This was a fun one! I really enjoy second chance romances and while I felt eh about this tandem's other romances, I thought to give this one a try. I really enjoyed Eliza and Graham, both as individual characters and as together. I enjoyed their journey of finding each other again. There were a few times where the miscommunication annoyed me, and I wish there had been better and firmer backstories for them. Overall still, this was an enjoyable read for me and I'm looking forward to their other books.

I loved this book. I honestly didn’t think I would love it as much as I loved The Roughest Draft so I put off reading it for a long time, but it really surprised me. I was rooting for the characters the whole time due to the incredibly raw way that they were written. I’ve never read ‘married romance’ before but I’m so glad that ‘Do I Know You?’ was my first.

If if there is one trope I absolutely love, it is when married couples try to revive their marriage. I love how they learn to love each other again, it’s just so beautiful. If you like You Deserve Each Other, I recommend reading this. Also, I loved the side character David, he was such a good addition and I hope he finds his soulmate.

I enjoyed it,, I thought there was plenty of plot to keep me interested, the characters were engaging and I would recommend this book to a friend! And I would pick another book by this author. However, there just elements that I think I would have liked to have seen more development. I think I loved the first book so much more that I just had impossible standards however.

I'm obsessed with this writing duo!

A refreshing take on the second-chance romance trope that you keep you invested until the very last page.

The Roughest Draft was one of my favorite books of 2022, so when I saw that writing duo extraordinare Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka were coming out with "Do I Know You", I knew I wanted it on my table asap.

This book is an absolute must-read for anyone looking for a fresh and engaging romantic story. It's a real page-turner - and that is due to the way that Emily and Austin are so proficient in creating tension.

The story follows Eliza and Graham. A couple that are very much in love, but struggling in their marriage. They can't seem to communicate or find common ground, leaving them both feeling stranded in the relationship.

The plot leads them to a retreat to celebrate their anniversary, when they agree to a situation where they will pretend to be strangers for a week and relearn how to date.

I found myself rooting for them the whole time. Although, I have to say this wasn't the masterpiece that the Roughest Draft was for me, the writing was on point, the characters relatable and the chemistry off the charts.

So again, a book I've gone blind. This book is a second chance romance but unique in the fact that they want to save their marriage. Eliza & Graham are on their vacation to celebrate their 5 year anniversary. However, they feel like entirely different people. They role play and act like strangers hoping this will rekindle their love.


So where to begin with this book. I love how realistic this book is. How people grow as individuals. It was simply refreshing. I love how you get both POVs and understand how they do love each other, it's just changed.
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I found this enjoyable and the perfect quick read for a second chance romance where being your most true self is the most treasured version.

I truly recommend this to other readers.

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Features:
- second chance romance
- saving their marriage
- dual povs
- Quick chapters
- falling in love again
- finding themselves again

Thank yoh Netgalley & Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

I love second-chance books like this. I think they can be really fun and angst-y.

However 'Do I Know You?' was too depressing. Books like this generally need a lot of fun to make up for the sad reality of the couple's situation and I kept reading until Chapter 14 and it was still lacking in fun!

I love the premise of them pretending not to know each other, but the writing felt very stilted.

There was constant reminders that Graham is a lawyer. It was his only personality trait! Quite refreshing to have a male character who has lost his confidence. I enjoyed that.

Eliza was a little annoying, and her character made the story a bit slow.
I think if I carry on with the book, it could really have some good moments.

I was really excited for this
the premise is really great. so many romance storylines feature the “getting together” new stage of a relationship it was refreshing to see a book that starts 5 years in.
it was hard to be interested though. nothing was really happening in the storyline and there were whole pages of inner monologue .It really needed to show not tell.

I loved the authors writing style - I thought it flowed really well and was enjoyable to read.

The story was good although I didn’t feel completely attached to it.

The premise: When a couple starts to feel like they're married to a stranger, a flirtatious game of pretend becomes the spark they need to reignite their relationship.
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This is a 2nd chance romance with a little twist; the couple are already married! The book starts with them stuck in a car on a long journey sharing awkward silences and trying (but failing) to communicate. They've drifted.
He no longer feels good enough for her—she's worried about being hurt.

Their family gifts them a weekend break for their anniversary. When they get to the lush hotel, they're mistaken for being participants in a singles event. And they go with it. 😉 Soon enough, the chemistry starts to build, and they essentially start dating again.

Both Eliza and Graham are relatable, fun characters, and I think the fact this is written by a married couple adds a real depth of emotion to the story. I really enjoyed reading about a couple who found a way through their problems, rather than being quick to throw in the towel.

PS-it's a dual POV! 🥰

3.5 Stars.

This is a really sweet, heart felt book that had me rooting for the characters right from the start. Eliza and Graham have been married for five years, they adore each other but lately things have been a bit off. Eliza’s mother in law gifts them a beautiful trip away for just the two of them to celebrate their anniversary. However, things aren’t as they seem and when they agree to separate rooms a new chapter of their relationship begins.

Eliza has an idea to try and fix the issues between her and her husband. When they are asked if they know each other, Eliza creates a plan, a new version of herself and Graham plays along. Both of them have new versions of themselves and use this to try and relight some of the fire in their relationship. This of course sounded fun to start with but can with its own challenges.

I loved how personable both Eliza and Graham were, from the first couple of pages you could sense the love between them and I really wanted to know what had gone wrong. This was beautifully written and explored how different challenges within any relationship can cause problems if not addressed and worked through together.

It was romantic and cute, I adored the friendship that formed between Graham and David. It was nice to get to know David as a character in enough detail that he felt just as important in the story as the two main characters.

The story was brought together really well at the end and I felt really content with how it was wrapped up.

3.5 stars

I think that this story will be relatable to a lot of people and I'm so glad that it's out there in the world for people to discover! This book follows a married couple in a rut after 5 years of marriage, and trying to find their way back to each other, and it was a really lovely journey to follow them on. It was a very mature view on marriage and rough patches and I think that anyone in a long-term relationship should check this out. It was vulnerable and honest and realistic.

However, I did find that the story dragged quite a bit in places which made it frustrating to read, which, while it may be the point, made it feel like we weren't getting anywhere, as the role playing/pretending part just went on too long and they needed to get back to their real selves so they could work through their problems - speaking of which, we never found out the basis for their marital problems, and I think that we could have done with maybe one or two flashbacks for more of a foundation to the story.

I think it is best to go into this one just knowing the blurb, so I am not going to provide a summary. Instead, here are the tropes: marriage in trouble, strangers to lovers, forced proximity.

I'm not normally a huge marriage in trouble fan. I often find they include a lot of fighting (not my thing) and rely too much on the character's history than showing the relationship develop on page. However, this book made me want to read more. The angst was next level, but in a pining frustrated way rather than a lot of fighting, which I appreciated. I really liked both Eliza and Graham, and found it really interesting watching them solve how their marriage fell apart, and figuring out how to put it back together. The role play element of this worked really nicely as well, allowing the reader to fall for their love story while the characters fall back together. It also just felt really authentic - this could be about real people in a real marriage, rather than a sitcom marriage.

The side characters are delightful, the setting immersive and the writing was just brilliant. I really loved this, and highly recommend you pick this up when it publishes in the next few weeks!

Thank you to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan, Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka for the e-arc. All opinions are my own.

I love marriage in trouble romances! It’s one of my favourite tropes but it can be hard to find so when I heard about this book, I was really excited and requested it right away. Unfortunately, it wasn’t what I’d hoped for and I was a bit disappointed.

When I read the description it sounded great. Pretending not to know each other so they can do it all over again and fix their marriage? Sign me up! Unfortunately, what the description didn’t make clear was that while they did pretend not to know each other, they also decided to pretend to be someone else and this “game” they had going on ended up being one of my biggest problems with this book. It was long, not particularly interesting, and honestly very unnecessary. It didn’t add much to the story and predictably created a lot of unnecessary drama. I don’t get why they ever though it would be a good idea, especially Graham who was already struggling with feeling he was not good enough. Pretending to be someone else (and the confusion it inevitably caused) only made him feel more insecure about himself and their relationship. Eliza, on the other hand, was a big fan on the whole gimmick, as it allowed her to hide and avoid her problems. Maybe it would have worked if their communication was better or if it hadn’t lasted so long (honestly it dragged really badly) but alas, it was just a bit boring and I found myself skimming through some of those parts. Their goal was to get to know each other again but I feel like they got lost in the “new” versions of themselves they were pretending to be and didn’t actually learn much about the other until much later in the book, at which point they’d let go of these personas anyway.

Another thing I noticed was that they never really explained why their marriage was struggling and how they got to where they were. I’m sure their lack of communication played a major role, as did Eliza’s issues with her family and Graham’s anxieties and self-consciousness, but it would have been nice to get some more details. I also want to point how how quickly they fixed it once they finally talked? I mean, sure it seemed like a fairly easy fix, seeing as they still loved each other and wanted to be together, but it would have been interesting to see them actually put in the work and build their communication skills. I found myself wondering why they didn’t just find a marriage counsellor multiple times throughout the book and I would much rather have seen that than the whole role playing thing they had going on.

Having said that, this book really did show how important communication is and how even though marriage is often the happy ending in romance novels, it really is just the beginning of a new, different phase of a couple’s lives and that it requires a lot of work to it keep it alive and strong.

Overall, this was not my cup of tea. The role playing was really not it and I think that if they’d simply acted like they didn’t know each other when they got to the hotel and slowly got to know each other again it would have been much much better. If you’re not a fan of miscommunication proceed with caution!

★ 3/5 Stars ★

A big thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Have I finished this book in one sitting? Yes yes I did and I stayed up all night after I have received the arc! Thank you so much Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the galley, in exchange of a honest review!

Since I have read The Roughest Draft by Wibbroka (how cute this ship name for them isawwh) I could not wait for their next adult romance! I really love second chance romances, especially if the pair has a really long history.Then again "Marriage in trouble" trope is so less explored in romcoms. This was a very refreshing take on that!
I love reading about couples resolving something before parting, like holding to that remaining thread connecting them and starting to strenghten it!
The concept of "being someone else" in a pretend game to
My only issue with the story was that the mis-communication trope was unneccessary, or a bit overused. Communication is key we always say, so in order to resolve something (like the marriage) it is completely expected to be put in action.

A fun, easy and perfect for summer!

I’m sorry to say this was a DNF for me. I really tried but I just couldn’t like the characters at all!

This book was an easy to read romance, I loved the chemistry between the pair and could just feel the tension oozing from each page.

#justicefordavid is all I'm saying.

This book was a fun read. A new take on the whole second chance romance genre. Far too often we see a second chance small town high school couple or college couple. But this book centered around a married of five years couple. From the first page I was truly rooting for Eliza and Graham. Whilst in the car in the first paragraph you could feel the tension and love but also the distance. There is miscommunication which usually makes me wanna shake and yell at the characters, but not with this book. I would definitely recommend to my friends.

A fun take on a classic trope, loved this but found it a little too predictable. I really enjoyed the writing and the setting and the characters were so fun to follow. A fun, breezy summer read that I would recommend to all fans of romcoms.

I really enjoyed this! I’ve never read a marriage in trouble book before and I can honestly confirm that it is now a favourite trope. Watching these characters try to find each other again was a fascinating process.

We’re following Eliza and Graham Cutler who have grown apart in their marriage and are going on vacation to celebrate their five year anniversary. While there they decide to play a game of pretending not to know each other, therefore rediscovering each other as if they were meeting for the first time.

The book is told from both Eliza and Graham’s POV’s which gave the reader an opportunity for dive deeply into both characters heads and see from both sides where this marriage needs work. You see their vulnerabilities and inner monologues and how each character feels about certain situations.

The authors really fleshed out all of the characters in this book, even the side characters. These characters felt real with their flaws and when we saw them working through these it felt realistic and satisfying. Problems aren’t solved overnight, we see this slow build of character and relationship growth over the course of the book and it was perfect.

This was the perfect second chance romance and I would definitely recommend this to readers who love marriage in trouble romances but also romance readers in general. Although the cover looks summery, you could read this at any time of the year and still immerse yourself. These authors know how to create atmosphere and I could really visualise all of the settings in this book. Definitely check this one out when it’s released on 2nd February 2022!