These issues are woven into the fabric of the novel and it is so much richer for it.Īs Laurie and Jamie get to know one another they in turn get to know themselves too. There are no neon signs with “here’s a woke bit” identifying these moments.

If you’re reading this thinking, “God, that sounds a bit preachy” then you’d be totally wrong. This is a romance novel but it is also an exploration of societal pressures, race and sexual politics, dating and toxic masculinity. Her protagonists are always so real and identifiable that even when they’re as cocky as Jamie you are still endeared to them. Despite Jamie being an arrogant so and so I really fancied him – I’m not sure how Mhairi does it. The writing is sharp, filled with humour and heart and I was rooting for them from the off. The electricity positively zings between them. He seems to view women as disposable items and absolutely categorically does not believe in love. Then there is Jamie, a man who is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and boy does he know it. She realises that she has absolutely no idea who she is now she is Laurie without the ‘and Dan’ and her future terrifies her.

Bereft at the turn of events she asks Dan who she is supposed to have children with now and my heart filled with love for her. Laurie is thirty six, heartbroken and suddenly single. Laurie and Jamie are just so wonderfully written that I fell for them. I have devoured every one of her novels and I tried really hard to eek this one out but I failed miserably. Oh Lordy, I loved this book! I’m not exactly shy in my love for Mhairi McFarlane’s writing. When Jamie, a Jilly Cooper-esque cad of colleague (this is actually how he is described (much to my eternal delight)), suggests to Laurie that they embark on a fake relationship to a) make Dan jealous and b) increase his chances of being taken more seriously at work and possibly bag him a promotion to Partner she agrees.

That is until Dan tells her that actually he doesn’t want a baby, he doesn’t want a future with her and that she makes him “feel like he is in a tunnel.” It’s over.

Laurie and Dan have been together for nearly twenty years, they both work at the same law firm in Manchester and are about to start trying for a baby.

If i never met you review