Although I really did enjoy this read, there were a number of little gripes I ended up with at the end.

I think on the surface, Henry and Cara are great together however we didn’t see any development in their relationship. There were a lot of characters with side-storylines that didn’t seem overly important or add much to the book and I wish we had got to know the important characters more.

The Second Time We Met was a sweet story concept. Second chance romance stories are beautiful and inspiring. Cara and Henry are a sweet pairing. The characters were vibrant and animated. The quantity of characters in the story did not jeopardize their development. However, I lacked the connection to them at some points throughout the story. I think some events could have been explored in greater detail, while others could have been simplified. The sequencing of the events was predictable for me, which I lament. However, I was still able to enjoy the story. I found the nature of Cara and Henry's relationship enjoyable. Even though they are from two different worlds, they put in the effort and energy to make their connection long-lasting.

Things seem to be turning around for Cara when she meets handsome and kind Henry. They seem fated to meet when their first encounter is cut short. Everything is perfect with Cara and Henry - until they have to reconcile the differences between his white, wealthy upper-class upbringing with her Jamaican-African blended family. Cara isn’t sure their relationship can weather the rough terrain of their family dynamics and her unfinished business with her ex, Ryan.

I really loved exploring the juxtaposition of Cara and Henry’s family’s. My favourite part was the banter between her Nigerian and Jamaican grandmothers who are in constant competition.

There are a lot of fun characters but I found myself wanting more complexity from my main characters. They felt more like vehicles toward the family dynamics.

The tone of this book was also a little unclear, jumping from funny drama of twenty year olds to some serious topics that felt a little sudden and skated over.

I recommend this if you love to read about exploring family dynamics and the complexities of relationships and different cultures, however I wish the tone was more clear and I got more fleshed out characters.

I’m looking forward to reading more from this author in the future!

*thank you to @netgalley and @amazonpublishing for the opportunity to review this book. All opinions are my own.*

A second chance meet cute. A promising story, but overall not much to it. I enjoyed it though but no a lot to it

Unfortunately, I was unable to download the book before it was archived due to my request being approved only days before the archive day and my misunderstanding of how NetGalley works (I’m only a new user). I sincerely apologise for my mistake, I was really looking forward to reviewing this book and am extremely disappointed in myself for not only letting you down but also missing out on this read. Again, I am very sorry for my mistake and I promise to strive to ensure this does not happen again!

Thank you NetGalley and Frances Mensah Williams for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The second time we met is a sweet romance with instant love plot and despite that I liked it.
The first part of the book was perhaps a bit boring but when the story got going I finished it in a few hours.

Cara has a sad past marked by her breakup with her ex Ryan. However, he seems to find happiness again when he meets the charming lawyer Henry.
But when Cara’s ex returns to London after being
disappeared for three years, things only get worse.
Will the protagonist be able to understand who she really loves?

I gave the book 3 stars because I didn't find it particularly innovative, but still I recommend it to those who want to read a sweet love story

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

This book was a DNF for me. I got maybe 25% in and realized that I didn't like the writing style or the characters. I thought the author just dropped the reader in the middle of the story and then flailed. It just isn't for me.

This is a fun book. It has some lovely momenta in it. With a really nice romantic element running throughout. The characters are enjoyable and likeable too.

DNF @ 31% (page 100)

Honestly, I am just quite bored. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this, but the characters don’t have much depth, and the relationship felt really rushed. The entire first three weeks of their relationship are just skipped over so we get none of the cute moments or development of Cara and Henry actually starting their relationship. I don't know about anyone else but when I'm reading a romance book, that is one of my favourite parts, and as I said before it makes the romance feel a bit like it just came up out of nowhere.
I probably could have kept reading, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. Having checked some other reviews to see if it was worth sticking around, it seems as though boredom was a relatively common theme.

I am a sucker for second chance romances, but this book was not it for me. It really bothered me that when they first met it jumped right into them dating for 3 weeks. I wanted their first reactions to seeing each other again.

This was a hard book for me to continue reading. I did not feel attached to the characters, and the plot seemed nonexistent. It reminded me of a really bad romcom where there's just a lot of chaotic stuff happening that masquerades as plot.

I had high hopes for this book, but was sadly let down.

It is hard to explain as I felt that the book dragged on a times, but then also moved too quickly without enough build up. In my honest opinion if this book had been a duo or trio I would have loved it.

In addition, too many characters were introduced with storylines that were quickly resolved or left open ended. What happens with Rosie and the Spaniel? Did the grandmothers staying under one roof turn out ok? Did Ozzy and Imogen’s relationship continue? All of these questions saddened me as I wanted to dive deeper into the world of Cara and Henry.

Special thanks to NetGalley.com and Amazon Publishing UK/ Lake Union Publishing for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC of "The Second Time We Met" by Frances Mensah Willaims. It was published on August 1st, 2022.

Overall, I rated this book a 2.5/5 stars.

The last 20-30% or so of this novel is really where it's at. It was one of the major reasons why I was able to grant the story a 2.5/5 instead of lower. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of things that boded well for in regards to this novel.

For starters, the characters and story were written in an immature sort of tone, despite the fact that the characters were said to be somewhere around 30 years of age. This made it extremely cringey for me, and difficult to get through. The overall storyline was extremely predictable. It was also an insta-love sort of concept, which I don't love - sometimes it works, and other times it does not - in this instance, unfortunately, it seemed to miss the mark.

"Being the fixer had become what she was known for, but what no one, Cara included, had realized was that beneath the capable exterior was a little girl living in fear of life moving beyond her control and terrified of a day when there would be a problem she couldn’t handle."

From the hilarious family antics to the HEA we all came for, this story had everything I was searching for and more. Our MC, Cara, is incredibly relatable, witty, and interesting. I loved the support systems she and Henry had in their messy but loving families and friends, loved the character development and growth, and especially loved how the author balanced a funny second-chance romance with a deeper storyline. This was my first by Frances Mensah Williams, but I'm already eager for more!

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Predictable and cringeworthy. I'm not a fan of Insta Love relationships and unfortunately the characters and plot fell short to me - this was not the sweet and airy read I had hoped it to be.

This was a good premise, but overly loaded with fluff and filler.
The book was far too long for the actual core of the story,
2.5 stars/5
If it was tightened up a bit and characters made more relatable it would be much better.

I loved the premise of the book.

But it was just ok.

I think its because I wanted more backstory of HOW their first date went, HOW they developed feelings for each other in those three weeks that are just mentioned in the book.
It's like we got no development of the relationship on page and I felt cheated and it didn't make me feel invested in the characters at all.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own. '

Recovering from heartbreak Cara has vowed to avoid relationships until fate throws her a posh yet kind, son of an aristocrat called Henry, who is a world away from her life and any other man she's ever dated. When she bumps into him for a second time, they have an instant connection and start dating from the off. But, Cara begins to have her doubts as their lives are so far away from each other, and then when an ex-boyfriend returns and dregs back up her past, it's unsure if the couple will make it and come out on the other side closer.

This book was everything I wanted and more. It was cute and sweet, but had side stories with other characters which were enticing also. I do feel like I needed more of Cara and Henry's story and some of the things they did together.

This book is the perfect, no spice, feel good romance book, with some added drama. All of the characters fitted with the story and were described well and could be visualised.

4 stars
0 Spice

First, I want to say that I really really really really tried to enjoy reading this book!

The story was promising: Cara met Henry at an event before the present of the book. Cara felt quite dizzy in his presence and knew instantly he made her feel something. Unfortunately they didn’t have the chance to meet up after the event and lost sight of each other… until one day. 😉 Back to the present, we learn that Cara is an event manager and one night when she’s at an event she planned for some lawyers she finds out that one of them is Henry himself!!!! And that’s why I like reading fiction most of the time, because those kind of events happen all the time!!!

The story could have been super cute and sweet and nice (after all it’s a romance and all I needed), but I’ve found myself reading pages without having enough context to enjoy the whole book. I wish I’d known more about the characters’ first date, how they ended up being together without seeing almost everybody and just enjoying each other. I wish I’d known immediately why Cara fell for him and how it worked between them almost immediately.

Also Cara and Henry seemed to have spent the last three weeks together without never mentioning each other’s friends or family which is quite weird because that’s probably the first thing I talk about during first dates or the first weeks of a relationship… This makes the story loses a bit of credibility to my eyes.

Next, I found the chapters quite long and not being that interesting for the reader, some were really long and brought almost anything interesting regarding the story. It was disappointing.

Some characters were not described enough to my taste and I wish I knew more about Cara or Henry. Or even one another’s family!

“The Second time we met” could have been such an excellent book especially regarding the diversity of the characters! Cara comes from a blended family, not particularly rich, she’s black and works in an creative field. Whereas Henry comes from a white rich family of English aristocrats and is a lawyer on top of that! They are deux opposés que tout attire (I don't know the expression in english)

Anyway this book wasn’t made for me and that’s ok, hope we’ll have better luck with the next one 😉

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK / Lake Union Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange of my honest review ✨

Basically a rom com with a second chance meet cute. While I didn't love this one it was a cute read.