He was the one.
From the first moment I saw him, I knew.
I had never been more certain of anything in my sixteen years on this earth.
But Alec didn’t notice me. At least not in the way that I wanted him to.He noticed my best friend instead.
I stood by and watched their relationship blossom.
An outsider looking in, wishing things were different.
Torn between my loyalty to my best friend and the boy who had unknowingly
stolen my heart.
Weighted by feelings I could never express out loud, I wrote them all down.
Every thought. Every feeling.
I poured them all into a letter.
A letter he was never meant to read.
Only that’s exactly what he did.
He read it.
Every single word.
But by then it was too late.
Even if he was no longer dating my best friend.
Even if I was more in love with him than ever.
He was leaving.
I was leaving.
And there was nothing either of us could do to change it.
Alec Murray was my almost fairytale.
The happy ending I swore I’d never get.
But our story is far from over…
The hurt and angst that Hope feels in the beginning of the book is palpable. She’s stuck in an impossible position as her best guy friend Alec dates other best friend, Lucy. Even though Hope met Alec first, pretty, popular Lucy swooped in to claim the guy, leaving Hope firmly in the friend zone. She pours her heart out to Alec in a letter she never intends for him to find — and when it does, it changes everything between them and yet changes nothing at all. Even though Alec and Lucy are no longer together, Hope refuses to betray her best friend by acting on the feelings and pull that is so strong between she and Alec.
Over the next few years, Alec and Hope don’t really see much of one another as they go their own ways for college, but the draw between them and feelings they have for one another are as strong as ever when he randomly shows up at her dorm room one day. Still, the timing is not right and Hope cuts Alec out. A year later, the timing is still not right as she’s off to train under a chef in Italy. Meanwhile, Alec, an aspiring writer, releases a serial that shows Hope, Lucy and everyone else just how much Hope means to him. And still, Hope is hesitant to do what will make her happy. Even as she was trying to protect Lucy’s heart all these years, she’d broken Alec’s to pieces. Eventually, finally, Alec takes matters into his own hands and decides that there’s nothing stopping them from being together but themselves.
So… I loved Hope. Even though she was a doormat when it came to Lucy, I loved how fiercely loyal she was, and how she put her own happiness aside in favor of not betraying her best friend. Alec was a great guy. Even when he got drunk and word vomited to Lucy, he was trying to do the right thing for him and Hope. I really disliked Lucy. She treated Hope horribly, and was just a selfish person. Even when Lucy was the one to point Hope in the direction of Alec’s serial, I still didn’t think she was redeemed for being such a shrew.
In the end, Almost Never was a angsty YA book that I enjoyed very much. This is the first book I’ve read by Melissa Toppen, and I will be definitely checking out her backlist! I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.
Adult and Contemporary Romance. She is a lover of books and enjoys nothing more
than losing herself in a good novel. She has a soft spot for Romance and
focuses her writing in that direction; writing what she loves to read.
where she writes full time.
