Thank you NetGalley for an early copy for an honest review.
OMG, my heart! This was just the book I needed. Meg and Micha felt s relatable. Never Saw you Coming is heartfelt, inspiring, and thought-provoking. Micha and Meg are the sweetest couples and lovable characters I've ever read. This was my most anticipated book of 2021 and it did not disappoint. I will be recommending this book to all my friends.

Meg was raised by conservative parents and just found out her entire childhood was a lie. Before college, she decides to take a year to meet the family she didn’t know existed until now. While up North, she meets Micah, a pastor’s son whose dad is in prison. As Meg and Micah form a friendship and eventually fall in love, they also lean on each other while navigating their complicated relationship with the church,

I grew up going to church and church camps, and while I personally did not experience many of the issues and hypocrisy featured in this book in my church, I have known many people throughout my life who belonged to churches where they did see these things. And seeing others experience this hate and intolerance has made me question Christianity and how it is practiced in many places. I really appreciated the author’s note describing her feelings about writing this book, and I think she sums it up nicely on Goodreads when she says “I want to be clear here that this story is not anti-God AT ALL, but it is *very* critical of the evangelical church, particularly in regards to the purity movement, shady leadership practices and treatment of LGTBQA identities. God is love, the Church should be too.”

All of that being said, I really appreciated this book and its commentary of how Christianity can work to be more welcoming and inclusive to all. In addition to having a sweet teen love story, this was an incredible coming of age story about two teens grappling with their faith and their identity. The way this story was told was incredible, thought-provoking, and really well done!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advanced copy.

I love books that take place in my home state of Michigan, and this tool place in the Upper Peninsula, in Marquette. It has characters from the author's previous book, More Than Maybe, but can be read as a standalone.

Meg has discovered that big parts of her childhood were a lie. She travels to the UP to connect with family that she didn't realize she had. As she lives on her own for the first time and gets to know a family she hadn't known about, Meg also questions her faith and the ideals with which she was raised. She meets Michal and they connect. Micah is also struggling with what he's been taught in his church and how it relates to real life.

This was a thoughtful book with reflection on what we're taught, what we experience and how to question the connection between the two.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the unique perspective of this book - I've read many highly sanitized "Christian" novels, and others that are decidedly not, and this was quite the different perspective! I recognized a lot of my own upbringing in the story, and appreciated the viewpoint. Meg and Micah met each other at just the right time for growth and love.

4/5 stars

I loved the realness of this story and how character driven it was on a whole. Meg and Micah each had their own personal problems with family, religion and forging their own path through the rubble their parents left behind and therefore the beginning starts in a negative head space. I would say religion is in every chapter, if not every paragraph, in the beginning and it can be overwhelming if you're not in the right mindset or forewarned. However once a few chapters in, you really got invested with both Micah and Meg's journey as the story became more focused on the characters, new beginnings, and the budding romance instead of just religion. Both Micah and Meg's friendship to romance was a slow burn, fade to black and was so sweet. Overall, I really enjoyed this beautiful character driven story about two characters dealing with loss in their own way, but I also have conflicting feelings due to the amount of religion that might be a bit much for most readers and might not lend this one to being a re-read.

Never Saw You Coming by Erin Hahn is a book about family and faith and young love. It's potentially triggering for the many of us with complicated feelings about the church, so I do want to note that. For me, I found it to have depth in exploring some. complex topics in a YA/new adult book.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

Hahn has done once again. Every book she writes becomes my new favorite. Never Saw You Coming is an open letter of love to all those that have left the church and are learning to reconcíliate their relationship with faith and religion.

This book was very triggering with its religious content. it was not what i was expecting and it is not badly written but the story was not interesting for me and this is Christian fiction and should be labeled as that! as part of a group that is constantly hurt by the religious groups etc it was not at all a pleasant reading and a bit of take your religion stuff to a gut! the inclusion of LGBTQ+ was not well done at all!!!

For me this was a really interesting book- I found myself really relating to Micah and how he struggled to reconcile his feelings about his family, his father and the church. Watching both Meg and Micah navigate the rocky waters of not just their relationship to eachother, but their relationships with their pasts was a really great thing to read. I wanted them to figure it all out, I was invested in what their futures could be- which is the mark of a good book,.

Heart warming cast of characters, refreshing and thoughtful conversations about religion, purity culture, and growing up. I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to others - especially those who are deconstructing their faith.

while this story was lovely, i’m not - nor have i ever been - religious, and it made it challenging to identify with the characters and their story. it also felt a bit uncomfortable at times to read, simply because of my own beliefs. i’m sure MANY readers will see themselves in this and love it, it simply wasn’t for me. i did love the character development, and that there was so much story in what felt like a relatively short read.

I've read all of Erin Hahn's books and Never Saw You Coming is her best work yet. It's obvious how personal and close to the heart this topic is for the author and it shows in every word.

Meg Hennessey has been raised by conservative parents and her mother in particular has drilled certain thoughts and beliefs into her head for as long as she can remember. So when secrets about her life come to light, she decides to take a gap year before college and travels to meet and stay with family she never knew existed. As she learns more about her past, she also meets Micah Allen, a former pastor's kid whose dad is in prison, and as a result now has a complicated relationship with church.

It's no surprise that Meg and Micah strike up a friendship and later a romance. But what was surprising was the mature way it unfolded. Both are dealing with big heavy issues related to family, religion, and their conservative upbringings. For Micah, he's been dealing with his conflicting feelings for some time now but for Meg, the questions she's raising about her faith are new to her. Together, they inspire one another to find the answers they're each looking for and lend unwavering support on that journey. I was raised Catholic by two very devout parents but I have family who are Baptist so I'm familiar with their community and culture (is that the right word?). This book is a deep, honest look into all of that and I appreciated it so much because it's a perspective we very rarely see in YA books (the other two I can think of are Things We Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally and The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord). Growing up in a religious household is so common and I hope this is the start of normalizing that, without it being labeled a certain type of fiction.

Do I recommend? Yes! I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Every element of the book (family, friends, religious) was solid.

Not really what I was expecting and it wasn't really to my personal taste. Not badly written, just not my thing.

I requested this book on NetGalley because it was selected by the LoveARCtually book club as one of their titles. I’ll be honest, when I realized it was about religion I almost marked it as will-not-review. Nothing against religion or those who practice it, but certain themes can be triggering after religion was ruined for me by certain hypocritical family members.

After some rave reviews from some of my friends, though, I decided to give this book a chance despite my own complicated feelings towards the topic. I’m so glad I did.

I loved Meg and her growth throughout the book. I loved how she was able to reconcile her own “ungodly” wants and needs with what she had been taught growing up.

The exact themes I was nervous to read about were addressed in such a way that I really enjoyed their presentation. Meg’s uncle basically calls her a slut for her relationship with Micah and for refusing to teach abstinence to her youth group. Hello, relatable! When my aunt and uncle said similar things to me, I left religion in the rearview mirror (especially knowing that they employed certain loopholes when they were dating, and still sat on their high horses and said I’d be going to hell for kissing a guy? No thanks. They’re also the type of Christians that “don’t believe in” gay and trans people, openly mock them, and still think they’re going to heaven). I have some regrets–my boyfriend is Catholic, and I do sometimes wish I was able to share those beliefs with him. It says a lot about Meg’s character that she was able to still address her faith and keep it in line with what she knew was right for her.

I really enjoyed reading Erin’s take on exact issues that I’ve had to deal with in my own life. Her point is that it isn’t religion that hurts you, it’s the people that take religion and twist it to fit their own evil agendas. All of the things I hate about “Christians” like my aunt and uncle are the exact opposite of what Christianity is actually about.

This book might not be for everyone, but it certainly will resonate with an important group of people that might really need to hear these words.

Erin Hahn has been a auto read author for me! She writes such real vivid characters with beautiful stories that always hit me in the feels. Although this one contained a lot of religion which I do not relate to, I was very invested in the story. It was well written and I loved all the characters. It would be pretty awesome if Erin wrote a Duke book next.

A moving story making sense of purity culture and the church in Hahn's typical voicey prose. A little triggering personally! But a wonderful book and important story to make it into the hands of teen readers.

As a child who also grew up in the world of Youth Groups and Church Camps, this story meant so much to me and I know will also mean so much to others with a similar upbringing. Hahn knows exactly how to craft quality characters who feel true, real, and grounded, who speaking about important topics, all whilst intertwining a beautiful love story. I have read every book she has published thus far, and not a single one has left me without having cried at least once. Meg and Micah's story is one that will touch the hearts of those who understand what it's like to grow up religious, and even those who do not.

Never Saw You Coming was a very different book than what I anticipated before picking it up. I don't tend to read a synopsis, so I was not prepared for the heavy themes of the book. But that's not a bad thing. I think a book like this needs to be on shelves.

I appreciated the journey of both Meg and Micah as they struggle with faith, church, and what it means to grow up. Both raised in conservative, church-going homes, they come together one summer when Meg is trying to get to know her real dad's family and Micah is struggling with his father's impending release from prison. As the pair grows closer, they have to balance their feelings and hormones with what's expected of them from their families coupled with ingrained teachings from the church. I felt like the struggle both characters went through is relatable to so many teens and examined a sometimes toxic relationship with (and the power of) the church and what it means to forge your own path without its confines.

Thanks to Wednesday Books for the advanced copy.

I think for the first time in a long while, this was the first book that really made me question a lot of things about religion and the whole nature vs nurture kind of topic. Never Saw You Coming is a book that's more centered with two different people, Meg and Micah, plus how their upbringing and their church has affected their lives as well as their perspective on a ton of things that most teenagers and young adults go through in their age.

Relatively, I won't say that this is a bad book, but it definitely isn't a book that I personally love or liked to read. That is being the case, this review can be biased. There were a ton of coming-of-age and self-reflection through this book, that I feel like would've resonated with teenagers or people that come from a very conservative Christian family. However, it was a bit hard for me to fully connect with the characters, because I am not a very religious person.

I do have a certain level of faith, but not as much as it was portrayed in the book. Which cause a ton of inner turmoil within me, because it made me really question a ton of stuff and issues when it came to those beliefs in a conservative Christian community/church.

Which again, it's not the book's fault but rather my own personal preference. Aside from that, I feel like this book would have been enjoyed a lot more...with the right kind of audience.

I'd still like to thank NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchanged for an honest review.

Such a disappointing book for me. I did not expect the anti-church message at all. I understand the anger and confusion of a church leader being dishonest or hurtful. I also understand that there are people that struggle with where they fall in their own faith journey. I don't feel like this would be a book to give anyone that is either struggling or strong in their faith. It is an anti-Christian book and I don't see how it would be helpful to anyone. My concern is that it is an easy read and it will be hurtful to any teen who picks it up. Definitely won't be sharing with mine.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.