So Not Meant To Be by Meghan Quinn

Narrated by Aaron Shedlock and Stella Hunter

Despite not being marked as a series, So Not Meant to Be by Meghan Quinn is best read after A Not So Meet Cute. The couple in this book are each siblings of the couple in the first book, so they are VERY related, though this can be read alone.

Three brothers own Cane Enterprises, a Real Estate development company. The first brother, Huxley, met and fell in love with Lottie in A Not So Meet Cute. Lottie’s sister, Kelsey, owns a sustainable organizing company and is brought in as a consultant for their projects. She works directly with JP, the second Cane brother.

“Ever since the moment you walked off the elevator at Cane Enterprises, I’ve been waiting for the moment to call you my girl.”

JP avoids relationships and love due to past trauma. He also doesn’t believe men and women can work together without some sexual tension. Kelsey is a romantic through and through and even has a romance podcast. The sexual tension between them is high, but Kelsey is so mad that he isn’t a long-term kind of guy, that she treats him like the enemy. But soon these enemies need to go on a work trip and share a condo for two weeks.

“Not sure the last time someone chose me . . . for me. For all the ugly I have to offer. For all the halfhearted seriousness I sputter out. For all the insecurities, the demons, the baggage.” ~JP

I really enjoyed the banter and the transition from enemies to lovers, but I felt like Kelsey really needed to cut this awesome guy a break sometimes. She was unnecessarily dragging out the enemies part of enemies-to-lovers.

Likes:

I laughed out loud so many times!
I absolutely loved JP once he opened up.
The podcast featured the romances from every other Meghan Quinn book. Fun Easter eggs if you’ve read them.
Lots of witty banter.
Oh, the dirty talking! This book was HOT!
It combined all the romance tropes: Forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers, workplace, opposites-attract.
The pigeons!

Dislikes:

Not sure why Kelsey hated JP so much. She was a little too judgmental.
The “hate” part of hate to love lasted too long.
How did Kelsey go from being an organizer that prefers to use bamboo storage for sustainability to completely running a sustainable commercial building remodel?
I wasn’t happy with the conflict, and it went on too long.
It was a little long and felt like maybe there was some fluff added.

The Narration:

Stella Hunter and Aaron Shedlock were fantastic in this duet-style audiobook. Their performance definitely added to my enjoyment of the book.

The Down & Dirty:

Just like the first in this “series”, the story and incidents that happen are a little over-the-top, but that is also what made it so funny! I laughed out loud a LOT listening to So Not Meant To Be, but Kelsey’s continued nastiness toward JP did start to bother me after a bit because he was just so amazing. Still, I love a Meghan Quinn book, and I am very much looking forward to the book about the third brother, Breaker.