The Night We Met (Deluxe Edition)

THIS BOOK WAS CUTE. I know I said I don't like romance in my thrillers, but I'm loving the romance in romance!!!! My first Abby Jimenez book and I was so impressed, invested, and in awe with how much I have enjoyed these romance books I find myself reading. This is a love story. A story about what love means and how love is shown. My favorite thing about this book is it is realistic. It's not some foo-foo love story with frills. It's hard, painful, honest, and messy.

I’m a little disappointed with this book. Say You’l Remember Me is my absolute favorite and hits in all the right places. This book just didn’t resonate with me like book 1 did. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good book and she did right by it with her two years writing it. It just wasn’t quite what I was hoping for in the sequel. Still a great book, still would recommend, still grateful I have a signed copy.

The Night We Met was amazing. Messy, complicated, emotional, beautiful, and hilarious all at once. The characters felt incredibly real and raw, especially in how they navigated such a difficult situation. Nothing about this story felt simple or clean, and that’s what made it hit so hard for me. I’m really glad I read this one. I especially appreciated how it balanced heavier emotional moments with humor and warmth—it never felt like it was trying too hard to be anything; it just was, in the most human way.

The audiobook was also fantastic and made the emotional moments land even harder. 🎧

Overall, this one really stuck with me.

This book’s audio version was done with a male and female narration, which lets the listener seemingly get inside the heads of each of the respective characters as they interacted with each other. The dialogue was witty and heart-felt, with a friendship that grows deeper, though acts of kindness and care. Chris is the best friend of Mike, whose friendship goes back to childhood. But Mike is a total screw-up on many levels, with Chris, the responsible one always cleaning up his mess. On the same night, they meet Larissa at a concert. Larissa ends up with Mike, the more outgoing guy. Chris also likes her, but keeps that a secret as he watches from the sidelines as Larissa and Mike become a couple. It take a year for Larissa to see she’s maybe chosen the wrong guy. There were many things going on in this trio that come out into the open. Alcoholism, co-dependency and hero rescue syndrome. And frankly this reader’s feeling that Chris was many IQ levels above Larissa, so why in the world would he fall so hard for her? Though she was enterprising with her various side-gigs, her life was kind of a mess. Not my favorite couple in the Abby Jimenez universe. But I did like how Chris finally called out Mike’s bad behavior, and ghosted him for awhile to have him think long and hard about it. That felt pretty real.

Was it perfect? No. Did it make me experience emotions? Yes. Was it a fun read? Absolutely!