🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 1/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
⚠️ DNF at 50% — I made it halfway before I couldn’t bear it anymore. This review covers everything up to that point.
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Never Have I Ever yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
The Opening
A wedding planner and a divorce attorney who share an office hallway and a decade of mutual irritation get forced together as Maid of Honor and Best Man for a mutual friend’s engagement. It had the potential to be a fun setup. In reality I made it fifty percent through this book and could not bring myself to keep going. And you know I hate a book when I can’t finish it!
The Full Story — Spoilers Included
The Setup
Piper is a wedding planner who believes in love. Zach is a divorce attorney who, ten years ago at a wedding Piper was organizing, was caught taking bets on how long the marriage would last. That’s the origin of their rivalry. They’ve always been in the same friend group, but intentionally didn’t spend time together. A decade later they share the same office hall, still the same friend group, and now the same engagement party to plan.
Zach turns out to be a widowed single dad with two kids, including a ten-year-old daughter. He chose family law because he genuinely wanted to help people going through difficult separations, not because he’s cynical about love. He’s emotionally ready to move on. The walls he built after losing his wife start coming down as Piper spends time with his daughter and he starts to see what she’s actually like underneath the professional rivalry.
The Never Have I Ever game they play with his daughter is probably the best part of this book. Cute, fun, gives you a real glimpse of who both characters could be together. That’s the one thing that kept me listening as long as I did.
The Surrogacy Subplot
And then there’s the subplot that completely derailed any enjoyment I had.
Piper’s sister has been through IVF and it didn’t work. They don’t have the money to keep pursuing fertility treatments so Piper has been financially paying for the surrogate for her sister instead. And then the requests keep coming. The surrogate wants thousands of dollars for new clothes. There’s a scare that turns out to be heartburn, not contractions, but an ultrasound was needed and Piper’s sister is on the hook for it. And it’s not a request — it’s: oh, and sorry you have to pay for this.
I understand wanting to support family. I understand how desperately people want children. But here’s the thing: kids are expensive. Not just the getting-them part, but the raising-them part, and if you cannot cover basic medical costs during the pregnancy process, that is a sign worth paying attention to. Nobody is owed a child just because they want one. You have to be able to actually provide for them. Watching Piper enable request after request while her sister can’t cover basic surrogacy costs didn’t read as sweet or supportive to me. It made me genuinely frustrated and gave me the strong ick.
I couldn’t get past it.
Best Part of This Book
The Never Have I Ever game with Zach’s daughter. Genuinely the only part of this book I enjoyed.
Worst Part of This Book
The surrogacy subplot. The financial situation, the endless requests, the lack of anyone saying no to anything. It made me angry and I couldn’t shake it for the rest of what I listened to.
The Steam Rating Breakdown
🔥🔥🔥 — There’s heat in the enemies-to-lovers buildup but I didn’t make it far enough to see most of it.
The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?
I wouldn’t know. I quit at fifty percent and you can’t pay me enough to go back.
Would I Reread It?
No.
Who Is This For
If the surrogacy subplot doesn’t bother you and you love a slow burn enemies-to-lovers with a widowed single dad and a genuinely sweet kid in the mix, this might work for you. The core setup has potential. It just wasn’t for me.
Where to Get
📖 Physical Book
Amazon | Bookshop.org
🎧 Audiobook
Audible
📱 Ebook
Amazon
🎁 New to Audible? Get 3 months free (US)
🎁 New to Libro.fm? Get 2 free audiobooks
- Book 1 — Satisfaction Guaranteed | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 2.3/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — [Read the Review]
- Book 2 — Never Have I Ever | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 1/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — DNF at 50% — [Read the Review]
- Book 3 — Instant Gratification | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 2.1/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥 — [Read the Review]
- Full Series Review — Is the Always Satisfied Series Worth Reading? — [Read the Review]
Ready for more from LD? Find them here
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