Absolutely outstanding romantic comedy that goes beyond grumpy/sunshine and hits Scrooge/Fezziwig instead. Jonathan is a closed off prick and the owner of a chain of bed and bath stores. Sam is one of the store managers and finds himself tangled up in a pack of lies while trying to convince Jonathan not to fire him or any of his staff. A pack of lies, by the way, that includes faking amnesia. In the tradition of great rom-coms, this is a very over-the-top situation for two very real, very sweet characters. Jonathan's Scrooge character arc is masterfully done: believably prickish at the start and understood and warmed by the end. Hall also brings us a cadre of lovable and hilarious side players in Jonathan's family and Sam's work colleagues. I laughed and I cried - literally. This is a delight.

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall is an excellent reminder about how people can be and are truly complex. The person who is cutthroat at work can be also be the person who sits on the floor and plays with a cat for hours. The charismatic, apparently unbothered person can also be lonely and feel adrift. I was rooting for Jonathan Forest from the beginning because I couldn’t wait until we started to see him beyond the bluster. Samwise Becker is a treasure - just an absolute gem. We recommend this one if you’re looking for a contemporary romance with flawed characters, a sweet cat who melts frosty hearts, huge Christmas tree hijinks, big family personalities, and learning to show who you are even with “amnesia.”

I have read at least eight Alexis Hall books and liked them all, particualarly loved "Rosaline Palmer.." and "Boyfriend Material." I found that "10 Things that Never Happened" didn't quite achieve liftoff though.

The general atmosphere and cast of characters are funny and real, and Hall's great natural , funny, sweary dialogue amongst characters is, as always, top notch. (Though the repetition of the full, very long product names I found didn't work for me -- though some other reviewers have mentioned it as hilarious -- I get the theory of how this is funny, I guess I was reading at a moment when my grumpiness-factor just didn't find this device humorous.)

There are some hilarious lines though - e.g. "And I hope, then pray, then go back to hoping on account of beign an athiest..." HA!

I just found the level of faffing around to plot/relationship development was pretty high - ie. the scene setting was a lot at the beginning, and the central relationship of the story slow to develop. It was about 1/2 way in before we see more than Sam & his crew just generally making a mess of everything in their branch of "Splashes & Snuggles." Then, I don't know - I didn't love the 'fake amnesia' plotline, and I didn't really get a sense of seeing the Sam & Jonathan relationship develop -- there were a few beautiful heartfelt moments from Jonathan, that I really loved, but overall, I just didn't quite feel like they quite had the build up that I was hoping for? Maybe I wanted a few more 'breaking down the walls' / cracks in the armor/ getting to know each other conversations between them? (maybe at least 1 about how, as Jonathan does mention at one point, Sam has no emergency contact and no one's come looking for him - It' s clear to the reader that this is the case, & almost weird he doesn't ask more about this? I don't think that there's much gained by keeping his family situation a 'surprise' til that end bit. Though I do like it when Jonathan comes after Sam with Sam's lost jacket.)

I also found Sam's sort of 'pushing' Jonathan's family on him a little bit much - We see in the long run that they are a lovely bunch of just over the top messy, annoying, funny, interesting people who care about Jonathan - but when the reader (and Sam) first meets them, he (and we) don't know why Jonathan's distanced himself from them - they could be horrible toxic lying thieves for all we know, but Sam's like "aw, come on let them all stay" -- which you can kind of get, from his perspective.... BUT. It just felt not quite right?

I don't know - I guess wrong reader at the wrong time. I liked some of the pieces, but it didn't really come together to give me all the good, funny & heart-melting feelings of some of Hall's other books.

It’s the signature Alexis Hall banter, wit, fun, and love. I adored it and was 100% here for it. It was slightly too long, with a slightly slow pace for parts of it, but I still enjoyed the story.

This is totally a Christmas book, but the cover fails to market it as such.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC.

This is the Alexis Hall that we all fell in love with during Boyfriend Material. You’ll love this one if you like: messy characters, slow burn, & family shenanigans. The whole almost ruined the HEA plot twist moment and follow up was also done so well. Just all around top notch writing.

I liked this one! I support Gollum in all his wrongs (he is baby). Johnathan’s character was so interesting, and I loved the scenes with his family, especially the exploration of his relationship with his father.

I could eat the banter in this book with a spoon, and the chicken-fisting scene literally made me lol. Hall is charming as always.

Oh! Also, this quote:“I’m frozen like an underpaid deer in overpriced headlights.”

I don’t know why that quote tickles my pickle so much, but *shrugs*.

This was such a fun take on an amnesia plot, where Sam pretends he has amnesia to prevent his jerk boss Jonathan from firing him and his coworkers, then ends up staying with him while he recovers from his concussion. I loved the interactions with Jonathan's family, and the Darcy-like reveal that Jonathan isn't as much of a jerk as he seems, but very very bad at caring for the people he loves. I also loved Sam's coworkers. The romance is an excellent slow burn. I did wish, for a book from Sam's POV, that we got a bit more of Sam's growth and backstory, as that was hinted at well but felt a bit rushed in the last quarter. But as always, Alexis Hall had me laughing out loud constantly.

Alexis Hall really, truly, can do no wrong when it comes to writing. My biggest complaints about this are that #1 while it is set in the world of Boyfriend Material, and has an extremely quick, unnamed reference to Luc (that reference is then referenced so I guess that makes 2 references?), it in fact has no Luc or Oliver and #2 the formatting on my digital ARC was absolute crap. Neither of those things made me like the book any less. It was legitimately laugh out loud funny. I will never not love a character who swears as much as I do. I will also never not love a grumpy/sunshine (or grumpy/slightly less grumpy but able to see a silver lining) romance. Jonathan is extra grumpy but there is at least a reason for it. When that grumpiness plays out next to his super hyper family it's even better. Also, his sweet moments are made even sweeter by virtue of his normal level grumpy. Sam is just...well funny. Sometimes (a lot of the time) he's stupid but it's still funny. The way he, and everyone else at the store, speak product names in their entirety EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. is brilliant and hilarious and makes me want to do the same thing only that doesn't really work because I work with books, and you already do that. As with any Alexis Hall book where one of the characters has an accent from some part of England other than London, I wasn't always 100% sure if the wording was weird due to regional dialect or if there were actual typos. But it wasn't enough of an issue to be a problem. The ending felt a bit rushed, but I'll forgive it since this is a series and I assume we will be getting more Sam and Jonathan in the future, which I am looking forward to.