Better Left Unsent
by Lia Louis
Release Date: May 21, 2024
Publisher: Emily Bestler Books
Number of Pages: 352
Source: ARC from NetGalley
Contemporary Fiction/Romance
Ages 14 and up
CW: cheating, gaslighting
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So many ways to torpedo your career and your love life…So little time.
A woman accidentally reveals all her secrets in this witty and charming novel from the author of Eight Perfect Hours.
Two years ago, thirty-year-old receptionist Millie Chandler had her heart spectacularly broken in public. Ever since, she has been a closed book, vowing to keep everything to herself—her feelings, her truths, even her dreams—in an effort to protect herself from getting hurt again.
But Millie does write emails—sarcastic replies to her rude boss, hard truths to her friends, and of course, that one-thousand-word love declaration to her ex who is now engaged to someone else. The emails live safely in her drafts, but after a server outage at work, Millie wakes up to discover that all her emails have been sent. Every. Single. One.
As every truth, lie, and secret she’s worked so hard to keep only to herself are catapulted out into the open, Millie must fix the chaos her words have caused, and face everything she’s ever swept under the carpet.
If I was judging this book by the last half, I would say it was a home run. Unfortunately, that’s not the case and the first half of this book was a slog. The concept was interesting and I loved the little snippets of emails that would come at the beginning and/or end of the chapters. And though this book is classified as Women’s Fiction on NetGalley, it is also classified as Romance. Which it is…for the last half. There is a lot of set-up that is done and, quite honestly, I had no idea who the love interest would be for sure until after halfway through, and for the first third of the book there were even three people I felt it could be. Plus, the first kiss doesn’t happen until 2/3 of the way in. I know for those of you who don’t read Romance regularly, you don’t care. But I expect the romance to be a central theme in a Romance book and that just wasn’t the case here. Regardless of whether you read this book for the Romance, for the women’s fiction aspect, or both, the beginning is still very slow.
That being said, Millie is a very sympathetic character and has some amazing friends. It’s interesting to see how different people in her life respond to getting her previously unsent emails. Some cut her out of their lives instead of having an adult conversation. There is turmoil caused in her family which ultimately leads to her parents understanding her on a level they never have before. Some don’t want her to back down from what she said in the missives because they feel it is important for her to speak her mind and stand up for herself. Millie has a lot to learn about herself and the person she has become over the last few years, and this catastrophe helps her to do the work that needs to be done. Sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it’s humorous, often it’s both.
Millie’s obsession with how the emails came to be sent takes over her life and causes problems with her potential happiness. It gives her tunnel vision and she sometimes cannot see the hurt she is causing with her tenaciousness. Although the story started slow, the last half was wonderful. From the romance that gave me butterflies to Millie learning to be brave again.
It’s only fair for me to rate this story as a whole. Since the first half was about 2 stars and the last half was 5 stars, we’ll go ahead with a 3.5 to average it out.
3.5 stars
**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**