2.5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the E-Arc. This book just did not do it for me. I thought it was going to be something light and simple and it was not that. I found the MC Audrey annoying and selfish and a major flip flop. I found myself screaming at my phone and wanting to even throw it away. I was even more upset because Ive read another book by Sophie and really enjoyed it. This book was just not it for me.

I enjoyed this quick-read romance of "what if" and the will-she-or-won't-she pull as Audrey vacillates between her prior meet-cute and her current love/fiancé. Cousens does a bit of magic to avoid a classic love triangle trope, and this made for a sweet, soft read for lovers of romance to enjoy.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to preview this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

Before I Do by Sophie Cousens was a book given to me to read by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Before I Do by Sophie Cousens is a romantic fictional book with humor. Audrey and Josh are getting married. The wedding is the current happening of the book. However, there is a second story that starts earlier and highlights various situations that all lead to the present. The two stories wind around each other leading to the Wedding and then they two stories become one at the end.

Andrea has always been considered flaky. Her mother and her boyfriends/husbands seemed to rotate in and out of her life. She has always worried about relationships and usually seemed to be found kissing the worst character at every party.

Josh is steady, thoughtful and organized. He is interested in Andrea, but doesn’t think she is interested in him. Eventually they began dating, fell in love and eventually moved toward marriage.

As the wedding gets closer, odd and unusual events begin to happen, including an old boyfriend showing up. The various happenings make the story more interesting and the reader is left unsure of how the story is going to end! Before I Do by Sophie Cousens reminds us that love is not perfect or static. It is a living moving situation that ebbs and flows through all the days and that forgiveness is always needed. What a fun read!

It is the night before Audrey's wedding, when things start to go wrong at every turn. Including the date her future sister-in-law brings turns out to be the man Audrey spent one magical day with, that she has wondered all these years later if he was the one she was meant to be with. With alternating timelines, we get to see a lot of Audrey's past that has shaped her to be the person she is. Now she has to decide....should she turn away from the future she is about to embark on to take a chance on the "one who got away"?

Thank you Penguin Group Putnim and NetGalley for the copy to review. Before I Do is out now.

Overall I really enjoyed this book! I’m just not the biggest fan of duel timelines but that’s a personal preference.

I love Sophie's writing and continued to enjoy it during this book. I usually don't like dual timelines but this was easy to follow!

I really enjoyed this and how it made me think about fate and destiny and the different choices we make. I know I have thought many times, what if? What if I chose this person or this decision then what would my life be like now? This was about opposites attracting, Audrey and Josh, and it was fun to see how their relationship developed. It was told in different time lines but it was easy to follow. I also enjoyed the other characters, their friends and family and seeing the relationship with Audrey and her mom. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

I’m a huge Sophie Cousens fan, but I wasn’t sure about this one at the start. The premise, a long lost love showing up to your rehearsal dinner the night before your wedding to another man, left me feeling like I wouldn’t like the ending. But alas, Sophie is a master at spinning a good love story and this one did not disappoint. It is full of heart and I loved how she went back and forth in time to then make all the stories come back to the present time. Highly recommend for fans of Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez.

I have been on a slow boat when it comes to reading lately. I have only read three books this month. I don't know if that is because of the mild stroke I had in May or just my attention span. I did read this one very slowly but i loved the love story.

I enjoy Ms. Cousens books very much. She is always enjoyable. I loved Audrey, even if sometimes I wanted to yell at her to open her eyes! She is about to marry Josh and is stunned when his sister brings Fred to the wedding. Fred was a guy that Audrey met years ago because of a photo booth picture. He was supposed to meet her one day but never showed up. All these years, Audrey was sure she was so in love with him. An encounter with one of her mothers's ex-husbands (there were many) causes her to truly doubt herself so she carries that with her through life and through her relationships, especially with Josh, who really is a wonderful, caring man.

Mishaps occur and truths are told and the wedding goes off the rails. Audrey has to find a way to herself and Josh.

Such a fun read and also a sad read. Audrey's path to truth is painful but the ending is so sweet. Left me with a smile.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin for a copy for review.

BEFORE I DO - SOPHIE COUSENS
3.5⭐
This is not your typical love triangle .
Audrey is confused struggling to find her niche in all aspects and when her so called 1st love turns up a day before her wedding it forces her to look back and examine what's best for her.
I loved the multiple timelines it kept me engrossed in the story .
However I wish there was some chemistry between the lead characters.
Good one time read .

Audrey is having the most disastrous wedding ever. Recounting the story, strangers don't even believe it. Readers follow several arcs of Aubrey's life that lead her through her wedding day, meeting the groom, the past relationships that shaped her vision of love and commitment, and the turning points and crossroads that make or break those relationships.

While the structure of the book is complicated and complex, the story unravels in a way that feels akin to taking apart a puzzle to see the image more clearly. It shouldn't work and it does. Sophie Cousens never disappoints.

#arc
#netgalley
#beforeido

One of my favorite musicals if/then looks at the what if life of the heroine. Based on this book's premise, Audrey's what if guy showing up by accident the night before her wedding (and is fate trying to intervene?), I thought thst this book would be more of a dual timeline exploring the if she did or didn't get married, a la the previously mentioned musical. Instead we get a women's fiction story, rather than the marketed romcom, told through flashback of how she met the two possible love interests and how her past is affecting her wedding day.

Based on the summary it felt like the reader was maybe supposed to root for the what if with Fred. But not one point in the story was able to sway me from rooting for Josh. It was him, it was always him. We didn't really get a glimpse of the romance with either hero, no sparks or chemistry really came of the pages with either one.

There were supportive friends, meddling relatives (granny Parker at the end!! 🤣🤣 also Audrey's mom was kind of the worst!) Also the team Audrey flight crew and how every romcom needs a dance number in Ibiza, really you couldn't have topped that. But ultimately I had what I hoped for this book and was a tad disappointed. Sophie's books have the ability to be really great romances but so far haven't leaned in to meet that mark.

Thank you Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the ARC in exchange for my review!

I love Sophie Cousens and was really excited for this book. It jumped around quite a bit and it was hard to keep track of that at first, but once it got going it kept me wanting more.

The premise for this book is so good. What do you do if you are planning to get married to a reliable guy who adores you. But the one who got away shows up the day before the wedding!!???

The book takes place in the UK and goes back and forth in time between the day before the wedding and various points in the past with the two guys.

The narrator is Audrey (3rd person POV). She is on the verge of marrying Josh. When the guy she always thought about (Fred) shows up at the rehearsal dinner.

The rehearsal dinner and wedding are full of hilariously bad omens. And we get a bit of a love triangle.

I had really high hopes for this book. But I did not love the first half. I'm not sure if it was the back and forth in time. But she really seemed to like one of the men. And she didn't seem that interested in the other. I actually had no idea where the story was headed. It was a cute story. But I wanted more.

There were definitely things that I did enjoy. I loved how much Audrey liked astronomy. And I really liked how that fit into the story. Her best friend Clara was so helpful. And I loved seeing Clara and Audrey try to figure things out together. Audrey's mom Vivien and her many husbands added a lot to the story too.

From 80% on I actually loved this book. A lot more happened. And I really enjoyed where the author went with the story (even though it was not what I was expecting at all).

Overall this book had such an intriguing premise. And the story could have gone in so many ways. The last part of the book was definitely my favorite part of the story.

I honestly was so hyped up thinking this would be a Serendipity (the movie) type of romance with all the sweetness and all love but it wasn’t. It was better.

I learned so much from this book, about love and hope and choices and family and forgiveness. Expect the unexpected. In the beginning, I wasn’t as hooked as I thought I would be even though it’s Sophie Cousens we’re talking about here since I expected an Instagrammable type of story that would make me squeal and etc. yet this book grew on me a lot.

Audrey and Josh had such a couple goals in a “the one I wanna marry” kind of way, and Fred and Audrey lighted up sparks too. The romance was so spot on!

I could relate to Audrey a lot of times and it was so easy to, making it so nice to read her story. Her relationship with her mom was pretty cool too and I truly got so much from the both of them.

As the first Sophie Cousens book I’ve read, I’m glad I read this as my first!

This book was cute, much longer than I expected but still a fun read. You really feel like you got to know these characters and living in their world was a good time.

Really enjoyed Ms Cousen's "Before I Do" and the romance tropes it explored (second chance romance, insta love & a love triangle of sorts. The three MC's (Audrey, Josh & Fred) were engaging, though sometimes I felt that the female lead was a bit tedious & silly. Also, there were a lot of secondary characters to keep track of. But the romance was well done & gave a lot of feels. My sincere thanks to the publisher & Net Galley of the DRC opinions are my own

My rating is around/bewteen 2.5 to 3 ⭐️.

I'm on the fence with this book. I do like some of Sophie Cousens books. However, I really found this book to be bland. I didnt feel the connection between the Audrey and the men in her lives. Some characters are ok and the plot was interesting.  The ending could have been better in my opinion. Overall, this was ok. I think that other readers would really enjoy this one!



Thank you NetGalley and Putnam books for an advance copy. #NetGalley #BeforeIDo

Well this book was not what I was expecting, and in a good way.

Audrey is about to marry Josh, when the guy who got away years ago, Fred, happens to show up to her rehearsal dinner! Fred has spent the last 6 years thinking about Audrey and wondering what could have happened. Is this fate? Should Audrey be with Fred instead of Josh, who is so different from her typical type?

After reading the first few pages, I was expecting Josh to be an awful person. When Audrey is walking out of the wedding chapel and an ambulance is arriving, I fully expected that Josh had hit her or something.

The more I read, the more confused I was because Josh was actually a decent guy. Sure he was the opposite of her usual guy, but Audrey herself had grown over time and started to realize she could have love after the awful examples she grew up watching.

The ending surprised me, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that there was no other possible way for this story to conclude. Audrey had to search within herself and do the hard work to prove to her end guy that she deserved them.

This was such a great book. Has there ever been a guy you thought you were meant to be with? Well, that is how Audrey feels about Fred, a chance encounter she had years ago. She has never stopped thinking of him, even though she is ready to walk down the aisle with "perfect Josh".

When Josh's sister turns up with Fred as her date for the wedding, Audrey has flashbacks of what might have been,

This was a fun romance told in dual timelines of past and present. I loved it!