Mistakes We Never Made by Hannah Brown was a fantastic fiction debut.
Finn and Emma were just so engaging and beyond entertaining.
This story is full of humor with realistic human emotions and flaws.
The writing is witty and engaging, and the characters are lovable and memorable. If you're looking for a lighthearted and enjoyable read that will leave you feeling good, then this book is definitely worth checking out.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Hannah B is one of my all time favorite Bachlorettes and I was excited to get an eARC and a paperback of this book!

Emma and Finn. They cross paths at her bestie's wedding. Again. They went to high school together. They have crossed paths previously. Several ties. He's definitely her right person, wrong time and time again.

When the bride runs, they end up on a hilarious road trip trying to find her and bring her back.

This book does have cheating, which isn't my favorite. However, I feel like what Hannah experienced in her relationship with her Bachlorette choice may have played a part in including this.

Overall I was more than pleasantly surprised with Hannah B's debut novel. It was fun, great banter, and always love a road trip!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Forever for both an eARC and a paperback.

3.5 Stars. Emma is the type-A mom friend of her friend group. When the gang gathers for Sybil’s wedding Emma has everything planned to a T, unfortunately things don’t go according to plan, starting with Finn showing up unannounced and ending with bride Sybil disappearing. Finn and Emma have a complicated history but when Finn is the only one who can help Emma track down Sybil, she takes him up on his offer to drive to San Diego then throughout the southwest. On their journey they work through their shared past and Emma works through some of her more personal issues.

I am aware of Hannah Brown but I never watched her seasons of Bachelor / Bachelorette or any of the other reality series she’s been on, and I do want to acknowledge the book does have a ghost writer, Emily Larrabee. I enjoyed Mistakes We Never Made. It was easy to read so much so that I read it in one day. I love second chance roadtrip romances so this was right up my alley. Emma was a complex character, but where the book was entirely from her perspective the other characters, including Finn, felt less fleshed out. There were several plot elements that were never resolved or things that were mentioned like they had been part of the story the whole time, but had never been mentioned before (ex. Finn randomly references he’s a person of color around 60% in and it’s not referenced anywhere else), but the story still flowed nicely. I am interested to see if Hannah’s future books sticks with this same group of friends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to read this, but it was very much just okay. While I appreciate the running comments about mistakes and the fun comparisons to Hannah Brown in the main character... it was a little too cheesy. The plot was fun but I ultimately think it will unmemorable.

Cute and easy to read, Hannah Brown's romance debut, Mistakes We Never Made, is a good one. I think a lot of people will find it fun, and if you're anything like me, you're going to picture the author as the main character. Even if we're told Emma has red hair repeatedly.

What worked for me: it was a fast, easy to read in a few days story. There's a road trip, some mystery of why there is a runaway bride, and some hijinks. I also like when there are flashbacks chapters to give context for the present time in the story, and being given information slowly but surely.

What didn't work for me: I don't think I liked anyone in this book fully. Our main character's main personality trait is that she's fiesty. She's the maid of honor at someone's wedding, and as the book goes on, I don't feel like she actually knows the bride that well at all. The love interest is flaky and not a great communicator. There isn't any closure on why the bride dipped out, and then the bride withholds a lot of information at the end. The explanation made sense in *theory* but girl, you just ran away from life without telling anyone and you can't even offer up a sad excuse for a reason?
Also, yes, there is cheating in the book, and it is messy and complicated, but it made me officially not like either of the main characters.

Overall, a fine debut with good writing, just not completely my speed!

Thanks to Netgalley and Forever for the e-ARC!

As a big fan of the Bachelor franchise and reading, I was so excited to read Hannah Brown's debut novel. I really enjoyed the plot of this book, and found both of the main characters to be likeable. I found Emma to be similar to the author, Hannah, which I thought was so cute. I also loved that she intertwined her TV background into one of the side characters, that was such a fun addition! However, I felt the book was a little scattered in terms of how fast the plot went and detailing where the characters were. It could be tricky to follow. Moreover, I felt there were a lot of questions that went unanswered by the end of the book. I would love to see a secondary book following one of the Core Four!

I absolutely loved this book and Hannah Brown as an author! She writes with a pizazz I haven’t read in a while . She writes with a fresh take!

I think anyone would like this book a fun quick read, I really enjoyed this book
-enemies to lovers
-second chance romance
- and a cheating trope
I know now many ppl love this but I did enjoy the depth it brought to the characters! Sometimes we just need a good heart hurting experience when reading !

This was one of my most anticipated summer reads 🥲

First off, I have nothing against Hannah B. In fact, she’s probably one of my favorites to have come out of the Bachelor franchise. However, that doesn’t mean I’m gonna love every avenue she goes down - including romcom author.

The premise of Mistakes We Never Made had me so excited, but the execution wasn’t there. Between the writing style and characters, I found myself flying through it - but to get it over with, not because I enjoyed it.

Emma was kind of insufferable. She was very me me me, and it didn’t let up. I also felt like Emma and Finn’s characters peaked during their debate team days lol. It was all they talked about. Then, as their reconnection progressed over the course of the weekend, the chemistry did not 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thank you Forever Pub, NetGalley, and the author for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I don’t watch The Bachelorette, so I had no idea that the author of this book, Hannah Brown, was on the show a few years ago. I chose this book because it is an “enemies to lovers” contemporary romance, one of my favorite types of books.

Everyone needs a maid of honor like Emma. She’s a great organizer and will do whatever she can to help and support her best friend and make her wedding a dream come true, even if that means going on a scavenger hunt to find the runaway bride.

Emma has always been fiercely independent, but not necessarily out of choice. Raised by a single mother and then let down by her high school friend/crush more than once, Emma is determined to be a successful and independent woman who doesn’t need anyone to lean on.

From Malibu to Las Vegas to the desert southwest, Emma and that high school friend/crush set off to find their runaway friend just a few days before the wedding. Will this scavenger hunt finally bring the two together? Will they be forced to confront why things never worked between them in the past?

While I enjoyed the book, I feel like some points weren’t clear or fully developed. Also, do we ever find out exactly why their friend ran away? I read this immediately after Effie Olsen’s Summer Special, with which this book had a few similarities. Maybe if I had read this book first, I would have rated it higher. However, it is a great book to reach at the beach or by the pool this summer with a cool drink in your hand.

Mistakes We Never Made by Hannah Brown
Pub Date: 5/7

Unfortunately, this one missed the mark for me. I felt a bit bored throughout reading this one. At times it reminded me of Emily Henry's PWMOV in which the miscommunication KILLED me. EmHen's book is one I still am unsure of how I feel about it nearly 2 years later. I also didn't particularly enjoy either of the main characters. Their romantic connection was one I didn't feel or connect with.

Read if you like:
- Friends to lovers
- Flashbacks (a bit of dual timeline)
- Reality TV show (similar to the Bachelor/Bachelorette called LovedBy)
- Roadtrip setting

I went into this with pretty low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book! I loved the road-trip element, and the friendship that the Core Four have.

That being said, there were still definitely issues. Finn and Emma often feel like they’re living in the past, rehashing things that happened 10+ years ago. Emma is hard to like and root for sometimes.

SPOILERS BELOW!

Small spoiler regarding sex scenes in the book: This book suffers from “sometimes you gotta call a dick a dick.” I had to reread the big sex scene multiple times because I was so confused what was going on. Sometimes you need to name body parts, and if you’re not comfortable writing that, then just make the novel closed-door. After all the sexual tension between Emma and Finn, a clunkily-written sex scene just kills the vibe.

Spoiler for the ending: I was also upset that there was zero closure on what Sybil ended up deciding to do. After spending the whole novel trying to track her down to get her married, we don’t even get to find out if she got married or not.

Content warning: there is cheating that caught me very off-guard. Just be prepared if you choose to pick this book up.

I was looking forward to this one because I like Brown but the writing style and some of themes just didn’t do it for me. I think Brown has potential as a writer but it didn’t feel fully flushed out, the syntax felt off. The main character was self centered, the chemistry was blah, and the cheating trope was what did it in for me in the end.

I do think the premise was fun and I love a second chance romance with forced proximity of a road trip. Maybe this will read better after another round of edits but so far I’m not recommending it.

I had stopped watching the bachelor before Hannah Brown was on but I did know who she was and about her seasons on screen. When I saw she had written her first fictional book I was intrigued to see how it was.

This was a ‘right person, wrong time’ story but just fell a little flat. It had a lot of promise, and a cute story line but I was underwhelmed. There wasn’t much depth to the characters and I didn’t really like or connect with any of them. I did finish it, and glad that I did, but it isn’t one I will probably remember.

Thank you Forever pub for this eARC copy to read and review.

Mistakes We Never Made was a quick and cute read for me! I enjoyed the writing and how quick and easy it was to read. I really liked the past and present timelines in this one as well as Emma’s friendships with Willow, Sybil and Nikki. The road trip was a fun addition to the story too.
There were however a few aspects to this one that I didn’t love - a specific element that I don’t want to go into too much detail at the risk of giving things away. At times I also found Finn and Emma to be frustrating but was overall satisfied at how they reconciled in the end. That being said, there is a bit of an open ending or a few things I wish we got more information on towards the end, particularly Sybil’s situation (but maybe that just means there will be a second book!).

Overall I liked this one and rated it 3.5 stars. If you are looking for a romance read with some roadtripping, a runaway bride, the friends to lovers and second chance romance tropes, check out Mistakes We Never Made, out May 7!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever / Grand Central Publishing for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Emma & Finn are former debate partners and for some cringy reason. They continue to debate like two high schoolers. Their best friend Sybil runs away from her wedding. They go on a road trip to get her back.

I probably should have skipped this one. But I was intrigued to see if the former reality star bachelorette Hannah B. could write a book. I've become cynical of romance books and this book just wasn't for me.

Hannah brown from the Bachelorette wrote a book! And I loved it. This was a cute rom com, perfect for reading in a hammock with a good drink. I saw it was a 2 book deal so I can’t wait for the second one!

This was a really cute and enjoyable read. At times, VERY frustrating. It was a very slow burn romance. The main character made some decisions that drove me insane. I wish we learned more about some of the supporting cast - maybe a future book? There were some major frustrations while reading this book - the oblivious, ridiculous decisions made. I actually wanted to shake the characters into reality. I felt that not enough of their story was shared early on... we had to wait until the book was almost over. It made it hard to determine who in the relationship was making terrible decisions and was just frustrating. I liked that none of the characters were perfect. They all made mistakes. And luckily, they all grew up over the course of the book. I found this to be a cute read and would definitely read another Hannah Brown book.
Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

DNF. I like Hannah Brown and am happy for her to write (with a ghost writer) her first novel.
Early on I decided while the plot may end up cute, the writing is choppy, doesn’t flow, and is not attention grabbing enough for me to continue.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review early, though! Best of luck, Hannah!

I'm not a huge Bachelor nation fan, but Hannah's season is one that I watched in it's entirety, so I was excited to see she had a romance book coming out. I enjoyed the general premise of this, but I think it could have been executed much better. The FMC was just annoying to me. I also felt like a lot of filler was added in just because that didn't necessarily add to the story or need to be there. I definitely felt like I could tell this was a debut, but if you're looking for a quick, summer beach read, this would do the trick.

Thank you NetGalley and Read Forever Pub for the ARC and chance to read and review this one early!