I have just this second finished ‘The first time we met’ and have to say that I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would when I started.... The first chapter is very unrealistic and the second chapter again a little unbelievable, fast forward to present day and the book gets going!

I just adored Izzy, she is such a selfless individual and you just route for her and Sam throughout the book... I mean what would you do if you were in love with someone who was on the other side of the world!

I liked how the story touches on the importance of work/life balance and the impact this can have on family life..

This is a real treat, a lovely easy read and one which I will recommend my friends to read.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review this book!!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I read this book in two days. Could not put it down! Izzy and Sam's story is exactly the kind of romance you want to be swept up and away in. The emotions are so real—the romance so beautiful and not at all wishy-washy in a way that you could sometimes expect from a love-at-first-sight story. No, the characters and their backstories are so multidimensional and based on very real emotions, and I soaked up every. single. second.

This is the kind of romance I want to read every day of my life. Can't wait to buy the book for my shelf!

This could have been a very cliched read but instead I found it to be very warm and heartwarming with two great figures in Izzy and Sam. Izzy is a very positive figure, not without day to day stresses but a naturally lovely person with great supportive friends, Sam is incredibly well meaning but lost and confused. The initial meetings between them fizzed and the reason they reconnected very feasible, the contact was uplifting and their story progressed really well. This is a lovely gem of a book.

Such a cute and fun read! Perfect distraction in life right now. Really enjoyable characters and story and hard to put down! Like a warm hug!

Sweet and escapist, just what the pandemic needs! A recommended purchase for collections where contemporary romance is popular.

This is more of a love story than a romance. It is veryyyy slow burn and don't look to this one for any steam, there isn't any. But it is sweet, and real, and grounded in real life. I liked it!

I have a real affinity for holiday season romances, and this one really hit the spot. Izzy and Sam first met one Christmas season, when elf costume-wearing Izzy works at a greasy spoon and serves swoony Sam his breakfast. Izzy feels drawn to him, an invisible link pulling them together - it's so strong that she bites the bullet and asks him out, only to find out it's the morning of his wedding. Chance meetings follow as the years pass, until life brings them together in unexpected ways. But could that possibility of romance ever become more than hypothetical?
I love when a story is told over a course of several years, alternating between two points-of-view and incorporating texts/emails etc. So already this book had my seal of approval - although the most implausible thing about the book is just how dreamy-perfect Sam is.
This is a really charming story made for holiday reading.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

It seems that Izzy doesn’t believe in love at first sight, but then Sam walks into the cafe where she works one winter’s morning, and she knows without a doubt that he’s the one. Her hopes are dashed as, unfortunately it’s Sam’s wedding day.

So, Izzy and Sam’s paths finally cross again, and it appears everything has changed. But what’s not, is that neither of them has forgotten each other.

They have the Atlantic Ocean, a load of baggage between them, yet, they are about to find out if some obstacles are too big, that even true love can’t overcome.

The book focuses on how two people that are soulmates, destiny will bring them together at some point.

I felt the story was well written with chapters flipping of Izzy and Sam.

There was decent humour and a good plot.

I wanted to like this book so much. I am almost always a fan of fun, fluffy, romantic comedy type books,and being set in London is an extra plus, but this one just didn't do it for me.

The novel starts out with an interesting idea-What if you meet The One, but The Ones is already taken? Izzy meets Sam randomly, and the sparks fly instantly. She asks him out only to discover he's getting married that very day. This concept is so intriguing, and really had so much potential. Unfortunately, that potential never really got off the ground. What follows is a series of "problems" faced by the potential couple that I felt were forced and trite. The supposed huge obstacles to getting together just never felt realistic.

I also had problems with the writing. It felt stiff and overly formal, and, just from a nitpicky perspective, it irritated me that Sam spoke/thought like he was British as an American. That, to me, speaks of poor research on the part of the author.

A love story that spans years and miles! Sam and Izzy met on a whirlwind of a day but fate was cruel as Sam already had a woman waiting for him! Through the years Izzy always thought of him and fate would bring them together time and again! These fateful meet up lead to a blossoming friendship! Sam having a hectic life and loss of his wife guarded his heart and nothing ever went further! When their friendship ends abruptly both Sam and Izzy find themselves miserable and have to decide if a chance at love will be worth it!

This was an enjoyable read. The two main characters were really sweet and I found myself rooting for their romance to blossom the whole way through.

I loved how they both put their children first. I loved the book being set between London and New York.

I thought it was a sweet book that romcom lovers would delight in.

What if you found THE ONE? Love at first sight, only to find out they are getting married… that same day.

Well that is how Izzy and Sam’s relationship begins. The First Time We Met is full of bad timing moments between the two that follow them over a course of 14years. The feelings they have for each other continue to grow over the years, even when they both have moved on in their lives. Marriages, children, death, careers, and divorce work against the pair over the years.

I always enjoy a good love at first sight novel. I loved the journey and growth the characters go through in the novel to be in each other's lives.

I didn’t enjoy how long it took to get them together or hell even in the same place emotionally and physically. It just took forever. I needed interaction, physical interaction between the two earlier than 65% through the book.

It was an easy read once our two main characters started to interact. And I found myself very interested at times, in the minor characters' lives more than our main leading loves. I would love a whole book about Izzy’s best friends and everything that had gone down between the two of them in the past.

*I received an advance copy of The First Time We Met from NetGalley and Bookouture in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to read this book because of the cover. I love the minimalistic London skyline, the cute font, and the tagline. However, this book did nothing for me. I have zero interest in reading about people parenting and it felt like that was the focus of at least the first half of the book. Izzy and Sam don’t even manage to go on a real date until about the 60% mark. Honestly if this wasn’t a book from NetGalley it would have been a DNF for me after the huge time jump. Seriously, the time jump ended up being like 13 years I was expecting something closer to Love Lettering where the time jump between meeting and remeeting is only a year or so. That’s waaaayyyyyy too much time to be hung up on someone you had a 10 minute conversation with.

In addition to the kid thing I really struggle with romances where the main couple aren’t on the page together. The book tried to be an epistolary novel but it just didn’t work. Emailing back and forth about his kid’s stammer is not enough to get to know someone to the point of falling in love and wanting to get married. I felt no chemistry between the Izzy and Sam and I think a lot of that was that for the vast majority of the book they were either with other people or on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

There’s probably someone out there who will find this book the most amazing thing, but that person is not me.

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

This book has a great opening and has a really interesting premise. Izzy sees Sam when she is working in a cafe. It seems like love at first sight to her. After an embarrassing incident she follows him from the cafe and asks him out. He replies that he can’t because it’s his wedding day. Izzy can’t stop thinking about him, but years pass, 14 to be exact, and their lives move on. Then they come across each other again. I thought the characterisations were very good and all characters were extremely likeable except for the teenage daughter, but I guess there are teenagers who behave like this.
I thoughT this was a very good book within this genre and was a great light read. It’s a good one for fans of One Day in December. Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for an ARC of this novel in exchange for a review.

The description of this book is so sweetly enticing that I felt the need to immediately request to read it, expecting a fun romance with me rooting for the central couple. The premise started fun and interesting, hooking me in the first chapter: Izzy meets Sam whilst working as a waitress, immediately knowing he is 'The One'. The one drawback to her request to a date... Sam, it transpires, is getting married that very day! The reader is left wondering how on earth this couple who are supposedly 'meant to be' are going to find their way to each other again.

This is where my frustrations with this book started. Sam and Izzy have a couple of interactions over the course of 14 years, this time jump apparently not dulling their love and attraction towards each other. Lucky for them, Sam's poor first wife dies quite quickly and Izzy's marriage is on the rocks. When they reconnect via email (with the most dull cross-Atlantic pen-pal exchanges) the slow-burn romance is back on the cards.

Sam and Izzy are perfectly okay as people and the reader definitely roots for a happy ending somewhat. However, they circle round the same issues endlessly (hormonal teenagers! work life balance! living in two different countries!) which makes their moments of true spark annoyingly brief and most of the interactions pretty repetitive and dull.

Overall, this is a nice story, depicting a slow-burn, bordering on angsty, romance. It was lacking on enough light fun for me to truly enjoy it but lovers of romance novels may well engage with it better that I did. 3 middle-of-the-road stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is such a beautiful love story, it gives you goosebumps and all the feels. Perfect for romance fans and a lovely read

Thank you so much NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I really enjoyed this beautiful story. Att the beginning, I thought I wasn't going to enjoy it that much because it is written in third person (narrator style) and I have trouble following the plot. However, I kept going, kept reading till I finished it. Sam and Izzy were great characters; even Dominic who I thought he was a coward but he let Izzy go, so I am okay now. I can't believe how long it took for Sam and Izzy meet again and just be together as it was meant to be. I'm giving it 3 stars because even though I liked it, loved it and enjoyed it, it took forever for the Sam and Izzy to be together, the time jumps were a lot, and I also was expecting more chaos, maybe from Dominic, or from Liv. I also felt that the endimg was a little rushed.... "I love you, please marry me" then the wedding. Don't get me wrong, the story, the idea of it p, the plot is very good but it just was few chapters for them to renconcile and then the happily ever after.

The First Time We Met is definitely a swooning love story. It made me feel happy, but also sad for the characters, then I felt a lot of emotions. I enjoyed it soo much. I would love to meet my "the one" BUT not in his wedding day.

Izzy doesn’t believe in love at first sight, but when Sam walks into the cafe where she works one winter’s morning, she knows without a doubt that he’s The One. Too bad Sam’s getting married. Today. Nearly a year later, Izzy still can’t stop thinking about Sam, the one that got away, but she knows it’s time to move on: he’s a married man and probably wouldn’t recognise her if he passed her on the street. But Sam has never forgotten Izzy, the funny, gorgeous woman who asked him out on his wedding day. If the timing had only been better, he knows they could have had something wonderful. When Izzy and Sam’s paths finally cross again, everything has changed. But with the Atlantic Ocean and decades of baggage between them, they are about to find out whether some obstacles are too big for even true love to overcome.

You simply cannot beat a classic romance story and that is what this is. I immediately clicked with Izzy, Sam and their story and was thoroughly invested in their lives as we follow them on their will they, won't they story and the events that happen in both their lives. A book like this does not need to be ground breaking, simply having stunning characters whom readers fall in love with is enough. I was captivated by this story.

A read such as this comes with its emotions too and this read had buckets of emotion. From ecstasy to agony and everything in between. I felt everything the characters were going through and experienced their joy and pain in equal amounts. This was a highly enjoyable read from start to finish that I could not put down and more to the point, I did not want to.

Lovett has created a beautiful plot that readers will find themselves invested in but Lovett's characters are just as spectacular. Izzy and Sam are everything you could possibly want; likeable, realistic and they really did come to feel like my friends by the end of the read. All of the supporting characters are wonderful as well, this is a group of characters whom I will remember for a long time and I am only sad that I have finished their story.

'The First Time We Met' is a stunning, heart-wrenching, beautiful read. You will laugh, cry and fall in love. I cannot recommend this enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advance copy.

Izzy and Sam spent 14 years rotating into and out of each other's lives. Through many life changes, marriages, children, moving from one country to another and jobs, they drifted in, caught up and something would cause them to drift out again.

This book is the story of those years, the friendship bonds that formed and the eternal question of will they get together or won't they? I don't do spoilers, but I highly encourage you to read this book and find out for yourself. Its a light, fun read and worth it!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.