Could that one random meeting twenty years ago be with The One That Got Away?

Synopsis

Amelia might have met The One. But is she twenty years too late?

After her husband left her out of the blue, the only relationship 45-year-old Amelia Simpson has enjoyed recently is with Nutella and Pinot Grigio. While her 8-year-old twin boys, Jasper and Rupert, keep her busy, Amelia dreams of a life more than washing muddy rugby kits and weekly chats with best friends Sian and Jamie.

Amelia needs some magic back in her life – but magic seems in short supply in her small Welsh village. So when she finds the phone number that was given to her twenty years ago by a handsome stranger in New York, Amelia wonders whether he might be The One That Got Away.

But when Sian takes matters into her own hands, launching a worldwide hunt to find the handsome stranger Amelia met outside Tiffany’s two decades ago, Amelia finds herself on a flight to the Big Apple to reconnect with her ‘Perfect Pierre’.

But as the two explore the sights of NYC, has Amelia reconnected with The One? Or will she discover that the sparkle she was missing is actually closer to home?

A funny, relatable romcom about second chances that fans of Kathryn Freeman and Sophie Ranald will love.

My review

Amelia just got divorced from Richard, aka Dick, after discovering he has been having an affair with Tanja for over a year.
When her life seems to involve only het 8 – year – old twin boys Jasper and Rupert, and the necessary input of Nutella and Pinot Grigio, Amelia starts to dream of a life that is just ‘more’ than this.
So when she suddenly finds an old suitcase containing a phone number of the man she met 20 years ago in New York, she wonders if this stranger could be ‘The One That Got Away’.
Her best friend Sian takes matter in own hands and starts an online search to find this ‘Perfect Patrick’. When the search brings Amelia back to The Big Apple, will it be all she imagined? Or will love be closer than she thought?

Oh I enjoyed reading this story so much!!! This isn’t just a romantic comedy, but also manages to show an ugly reality…

Initially I found it a fabulous idea, having a worldwide search for a man you have met twenty years ago, hoping that he would be The Perfect One.
But of course, rational me started to think about the bad things that could happen. Never finding the actual guy, having other people pretending to be him, or that the man appears to be a total disappointment and that you imagined a whole fairy-tale and see your dreams scattered.

So when Amelia appears to have found the actual man, I found her a bit naïve, just embarking to New York, to meet a total stranger. Luckily she had her best friend Jamie also being there at the same time, so she actually had someone to have her back.
Even if Patrick appeared to be the perfect man, I still had my doubts about him. Even if he didn’t do anything actually wrong while being with Amelia, I couldn’t shake this sense that something was truly odd…
And without any actual revelations, it saddened me that not everything was like it appeared to be. And it made me even angry that something like that would still be possible…

But this wasn’t just about Amelia finding Patrick again, it was also about her putting her marriage behind her and have something to look forward to. She dares to take that chance on love again, even if her heart got broken in the past by Dick.
She embarks this adventure with such a positivism that is admirable, but also keeps her main focus on her children. She knows what truly matters and that family and friends are always first priority.

Beside Amelia and her NY adventure, I loved getting to know Sian better and the way she meets Rob. With his job it would seem an impossible match, but love surely works in mysterious ways!
And Jamie is just the best friend someone could have. He literally drops everything in time of need!
Also reading about young Jasper and Rupert was putting a smile on my face. Even if being twins, they couldn’t be more different. Yet they also have a good judgement of character. And children see often more than adults, as shown in this story too!

I found this such a beautiful story, about not giving up on love, daring to take that terrible step out there. But also about realizing that sometimes that one thing you are looking for can be closer than you think. And that being closer than imagined can be even more terrifying to take that step, but so much more rewarding once you dared.