REVIEW: If We Ever Meet Again by Ana Huang

If We Ever Meet Again by Ana Huang: Farrah is determined to make the most of her year abroad, this is her chance to truly spread her wings and have all those life experiences. The most important one being falling in love, well while she wanted that all consuming, butterflies kind of love, Farrah finds herself falling for the guy that she really shouldn’t be falling for, but when Blake Ryan is around her, Farrah cant help but feel like he is the guy for her.

Blake is a college football Allstar, however after winning his third championship, he decides to quit and instead of facing the music, Blake heads to Shanghai where he meets the beautiful Farrah. Just as the two are getting swept up into a magical romance, an unexpected blast from Blakes past comes barreling in wrecking the possible happily ever after that Blake and Farrah had been creating… the question is can these two come back from one of Farrah’s hard no no’s?

I love reading Ana Huang’s books, there is just something about the way her writing style can transport you right into her book so that you are able to feel exactly as her characters feel. While this book did feel bit different to her more newer books, I still enjoyed diving into this one. I have to say I enjoyed all the gritty emotions and slight upheaval that our two main characters face through the course of this book, this was by no means an easy smooth love story, there was heart ache and angst right through this book.

I really liked both Blake and Farrah. Both of these two characters felt real and we got to see them go through a lot of growth and development as the book progressed. I will say I did like Farrah a bit more, she was an interesting leading lady and I loved the fact that she wanted to have all of these life experiences and fall truly in love. Now for our hero, well I will be honest I was not the biggest fan of Blake. This guy went and did the one thing that Farrah asked him not to do and then on top of this his is not completely honest with her about his transgressions. Yip, not the biggest Blake fan, though I will say he does have to deal with his fair share of guilt and the consequences of his actions. While these two might have been quite different, their chemistry was of the charts hot, the steam in this book was next level spicy. Though I couldn’t help but feel their relationship does not really get resolved at the end.

As far as supporting characters go, this book has plenty and more! There are so many characters in here that it becomes a bit overwhelming to keep up with who is who and who they are with. Nevertheless I think the most dominate side character would have had to had been Chloe, Blake’s ex. Well now she was something else, now I understand her reason for lying to Blake and sort of trapping him, this still did not excuse what she did. Simply put I really just did not like Chloe.

One of the things that I did really like about this book was the setting, I absolutely loved the way Huang depicted Shanghai. There were so many different places that she took us and I really enjoyed getting to experience these places through the eyes of our characters. I especially enjoyed their trip to the Great Wall of China, this was one of the most emotional and beautiful parts of this book.

While I enjoyed reading If We Ever Meet Again, there was something about this book that didn’t quite live up to what I had expected and have come to love about Huang’s books.

Book Info:

Publication: June 30, 2020 | bloom Books | If Love #1

One year is all it takes for strangers to become lovers…

19-year-old Farrah Lin is going to fall in love for the first time during her year abroad in Shanghai. She’s sure of it.

The only problem? Her would-be leading man is her new friend’s boyfriend.

There’s nothing worse than being in love with someone you can’t have…or at least, she thinks it’s love.

But if that’s true, why can’t she stop fantasizing about someone else, specifically the cocky blond athlete with the world’s biggest ego (and greatest dimples)?

***
Blake Ryan is—was—a college football star who shocked the sports world when he quit after his third national championship. Instead of dealing with the fallout, he escapes to Shanghai, where he vows to keep life simple.

No football. No commitments. No romance.

But no matter how hard he tries, he can’t keep a certain beautiful brunette off his mind…or out of his heart.

What starts as a physical attraction develops into something much deeper as Blake and Farrah get swept up in the magic of Shanghai—and each other. But they only have one year, and there are forces outside their control that threaten to rip them apart.

Can their relationship survive the test…or was it just not meant to be?