Better Left Unsent by Lia Louis #bookreview #contemporary #romance

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Title: Better Left Unsent

Author:  Lia Louis

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Publication Date: May 21, 2024

Page Count:  380

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

About the book:

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.

With her signature “tender and heartwarming” (Anstey Harris, author of When I First Held You) prose, Lia Louis presents another unforgettable and moving novel that is perfect for fans of Rebecca Serle and Emily Henry.

Better Left Unsent by Lia Louis would probably be classified as a contemporary romance novel but I was thinking of it more as a contemporary drama with a side of romance. And of course some of the story is in the form of reading emails that have been accidently sent.

Millie Chandler works as a receptionist where she sends and receives company emails daily. A few years ago Millie started a folder in her email account that are the words she’d love to say to others in her life but would never actually send them, a diary of sorts to deal with her emotions in the form of unsent emails.

One day Millie is called into the office and reprimanded for her over use of the email system. You see, there was a server outage and somehow the hundreds of random thoughts kept in that private folder have been sent to their unintended recipients. Things her boss never should have heard, relationship complications, family obligations and so on and so forth all being released has Millie’s life tossed into chaos.

Lia Louis is an author that I have read several times before and have always really enjoyed with the books being really emotional and pulling at the heartstrings so that is what I expected with Better Left Unsent. Unfortunately I didn’t really find that emotional connection that I had before with this novel so I was a little disappointed. The idea behind this one was good but as the story went along it got a little repetitive going back to the emails again and again as time passes and I would have preferred a bit more romance to balance out the drama. Overall, three and a half stars for me and fingers crossed the author’s next will be back to what I expected.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Lia Louis lives in the United Kingdom with her partner and three young children. Before raising a family, she worked as a freelance copywriter and proofreader. She was the 2015 winner of Elle magazine’s annual writing competition and has been a contributor for Bloomsbury’s Writers and Artist’s blog for aspiring writers. She is the author of Somewhere Close to Happy and Dear Emmie Blue.