I’ve loved two of Louis’ books and enjoyed a third, so I went into BETTER LEFT UNSENT expecting another win. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I had a rough start with this read and never recovered. The premise is that the heroine’s email drafts are (accidentally?) sent out, revealing a multitude of secrets to her family, friends, and co-workers. Why, you might ask, would emails contain secrets? Well, this heroine finds it cathartic to take all the things she doesn’t say out loud and type them up in emails… with the recipients’ email address in the To line, I’m afraid. I just honestly could not get past this idiocy. And that’s not the least of it. She refuses to be honest with the people in her life, even when she has legitimate concerns or issues with them. She’s been in love with a guy who treated her horribly, and SHE apologizes to him for reasons that make no sense at all. Her character didn’t make sense at all — contradictory in ways that really bothered me. She’s obsessed with HOW the emails got out, but like… the fact is, they did. So, just own what you wrote and move on. And that’s just how I felt in the first 20%, which is when I realized it wasn’t in my best interest to continue. Hopefully, this was just a blip on the Lia Louis radar and the next will remind me of all the reasons I’ve loved her writing in the past.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are mine.

Imagine your worst drafts -picture your sarcastic response to your boss ,your sparky comments to your best friend being 'mistakenly ' sent out to the actual recipients. It would be a nightmare right!? This is what happens to Millie Chandler and she has to face the music when they come out. A clever plot, great characters and intriguing ending.

Liked:
*The plot- fix relationships after venting emails were accidentally sent
*Great characters- loved the banter between Millie & Jack
*Cute,clean romance

Didn’t care for:
*Too much swearing to make reading enjoyable

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC in exchange for my honest review. Below are my own thoughts and opinions.

I really loved the premise of this book! This was my second book by Lia Louis. I read Eight Perfect Hours and absolutely loved it, so I was hopeful about this story, and I am glad to say, I was not disappointed.

Millie's character was very relatable to me as I tend to bottle everything up inside and have a hard time expressing my emotions. The second-hand embarrassment I felt was poignant. If I were Millie and all of my email drafts had unknowingly been sent, I would have quit my job and moved away. She handled it so well and it was amazing to watch her grow and find herself throughout the story. She finally started to realize that not everyone has it all together even though it may appear that way from the outside. She developed the understanding that it is important to speak your truth even when it feels uncomfortable. The side characters were wonderful and added more depth to the story. I enjoyed the mystery of trying to figure out how her draft emails got sent out. I wish there had been a little bit more romance between Millie and Jack, but I did find myself swooning over what was there.

Read if you enjoy:
Workplace romance
Quirky side-characters
Family dynamics
Friendship drama

Lia Louis does it again! A story around a situation that is basically everyone’s worst nightmare, Better Left Unsent is full of quirky fun and heartwarming moments as our MC Millie must come to terms with how her life got to the point it has.

Read if you like:
•character driven stories
•relatable characters
•mixed media format
•heartwarming reads

Thank you Atria Books and Simon Audio for the gifted copies.

This was such a fun and actually very poignant romcom! Great character arcs, a swoony love interest, and a very gasp-worthy premise that doesn't disappoint. The MC really goes on a journey in this story, and it's filled with all the bumps and bruises and nail-biting cringe moments you would expect. The writing is so voicey and delicious!

(Note to my Prudies -- No sex, but overzealous F-bombs and a very "inclusive" cast.)

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback!

I was very excited to be approved for an eARC but it took me a long time to finish this one. I liked the concept and the ending was cute but the story kind of dragged on for me and I didn't love any of the characters. I did like the idea behind living without holding things back and how these emails that were never meant to be sent were the catalyst for change in many of the characters, not just the MC. There are some funny moments and highlighted scenes for sure but overall this one just wasn't for me.

Thank you Atria for the eARC via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Atria Books for the advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a hot mess, funny, and swoony. So first I have to say... the emails. It is a fun idea and premise to use your draft emails as your own digital vent session journal to say all the things you can't say to people, but who in their right mind would ever fill out the "to" section if you never intended on having them sent out?! When they server glitched and they all got sent out, I would have literally been writing my own obit to fake my own death and move to another town. Millie trying to navigate this and learn to stand up for herself was great. She's braver than I would have been in this situation.

Millie and Jack have so much chemistry. I loved any scene they had together. And their rhubarb date?! Get out... Jack knocked it out of the park. And when he drove to her at the cabin because she was alone in a storm.

Owen can go kick rocks. I could not stand him. Every time he spoke, I just wanted him to go away.

This book was light, charming, entertaining, and left me smiling.

I confess myself a bit let down. After falling head over heels for Lia Louis's other books, I expected the same here but it fell flat a little bit. Despite me not normally liking the soulmate trope, I love that her books always had a little bit of this mystical, meant to be, element in the love story. In comparison, the plot, setting, and trope of this one felt mundane.

SO, the good: Jack! Loved him! Ralph!! I adore you! Cate! You are divine. Petra, boss. These side characters were so lovable and amazing.

The not so good: Millie went on an on about missing Alexis, someone we never even MET until she showed up right at the very end?! The weird tension with her parents. All of the miscellaneous characters at the office who I did not care about at all? It was just too much clutter and it took away from the main story.

I'm still not out on Lia Louis, I loved her other books enough that I will try again, but this one was not a slam dunk for me. Obviously she's a good enough writer that it pulled out a 3 star from me, but I was just expecting a lot more.

A delicious and fun rom com. Great escape read!
Many thanks to Atria and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book hooked me at first as it was an interesting plot that we all could have to deal with one day - emails accidentally being sent. However I felt it dragged on and on and I lost interest.

This book just checked all the boxes of things I love in books! First, relatability: Millie’s anxiety and embarrassment over her email situation was so palpable AND relatable. Second, humor: I laughed out loud soo many times during this book. This is my first book by the author and I plan to read her backlog!

I enjoyed Better Left Unsent by Lia Louis, but it felt like it lacked the emotion her books usually have. I’m used to the romance not happening to the very end, but I’m usually invested in the emotional aspect of the story. This was slow going but I liked the email element even though I had the worst secondhand embarrassment for her LOL. I enjoy this author’s work as a whole, this just wasn’t my favorite.

Millie Chandler's email draft folder is full of messages she will never send telling the people in her life - family, friends, colleagues, ex-boyfriends - exactly how she feels about them. Writing the emails is cathartic, and there's no harm done to the recipients - until somehow, one night, all of the emails are sent in one fell swoop. Suddenly, Millie is having to do damage control in every area of her life, and especially in her romantic life.

I really enjoyed this. Millie is a character we can all relate to, and her mortifying situation elicits immediate sympathy. I loved the workplace setting, and the relationships Millie has there. I also really enjoyed following her journey as she handles this massively embarrassing situation with grace and humility and learns a few things along the way. I also found Millie funny and laughed quite a bit as I was reading.

I had an e-ARC from Netgalley and read part of the book that way and the rest on audio The narrator, Ashley Tucker, did a phenomenal job bringing Millie's voice to life. I would recommend Better Left Unsent to fans of Sophie Kinsella, whose books also have relatable protagonists who often find themselves in awkward situation.

I am a huge fan of Eight Perfect Hours so I had high expectations for this new novel from Louis, Better Left Unsent, and it so such a great read. This book was an incredible heart-warming, charming and funny take on a twist of a romcon in which our female MC has her "vent-mail" unintentionally sent without her knowledge to a bunch of people in her life, aquiantances, friends, family, and foe alike. I found this unique concept to be so enjoyable and with that extra touch of romance, an overall 5 star read.

I loved this book!! It was delightful, very different, the characters were well developed and very likeable. The plot was believable endearing. I found myself excited read it each night. I loved it!

4.5 stars rounded up!

Millie Chandler leads a pretty standard life - until the 100+ emails she had in her drafts that run the gamut from declarations of longing for her ex-boyfriend and his new fiance, to dressing down a sexist coworker, to frustrations with her friends get sent out when her company's servers crash. Now that Millie's innermost thoughts are out in the world, the only thing she can do it move forward and try to put things right.

This was such a fun book! There is just something about a British rom-com that scratches an itch for me and this was so charming. Millie was so sweet and I felt for her in so many ways - her embarrassment that her emails got out, her longing for love, her feelings of inadequacy that she isn't living up to her parents' dreams for her. The premise and plot were so entertaining and I loved seeing Millie work through the aftermath of the email incident, and watch her relationships change and develop in new ways as a result. There were so many great characters, from Millie's boss Petra, to her best friend Cate and flatmate Ralph, and of course, swoony Jack. This was just so heartwarming, fun, and made me laugh and my heart clench in equal measure.

TW: Mention of cheating, alcoholism, gaslighting, manipulation

This was cute and quick and bordered more on contemporary fiction for me. I read it in one afternoon while at the pool.

I love Lia Louis and I had high hopes for this book, but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. I think my main issue was that I didn't feel any chemistry between our hero and heroine, which made me a little less invested than I wanted to be.

The ideas and concepts of this one were promising as well, but something about it just felt a little boring! I wanted more emotional buildup as the story went on, but I just felt like it was dragging! UGH! I wanted it to be so good and it just didn't hit the heights I wanted it to. I'll still keep reading this author's books, but this wasn't a win for me.

The weirdest thing about this book was that I was concurrently reading "I Hope This Finds You Well" and it was almost the same story. A female employee accidentally sends scandalous messages out at work and a male coworker tries to help them fix it. It was okay. I felt like Millie was very immature.