What Might Have Been

by Matt Dunn

A year ago, Evan and Sarah shared one incredible night. Then Evan’s music—the thing that brought them together—suddenly tore them apart.

Since then, Evan’s not been able to forget about her. And try as she might, Sarah can’t seem to get over him either.

With time running out, Evan’s got one last chance to convince her that the two of them were meant to be. But is one night enough for Sarah to make a decision about the rest of her life—even if it was the best night of her life? And if she doesn’t believe in love at first sight, how can Evan persuade her that what they had will last?

From the bestselling author of A Day at the Office, What Might Have Been is Matt Dunn’s new romantic comedy about two people in love. Though one of them needs a little convincing…

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Comedy, Chick Lit, Rom Com

369 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 12, 2014

About the author

Matt was born in Margate, but eventually escaped to Spain to write his first novel (in between working as a newspaper columnist, and playing a lot of tennis). Previously he has been a professional lifeguard, fitness equipment salesman, and an IT head hunter, but he prefers writing for a living, so hopes people will keep buying his books.

Matt is the author of four contemporary romantic comedy novels; Best Man, The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook (which was shortlisted for both the Romantic Novel Of The Year award, as well as the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance), From Here To Paternity, and Ex-Girlfriends United. He's also written about life, love, and relationships for various publications including The Times, Guardian, Cosmopolitan, Company, Elle, Glamour, and The Sun.

Several of Matt's novels have been translated for various European markets (he's big in the Balkans, apparently), as well as as far afield as Malaysia and Indonesia. He's a regular on the literary festival scene, and rates the recent lecturing stint he did on the Creative Writing degree course at London Metropolitan University as one of the most rewarding things he's ever done - and not only because of the number of ideas he was able to appropriate from his students for his books.

Reviews

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/



I’m not the type of person who requests an ARC just so I can have an opportunity to shred it to pieces. I don’t have as much free time to read as I would like to begin with, so the books I request are books that I hope to enjoy. Although I’m not a super sappy type of gal, I mix plenty of romance into my reading repertoire – and although I never really "like liked" What Might Have Been, I was prepared to give it 2 Stars and call it a good day.

Until . . . the same conversation between Evan and Sarah (or Evan and Sarah’s friend Grace) about how one night of passion (followed by the dude leaving the COUNTRY for a freakin’ year) was not just a one-night-stand, but in fact it was the most insta-loviest of all insta-loves and Evan and Sarah were MEANT TO BE TOGETHER, OH WHY OH WHY CAN’T SARAH SEE THEY ARE MEANT TO BE TOGETHER!?!?!?!?!?!?!. Followed up with the same conversation between Sarah and Evan (or Sarah and her friend Grace) about how she’s engaged to another man, but she’s confused whether she really wants to marry him and he’s kind of a giant jagoff, but she said yes to his proposal and she can’t just not marry the guy even though she doesn’t even like him, right? And there’s no way Evan really knows he loves her because they only had one night together, but it’s totally normal to accept a marriage proposal from a different dude you don’t really care for and have only been dating a whopping THREE MONTHS because he asked first and OHMYGODI’MGOINGTOSTABMYSELFINTHEFACEIFTHEYKEEPTALKING!!!!

After the 17th replay of the same two conversations, I felt like I was reading the equivalent of the background loop on old Hannah Barbera cartoons. You remember that, right? (Say you do even if you don’t so I don’t feel like such a geezer.)



Not to mention the fact that Evan was a musician and I was supposed to probably find him all super sexy kind of like this:



but he was a saxophonist, so the only image my brain was willing to conjure was this:



Which is awesome, but I’m fairly certain most normal girls don’t want to bang Duke Silver like I do. At the end of it all, I think I was supposed to end up feeling all feely like at the end of “The Graduate” (I swear I’m seriously not nearly as old as my reviews would lead you to believe):



or even something sweet and simple like:



but I just ended up feeling like I wasted my time on some bad “Chick Lit” written by a dude. What would that be called? “Dick Lit?” (©Kelly and the Book Boar 2014) Naaaaaah, “Dick Lit” has to be reserved for use when discussing awesome male writers like Leonard or Hiassen. Bottom line – I didn’t like this one, but I hope you do.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What Might Have Been" is my first book by author Matt Dunn and I plan to read more of his work.
An enjoyable and funny story that had me tearing up at times.
It was love at first sight for Evan and Sarah when she happened into a jazz bar one night and saw him on stage playing his saxophone. Their eyes connected and they both knew they had to have each other. After spending a torrid, unforgettable night together Evan has an opportunity, he can't pass up, to tour with a famous band and leaves the country for a year to further his career. As time goes by he has not been able to forget about Sarah and she can't seem to get over him either.
Upon his return and with time running out Evan has one last chance to convince Sarah that they were meant to be together. Can he persuade her that what they had will last?
An enjoyable contemporary romance.

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book via Goodreads FirstReads in exchange for an honest review.
----
I hate to DNF another book I've won but I just can't get into this. It's not badly written but just not wowing me.

The setting: England... LOVED that, and that Sarah was a fish out of water. Also loved Evan and Sarah's shared sense of humor in the beginning.

The summary sounded promising (love a good romance story).and it It started off good, I liked Evan and that he was a Saxophone player, Mel and Grace were awesome... Sarah, liked her at first but then she started to go 'meh' on me. David, right away I had a mental 'Stay away' alert flashing (though maybe that's just me), his actions at the stag night confirmed it but I was already bored with his character.

It could be just be me but I felt like the author meant to lean us towards Evan from the start (I'm a concert weirdo so I'm partial to musicians anyway)... I think the book may have grabbed me more if He had made both David and Evan decent guys and making Sarah's decision more difficult.

I don't mind Love Triangles if their done well but in this case *shrugs* I just really couldn't buy the romance with Evan fully either.

Maybe the book gets better, but I won't know... I can't continue with this.

You may like it better than me, wonderful thing about readers is we all have our tastes, this book just wasn't mine.

Happy reading!

[Best Crime Books & More · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have liked some of Matt Dunn’s previous books but for some reason this book just left me feeling really impartial (I HATE that!). Evan and Sarah are the lead characters in this book and Evan is a pretty decent guy. He’s a musician who plays the saxophone and had his 10 minutes of fame back in the day. Sarah is an American who happens to stop by a jazz club and sees Evan play. It takes her back to her childhood when her father used to play the sax in clubs. What results is a reckless night together. However events after that one night mean they go their separate ways for a year.

Sarah in the beginning was a reasonably likeable character, however as the book progressed she just irritated me. Whilst Evan goes off to another country Sarah is left behind and her life inevitably changes. When Evan returns he just can’t stop thinking about Sarah and is determined to make Sarah see they are meant to be together. The writing was good as usual, and there is certainly nothing lacking in Matt Dunns ability to write a cracking story. For me though, the character Sarah got worse as the book progressed to the point where I couldn’t have cared less about her.

There are additional characters that make appearances such as Mel (didn’t get enough time in the book in my opinion) and David (who I also couldn’t stand). I read this to the end and it was certainly an easy read. But sadly, it just wasn’t as good as other books he has written. Maybe the character thing was just my issue, because normally I can really take to characters. However, this being one of the major factors for me made me mark it down. Sarah’s incessant whining and to-ing and fro-ing quite frankly gave me a headache. I will still look forward to Matt’s future work in the hope I will love the next set of characters he creates

[Regan Cooley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining! Got a little monotonous in the middle, and I didn't really like the ending... After debating the whole entire book about who she should be with in the LAST page she decides. Didn't really work for me. But all in all it was okay!

[Lisa Bentley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Synopsis

When Sarah stops at the Jazz Club ‘G-Spot’ she doesn’t expect to fall in love at first sight. But that is exactly what happened. As soon as saxophonist Evan takes to the stage she is smitten. Luckily for her the feeling is mutual. However, Evan has just been offered the biggest opportunity of his career. He has been given the chance to play sax on The Police’s reunion tour, travelling the world for a year. Can Evan and Sarah’s love transcend distance and time?

Review

What Might Have Been is Matt Dunn’s eighth romantic comedy novel but I have to admit it is the first of his that I have ever read. I always find that I read multi-perspective books a little bit more critically than I do when the book has a solo protagonist. It is so easy for a writer to not have clearly defined voices for his characters; however, Dunn seems to have done that perfectly. Both Sarah and Evan come across individually and even still manage to maintain parts of themselves in the crossover chapters.

I guess that the reason why stories like this are ever so popular is because we all have our own version of ‘what might have been.’ That long lost love who we often think about in drunken hazy ways. The one who we look at through rose tinted spectacles and forget all of their flaws and bad points. With What Might Have Been, Dunn gives you hope and a chance to chase a happy ending and essentially make you wonder ‘what if?’ What if you had chased your love like Evan does with Sarah, would things have ended differently? The story is so very easy to relate to.

The story is told in a good way allowing you the chance to care for both characters plights. Admittedly, I did get a little bored of the will-they-won’t-they dilemma in the middle but then Dunn threw a dramatic third act twist in that picked up the momentum once again. I do also think that the characterisation of Sarah was a little clichéd. She had abandonment issues, thus explaining all her subsequent decisions seemed a little too easy for me and in the middle of the story she became a tad whiny. To be fair though, so did Evan.

Overall, What Might Have Been is a good read. It isn’t going to change your life but it might just change your day.

[Odette Cortés · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Might Have Been follows the story of Evan and Sarah. Two strangers that found each other as kindred spirits in a Jazz club, and after a magical one-night stand they are both left with a deep connection. The only problem is that it looks like they were not meant to be as Evan goes on a one year tour with The Police and Sarah has a boyfriend. But one year later Evan returns and the feelings resurface, causing trouble for an engaged Sarah.

The book had its good moments and then it had the angst omens that dragged on and on, until everything is resolved very quickly. That is the main problem I had with the book, it seems a little unbalanced as the tension of the "will they or will they not" builds up throughout the pages. The conclusion for me was too short after having to read all that drama. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the book. I liked the shift in point of view between characters and I enjoyed how Matt Dunn changes from British to American English to fit each character.

I got this book from NetGalley.

[Zoe Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a little gem of a book this is.

Absolutely lovely, quirky, and genuinely funny in places. I'm not always a rom-com fan but this book had me rooting for Evan from the start. A heart-warming story about an American career woman meeting a London jazz musician who ends up touring with The Police for a year. They spend one night together that literally changes their lives forever.

I absolutely love the writing. Quirky, funny and genuinely lovely, I really enjoyed this book and will be definitely checking out Matt's other work.

'I go ahead and marry David, which is what I've been planning for the past nine months, or I lose him, risk losing my job, and all for what? The promise of what might have been?'.

'It sounds to me like it's all about the moment. And life is made up of a million moments'.

[Chelsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wish I could give it 0 stars.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book interesting and yet frustrating. However, there was one character that annoyed me throughout the entire story. The male lead, Evan.

Sarah and Evan had one night together. One night that neither could forget. However, due to Evan's music (as stated in the blurb), this tears them apart.

A year later, Evan suddenly returns. He returns to find Sarah engaged, and it's one week away till her wedding.

This is where is the story starts to frustrate me. Evan continues to fight for Sarah, despite her insistence that she is going to marry her fiance, David. Evan continues to use the same argument stating she, Sarah, doesn't love David and should, bluntly put it, break up with him and be with Evan. Even when questioned by Sarah "what can you offer", he still continues to only offer her is love.

Due to Evan's (what I call) 'stalking', I disliked him less and less as the story progressed, and starting to root for the jerk of jerks, David. Personally, I deemed Evan's arguments as fantasy and childlike, not properly thinking of the future. From this point, I found Sarah more grounded. While she doesn't truly love David, she loved him enough to see a future with him, especially with what he could offer her. Stability. I was basically screaming at the book... to Evan to LET HER GO! It's like that saying goes "If you (truly) love someone, set them free. If they come back to you they are yours. If they don't, it was never meant to be" - or something along those lines. This quote was basically playing in my head throughout the story.

While I overall enjoyed the story, I just wished Evan would grow up and accept people's wishes to be left alone.

[June · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to enjoy this book. I had just finished Matt's "Then I Met You" which I really liked.

However, this felt slow, and frustrating. I kept putting it down and picking it up, feeling restless with the sluggishness of it. I did eventually finish it last night and felt that the ending was rushed (in stark contrast to the rest of the book) and not finished as satisfyingly as I would have liked.

I didn't like Sarah very much, she didn't feel "real" as a person and so much about her history was blurry, I didn't connect with her properly. Evan I liked, mostly. David - ugh he was vile, but then suddenly at the end he seemed to completely change... what was that??

I was left feeling a mix of relief that I'd finished it (never good) and fed up that I'd wasted time on it for such an unsatisfactory conclusion.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve read three other books by Matt Dunn (Home, Another day in the office, A Christmas day in the office) and I laughed and cried and really enjoyed them, so I was really looking forward to reading this next book. However, with this book, the story was pretty flat and I felt like we just kept going round in circles, with Evan having the same conversations with Sarah, Mel and Grace about trying to get Sarah back. I also found him a bit of a whingeing wimp and the ending was pretty predictable. The attempts at humour were also cringeworthy I’m afraid.

[Emer Tannam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this book. Basically an American woman and an English guy meet and have a one night stand. They way make too much fuss about the differences between American and British English. Most of their conversations revolve around it. Then there’s a misunderstanding and they go their separate ways for a year, until she’s engaged and he decides he loves her, so he follows her around and tries to break up their engagement, when he isn’t having long and boring conversation with various people about it. Just conversation after conversation, and harassment. The writer also seems to have a dim view of women and an exaggerated sense of the differences between men and women, much like the differences between British and American English. Truly painful.

[Prl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have liked some Matt Dunn books in the past, but this is a real turkey. Dunn takes the tired old trope of having an American as a central character - which would have been OK, if a little unimaginative - and then takes the cultural and language differences and flogs them to death. After which he props them up and flogs the to death all over again.

It's hard to believe that the main character was really gullible enough to accept a marriage proposal from whom she did, and so the whole thing becomes an unbelievable yawn fest.

My advice, if you get as far as around page 100, is to skip to 20 pages before the end. You'll get to find out what happens without going through another 150 pages of the same old thing repeated over and over again.

[Suha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um.
The starting to the mid part well upto about 30 chapters it was good.
Interesting.
Though I was wondering how things would play out if she chose Evan right then.
Well surprise surpise! Their thoughts are much more complex so alike the real world.While that might be appealing to some, I didn’t like it.
And the rest seemed to be dragging somehow.
Until...... well the biggest surprise came and well, it got interesting. The last two chapters were, weird for me. Too much going on.

It definitely falls in the drama genre, but not exactly my cup of tea.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read but the plot dragged on too much for me. I found that from the middle towards the end the plot became very repetitive and I couldn’t warm to Sarah’s character. Also I felt that the ending could have been written a bit better as I would have liked to have seen what happened to the main characters. Overall a nice story that I felt I needed to finish, but it had so much more potential to be better.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A love story, written by a man! Humorous and moving, this book would make a great film. Evan and Sarah spent just ten hours together, but they just knew it was special. They were then separated for a year but couldn’t forget each other. What happens in the week they’re reunited doesn’t always go to plan, and there a few surprises thrown in. A good read, if perhaps a little long, but will definitely read more by Matt Dunn.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly what I expected for a lighthearted rom-com; laughable moments with a few groans, sprinkled with clichés. But then there’s Hollywood-esque twist scene at the end of the book that unsettles the predictable outcome by an inch.

Sometimes it's the simple, yet fluffy entertainment that comes off best.

[Elaine Wilders · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull, dull, dull! I nearly didn’t bother finishing it as it didn’t start too well, but I kept thinking there had to be some sort of twist coming up. Nope. Entirely predictable. Didn’t care about the characters, they could have sorted themselves out many chapters before the end. Was delighted to finish, that was the best part of this boring book. At least it wasn’t too long.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mediocre. I liked the characters, but there was no plot and this dragged on for so long. Basically, two people meet, they have an intense connection, and "cant get back together" because she is in a relationship with an objectively shitty guy, who illicit no sympathy. So you are just waiting until the inevitable re-coupling happens of the two protagonists. Nothing much to recommend.

[Lorna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Such a silly book - weak plot and characterisation. Sooooo predictable. I always feel bad giving one star rating rather than just tossing the book from the start. Note to self- you do not need to finish every book you start.

[marie macleod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fab

This book felt a bit slow to begin but then I was hooked.
The ending has left me wanting to know more about what happens to the characters after it all
Gutted the book has finished, this is what all books should be like (leaving you to want more)

[Sinead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book....some may say cheesy or predictable but I loved the story of true love conquering all!

[Sonya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the most interesting book I've read. It's quite boring & long.

[John McKenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant romance but predictable plot.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is okay and the characters are nice (...and as bland as this review).

[julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

Easy to read with a gripping storyline. I found it hard to put down, wanting to know what would happen next

[Rakia Vaughn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quality

Keep writing!!! A fan from Phoenix, AZ. Always humor and a sense of realness. Keep this author on your notifications!!

[Denise Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

True love

Great read, ended how I wanted it to end, some chapters abit long winded, but necessary. Good read while relaxing on holiday in the su .

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This dragged on for far too long. Nice plot but far too drawn out. Also I expected a link with the two jazz musicians - but that must have been a red herring - or a missed opportunity.