The premise of this one is slightly unbelievable but completely mortifying! For years Millie Chandler has used her email as a diary — spilling out her inner frustrations and secret thoughts in a drafted email with zero expectations of them ever being seen. But thanks to a supposed server glitch in the workplace, Millie wakes up to discover the entirety of her drafted email list has been sent. FML.

As she works to patch things up with her friends, family, and co-workers, she makes a new friend/hot-sexy co-worker who helps her to see that this was actually a blessing in disguise. Owning your truth, caring less about what people think, and being comfortable in your own skin are just a few of the lessons Jack teaches Millie along the way.

I loved the romance at the heart of it. This was light and fun and the perfect summer read.

Thank you to @netgalley and @atria for the advanced reader copy.

3.5 stars rounded down

"There's something about giving your whole entire heart to someone, saying, 'Here I am in front of you, no barriers, no masks, prepared to do whatever it takes, to make this work, because I love you' and having that someone look at it, at all you are, and saying no that makes you hold things back. Keep things closer to your chest. That just in case it happens again, you still have parts of yourself that you never exposed to the elements."

Lia Louis will forever be an auto-buy author for me. I fell in love with her writing when I read Eight Perfect Hours several years ago and I've been an avid fan ever since. But despite my love for her, this book fell a little flat.

Millie Chandler is our protagonist and to say I related to her is an understatement. She is heartbroken after a breakup that happened two years ago and still feels the effects of it daily. It has consumed who she used to be and she has lost herself in the aftermath. But when all of the drafts saved in her work email accidentally get sent... life goes topsy turvy. Along the way, she realizes that she has let this heartbreak take full advantage of her and she eventually turns her life around with the help of her friends and the very handsome Operations Manager slash Chief of Staff Jack Shurlock.

There's no denying that this had the typical Lia Louis charm and humor. I always end up giggling when I read her books and this one was no different. However, the plot itself was lacking that something that I normally feel when reading Louis' prose. It could have been that I have no interest in sports or sport-involved careers so my eyes would sometime glaze over when a description lasted a little too long. It's also possible that the pacing was just off. It took almost 250 pages for Millie and Jack to act on their feelings for each other and for a 360 page romantic comedy, that was a little too much of a slow burn for my interests.

Although I found myself relating to Millie in several aspects, I also wanted to knock some sense into her and tell her to snap out of it. I was consistently frustrated with her inability to just say how she felt and she stumbled over her words so many times that it felt like a personality trait.

I think my biggest issue was that although this was branded as a romance, it was severely lacking in that department. I loved watching Millie grow and mold back into the person she used to be so if this had been branded as a late stage coming-of-age, I wouldn't have felt that slight sense of disappointment.

All that being said, I still completely enjoyed this book and found myself getting lost in Jack Shurlock's golden hazel eyes just as often as Millie did. I laughed with her, I cried with her, I felt all of the pain and embarrassment she experienced. Better Left Unsent is not without its flaws but as in true Lia Louis fashion, I will be visiting it again when I need a little push in the right direction.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. But the biggest thanks goes to Lia Louis herself; I won her Instagram giveaway and she sent me not only the physical ARC that I won but a copy of the book newly published.

I received this book as an Arc through NetGalley and I really did enjoy.

This book is like one of my worst nightmares come true. I often type out texts or emails that never get sent because I am in the heat of the moment and need time to process.

Millie uses her e-mail as sort of her personal diary. One day all of those e-mails are mysteriously sent out and the people in her life including her family, friends and co-workers all learn her deepest thoughts and feelings. Relationships are broken due, secrets unfold and friendships are lost in the aftermath of these e-mails being sent. However friendships are also built, relationships come together and Millie is forced to evaluate her life and the things she really wants.

There are a lot of characters in this book to keep track of but I thought this was a heartwarming, funny, slow burn romance. This was just the pallet cleanser that I needed.

Better Left Unsent:⁣
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Thank you so much @atriabooks @simon.audio #AtriaPartner for my gifted copies!⁣
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“I’m not asking you to be me, Millie,” he says. “I’m asking you to be you.”⁣
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Oh Millie Chan. What have you gotten yourself into lass? This book was ok. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t amazing, it’s a solid 3.5, which means I liked it. ⁣
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First, I’m a huge mixed media fan. Y’all know this. The emails (literally the entire plot of the book) and their responses were so fun to read. I liked that Millie really got to know herself and well, know others better. I hated that she was so trusting and gave everyone the benefit of the doubt. Owen, I can’t. Treating someone like a doormat just gets under my skin. I almost felt like she was just.. naive to the world? If that makes sense?⁣
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I really liked the audio read by Ashley Tucker. Highly recommend the audio if you’re an audiobook listener! The banter and sadness was done really well.⁣
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Overall, it’s good. Out now.⁣
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Predict text: better left…⁣
Better left than right now and I will be back.

I thought this book was really cute! I won't lie— I've read some of Lia Louis's previous works and they unfortunately weren't my favorite, nor did they truly stand out to me in any meaningful way. That being said, I found BETTER LEFT UNSENT to be a step up from her past books and thoroughly enjoyed myself; the characters felt more dimensional, the plot was engaging and, again, this book really just felt like a warm hug.

EVERYONE can relate to the horror of having draft emails sent. I loved Dear Emmie Blue and was looking forward to reading this one. Great summer beach read when you need a light-hearted pick-me-up.

After having her heart broken two years ago, Millie Chandler has been a closed book, keeping her thoughts and feelings to herself. To vent, she writes e-mail drafts with no intent to send, until a server outage at work sends out her entire drafts folder. With all of her feelings and hard truths out there to her friends, family, and colleagues, Millie’s forced to face the chaos she’s created.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book, and thought it was a creative idea—I was hooked at the beginning and curious how all of these mistakenly sent e-mails would affect Millie’s life and relationships. However, overall I felt like the story moved very slowly, and my attention drifted throughout various parts while reading. Of the author’s books, I’d recommend Dear Emmie Blue the most, but this was still an okay read.

Thank you to Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for my gifted copy!

This is one of the cutest, funniest, warmest books I’ve read this year. Can you imagine the horror of having all your draft emails sent to people who now know your most inner thoughts!? Then having to go back and explain or do damage control? This book was a fun read. I was laughing and cringing the whole time. It’s a great read.

This one took me a second to warm up to, but my heart went out to Millie once I did. That’s how I find Lia Louis's writing — quiet and subtle, but so heartwarming and tender.

Here, Millie is a receptionist who has her drafted emails sent out to everyone. The problem? She has used her emails as a venting space, telling people how she really feels. Now that they are out there, how does she recover?

The story becomes a mystery of who sent the emails and why. It also has a bit of a sweet romance, but I saw it more as a journey of self-discovery for Millie.

Thank you @Atriabooks and @simonandschuster for the gifted digital arc. Thank you @simon.audio and @librofm for the gifted audiobook of Better Left Unsent.

3.5 ⭐️

Imagine all your unsent email drafts just disappearing one day because they were sent to the people they were written to. The angry emails to coworkers who annoy you, your emails to friends who are being crappy to you and the sad email to your ex who broke your heart and decided that he’d marry one of your coworkers instead of giving you the future he promised you. The premise alone made me sweat. I just kept thinking if this happened to me, I’d leave. I’d quit my job, get on a plane to anywhere and disappear for 2 months and hope everyone forgot it happened.
I absolutely loved this book. The author did a perfect job on explaining the aftermath of emotional abuse and the impact it has when you’re healing from something so traumatic and you’re blaming yourself since the abuser comes off like the epitome of perfection. It completely resonated with me.
The one thing I must criticize is the pace of the book. I’ve read this author before and I really love her stories and characters but her pace is very slow. There were days I put the book down and forgot about it, that’s how slow it was. I just loved the story so I couldn’t DNF. Ultimately, I gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Legit my worst nightmare, kudos to Millie for dealing with it so well. I LOVED the plot of this story and the emails we see throughout the chapters as Millie tries to figure out how this happened (plot twist). However, for a book that is supposed to be a romance, I was left wondering where that romance was? Millie and Jack were so great but besides a few scenes of them together there wasn't much of their story being told. Thx Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review :)

I thought this was such an interesting blurb for a book and I enjoyed “The Key to My Heart” so much, but I found myself not loving it as I hoped I would… this one is a 3.5-star rating, rounded up to a 4. I still plan to go back and read her two earlier books because I’ve purchased them, but now they’re a bit lower down the TBR…

This one starts off very strong, with Millie writing her snarky comebacks and true feelings and leaving everything sitting in her email drafts folder, but suddenly a tech issue at work means going in the next day to an empty drafts folder and all those emails having been delivered… super interesting premise! Now she’s on an apology tour, at work and everyone else she knows, including her parents. When Millie starts interacting with a semi-regular coworker who didn’t receive the long-winded love letter she drafted because she got a bounce back (he changed his email), she feels ok to strike up a new friendship. Eventually an investigation into how her email was sent turns into finding out it didn’t go out on its own… there was no glitch.

Millie was not a very likeable character, and even though the story started strong, when you aren’t able to connect to the main character (weak and annoying) from the beginning and it’s single POV, it’s difficult. I powered my way through because I had to find out who the culprit was with the email situation, and if my guesses were correct (and I have a huge problem that I can’t DNF a book), but I’m seeing all over social media and reviews that I wasn’t the only person to have troubles connecting with this book.

I wonder if this would have been better in audio?

I received an advance copy from NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books, and this is my honest opinion.

Better Left Unsent by Lia Louis would probably be classified as a contemporary romance novel but I was thinking of it more as a contemporary drama with a side of romance. And of course some of the story is in the form of reading emails that have been accidently sent.

Millie Chandler works as a receptionist where she sends and receives company emails daily. A few years ago Millie started a folder in her email account that are the words she’d love to say to others in her life but would never actually send them, a diary of sorts to deal with her emotions in the form of unsent emails.

One day Millie is called into the office and reprimanded for her over use of the email system. You see, there was a server outage and somehow the hundreds of random thoughts kept in that private folder have been sent to their unintended recipients. Things her boss never should have heard, relationship complications, family obligations and so on and so forth all being released has Millie’s life tossed into chaos.

Lia Louis is an author that I have read several times before and have always really enjoyed with the books being really emotional and pulling at the heartstrings so that is what I expected with Better Left Unsent. Unfortunately I didn’t really find that emotional connection that I had before with this novel so I was a little disappointed. The idea behind this one was good but as the story went along it got a little repetitive going back to the emails again and again as time passes and I would have preferred a bit more romance to balance out the drama. Overall, three and a half stars for me and fingers crossed the author’s next will be back to what I expected.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

4.5/5 stars

Better Left Unsent is a romantic comedy. It is my fourth book by this author.

Millie Chandler has worked as a receptionist at a sports broadcasting company for 5 years. She writes email drafts to almost every person in her life. She uses her drafts almost like a journal and she never intends to send any of her truest thoughts. In these emails she says everything that she is too afraid to tell her friends, family and co-workers. Then one day something terrible happens to these email drafts. And complete panic ensues.

I think that this premise is so fun. Everyone has either sent a text or email to the wrong person. The thought of something similar happening on a bigger scale is actually terrifying.

I really enjoyed seeing Millie try to deal with her work, family and friend relationships. I definitely enjoyed so many of the characters in this story. Her roommate and good friend Ralph was so kind. Her best friend Cate was a gem. Her boss and friend Petra was such an amazing boss. Her ex Owen was an interesting character. Her other boss Jack was so sweet and I just loved him.

The romance in this book was so good. And I really enjoyed seeing Millie try to get her life together. This was such a fun read.

I really liked this fun rom com by Lia Louis. Of course, I've liked everything of hers that I have read.
Millie Chandler has a very good way of working through her frustrations with other people. She writes emails. She would never send those emails. Of course, she wouldn't. Somehow, the emails get sent. Follow along nd watch how the situation works out. Lots of love for friends, family, and a very nice boss.

Dear Emmie Blue will always be one of my favorite novels, and I gave 5 stars to The Key to My Heart and Eight Perfect Hours, so I knew I would enjoy Better Left Unsent! Lia Louis always writes such heartfelt books, and this one is no different although it didn't pack the emotional punch as her previous books, sadly.

Millie Chandler's life blows up when every single draft email that she's written her co-workers, family, friends, and her sexy coworker crush (yikes) telling them every single thing she wishes she had the guts to say to their face accidentally gets sent! Millie never, ever planned on sending these, especially to Owen, the ex that she's trying to get over. What a horribly embarrassing thing it would be if it happened in real life, so I empathized with Millie!

I really liked Millie and enjoyed the other characters in the book (except for one). It was a joy seeing Millie grow and open herself up after being forced to be honest with those around her and the flirty banter/relationship with her new crush was lots of fun!

Like all books by Louis, it's entertaining, charming, witty, and well worth the read! I can't wait to read what she writes next.

Thank you to Atria/Emily Bestler Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

A light read that I enjoyed as I pondered what would I do if all of my draft emails were sent? That’s exactly what happened to Millie when she used her draft emails as a sort of diary to her co-workers. Not the smartest use of her work email, but it did make for a good story.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I would definitely recommend this one to those looking for a fast easy read enjoyable read.

Do you remember the beginning of The Holiday when Iris is watching Jasper announce his engagement to all their colleagues? Better Left Unsent starts with that general sentiment.

The Holiday meets Usher’s Confessions but wholesome…. Are you intrigued? 😂

29-year-old receptionist, Mille Chandler, uses her draft folder to respond to emails the way she would if she’s wasn’t worried about peoples feelings, a diary of sorts. This worked out perfectly until an IT issue caused all her drafts to get sent. (The way my stomach sank when this happened!)

Now Mille is left to deal with the fall out after messages go to her parents, ex-boyfriend, co-workers, and friends. The messages aren’t mean, just very candid. Oh, and the kicker, many have been sent reply all.

After having a slight panic attack in the bathroom, Mille is left to grapple with the aftermath of her emails getting out. Tough conversations are had, and some relationships have been changed forever. The bright spot in her life becomes her co-worker Jack, who challenges her guilt and forces her to let go of the pressure to be perfect. Who are you helping by watering down your true thoughts?

Jack is the sweetest love interest- kind of like Jack Black’s character from the holiday but smoother if we are continuing with the comparison. He pushes Millie to do what makes her happy and likes her just how she is.

Jack in emojis
🫣☔️🍔🎞️🚪🍒🕯️💋🏕️⛵️🤵📧


Ralph & Cate were also shining stars for me. I could have read a full length novel on just those two. Ralph’s unwavering thoughtfulness and how Cate makes him blush. 🥰

I truly enjoyed this book; Better Left Unsent is equal parts heartwarming, tender and humor filled. Louis has taken my worst nightmare and turned it into a happy ending.

Read if:
✉️You ever wonder what happened after Usher made his “confessions”
✉️Your favorite character in The Holiday is Iris
✉️You enjoy a little low stakes mystery with your romance
✉️You enjoy seeing heroines kick toxic exes to the curb

I rated this one 4.5🌟

Thank you

Millie is a receptionist and has opinions that she expresses in unsent emails. I think we have all done that. Unfortunately, all of Millie's emails get sent one night and all kinds of stuff hits the fan. She sends emails to her ex, her friends, and many colleagues. I think this is a huge nightmare for people!

I have always enjoyed Lia Louis. This book is no different. She is so great at bringing humor into awkward situations. I enjoyed watching Millie's relationship with herself grow along with her camaraderie with Jack.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the e-ARC of this book. This review is my own opinion.

Thank you Atria Books for my gifted copy. All opinions are my own. I’ve been a big Lia Louis fan since I read Dear Emmie Blue. This was not my favorite of Louis’ books but h still enjoyed it.

Millie is having what most of us would describe as the worst day ever when all of the emails she saves in her draft folder are accidentally sent. She’s used this as a way to express her feelings, but never planned on sending any of them. The emails go behind work to her friends, family, and exes. Millie deals with a lot of fall out in her personal relationships form this.

Despite feeling like the odd man out at work, she has the friendship, support and eventually more from Jack. Unfortunately he’s planning to leave the company in the near future so she’s afraid to start a relationship with him. I really like how Louis writes relationships and the way Millie and Jack developed from coworkers to friends to more.