10 Things that Never Happened

January 23, 2025 /

10 Things that Never Happened ~ Alexis Hall

Sam manages a big box bed and bath store in Northern England, though he doesn’t run it very well. His employees are either taking too many breaks, or they are damaging the expensive mattresses, that sort of thing. He should probably fire the one that does the damage, but that employee is caring for his Gran, right? He should come down on the one who takes too many breaks, but really, he doesn’t care enough. That’s the real issue. He’d like things to go more smoothly, but this isn’t his dream job, and he’s just going through the motions. It’s a small chain of three stores, and the owner, Jonathan, has noticed the bad sales figures, and Sam has to go shadow him for a day in London, to see how a real manager handles things.

So off he goes to London with real dread, which is warranted. Jonathan shows Sam around, and Sam sees that Jonathan isn’t actually great at sussing up customers himself, and speaks up. Jonathan decides that he is going to fire Sam and Sam’s entire staff and start over with that store. In the midst of this awkward conversation, Jonathan steps threateningly toward Sam, who steps back, and falls through a glass shower door, giving himself some cuts and a concussion. At the hospital, Jonathan gets the impression that Sam has amnesia, and as there is no one else to care for him for the several weeks it may take, Jonathan takes Sam home to stay with him. Sam decides on impulse to fake amnesia, hoping that somehow he can humanize his own situation and that of his employees, thus saving their jobs.

What follows is a fun rom-com, as Sam and Jonathan grow to first not dislike each other quite so much, then to actually like each other, and Sam helps Jonathan to open up a bit more to his family. I enjoyed this breezy book quite a bit. My only complaint was that I feared we were never going to get Sam’s back story, as it was only hinted at for the first 90% of the book. That was balanced out for me because I listened to the audiobook, and I enjoyed hearing the narrator’s accent when Sam is saying what an absolute dick Jonathan is. Kind of like ‘Dikch’. LOL. Recommended if you like romance novels.

16 Comments

  • Maya

    January 23, 2025 at 4:37 am

    This sounds delightful! Thanks for the rec. This is going on my summer hammock reading list….
    (And… now I’m dreaming of that while we’re well and truly snowbound.)

  • Ernie

    January 23, 2025 at 5:55 am

    This sounds like a fun way to get the characters where they need to be, and I can only imagine the many interactions between the characters. Coach and I ordered (before cancelling it the next day) a mattress from a huge mattress store that was going out of business, and I can imagine a million different things going on in that space with and without customers present. I don’t generally read romance, but I don’t have a steadfast rule about avoiding it either. I might check this one out.

    • J

      January 23, 2025 at 6:02 am

      Romance isn’t my biggest hit either. I don’t remember where I saw this one, but it was in the comment section of someone’s post about another romance novel, and someone said they LOVED this book, so I decided to give it a try. I will say that’s how I find 100% of my romance novels, is on other blogs.

  • Diane

    January 23, 2025 at 11:37 am

    I LOVED this audiobook so so so much. There was something, especially, about Will Watt’s narration that made the whole thing seem like my favorite British rom coms in audiobook format – like those Hugh Grant movies of the early 2000s. I laughed, I cried, I felt all the warm fuzzies. Like you, I did worry that we would never get Sam’s backstory, but when it came, it was stunning.
    Engie vehemently disagrees with me on this book, though.

    • J

      January 23, 2025 at 1:01 pm

      I couldn’t remember where I had seen this, now I see it was on your blog. 🙂 Thanks for the rec! I agree, I really liked the narration.

  • NGS

    January 24, 2025 at 9:04 am

    Poor Sam. He’s so great and could do so much better than stupid Jonathan. I like to pretend that after this book they broke up and Sam found a NICE partner.

    • J

      January 24, 2025 at 9:10 am

      I’m hopeful that Sam has a good influence and that dikche Jonathan lightens up and becomes nicer. However, if he doesn’t, then YES, Sam needs to move on and find someone better. Which reminds me of a time many years ago when I was feeling blue (for no real reason, which doesn’t happen to me often), and my husband thought perhaps I was upset with him or with our life together, so he went and put ‘Can’t Find a Better Man’ on the stereo, which made me laugh, and got me out of my funk. Every time I hear that song it makes me laugh.