never planned on you is a second chance romance with ali and graham. they meet during ali’s semester abroad, get matching tattoos and then never see each other again. that is until ali is planning grahams wedding. I am not usually a “cheating” trope kind of gal but I think this book gave a quick reasoning for it (marriage of convenience) and it felt less taboo?? I love a “business in need of saving” trope and that is what you get with graham. ali and graham work together to grow her event business while also savings grahams family business. I did feel that there was a lack of exploration into ali and grahams working relationship. there was a 1 month time jump in which we could have gotten a better understanding of the two.

ali and grahams banger and chemistry were top notch - I overall enjoyed this story! thank you netgalley and st.martins for this arc!!

Hilarious!! This story is beyond funny! I really like Ali’s comment about living with her 2 boomer roommates and all the expired condiments! Especially since one of my adult children just visited and the boomer/expired condiments says it all! The banter is off the charts! And although there’s some “cheating” involved you just know something is up. I definitely recommend this cute rom com! And I’m hoping Chloe’s story will be coming soon!

I liked the story to an extent. I think the author did a great job of writing the story but this just isn’t my kind of book which is also okay. I didn’t connect with the FMC but I loved her humor and her always being authentically herself despite the lack of support and understanding from her loved ones.

A good, quick read about a second chance at love. After returning home from a semester abroad and finishing college, Ali is working on her career. Surprisingly, she runs into her British love connection while planning his wedding. Their connection and friendship grows as they try to save his family’s hotel and increase her success in the event planning business. Will everyone live happily ever after, we won’t find out until the Wedding day.

I loved this book!! Such a fun couple! I loved the set up of their first meeting and jumping to the next time they see each other. I didn’t love the insinuation of cheating, but it was quickly explained and remedied. Ali is so much fun and Graham is adorable. I just wanted to keep reading.

4.00 stars
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TW: Infidelity, Sexual content, Death, Drug use, Grief
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Ali is an event planner. She loves what she does, but she is also known to bounce around job-to-job as she discovers her passion. She's thrilled to get the opportunity to co-plan a wedding that could potentially launch her career and have her finally moving out of her parents' house. The only downfall? It turns out our groom is someone Ali's shared a past with, a one-night-only, where on a dare, they get matching tattoos.

As the wedding dates approach fast, we watch Ali grow in her role while trying not to reconnect with her old flame, Graham. Graham is swoon-worthy. He's moved from New York to help his grandmother run a hotel that has gone under since his grandfather's death. I do feel like he led Ali on a little bit at the start, the two of them grab coffee (and sparks fly), but he omits the fact that he's engaged. The synopsis thankfully tells us that this is a marriage of convenience to help Claire, stay in the States while working her dream job.

This has so many laughable moments, Ali is a fantastic character and saw a lot of myself in her. I do think the timeline of the book was a little rushed, one moment we're in November, and the next we've suddenly skipped an entire month. I would have liked to see a bit more of the working dynamic between Ali and Graham. For such a morally grey topic, it seems like these two have a ton of support behind them, and in the end we get a happy ending!
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I would like to thank St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin, Lindsay Hameroff, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of Never Planned on You in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions formulated are my own. Never Planned on You is scheduled to publish on February 18th, 2025 pre-order your copy today!

This was an interesting love story. Our two main characters Graham and Ali first meet on Ali’s last night in London and a drunken night of fun ends up in them getting matching crazy tattoos. Fast forward to 8 years later and Ali runs into Graham again in Baltimore in what feels like a moment of fate. Ali can’t believe her luck that she ran into this man again as she’s also on the cusp of trying to land a promotion and finally settle into a career. However, things go sideways when she meets Graham a few days later as the groom of the huge high society wedding she needs to successfully plan to get her promotion. What follows is a messy complicated series of events filled with angst and longing. I really enjoyed their chemistry, and their love story and would have given it 5 stars except the sneaking around behind backs cheating part gave me the ick factor… I know it was explained in a way that would be fine for a lot of people …. But it still bothered me. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

This is such a cute rom com and had me laughing and swooning the whole book! Also, a British grump in glasses is going to do it for me every single time;) Loved the whole concept, very much like The Wedding Planner movie except I liked he wasn’t truly engaged to someone for love!

There isn't a single negative thing I can say about this book. It was everything you could ever want in a romance and more. I about jumped for joy when I realized that Graham had popped back in Ali's life after their one night stand in London. I was rooting for them from the get go and about lost my mind when I realized he was engaged to someone else. At first, I was a little nervous because I didn't want Ali to get in between the engaged couple, but quickly realized that everything is not always as it seems. I also think that so many people can relate to Ali and her professional development. There is nothing wrong with switching careers until you find something you are really passionate about. It was hard to watch Ali struggle with feeling good at what she does but it just made her all that more relatable. This is my second novel by Hameroff and I will for sure read whatever she comes out with next!

10/10 for the meet cute in this novel!! What a fantastic origin to this second chance romance story -- it was fun and gave us such a great insight into our main characters personalities. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, especially Ali's journey and growth. It was fun, funny, light yet filled with substance! I struggled with some of Ali and Graham's choices and at times felt like I was just waiting to watch it all come crashing down -- that's the only reason this wasn't a full 5 star read for me. However, I would still absolutely recommend it to romance readers!

A second chance romance that definitely landed in the Jewish department for me. The representation was fantastic and everything I wished I had growing up as a reader. All the foods mentioned, the family dynamics, and Bar Mitzvah were well done.

On the other hand, Hameroff’s sophomore novel didn’t quite excite me and at times it dragged and I had to skim a little. Listen, I’m all for the pop culture references (Taylor Swift any day and every day) but this book had HEAVY references. If you’re not into that thing, definitely do not read it. Also I read some reviews about the cheating trope which yeah, it’s in here but it’s kind of a technicality? The FMC Ali isn’t in a marriage of convenience - but the MMC is and you know that from reading the description on the back of the book. My problem with that is he doesn’t admit it to her until 53% of the book and that just seems too late since the readers already known it for half the book, but hasn’t technically found out. I think the reader should’ve found this out earlier in the book or it should not have been listed on the back cover description and more so hinted at during the plot. Also, Ali’s past relationship is mentioned almost towards the end and it’s like why even bring it up this far into the book because it’s not background information at this point.

For the most part it is fluffy romance with cute tropes and it’s nice to see a book set in Baltimore. It just wasn’t a favorite book. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to read more Jewish representation, though!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Lindsay Hameroff excels at writing a second-chance romance, and I loved Never Planned on You even more than her first book!

After a brief and fun encounter while she is spending a semester abroad in England, Ali and Graham's paths cross years later in the last way she expected them to, with her helping to plan his wedding. But everything is not as it seems with Graham marrying his best friend Claire to help her land her dream job and save his family's business in the process.

There was so chemistry between Ali and Graham, even when they were trying to deny their attraction to each other. While their situation was a little strange with Ali knowing Graham and Claire weren't really in love, I felt bad for Claire when she found out what was happening between them, especially with how she found out.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the Jewish representation woven throughout it. From Shabbat dinners to her nephew's Bar Mitzvah, it was so nice that these were focal points of the book and not just passing mentions. I also loved Ali's grandmother, she provided so many laughable moments throughout the story. Even though it is not a series, it was nice to catch up with Lexi and Jake from Lindsay's first book, Till There Was You!

Never Planned on You by Lindsay Hamerof is an enchanting mix of charm, chaos, and heartfelt moments that left me grinning and occasionally clutching my chest. Ali Rubin is a delightfully flawed and relatable protagonist, with her impulsive spirit and her struggle to shake off the “family flake” label. I saw so much of myself in her desire to prove her worth while still embracing the whirlwind that is her life. Her relationship with her older sister also hit close to home—messy, supportive, and full of love, just like real sibling dynamics.

The second-chance romance between Ali and Graham was magnetic. Their history, complete with matching tattoos and unspoken “what ifs,” added an undeniable layer of tension. Every interaction crackled with chemistry, and I couldn’t help but root for them, even as the situation grew increasingly complicated. (Seriously, the whole “he’s the groom at her career-making wedding” twist was equal parts delicious and devastating!)

What I loved most about this book was the balance between humor and heart. There were laugh-out-loud moments, like Ali’s quick wit and the banter between her and Graham, but also more introspective ones as Ali grappled with her career aspirations, family expectations, and what she truly wanted for herself.

The only reason I’m holding back that fifth star is the pacing. Some parts felt a bit rushed, especially in the resolution, and I wanted more time to savor certain moments—particularly between Ali and Graham. Still, the journey was worth it, and the ending left me with all the warm, fuzzy feels.

If you love swoony romances with strong family dynamics, high-stakes wedding drama, and characters who feel like your best friends, this book is a must-read. It’s a sparkling reminder that love—and life—often doesn’t go as planned, and that’s what makes it beautiful. 💕

Never have I been so let down by such a promising prologue. The matching tattoo idea was cute and even though our FMC Ali is a wee bit insufferable with her “not like other girls” persona, she’s young and in college! There is room for growth. Unfortunately, that’s where the fun ends because- cut to years later and Ali hasn’t grown up at all and the MMC Graham is still as one dimensional as he was when he grumbles through the intro.
When Graham and Ali are reunited, Graham is engaged. It doesn’t matter that Ali doesn’t understand the circumstances behind the engagement-she still chooses to cheat. There’s no redemption for that. It’s so icky. After jumping on Graham in his grandmothers house she can barely muster an “oopsie” while thinking about how she just sucked face with another woman’s fiancé. I cannot root for this woman. She literally says at one point, “ I hadn’t really thought about how this would affect Claire.” Really?!?! She at this point has had no confirmation from Claire about the realities of her relationship with Graham. It’s just so gross. Ali is selfish and thoughtless and simply impossible to root for. Graham meanwhile waits way too long to fess up to Ali about his relationship status and then refuses to follow through on telling Claire the truth. Ew. Just ew. In the end they both just suck, so I guess they do deserve each other.

Ali and Graham kept me up way past my bedtime, as I couldn’t stop turning the pages of this delightful novel. I liked the characters, the premise, the setting, and the plot. Bravo for second chance romances!

Such a cute book. Ali and Grahams story is a fun one and it was great to follow along as they met in college the night before Ali left to go back to the states to how they randomly bumped into each other. It was quite a twist with Claire also. So cute. I read it in two sittings!

I loved Lindsay's last book and couldn't wait to dig into this one. She has a way of writing characters with such insane chemistry. This story didn't disappoint. Graham gave me Jude Law The Holiday vibes and I'm all for that. Ali was funny and I liked seeing her normal fears and predicaments about not feeling like she was where she needed to be in life.

The tattoo was a great extra for the storyline. Overall, I really enjoyed this storyline. The spice was spicy and I was here for it!

I am so thankful for receiving this ARC, this is a first book I've read from Lindsay Hameroff and I am already excited to read what else she has in store. If any book can make me giddy and laugh (and honestly I was LOLing), it's an automatic love for me. Especially when I can relate a book to a movie which in fact felt like that old movies you loved back in 2000's; The Wedding Crashers or The Wedding Planner, the humor, the wit, the angst, and the perfect balance of smut was everything I wanted in this book.

- second chances
- romcom
- career driven

Plain and simple I devoured this book just like how I devour all my romcom movies AND ESPECIALLY WEDDING THEMED!!!! I LOVE WEDDINGS!! Graham and Ali's entire chemistry was perfectly off the charts, their characters were realistically and somewhat relatable. OH! And for all my Taylor Swifties... Yeah you're going to get some lovely hints in there so thats a plus! Overall it was the perfect romcom I've read so far this year, I'd re-read this again for the laughs.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Lindsay Hameroff for allowing me to read this ARC. It was splendid!!!!!!

Never Planned On You by @lindsayhameroff was a hoot and a half! Thanks to the ARC from @netgalley , I was able to read this charming book before its release on February 18! The second chance romance story follows Ali and Graham meeting during a bar bet gone wrong and reconnect later in Baltimore! I don’t want to give too much away, but I thought individually they were great characters but I don’t think they had a ton of chemistry together as lovers. As business partners heck yeah, but as anything else, I wasn’t a fan. I think the side characters were well fleshed out and compelling except Ali’s 2 best friends who were just kind of there. Overall, I think Forget Me Not did the wedding planner chemistry and drama better, so I give this one 3 stars.

Ali is trying to find her way in life and has moved back home to intern for an wedding planning company. She has her chance to finally get promoted, however, she and the groom have quite the history, including matching hideous tattoos.

This was an engaging and fast read. Ali and Graham had quite the chemistry, and I really wanted to root for them! I did feel bad Claire and Asha were so out of the loop.

I loved the twist at the end, and I freaking enjoyed both grandmothers, especially Bubbie.

This book would be perfect for those who loved the movie "The Wedding Planner," as it was very reminiscent of that.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley for this ARC. All views and opinions are my own

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