Never Saw You Coming by Erin Hahn, 320 pages. Wednesday Books (St. Martin’s Press), 2021. $17. LGBTQIA
Language: R (90 swears, 48 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH
Meg just found out that her dad isn’t really her dad, making her gap year to find herself that much more important. Micah has mostly avoided thinking about his dad, but the upcoming parole hearing is reopening the not-quite-forgotten wounds. Affected by choices that weren’t their own, Meg and Micah struggle to move forward under the burden of their pasts.
Meg and Micah have relatable struggles with self-acceptance, with forgiveness, and with their relationships with God. My family issues and my wrestles with my faith felt understood; seeing my heartache and confusion in these pages was comforting, like being heard and supported by a close friend. Hahn expresses genuine pain, genuine healing, genuine sorrow, genuine joy -- genuine journeying through life. The mature content rating is for underage drinking, mention of illegal drugs, innuendo, discussions of sex, and mentions of orgasm, masturbation, and rape. The violence rating is for mentions of intended suicide and of a gun.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

TW: slut shaming

This is a story about two people who have lived their lives in a religious setting and have struggled to find both room for themselves and room for their beliefs.

Meg recently discovered that her father isn't her real father. Her mother had relations out of wed lock and then married her biological father's best friend. In an attempt to discover more about her family she leaves to meet her real father and grandmother.

Micah is the son of a pastor who embezzled the money of the congregation. Micah father is now in prison and Micah's faith hasn't been the same since.

This deals a ton with religious ideals and trying to keep your faith, even when it seems hopeless. Micah is still judged based on the sins of his father, and Meg's relationship with her mother is strained.

This was completely out of my normal reading tastes and while there was nothing explicitly wrong with it, it was a bit too religious for me. I didn't see myself in either of the MC's. I think there are definitely people who will find this more relatable and I found it to be a very well written and a well conveyed book. It just isn't for me.

Religion is messy, but I think it's important to realize that your life—including the people in it and the things you've experienced—is different from everyone else and there is no one right way to be a Christian.

Meg Hennessy's life doesn't look quite the same after learning her ultra-conservative mother had a one night stand as a teenager, got pregnant, and never told the father before he died in a drunk driving accident. Meg's dad isn't her dad, and now he's leaving. In an attempt to regain control and discover who she really is, Meg goes to meet her biological father's family. Along the way, she meets Micah Allen, who has his own daddy issues. His pastor father is currently in prison for sexual harassment and financial crimes, and Micah wants nothing to do with him or the church. Together, the pair help each other heal, face their struggles with their faith, and figure out who they are meant to be.

While Wednesday books was kind enough to offer me an e-arc of this book, I chose to read the audiobook instead. The narrators for this were great and they really brought Micah and Meg to life with a story that is as sweet as it is complicated and aching. The narrator for Meg especially, she really captured her bubbly, effervescent personality well.

If like me you read More Than Maybe, then you will already be familiar with Meg. She is a right ray of sunshine in that book as Vada's best friend, and her world has been shattered here in her own story. She is in a big rebellion stage—her first, actually. Leaving home and going to meet her birth family, staying on her own, getting a job job, spending time with a boy, buying a two piece and watching r-rated movies. She has been very sheltered her entire life, both as a homeschooled kid but also as a highly conservative Christian, so her transformation as she discovers things about herself is so refreshing. Reading her say sex instead of boinking, properly cussing because it feels right, and experiencing a real relationship with a boy was really heart-warming and speaks so much to how she grows.

Micah is new for the reader, but that didn't make me love him any less. He is very much the stoic grump to Meg's sunny disposition, but there is still so much emotion within him. When we meet him, he's trying to distance himself from his past. He's moved into the separate apartment on his mother's property, he's avoiding church as a whole, ignoring the fact his dad's hearing is coming up, and losing himself on hikes and outdoor adventures. I don't think his development was as strong as Meg's, but I don't think I minded much.

The romance in this was very sweet. It's a little insta-love, and it's definitely vanilla because let's face it, they're still church kids with a lot to unlearn on either side. For example, Meg has a lot to work through when it comes to sex. Her mom had a one night stand when she was her age, so how can it be all that sinful. Sex isn't dirty and you shouldn't have to save every single inch of your body for marriage. It's your choice what you choose to do, not the church's, and you are not going to hell if you kiss a boy. Still, Micha's and Meg's relationship is very natural for a teenage romance. It takes these characters to places and situations that not a lot of the more out-there contemporaries do, so it's still important when it comes to the discussion of sex in teenagers.

I tend to avoid Christian-centric books, but something told me this was one I needed to give a chance. And I'm glad I did. Like the two main characters, I've had a rough relationship with my faith in the last several years. My family is nowhere near as conservative as Meg's is, but too much stuff happened all at once and no amount of prayer seemed to help, and it took a toll. I still believe in God and absolutely consider myself a Christian, but it took a while for me to figure out how I wanted that to look. Like Micah, I don't enjoy church, and like Meg, I don't like how we are told how to act and who we can be around in order to be a good Christian girl. It was really nice and kind of freeing to see my own thoughts and feelings about my faith put down in words that make sense.

As much as I want to give this five stars, something seems ... off. I can't help but feel that I still have questions that need to be answered, or the characters didn't get the right kind of closure for everything that was brought forth. It was a wonderful read with a lot of humour and heart, but I feel like the ending wasn't as conclusive as it could have been.

I think I need to reread Erin Hahn's debut because I don't understand how I didn't like it. Everything she has written since has been a home run for me and she has become a rare favourite for me in this genre. Looking forward to her next books!

Meg Hennessey is trying to figure out who she is. Life has just thrown her a massive curveball and now she has decided to pack up her life and move closer to family that she never knew existed until recently. When she arrives Meg runs into Micah, someone who can relate to her ultra-conservative upbringing. Together the two navigate their complicated relationship with religion, their families and who they are becoming outside of the beliefs that they were raised with all while experiencing the bliss of a teenage first love. What was going to be a gap year has now turned into a lesson of discovery for Meg, one that she never saw coming. "Never Saw You Coming" is a heart-warming coming of age story that is so much more than a YA read. I'm sure I wasn't Erin Hahn's target audience when writing this book but I found this such an enjoyable read. This book is not an anti-God story at all but does hold a lens up to questionable practices in some churches and the hypocritical standards they can hold some of their parishioners to. I would highly recommend this book for older teen/YA readers in your life. Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Erin Hahn's latest romance is just as fun and sizzling as her previous novels, but this one explores newly emotional territory as she investigates purity culture in Christianity (and expectations for young women's sexuality in general). Watching her characters fall in love and heal from their internal wounds is, as a result, even more uplifting and satisfying than ever before.

great book as always. Erin gives me feelings on everything whenever she writes. her characters will make you laugh, cry and just be grateful for your life. She writes like a poet. I will recommend her work and have recommended to everyone

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to review this book.
Erin is one of my favorite authors and she’s done it again with this one! Emotions are all over the place right now!

I had high hopes for this book. The synopsis was great. I thought the writing was great. I just couldn’t get into the story. I didn’t feel connected to the characters. I couldn’t finish it, my attention was elsewhere.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for sending me a copy to review.

DNF at 10%. I am not a young adult. I am just an adult. And while I sometimes still really love reading YA - there are also times when it really just reminds me that I am the age of the parents and this isn’t written for me. Unfortunately, I think that’s the case here - in a strong case of “it’s not you book, it’s me” - I’m going to pass on this one. Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the free ebook to read and review.

Look, before we get into this, put your phone down and go get your shoes on so you can immediately run out to get a copy of Never Saw You Coming, ok? You’ll thank me for it.

Going into this book, I was a little apprehensive. I have a complicated history with churches. But that’s pretty much central to this story. I loved Meg and Micah and their friends and family. There were so many threads showing characters as complex and compassionate. There were also some moments of true suspense. I’ve been trying to write an eloquent review of this book since May and I think it’s just not possible. It had everything I want in a book and a lot that I didn’t know I needed. I finished and immediately started re-reading. I also have a physical copy on order so I can note all of the very quotable lines. (This may be the first book I recreationally annotate EVER.)

I hate it when I do not enjoy a book, and I hate it even more when I write a disappointing review.

This book was not for me. I did not enjoy it, and I wonder how many Young Adults would. I suppose that those YA's who struggle with reconciling a restrictive religious Christian upbringing in the U.S. with the behavior and attitudes of youths their age from outside of their congregation, might be interested in the story. Both of the MCs, recently graduated from High School, have a parent with a troubling background, one who learns that the father who raised her is not her biological father but someone who stepped up to the plate after her mother's one-night stand with a musician at a Christian youth summer camp ended abruptly when he died in a car accident, and the other whose father was a Pastor who embarrassed his family with his infidelities and went to jail for embezzling from his congregation.....

I squirmed a bit watching the two young adults trying to come to terms with their sexuality and the guilt feelings that accompanied. Now someone less jaded might find it sweet (and I see that some did), but I just found it uncomfortable, unnatural, and immature.

Thank you NegGalley and St. Martin's Press Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The opinions expressed are my own. I wish I could have enjoyed this more and written a more upbeat review.

5 stars - Outstanding!

I loved this! I loved the two main characters, and I was completely caught up in their individual stories/coming of age journeys as well as in their developing romance. And if that was all there was to this, I would have been a happy, satisfied reader. But the wrestling with faith pieces are exceptionally well done. I have read books from Christian publishers that haven't done half as good of a job of presenting a person of faith who feels as real as this book does. This wrestling, this honest conversation about the flaws of faith communities and double standards and broken people trying to do the best they can while leaning on Jesus - these are the things that make this story special. (Language, LGBTQ+, references to sex, references to teen pregnancy TW: abuse in the church)

A very fun summer ready. I have always enjoyed Hahn’s writing. I really enjoyed the characters in this book and the story line

This was a wonderful story and totally relatable as someone who grew up in a conservative town going to a conservative church. I love Erin Hahn's writing and cannot wait to read more from her.

I adored this book! Erin Hahn has quickly become one of my favorite writers in the contemporary YA space. She writes with so much heart and grace and warmth and it's clear that she really loves her characters. NEVER SAW YOU COMING was no different.

This is a tough one for me to review.
Overall, I liked this book, I found the characters enjoyable and the plot was one that held my interest. However, the religious theme throughout was a bit heavy handed for my taste. I was able to overlook it for the most part, but at times it felt like too much. Although the religious theme was throughout, I did appreciate the inclusivity of characters, that you would normally not find in a strong religious themed book.

This is a coming of age, self-discovery story for Meg and Micah. We follow Meg as she discoveries family secrets that send her on her journey to her authentic self. Upon her journey to a new town, she meets Micah. Who is also on his own journey of self-discovery. The two form a friendship and eventual relationship where they question their beliefs and how those fit into their life now.

I gave this book 3 stars, despite the overarching religious theme, I did enjoy reading this book and the character development.

If being on the verge of adulthood wasn’t scary enough, imagine finding out that your entire childhood has been a lie. So to say that Meg Hennessey is feeling lost and completely off kilter is a complete understatement. Meg decides to take a gap year and head North to reconnect with the family she didn’t even know she had. Thinking this would be her best chance to experience life unrestricted and try learn as much about the other half of herself from her grandmother, the last thing Meg expected was to feel such an intense connection with Micah.

Life hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for Micah, not only did he lose his best friend, role model and father but he lost a large part of his faith. Even with so much time having past it would seem that the deeds of his fathers past are still haunting Micah, more so now that his fathers parole hearing is coming up. With all of these old feelings of anger and resentment bubbling within Micah he is more than a little surprised that he connects so seamlessly with town newcomer Meg. For the first time in a long time Micah feels like someone truly gets him and understands his pain but can something that started so fast last?

I have been seeing this book everywhere, so I was absolutely thrilled to get a chance to read it. Meg and Micah were both great characters who were trying to find their identity and their connection to their faith. One of the things that I loved most was that even though both Meg & Micah were going through their own personal issues, they helped each other push through.

Family & Church were two major themes in this book that both played off each other and were largely what brought Meg & Micah together. Both characters got to see that family is not only your blood relatives but also the people you chose to make your family. As for the role of the Church and religion in the novel, at times I did feel that it got a bit heavy but ultimately wasn't a deal breaker.

Never Saw You Coming by Erin Hahn is an interesting read that bordered more on YA Christian alternative fiction than your conventional YA romance. I would recommend going into this cute book with an open mind.

Triggers: sexual abuse, toxic masculinity

Sorry, but I couldn’t get past the heavy focus on fundamentalist Christianity. I considered not finishing it but, since I liked her first book, I felt I owed Hahn the favor of reading to the end. In a world in which so-called Christians have their hatred, hypocrisy and misogyny on full display, it’s very triggering to read about shaming girls for “tempting” boys and sexually-abusive, narcissistic pastors ruining lives (including their own families) with no remorse. Having grown up Catholic, much of what Hahn describes is familiar (although not to this extreme). After the Church’s pedophilia debacle and the chauvinism. I always railed against, I turned my back on organized religion. The abhorrent, hateful behavior of white Christians in America over the past five years has led me to reject most of the faith as well. So, I just couldn’t tolerate reading this book. The trauma these parents and church leaders are causing the youth is beyond disturbing. So, in good conscience, I can’t recommend this to my teen students because there are too many triggers.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Wednesday Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I requested this book because I adored the authors first two books, I had no idea that it was about Christianity and faith, which is not really my jam. However I gave it a chance and I‘m so glad i did. Both Meg and Micah are struggling with their faith and I though Hahn did a fantastic job wading through what it‘s like growing up super religious and then finding a crack in your system.

Never Saw You Coming handled the ultra (and outdated imo) Christian ideals well, and focused on making the point that Jesus loves everyone, full stop. This would be a great book for teens in a very religious household or those struggling with their faith.

I gave this one a shot and it really just wasn’t for me. I think it was a little immature and I just couldn’t get into it. Thank you for my copy Netgalley.