3.5 ⭐️

I really loved the characters in this book. The concept was original and well done. I didn’t love the pop culture references or how slow the story progressed. By the end I was dragging a bit to finish the book, despite enjoying the premise, characters, and conclusion. I found myself struggling through the paragraphs of repeated reflections from the main character.

Overall I enjoyed the characters and plot, if not the reflections and specific modern references. I particularly loved the MCs friends and the main love interest.

Thanks so much to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

I wanted to love this one but it just felt a little unbelievable from the start. Who would do that??? The romance was cute though, and the character growth was good. It was chaotic but fun. It’s a good, quick read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the arc!
Pub date: 5/21/24

this book had so much promise. the idea of it sounds like it's definitely something that could happen to anyone and is a reminder that nothing done on the internet can stay a secret. it's not that it's a bad book, but something somewhere fell short. it felt repetitive and kind of dragged on a bit. in my opinion, it took too long for the story to get somewhere or indicate that something interesting was about to happen.

a part of me understood Millie's (FMC) panic. because honestly who can keep their composure and think rationally when their vent sessions in their email drafts get sent out to those it was directed to or about? so if the author's intention was to really show the main character's mental chatter and the chaos after the fact, then it did well on that. it just felt like a lot of that could have been conveyed 50 pages shorter.

again, it isn't a bad book. it was chaotic, cute, funny, and charming. but i'd say it's a 2.5/5 stars for me. just because some parts were a hit or miss. i know people who would enjoy this more than i did. it might be a good buddy read though, just because it would make for a good discussion about how everyone would handle the situation if they were in Millie's shoes or one of those who received the different emails.

thank you to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this book. i received this book as an ARC and leave this review voluntarily.

The actual set up of chapter 1 was so unprofessional and so cringe thatI just couldn’t get into it at all. Millie is a mess, and I don’t even understand how she had all this time to write these ridiculous draft emails that magically got sent in the server outage. I thought it was like a pining single email to a love interest, not a mass company email mess. Millie, please get a real diary. Everyone else, learn from Millie’s mistake.

I don’t understand who the target audience is for this one, but it feels like a three star average, four for the right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book.

Millie writes up her feelings into emails and saves them as drafts. She never intends to send them until one day a server outage at work causes all her drafts to send. While I had a hard time connecting to Millie, I really enjoyed her growth as a character and how she had to confront all the things she’s said and the people she’s hurt in the process. I wouldn’t say the romance was the main focus of this book, but I still enjoyed it. The side characters Ralph and Cate were great!

Thanks so much to the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to early read this. I really liked her previous books and I did like this as well.

All in all this was a relatively solid book. Would I read this again? Yeah. Would I recommend it to others? Again, it’s probably a yes - with the caveat that it isn’t a romance, it’s about life.

I liked her writing, but this book didn’t jive with me. I didn’t relate to the characters or plot BUT it was written so well that I still understood the story. Thanks so much again for this early read!

A glitch at work causes all of Millie’s draft emails to be sent, all 107 of them. I had a hard time getting into this book. It had a lot of characters and it was a little hard to believe that someone would leave that many unsent emails that they didn’t want anyone to see. I did enjoy the romance part of it.

You know when people tell you when you’re really angry- write it in an email and then DON’T send it! Maybe instead, burn it and trash that draft.

Millie writes down her feelings in emails, but never sends them. It helps her deal with her feelings and more importantly no one gets hurt. She wakes up to find out all her drafts have been sent out and now everything she has tried to keep to herself is out in the open. Ugh! This is my biggest fear! BURN THOSE LETTERS… Leave no evidence.

The fallout as you can imagine is not great… but Millie is determined to make the best of it. What is worth saving and how does she confront her difficult truths and not so great lies.

Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for a fair and honest review

Lia Louis’ previous books broke me because they were so emotional, heartbreakingly sad and so raw as well as real, and that is the reason Dear Emmie Blue will forever be tattooed on my heart. Eight Perfect Hours and The Key to My Heart both got to my emotions as well and pulled at my heartstrings. These are qualities I found missing from Better Left Unsent.

First I am going to write about some of the things I did like about the book. I liked the premise of the book, the idea of your draft folder being sent out by mistake, especially when it contains your deepest thoughts like a journal or a diary…you know the kinds of things you’d LIKE to say but can’t. This really isn’t a romance, it’s more about Millie finding herself and her voice, the romance is secondary to the plot but is still swoon worthy. I liked Millie and Jack together and there was definitely chemistry between them. The writing is solid and the book has many humourous moments that had me laughing out loud. I loved most of the side characters, especially Cate and Ralph. Millie had some amazing friends and support there.

What I wasn’t a fan of was how slow-going the book was, it seemed to drag and there was a lot of repetitiveness. Over and over again Millie tries to make up for the emails being sent, even though it isn’t her fault. Millie also seemed very immature for her age and I found some of her behaviour terribly frustrating at times. All that aside, Louis remains a favourite author and I would absolutely read more from her and I recommend all her other works unequivocally.

Millie saves replies to people in her drafts of what she would really like to say but doesnt. One night the server goes down and her drafts get SENT!

She has to face the people and a few of the relatives that she saved drafts to. Her drafts sent things into disarray. She never meant for them to see the emails. It was just a journal of sorts.

Did a server error happen or did someone do it??? Cute and quick read.

Millie is devastated to find out that her drafted emails that she used as a place to vent was mistakenly sent out to all of her contacts. It’s caused a huge mess within her personal and professional life, and she needs to find a way to move forward.

I really enjoyed the author’s previous book, The Key to My Heart, but this one fell a bit flat for me. I went into it expecting a romance, and though there is a romance storyline, it isn’t the focus. There are a lot of subplots and I found myself losing interest. However, I think the sweet ending redeemed the book a bit for me. If you enjoy women’s fiction with storylines about friendship, past relationships, and family drama, this book would be a great one to try.

Thank you to Lia Louis and Atria books for sending me this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have read a few books by Lia Louis previously and enjoyed them. I enjoyed this one as well. It is a lighthearted romantic comedy with enough depth to make it interesting.

Millie is a receptionist and has been for 5 years, despite thinking it was just temporary. She's had her heart spectacularly broken and is living in limbo. That is until, she learns that all of her snarky and super honest emails that she had saved on her "drafts" with no intention of sending have been broadcast to the whole company. She is mortified about what people will read and it leads her on somewhat of a journey of self discovery. She leaves what she wants in life and in love and it's very sweet to read. Would recommend for sure! Thanks for the opportunity to review it!

Thanks to Atria and Net Galley for my advanced copy!

This book was a fun read! I loved the mystery aspect of Millie searching for who sent the emails. Lia Louis has such a way of weaving realistic characters with flaws and entire personalities inside these pages. The conclusion was the sweetest.

Millie is horrified to discover that all her heartfelt and snarky email drafts were somehow sent out as well as an email to her ex-Owen that was carbon copied to the whole department including Owen’s fiancée. Now, the wedding may be off and she feels the need to repair relationships with those who were causalities of her truth bombs. Meanwhile, she’s crushing on her hot co-worker Jack, who luckily may not have received her message about her feelings for him.

I liked how the ramifications of the email fiasco were so far reaching as they including messages to her parents and friends, as well as her coworkers. Each character was so nicely developed that I wanted to steal her fantastic friends Ralph, Cate, Petra, and Lin. The scenes with Millie connecting with Jack were wonderfully romantic. Millie’s desire to make things right and often failing, particularly with Chloe, Owen’s fiancée helped make Millie likable and relatable. The various company events were super fun and Millie’s character arc was satisfying.

At the start of the story, Millie’s focus is the email issue and whether someone intentionally sent the emails or if it happened due to a glitch. Soon, however, her romance with Jack starts heating up. I enjoyed the format and content of the epilogue.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I. Am. Obsessed !!! with this latest book from Lia Louis. If you’ve read her prior novels, you will absolutely want to add this to your TBR.

Who hasn’t fantasized about replying to emails and saying what you *really* think? i know I have. And Millie, the main character in this book, took it a step further and actually wrote those emails and safely deposited them in her Drafts folder. Therapeutic, harmless writing therapy, right?

Sure. Until her entire drafts folder somehow gets sent out. And everyone, literally everyone, in her life gets an email. A email that they were never meant to see.

Lia Louis has a way of writing such relatable characters and this novel is no exception. I completely understood why Millie wanted to get to the bottom of how emailgate happened. And I could feel her excitement building as she hung out with her forgiving colleague Jack. There were so many lovable side characters, and a few to dislike too. (Looking at you, Owen!)

All in all this novel was a very fun story to read. I liked that it wasn’t too heavy on the romance storylines and had other things going on, because it allowed the book to have more depth (and the characters themselves, too).

4.5 stars from me!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book and provide my honest feedback. All opinions are my own.

I’d say overall the book wasn’t bad; I did enjoy some of it and found some of the stories and relationships nice. Somehow this book felt so dragged on, yet I didn’t go more into detail about the plots—her family, for example. I do see the vision, and I do think it was executed well, especially when all her secrets came out and what she had to do to fix or explain these things. Pretty solid read! I wouldn’t mind trying another read from this author!

I wanted to love this because the premise was so, so cute. Unfortunately it fell flat for me. I was glad to read to the end but it dragged a lot in the middle for me. While it's not my personal writing style, I can think of quite a few friends who do like this type of book to recommend it to now.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. The premise is cute but something happened with the execution. The story was too long with to many characters and at some point I stopped caring. 2.5 stars rounded up.

I’ve read all of this author’s books, courtesy of NetGalley. They have a certain charm, but also lack a certain depth. For instance, there are two characters in this book, her brother and her friend Alexis, who are continually mentioned but only ever appear right at the end. Similarly, there is a plot with her parents and her friend Cate that never feel fully fledged out. I’d rather have fewer characters/plot points that are deeply explored than a bunch of tertiary ones that make the story feel less deep.

In all, I know what the author was trying to do with the theme, and using emails as a way to propel that self discovery notion is definitely modern and relatable. This is a quick, easy read. A palette cleanser (especially as someone who now reads a lot of thrillers). Lia Louise’s books are good picks when you want something light, like putting on a 90-min movie you know will have a happy ending.

This was exactly the perfect book for me right now and I absolutely loved this warm, funny, and swoony story.

As someone who will often angrily type out email responses that I don’t send (before I safely delete them), the thought of having them sent out into the world is an actual nightmare. The main character here, Millie, lives out this nightmare when all of her inner thoughts, snarky comebacks, and honest truths get unleashed on her coworkers and loved ones. What this ends up being is the sort of the jolt Millie (and many of the email recipients) needs to reevaluate her life and figure out what she wants,

This was like being wrapped in a warm hug and I cannot recommend this more, especially for another that needs a little break from things and a reason to smile like an idiot.

Many thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.