This novella does exactly what 831 Stories’ novellas do best for me- leave you thinking, maybe traumatize you a lil in the middle, and leave you wondering if you are in fact rooting for the people in the story!

What starts as a classic When Harry Met Sally (road trip to nyc! She says men and women can’t be friends) turns moreso into a two-sided unhealthy obsession between two crazy kids who don’t see each other for years at a time. I’m talking CRUMBS to go on, and yet, they’re obsessed. It’s actually kind of cute (if not a little sad). Life gets in the way, as it always does, and Marin and Teddy must find their ways out of their own corners and into the light together!

Sweet hopeless Teddy and chaotic confused Marin both left me feeling some type of way. Do I want them to end up together? Honestly no. But would it be fun if they do? Absolutely!!!! Time has shown they can ease their way back and forth and not lose interest, so here’s hoping it works out in the long run.

Thanks so much to Erika Veurink, 831 Stories, and NetGalley for a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This has all of the elements of a story I should really like: strangers to friends to lovers and back again, road trip, big romantic gesture, meeting again and again. However, it just wasn't working for me. Perhaps I don't really understand Marin's deal, so her insistence that she and Teddy can never been anything is puzzling. I'm told about their chemistry (dual POV), but I rarely see it on the page. Their time together when they are 27 feels the most real, but the third act conflict spoils any hope for me to want them back together. It took me a week to finish this one (part of which is a busy time of year at work, but not all of it) and I was never totally excited to see what happened next. It's a fine story, but not for me.

This 221-page novella is Midwestern love at its best; told through dual POVs over eight years of missed timing, chance encounters, and transatlantic visits. Teddy and Marin have that perfect golden retriever/black cat energy, equal parts banter and longing.

Sharp, tender, and full of yearning, Exit Lane feels like When Harry Met Sally meets Normal People with a dash of Midwest charm. A fun and heartfelt read!

“Exit Lane”, the latest novella from 831 Stories, is a spicer and sadder version of “When Harry Meets Sally”. It’s about Teddy and Marin, strangers with mutual friends who roadtrip from Iowa City to New York City the day they graduate from college and remain in each others’ lives for the next decade or so.

It’s told in dual perspectives which kept me from ever getting tired of one character’s voice. I say that because both characters are a little thinly written and sketched out, understandable in a book this short.

This was definitely less spicy than other 831 books which I appreciated because I often feel like characters in these books jump into bed together within minutes of meeting. But that wasn’t the case here. That made this one of my favorite 831 books to date!

“Exit Lane” will be a great read for romance lovers, 831 obsessives, and fans of “When Harry Meets Sally”!

“Teddy McCarrel, you’re stalking me.”

“The last person I think about before falling asleep isn’t supposed to be from either of those lives.”

This is in my top five for this year. Full stop, and I am currently staring hopelessly at a wall.

Bad timing. A road trip. Years of moving on and just not making it work. Life goes on, Marin and Teddy move on and around each other. If you like Normal People, this will absolutely ruin you.

My favourite romance and angsty tropes because this was so real. A chance roadie together connects people even as life continues, and sometimes these invisible strings do not reconnect. Sometimes we are just tethered to someone even after we wish and pray to move on from them. Sometimes it works out though.

Anyways, my thoughts are mush. This was amazing.

“You’re the love of my life. I think you know that.” 😭

“50 miles and 8 years”.

Thank you for the ARC NetGalley!

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

2.5 stars (all for Teddy) rounded up
Loved Teddy, hated Marin. Loved the road trip, hated the ending. Why oh why did he forgive her after she abandoned him? I didn't even really get a sense of their chemistry. Glad this was such a short novel, otherwise I probably would have DNF'd.

3.75/5⭐️ 2/5🌶️ 1.5/5😢

This was my first time reading an 831 novella (despite owning five other copies—I’m a sucker for great marketing) and I wasn’t disappointed! I think the description was spot on comparing it to a mix of You, Again, Normal People, and People We Meet on Vacation. The characters were definitely messy which I loved and their attraction to one another was palpable. I think I would have enjoyed this more as a full length novel where the characters were able to spend more time together in between their fits and starts, so we could see more of the emotional connection. Overall solid read!

tropes & themes
→ strangers to (intermittent) lovers 💕
→ road trip(s) 🚗 🗺️
→ cancer & grief 🕊️
→ lgbtq rep 🏳️‍🌈

Thank you 831 Stories and NetGalley for advanced copies of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is for all the When Harry Met Sally lovers out there. One of 831’s best yet. I will continue to read every single thing this imprint publishes.

“Maybe we’re meant to be old friends who lost touch.”

ˋ°•*⁀➷ 4.5 stars

Thank you to 831 Stories and Netgalley for this advance reader’s copy!

I was not expecting how deep of a gut punch this novella would turn out to be. I was having so much fun and then it sucker punched me so hard that I nearly got whiplash and I continued to have fun through my tears. Marin and Teddy are very morally complex characters. They both mess up big time a few times (Marin most of all) and yet you still root so hard for them. I didn’t know you could do slow burn in a shorter novella format but it does work so so well here. You’re still itching through all of the 200 or so pages for them to finally get together the way you would with a 500-page slow burn and I think that says a lot about the talent of the writer as well.

The relationship feels so natural even in such a short amount of pages and I think that the time jumping actually lends well to that. Sometimes it can make the characters feel more disconnected because of the time apart but here I feel like it added this sense of longing between the two main characters who continued to think of each other constantly throughout 8 years apart.

If anything, I wish it was longer. It still works so so well in this shorter format but adding 100 or so more pages I think would have brought it so much closer to a 5-star read for me. There are parts that I wish were a bit more flushed out and aspects that I was wanting more detail about but overall, it’s still so good in the novella format and I would strongly recommend to anyone who needs a shorter read as I could easily finish the majority of it in just one day!

Definitely loved the structure reminiscent of One Day but I wanted more! I often finish these novellas and the story feels incomplete. Here, I wanted more depth in the character development— why were Marin and Teddy making the decisions we watched play out? What were they thinking in the years they didn’t interact? The short form can make the story feel too quick and transitions more abrupt than they really are.

I did enjoy this one (low on the smut meter for my experience with this imprint, though), but would have liked more detail. At the same time, I love that I can read these in a single sitting— such wonderful palate cleansers!

A beautiful love story across years and the different paths your life can take. Marin and Teddy are individually wonderful, and even better together. Exit Lane is not only well-written, but it leaves you wishing more one more chapter. Another win for 831!

Another banger from 831 Stories.

Teddy and Marin meet after college, burn out fast, and then spend the next eight years bumping into each other in ways that keep their story alive. It’s romantic, it’s messy, it’s funny, and it’s full of those little details (like a certain easter egg) that make it extra memorable.

Perfectly bingeable and satisfying. I closed the book smiling.

Thanks to 831 Stories and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

Another 831 ARC for the books! This was my absolute favorite of the bunch. I felt like the characters were perfectly explained, not too much detail and not too little as is often the problem with shorter novels. At first I thought the take on When Harry Met Sally would feel stale, but really it proved that characters in love coming back together by fate or otherwise is never stale. I loved every minute.

I continue to be impressed by 831 publishers. I adore the format of well-written, well-edited romance novellas — especially ones that pay homage to our favorite rom-coms.

I am a certified When Harry Met Sally stan and thought this updated take — which is very much an homage, not a reimagining or rewrite — was perfect. It had so much emotion and I truly loved the format, even though it made me realize I kind of wanted it all to happen in one timeline. However, the story, romance and realism benefitted from the time jumps.

All in all, I highly recommend this book, especially for fellow WHMS fans. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am the exact audience for this book. When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite movies of all time, and if you give me any book where the main characters run into each other over the years, I'm probably going to love it.

Needless to say, I adored this.

Even more than WHMS, this reminded me a lot of the book You, Again by Kate Goldbeck, and I don't see that as a bad thing. The characters are messy in both books, and they both take WHMS but change aspects of it enough to make the story feel entirely its own.

In terms of the characters being messy, I will say that both the main characters here do some pretty terrible things. Those things were a little hard for me to get past, but not enough to ruin the book.

Let's talking about the length of this book, though, and its pros and cons. This book is SHORT. In some ways, I'm very impressed with how fully formed this was and how we got such a good picture of these characters and their relationship over the years in such few pages. In other ways, though, I do wish we had gotten more time in some of the periods or maybe more time in between them.

I think an important distinction between this and WHMS is that the characters are attracted to each other pretty much from the beginning, and as much as I like the slower burn of WMHS more, I do think that helped with the pacing of the shorter story.

Overall, I'd say this is probably one of my favorites of the 831 Stories books. It's not perfect, but I enjoyed it a lot!

continue to love these little romance stories from this publisher. they are so fun!! this wasn't my favorite but still good

the forced proximity worked so well here!!! some may say they got too comfortable fast, but i’ve been in a similar situation before, and when you click with a person fast, it’s easy to lose yourself in conversation and find yourself opening up fast/easily. i genuinely was not expecting this to get as serious as it did. okay so they both did things that irked me… she would always draw a line with teddy despite everything, and he would use other ppl to replace the gap she left, but god, i wanted them together so bad! the characters could've had such a smoother transition into a relationship had they communicated more. it was a very frustrating read, but luckily it didn't take too long for me to get to their happy ending! :)

EXIT LANE by Erika Veurink

Marin and Teddy, much like Harry and Sally before them are meant to be — it just takes them nearly a decade to figure it out. And as they dip in and out of each other’s life, we get a hell of a show.

While the comparisons to “When Harry Met Sally…” are both accurate and obvious, Exit Lane is entirely its own thing in the most delicious way. Sweet, funny and one hell of a ride.

Exit Lane is out 9/16.

Thank you to NetGalley and 831 Stories for the advanced copy!

While I actually enjoyed the characters, this book was too short to fully flesh out any actual yearning or development. I love a second chance, reconnection sort of romance, but the time jump made it feel so unrealistic - and the characters always seemed to rush back into it.... at 18 that makes sense but at 28? I couldn't buy it.

Would 1000% read more from this author though and I think it's probably my favorite of the 831 stories! I just wish Exit Lane took its time.

thank you to netgalley for the e-arc. i feel like the characters never knew each other. the time jumps in this, i think, do a disservice to the story. rom what you read, you just know they are acquaintances and it's been a few years. but somehow the sexual tension is there and no real backstory with depth. marin is written pretty boringly, with the trope that she's a workaholic that never buttons her shirts. teddy should have ended up with carter, i'd read that version in a heartbeat.