Review: Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens

Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens

Recommended: yep!
For a cute little love story about love, for characters who are mostly lovable and only ocassionally idiots, for a personal tour of the island 🙂

Summary

Laura’s business trip to the Channel Islands isn’t exactly off to a great start. After unceremoniously dumping everything in her bag in front of the most attractive man she’s ever seen in real life, she arrives at her hotel only to realize she’s grabbed the wrong suitcase from the airport. Her only consolation? The irresistibly appealing contents of the case: a copy of her favorite book; piano music; and a rugged, heavy knit fisherman sweater only a Ryan Gosling lookalike could pull off. The owner of this suitcase is Laura’s dream man–she’s sure of it. Now, all she has to do is find him.

The mix-up seems written in the stars. After all, what are the odds that she’d find The One on the same remote island where her mom and dad had first fallen in love, especially as she sets out to write an article about their epic romance? Commissioning surly cab driver Ted to ferry her around seems like her best bet in both tracking down the mystery suitcase owner and retracing her parents’ footsteps. And if beneath Ted’s gruffness lies a wit that makes their cab rides strangely entertaining, so much the better. But as Laura’s long-lost luggage soulmate proves difficult to find–and as she realizes that the love story she’s held on a pedestal all her life might not have been that perfect–she’ll have to rethink her whole outlook on love to discover what she really wants.

Thoughts

It has now been several months since I finished this, and I still am remembering it fondly, which really could be my entire view in one sentence. However, I am verbose, and will add more. 😁

The overall premise and plot of the book are excellently done and play with tropes and expectations in a really fun way. I think fun is honestly the perfect word to sum up this book. With it you get a lot of smiles and silliness, but also maybe some things that could have been done better (which were sacrificed in the same of more fun). Looking back at my highlights, there are a lot that I had highlighted just because they made me smile. In the whip played with the tropes and expectations, I was somehow surprised in little moments along the way but not at the overall turnout. Granted when you read a rom-com, you kind of know what to expect at the ending most of the time.

This is a love story, and it is so much about love in a matter way as well. The character is a love journalist for lack of a better title, and we hear so many of of the stories of how people met and stayed together and sometimes left each other. I think that’s a really lovely way to get to know people: through their love stories.

Overall I also like Laura well enough. She can definitely be a bit flighty and thoughtless, but she means well and is very sweet. There were a few moments early on where she grated, such as on a plane where someone less attractive sits next to her and she’s all disappointed, then gets indignant when he suggests she cheer up and smile more. While being told to smile more by a man is a cliche of idiocy, it’s also pretty shitty to get all mad because someone sitting next to you isn’t to your standards of attractiveness. Swap the genders and the issue can be even clearer.

The chemistry between Laura and Ted is super cute too. They are able to transition very naturally to be close without any pressure of a relationship or intimacy at the start. Friends first, you know?

So overall, yeah, this was a pretty cute story. I enjoyed the premise, and the resolution! There were some stupid moments where a character acted like an idiot, but thankfully there wasn’t much of the issue where the whole conflict could be resolved by taking honestly with each other. If it sounds good to you, v give it a nice little read! 😊