Sam and Jonathan were incredibly well written. I was rooting for them the entire book. (okay, fine, four tropes … grumpy x sunshine!) Sam’s care for others and his zest for life made him a quintessential sunshine main character, but don’t worry, he has a very strong personality and is more than just sunshine. Jonathan’s grumpiness is known from his brief cameo in Husband Material, but if you haven’t read that you catch on to his grumpiness right away. It fit him — past and present — very well. And, in his own way he truly cares for others, it just is hard for people to see. The Sheffield branch where Sam worked was ridiculous and so fun. Not only that … but somehow Jonathan’s family were utterly delightful while also being ludicrous. Cough, Christmas tree, cough. And, I can’t forget Sam’s cat Gollum.

I have to admit that I struggled to start the last few chapters … not because I wasn’t loving the book, but because I didn’t want it to end. These characters came alive, as much as they can to an aphant anyway, and I just didn’t want to let them go. This book made me laugh, tear up, and feel like I was part of two wildly weird but amazing families.

I’d give this one more than five stars if that was allowed. I cannot wait for the audio to drop so my American self can hear the proper accents. I definitely don’t have that fancy of an inner monologue.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an arc of this book.

Absolutely outstanding romantic comedy that goes beyond grumpy/sunshine and hits Scrooge/Fezziwig instead. Jonathan is a closed off prick and the owner of a chain of bed and bath stores. Sam is one of the store managers and finds himself tangled up in a pack of lies while trying to convince Jonathan not to fire him or any of his staff. A pack of lies, by the way, that includes faking amnesia. In the tradition of great rom-coms, this is a very over-the-top situation for two very real, very sweet characters. Jonathan's Scrooge character arc is masterfully done: believably prickish at the start and understood and warmed by the end. Hall also brings us a cadre of lovable and hilarious side players in Jonathan's family and Sam's work colleagues. I laughed and I cried - literally. This is a delight.

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall is an excellent reminder about how people can be and are truly complex. The person who is cutthroat at work can be also be the person who sits on the floor and plays with a cat for hours. The charismatic, apparently unbothered person can also be lonely and feel adrift. I was rooting for Jonathan Forest from the beginning because I couldn’t wait until we started to see him beyond the bluster. Samwise Becker is a treasure - just an absolute gem. We recommend this one if you’re looking for a contemporary romance with flawed characters, a sweet cat who melts frosty hearts, huge Christmas tree hijinks, big family personalities, and learning to show who you are even with “amnesia.”

I have read at least eight Alexis Hall books and liked them all, particualarly loved "Rosaline Palmer.." and "Boyfriend Material." I found that "10 Things that Never Happened" didn't quite achieve liftoff though.

The general atmosphere and cast of characters are funny and real, and Hall's great natural , funny, sweary dialogue amongst characters is, as always, top notch. (Though the repetition of the full, very long product names I found didn't work for me -- though some other reviewers have mentioned it as hilarious -- I get the theory of how this is funny, I guess I was reading at a moment when my grumpiness-factor just didn't find this device humorous.)

There are some hilarious lines though - e.g. "And I hope, then pray, then go back to hoping on account of beign an athiest..." HA!

I just found the level of faffing around to plot/relationship development was pretty high - ie. the scene setting was a lot at the beginning, and the central relationship of the story slow to develop. It was about 1/2 way in before we see more than Sam & his crew just generally making a mess of everything in their branch of "Splashes & Snuggles." Then, I don't know - I didn't love the 'fake amnesia' plotline, and I didn't really get a sense of seeing the Sam & Jonathan relationship develop -- there were a few beautiful heartfelt moments from Jonathan, that I really loved, but overall, I just didn't quite feel like they quite had the build up that I was hoping for? Maybe I wanted a few more 'breaking down the walls' / cracks in the armor/ getting to know each other conversations between them? (maybe at least 1 about how, as Jonathan does mention at one point, Sam has no emergency contact and no one's come looking for him - It' s clear to the reader that this is the case, & almost weird he doesn't ask more about this? I don't think that there's much gained by keeping his family situation a 'surprise' til that end bit. Though I do like it when Jonathan comes after Sam with Sam's lost jacket.)

I also found Sam's sort of 'pushing' Jonathan's family on him a little bit much - We see in the long run that they are a lovely bunch of just over the top messy, annoying, funny, interesting people who care about Jonathan - but when the reader (and Sam) first meets them, he (and we) don't know why Jonathan's distanced himself from them - they could be horrible toxic lying thieves for all we know, but Sam's like "aw, come on let them all stay" -- which you can kind of get, from his perspective.... BUT. It just felt not quite right?

I don't know - I guess wrong reader at the wrong time. I liked some of the pieces, but it didn't really come together to give me all the good, funny & heart-melting feelings of some of Hall's other books.

It’s the signature Alexis Hall banter, wit, fun, and love. I adored it and was 100% here for it. It was slightly too long, with a slightly slow pace for parts of it, but I still enjoyed the story.

This is totally a Christmas book, but the cover fails to market it as such.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC.

This is the Alexis Hall that we all fell in love with during Boyfriend Material. You’ll love this one if you like: messy characters, slow burn, & family shenanigans. The whole almost ruined the HEA plot twist moment and follow up was also done so well. Just all around top notch writing.

I liked this one! I support Gollum in all his wrongs (he is baby). Johnathan’s character was so interesting, and I loved the scenes with his family, especially the exploration of his relationship with his father.

I could eat the banter in this book with a spoon, and the chicken-fisting scene literally made me lol. Hall is charming as always.

Oh! Also, this quote:“I’m frozen like an underpaid deer in overpriced headlights.”

I don’t know why that quote tickles my pickle so much, but *shrugs*.

This was such a fun take on an amnesia plot, where Sam pretends he has amnesia to prevent his jerk boss Jonathan from firing him and his coworkers, then ends up staying with him while he recovers from his concussion. I loved the interactions with Jonathan's family, and the Darcy-like reveal that Jonathan isn't as much of a jerk as he seems, but very very bad at caring for the people he loves. I also loved Sam's coworkers. The romance is an excellent slow burn. I did wish, for a book from Sam's POV, that we got a bit more of Sam's growth and backstory, as that was hinted at well but felt a bit rushed in the last quarter. But as always, Alexis Hall had me laughing out loud constantly.

Alexis Hall really, truly, can do no wrong when it comes to writing. My biggest complaints about this are that #1 while it is set in the world of Boyfriend Material, and has an extremely quick, unnamed reference to Luc (that reference is then referenced so I guess that makes 2 references?), it in fact has no Luc or Oliver and #2 the formatting on my digital ARC was absolute crap. Neither of those things made me like the book any less. It was legitimately laugh out loud funny. I will never not love a character who swears as much as I do. I will also never not love a grumpy/sunshine (or grumpy/slightly less grumpy but able to see a silver lining) romance. Jonathan is extra grumpy but there is at least a reason for it. When that grumpiness plays out next to his super hyper family it's even better. Also, his sweet moments are made even sweeter by virtue of his normal level grumpy. Sam is just...well funny. Sometimes (a lot of the time) he's stupid but it's still funny. The way he, and everyone else at the store, speak product names in their entirety EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. is brilliant and hilarious and makes me want to do the same thing only that doesn't really work because I work with books, and you already do that. As with any Alexis Hall book where one of the characters has an accent from some part of England other than London, I wasn't always 100% sure if the wording was weird due to regional dialect or if there were actual typos. But it wasn't enough of an issue to be a problem. The ending felt a bit rushed, but I'll forgive it since this is a series and I assume we will be getting more Sam and Jonathan in the future, which I am looking forward to.