cover image Never Planned on You

Never Planned on You

Lindsay Hameroff. Griffin, $18 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-250-90294-8

This humorous but far-fetched second-chance romance from Hameroff (Till There Was You) finds self-proclaimed “job-hopping flake” Ali Rubin leaving a chef gig in New York City to try her hand as a wedding planner in Baltimore. Eager to prove she’s no longer the impulsive college student who got a matching tattoo with a charming one-night stand during her study abroad in London, she hopes to wow both her family and her new boss with her plans for the wedding of the scion of the renowned Black-Eyed Susan hotel. Ali is stunned when she runs into her British fling, Graham Wyler, at her favorite café in Baltimore. Despite immediately rekindled sparks, Graham is oddly hesitant to flirt, confusing Ali—until she discovers that his grandfather owns the Black-Eyed Susan and he’s the groom in the wedding she’s designing. It’s a marriage of convenience as a favor to a friend, but that doesn’t stop Ali from feeling betrayed. Though the romantic tension between the leads is sweltering, their path to a happy ending is beset by melodrama, culminating in a grand romantic gesture that feels unearned, especially in the face of Ali’s earlier proclamation that grand gestures don’t equal true love. The comic banter and plentiful pop culture references keep the pages turning, but the love story falls flat. (Feb.)