My thoughts




Narrative and Plot



The Near Miss is a rom-com with a series of unfortunate events and a cosmic touch that links the two main leads. At the beginning of the story, I was really looking forward to the meeting of the leads after a couple of near misses. However, when you hit the 80% mark and there is still no chance of them connecting the dots, it gets frustrating.


The story was just all over the place and many of the set-ups never paid off. It makes wonder if you needed all those events or you could have simply focused on a narrowed down storyline because these characters and the settings definitely have potential. But the romance was too little too late.






Characters and Conflicts







Both Wren and Nick are well flushed out characters. The brief moment they had together radiated with electrifying chemistry. The only problem is you don't get enough of them.


However, they were definitely three-dimensional human beings with different lives going on. I was even invested in the internal conflict that both Wren and Nick experienced in their lives regarding their absent parent. But the story took upon more side quests than it can chew upon. It left is wanting more of the main quest which felt sidelined. Also,   it could have redeemed if the ending landed smoothly by making them realise all the loose ends. There was even a potential for a central conflict once all the pieces clicked. Instead, we get the initial jitters of two people coming together for the first time, and that's it.




Conclusion





The Near Miss was a one time read for me. It is a fun closed door romance novel if you are in the mood for that. But keep your expectations low because this is more of a coming of age for two adults than romance.

I enjoyed Wren and Nick's individual stories in this book and seeing the highs and lows of their personal lives, as well as their relationships with different people in their lives. The crossovers between their two worlds, and all of their 'near misses' which seem fated, are interesting and left me eager for these two to finally meet and discover how close they'd been since the window smashed at the beginning of the book. In terms of the romance however, I was left wanting. Despite their proximity to each other throughout the story, Wren and Nick barely spend any time together on the pages of the book and so their romance didn't have an opportunity to fully develop and it was disappointing to miss out on that. There perhaps could have been less 'near misses' - especially dangerous once caused by Wren's actions, rather than accidents - and more of these two getting to know each other and building the chemistry and intimacy I enjoy in a romance. Overall, it was a nice read but not enough romance!

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

The story of Wren and Nick, who finally meet after a series of near misses in random places. A great read, and I liked how it was told from both points of view.

Thank you to Lily Joseph, Bookouture, and NetGalley for an eARC of The Near Miss.

If you're looking for a light hearted, summer romance this is NOT it. From the description I felt like this book had some rom-com vibes but the overall feel is a much more serious tone and while there were some moments where I huffed a laugh this was not the read I thought it would be. Maybe that is why I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped.

The concept of this book is really cool - is there someone whose path we have almost crossed so many times, but have never actually met? It made me think about all the places I frequent and the other people who go to those places, too. Is there someone I have been missing by mere seconds who could be my next bff? The problem with this book is that the reader knows its a romance and that Nick and Wren are going to meet. They just missed each other so many times that I got frustrated and, true to the title, every time they almost met, someone almost died! This didn't give me warm and fuzzy, these-two-people-should-be-together vibes. Instead I got the DANGER DANGER flashing red light vibes feeling as though these two people should move to opposite sides of the country and stay as far away from each other as possible.

To top it off, both characters are dealing with some heavy ish. Nick and Wren are each carrying some serious baggage and even though I wanted to root for them, I couldn't help but feel as though they both needed to work through their trauma before jumping into a relationship. So while their meet-disaster (it wasn't a meet cute!) had me smiling, looking at the big picture made it very difficult for me too truly root for this couple.

In the end, this book just wasn't it for me. I'd rate it a 2.5 out of 5.

It was a lovely book. I really liked how everything was connected with everything. The characters in the book were really nice and a community kitchen is a great cause to support. There were an awful lot of near misses between the main characters. I wish they could have spent more time together.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of the book.

Is it dramatic to say I will never get over Eli and Georgia? Maybe but it's how i'm feeling right now. I am a sucker for a good second chance romance and this one is right up there among the best I have read. Their problems and the reasons they were apart were just so real and I just wanted the absolute best for both of them. They're flawed characters, done right and we see them grow as the story goes on. I loved the fact they were working together to save the cursed wedding and all their little escapades and dare i say it scrapes they got into....A particularly favourite scene was when the ceiling fell on Eli and of course he had to go to georgia.........lol one bed trope!
Highly recommend"

3 stars

This was cute, and although it is not what I was expecting and I didn't fully love our mcs, it was fun and entertaining.

When I initially read the premise for this book, I was undecided whether it would work. I'm very happy to say that it works and it works well. I found myself rooting for Nick and Wren from the get-go and I fell in love with the supporting characters as well. A lovely, feel-good romance!

This was JUST what I needed for a fun summertime read. This cover makes you think you know exactly what you will be reading, and while that is true, I also think there was so much more to this story than a cute and sweet pink cover book!

I wanted to love this story so much, but unfortunately, The Near Miss was a full miss for me. While the characters were lovely, the story felt tedious and I DNFed this book only to pick it up again more times than I care to admit. I did finish it in the end so I could provide an honest review, but what should have been a fun read felt more like agonizing labor.

Aside from my subjective assessment, the novel is well-written and I'm fully aware a lot of people might love it. Hence, my 3-star rating.

Thank you, Bookouture and NetGalley for access to an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, it is a good read! It didn't grip me, and I couldn't connect to the main characters, but overall, it was a fast-paced, enjoyable read. At points the storyline felt a bit unrealistic, which took me out of the story. It's a fun summer read and would recommend for your next beach read!

The Near Miss was the perfect palate cleanser after reading so many thrillers of late. It's a contemporary romance that's both extremely enjoyable and entertaining.

Do you believe in fate? It plays a heavy part in the story as it brings together Wren and Nick in a series of narrow escapes.

Wren and Nick were such likeable characters and I'd love to read more about them in a future read. The absolute star of the show for me was Edie, she was my Nan all over.

It's a brilliant debut from Joseph, it's cute, fun and you won't want it to end, I didn't.

This was a good read! I struggled personally connecting to the characters and the story but that is the only thing affecting my rating. The pacing was great, the development for the characters was there, and they had good chemistry! I tried super hard to love it but I just couldn’t connect with them enough. Still a book I would recommend though!!

Wren and Nick cross paths in the most unusual way, coming close to near-death experiences.

But the two may have more in common than they think and it may be fate pushing them together.

This is an easy read but a slow burn, which made me desperate for our main characters to get together. I loved that Joseph has the reader questioning when they will meet through the novel, as they don't meet until 50% in.

This was a clever narrative as scenes were intertwined throughout with 'near misses' of the main characters meeting one another as well as near misses/brushes with death.

This is told in the third person point of view with alternating chapters split between Nick and Wren. I really liked this as you got to see the different sides to the narrative, but also the similarities in the two main characters where they both need to find out the truth.

3.5 stars!

this was such a quick, easy read!! while i found parts of it super cute and really wanted to love it, overall this fell a bit flat for me.

i think this had a ton of potential, but waiting until almost 50% into the book for our main characters to officially meet made it feel a bit slow.

once they did meet, i loved the discovery of just how intertwined their lives really were. talk about invisible string!?

wren and nick were cute once their story really took off, and i especially loved the dynamic of wren and libby!! i wish we got to see more of her throughout the book.

this would be a great feel-good summer read, so definitely check it out if you’re looking for a book to read by the pool or on your summer vaca!!


thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with a digital ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have not read a book by Lily before and this book was okay. I liked Wren and Nick's story with how they kept almost meeting but would miss each other. I did find this book a bit hard to follow at times as it was just bad luck after bad luck. I felt like it was well written but there was a lot going on. There was also a lot of different characters weaved into the story that kept coming back but I found there was just a bit to many to keep track of. I had to go back and figure out who was who. I did find this book hilarious with how many misfortunes they had to go through to end up meeting each other. I did like how the book ended though.

An endearing story of two ships that continually pass in the night. It seems Nick and Wren are always near each other when disaster happens but they never meet. Long held secrets by people dear to Nick and Wren whirl around them and never seem to get answered. It is very witty how the author played with the theme of passing ships with Nick and Wren always close but never close enough.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A surprisingly lovely read despite all of the mishaps that happened to Wren and Nick throughout the book. Possibly could have done with less of these coincidences as they did cast a sad light over the whole story instead of an uplifting feel. The ending was satisfying despite some tragedy. An easy beach read.

Wren is leaving her pregnant friend Libby’s bookstore when a sheet of glass falls in front of her, and she realises how lucky she was that she paused for a moment so that it missed her. By the time Nick, the glazier, gets downstairs to apologise, Wren is gone.
The pair continue to cross paths without actually meeting but each time they accidentally cause a mishap for the other.
This was an endearing story about a series of unfortunate events and fate, told from both point of views. The anticipation builds through all the near-misses as you wonder how they will eventually meet. A really strong debut that's more hit, than miss.

Nick and Wren had never met. The close calls they had due to something the other did were many. It's like someone had it out for them and didn't want them to ever meet but to be continuously plagued by each other's unintentional mistakes.

The number of times I wanted to DNF was a lot, but I stuck it out just to see how they'd finally end up together. Funny thing is, they got separated after they got together.

A few more disasters later and they got their HEA. Someone else might enjoy this, but I honestly didn't. Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.