I was so excited to read this, thankful for the gifted e copy. But unfortunately it fell flat. A total snoze fest

I LOVED this book. I don't want to spoil the story for readers, but it's told from such an unexpected perspective. It feels like a really unique romance novel. It's fresh, modern and inclusive of all kinds of identities. I had already read the author's first book, which I also really enjoyed. I might take half a star off because I felt some aspects of this book really relied on having read the previous novel, for instance the app, and many of the supporting characters who were not well explained in this book. It is possible to read this as a stand-alone but I think it wouldn't make quite as much sense.

That being said this is a great read. It's positive and inspirational, not just in terms of romance but also friendships and family relationships and career. It was great to read a romance without any internalised sexism or unhealthy power dynamics.

3.5 stars. The premise of this book was very interesting. We are following Tiwanda Harris as she tries to kickstart her business after leaving the ever draining corporate world. The entrepreneur receives a grant to start her business but it comes with mentors and other self-employed business prospects trying to start their business. The kick is she is also in the process of trying to find her match through an app called Met that promises four soul matches for Tiwanda and one of them is her soulmate. As she tries to kickstart her business and make it work, she is struggling through the matches and trying to figure out how they all come together in her life and mesh with her old friendships and her broken family that she is also trying to mend.

This book is more about overall relationships in a persons life and finding out who we really are then a true romance story. Its about finding balance in all our relationships and not having terms to define what exactly those relationships are. It's also about finding balance in our lives and pushing ourselves. I did enjoy this book but I was expecting more of a romance as that is what the synopsis implies. Overall, it was a good book and I enjoyed the main characters journey.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Camille Baker for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review 📚

Rating: 2/5

<i> “Even a shortened stick can be formed into a weapon against the things that have hurt me.” </i>

To start with what I liked first, it is only right to start with the book cover. It drew me in immediately and looked like the kind of book I would enjoy reading or, at least, would want to know more about. I had no previous experience with this author but upon reading the summary I could instantly recognise a unique concept that would make for a very interesting story.

‘The Moment we Met’ concerns our main character, Tiwanda, as she juggles various aspects of her life that prove to be challenging in their own ways: work, family, friendship, and romance. The societal pressures Tiwanda experiences can easily be related to by the reader, especially when it comes chasing dreams and not fitting into the norm. Within this same vein, the story also greatly celebrates diversity.

Unfortunately, however, the cons outweighed the pros for me and my reading experience with this book. Right from the start, I felt like, as a reader, I wasn’t given the adequate opportunity and time to fall in love with the characters. I am not sure if they feature in any of the author’s other books, but seeing as I was reading this with a fresh set of eyes I felt that I was expected to know them already. This, topped with the fact that there is an overwhelming amount of characters mentioned throughout the story, made the narration feel very two-dimensional for me. I was getting easily confused who is who, and who had said that and why this person is saying this. I think this story would have been ten times more enjoyable if half of the characters didn’t exist and I didn’t have to keep up with remembering so many names and their roles to the main character.

Secondly, I wouldn’t go so far to say that the main character was unlikable- but, even by the end of the story, I felt like I still barely knew her. A lot of her actions took me by surprise and she was very dismissing and poorly-mannered at times (which seemed to magically turn around in the last twenty pages of the book). Her negativity- whilst I understand stems from her previous experiences in life and more often than not has a legitimate reason behind it- was still exhausting and unpleasant to read through.

‘The Moment we Met’, whilst perfectly capturing a new adult life, tried to do everything at once. I wasn’t sure from which genre lens I should view this story. The focus is on everything and nothing all at once, heavily backed up by staccato sentences of info-dumping paragraphs. I found myself often asking which information was important and which wasn’t? It was pretty difficult to differentiate.

As for the romance, I think the story would greatly benefit if it where to be better sectioned and took the time to give equal attention to all four potential love interests. Whilst I was content as a reader with whom Tiwanda chose, it was still very predictable due to the fact that her choice was allocated much more attention than any of the other love interests. The romance part of the story could have been better structured in general. The general pacing was equally as very difficult to keep up with, especially in between chapters.

Finally, I felt like for most of the book we are only told about her passion for chocolate and soap making, and only really ever see her doing either until the final half of the story. It was hard to imagine her being so passionate about kick-starting the business surrounding the two when we barely see her actively pursuing and indulging in them.

In conclusion, I think both this universe has a lot of potential and I still enjoyed my time reading it, and I will certainly still be looking out for more of Camille Baker’s future works!

When Tiwanda quits her stressful job to instead fulfill her dream of opening her own small, black-owned business and applies for extra funds and mentoring, a dating app that is supposed to find her four soul mates doesn’t quite fit into her meticulous planning. However, she learns to embrace the chances life offers her - and maybe even she will learn to believe in love.

The premise sounded very interesting to me but - although, disclaimer, I haven’t read the first book and it might well be explained there - it bothered me that it was never explained how the Met app actually worked. Why do the matches not have to be registered on the app to be chosen? Where does the app get its information from? What criteria are the matches based on? It almost seemed a bit paranormal at points which I didn’t particularly care for. I wish there had been some kind of explanation for all that.

This book also had an insane amount of characters that all played a role for some subplots. To be honest, I couldn’t keep track of who was who for half of the time, and I think it were just way too many characters for only 250 pages. There were also so many different subplots that all seemed to be a bit rushed in one way or another. What really made it difficult for me to keep reading was how impersonal the story felt due to these points and the writing style. I just didn’t care for any of the characters all that much.

What I really did like about the book, however, was all the representation and the character development Tiwanda went through. The struggles of opening a small business were highlighted as well as her struggle to cope with the loss of her parents and the resulting clashes between the two sides of her family, the way she learned to take chances and live in the moment and open up to love.

All in all this was an interesting premise that in my opinion could have been written better and with way fewer characters. It was kind of obvious who of the matches would be endgame and the rushed end of Tiwanda‘s relationship with one of the other matches was one of the things that bothered me the most (and I also don’t see the need for the dog sickness subplot - it just took away pages that could have been used to develop the rest of the plot better). Anyway! I especially liked that there was deaf representation as that is something I don’t usually see a lot of.

3/5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me eARC of this book.
This was such a cute and light read. I really liked the way twinda was written.

Was looking forward to reading this one…. The writing was so playful, also enjoyable to read. Both these characters were so relatable.
If you're looking for something to kick a reading slump or if you just want a fun, romantic book to sweep you off your feet this summer: look no further.

The Moment We Met was a cute and intriguing romance book. I really love how Baker gave Tiwanda a beautiful complex story beyond just Romance and her finding love. Most of all I love to see a black female character that is so driven. I will say however I did find it a little hard to get into during the first part of the book but, once it picked up it didn’t slow down again. I didn’t read the first book in the series but after reading this book I feel like I definitely need to! This is my first book by Camille Baker and it definitely won’t be the last!

I never read any book by this author before so i went into this book completely new to the series. However I don't feel like this was necessary to enjoy the story It has definitely made me want to read the first book though. The characters were really well developed and I enjoyed getting to know them. This author knows how to write about serious topics in a way that does them justice and dives deep into them. I'd highly recommend this book

Camille Baker has crafted another excellent mesh of woman's fic and romance with the follow-up to Have We Met. Baker's writing style still carries the observational sense of humor in the MC as well as the layered backstory and realistic relationships that made the first so, so good.

I really appreciated that this book delved into all aspects of the protagonist, Tiwanda’s life, and didn’t just focus all of its attention on her love life. It’s the story of a woman juggling love, friendship, family, a career, and grief. There were times where I really felt I could relate to Tiwanda, and it was a lovely story to read.

I loved Camille Baker’s Have We Met? So much that I sought out an opportunity to read The Moment We Met as soon as I could.

This is such a fresh take on romance, especially with the mystery and interaction of the Met app. I loved following along on Tiwanda’s journey to find her match, and enjoy the business plots in these novels! Camille’s characters are relatable women with full lives, and finding a soul mate is just one piece of that life. The book leaves you guessing on all aspects until the end as well, which is appreciated in a genre with obvious plots.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this eARC!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC!

A cute read. Appreciated how there is more than just a love story here. Explores themes of grief, loss, reconciliation, and acceptance. Overall enjoyed it.

I do have a few notes I would love to share!
- To start, I had no idea this was a sequel, so when I got to the part about this magic app I was like “whaaaaaaaat??” But caught on quickly. Now I am ready to go back and read the first!
- I love the family and friend relationships in this ARC. As far as romantic relationships, I would have loved to have seen Tiwanda explore more in-depth relationships with her matches.
-This book feels safe. It’s very inclusive.
-I felt like the wording was hard to read at times. I found myself having to go back and re-read certain sentences because the punctuation was off. But maybe that’s just me.

Overall, I was left wanting more!!! I would have loved for this book to be a hundred pages longer so I could see the plot and relationships develop further.

This was an enjoyable read! Love the characters and the plot. I have been really enjoying these modern romances with finding love through the internet.

First of all, the cover is so lovely. Second, the book was such a treat. I loved the characters and enjoyed the plot. I didn't read the first book that introduced the Met app, but I was still able to easily follow along. Tiwanda had a lot of stuff on her plate, and while I felt like it made the whole thing kind of chaotic and all over the place, I think it was pulled off well enough.

Tiwanda is the one person who bends over backwards, breaks her back and devotes her all to her work and somehow doesn't get appreciated as she ought to-until she decides to quit and give into what she's always wanted to do-create and with this is a blend of chocolate and soap. It's a beautiful read which starts out slow and builds up as Ti has to make decisions on the go and also deal with grief and loss and confidence in her skills and passion.
I would not recommend this book for anyone who is into whimsy or fluffy romance, however- if you are into warm stories, the romances that build up and where the women have to come to terms with their worth and uphold it, then this in a way is along those lines.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

The Moment We Met by Camille Baker sees Tiwanda turning 30 and feeling burnt out and unfulfilled by her work, life and relationships. In a moment of madness, she jacks in her stable career to pursue her passion and, in turn, opens herself up to a world of possibility. Ti finds herself navigating old grief, new family, evolving friendships and exploring, thanks to the meddlesome dating app Met, whether she can hold space in her life for romance. A warm, cozy book with rich character development and welcome LGBTQ+ and non-binary representation.

Tiwanda is a workaholic until one day she decides to quit and start her dream business. She enters a mentor program and gets a notification about the met app.

I had a really hard time reading this book. I didn't get hooked and I was kind of annoyed with Tiwanda. I hadn't read the first book, maybe that would have helped in understanding what was happening with the characters.

A list of reasons I enjoyed this book!
-Representation (deaf, Black, LGBTQ+)
-The app & the idea of 4 soulmates. Society tells us we have one soulmate and that its usually a male HAHA!! When in reality, we can be great friends with someone who connects to our soul. Or you could think you’ve found a “match” and you do not have the same visions for the future.
-You don’t have to read the first book to know who or what is going on.
-Her business idea & the mentor program.
-Beach read vibe
-The cover and the word play on the titles (for both books) incorporating the app into the title.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy.

I’ll start off with I haven’t read the first book, Have We Met, so I’m not sure what occurred in the first or how the app worked. The process was fascinating though. I loved Tiwanda’s no nonsense attitude and her character development, especially the fact she had to deal with so much stuff in this book and her career process. Which I can relate to; everything was perfectly explored and really made the book well detailed and well rounded. The romance didn’t really do it for me, I personally was more focused on her progression as a character than the romantic exploits.