The First Time We Met is a story about finding the right person at the wrong time and how the universe sometimes fights for souls to be together. In a Hallmark movie kind of way.

It’s December in the UK and Izzy, a twenty-something speech therapist, is working her Saturday shift at a café dressed in a Christmas elf costume when Sam shows up to order breakfast and it’s love at first sight. She knows he’s The One. So when he leaves the café, she follows him and asks him out, because that’s what you do when you find The One. The catch? Turns out it’s Sam’s wedding day. Yikes.

Fast forward 11 months. Izzy has been comparing every man to Sam since she met him and fantasizing with running into him. Until she does. And he seems to recognize her when their eyes meet from across the street, but then he turns around. That’s when Izzy decides to forget about him and become a new woman.

Fast forward another 6 years. Izzy is now 8 months pregnant when she runs into Sam. Turns out he remembers her and agrees to join her for a coffee. They talk for hours and she learns that Sam is widowed with twins.

Fast forward another 7 years. Izzy is now separated and still living in the UK when she receives an email from Sam, telling her that he’s now living in New York and has hunted down her email address because he needs a speech therapist’s help for one of his kids and has run out of options. And it’s all kinda slow and predictable from then on.

The characters were fine, but mostly one-dimensional and cookie-cutter. I appreciated the fact that the kids were included in the whole story, I actually really liked Ruby and Barney, but I couldn’t stand Liv. She’s portrayed as an overly entitled, self-absorbed teenage girl, when she could’ve been a much more interesting character if given more depth.

Basically, I loved the concept for this but the execution was too Hallmark movie for me. It was cute but forgettable.

A big thank you to NetGalley an the publishers for an e-ARC in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.