The premise of the book is about a large lie.

While I enjoyed Boyfriend Material more than this book, 10 Things That Never Happened still had a familiar writing, charm, and lovable side characters. I just had a hard time getting over the lying (which I know is the premise of the story). Also, I wish we would have spent more time on Sam’s past and Jonathan’s issues… we moved on from them all so fast! 

A fast and fun read. 

I had really high hopes for this book. A RomCom with fake amnesia? With your boss?? To avoid getting fired??? Yes, please. The premise was golden, the banter was top-tier (no surprise from Alexis Hall), and there were plenty of moments that had me smiling. But…big but here…there was one thing that really dragged this book down for me: Jonathan’s family.

Now, I love a good found-family or quirky side characters, but this? This was a lot. A bulk of the book involves Sam staying at Jonathan’s house and constantly interacting with his overly involved, chaotic family. And instead of finding them endearing, I just found them exhausting. Every time they were all in a room together, it felt like the story was spinning in circles instead of moving forward. When Sam stepped outside to get some air at one point, I honestly felt like I needed to do the same, and I wasn’t even in the book!

Because of that, the romance which should arguably be the most important part of a romance novel, felt overshadowed. I really wanted to see more development between Sam and Jonathan, but so much of their dynamic kept getting buried under the family antics. I struggled not to DNF, but I powered through.

That being said, there were great things about this book. Hall’s humor is always on point, and when the romance did get a chance to shine, I liked it. If the family dynamic had been dialed back a little to let the love story breathe, I think I would have rated this much higher. As it stands, it was just okay for me. But if you love big, meddling families in your rom-coms, this one might work better for you!