Their marriage of convenience was supposed to exist on paper. Can these strangers act convincingly in love when the pressure’s on?

Piper Paulson’s life is finally on the upswing. She has a new job, a BFF roommate, and a commitment to avoid dating after an ex cost her her peace—and her former career. She may not have two nickels to spare, but that’s another day’s problem.

James Newhouse doesn’t have time or energy to deal with… well, anything. A hotshot banker with a complicated family, he’s determined to keep people at arm’s length. His attraction to Piper isn’t part of the plan, and neither is adding her to a Family Fares commuter pass as his “wife” to save her money on train fare.

Too bad their judgment is speeding away faster than their shared train.

Thrown together by chance (and a handful of Elvis impersonators), James and Piper find themselves witnesses to an incident on their commute—“married” witnesses, who may be asked to testify if the crime goes to trial.

Can they keep up the charade to avoid being outed for their lie? And perhaps more importantly, can they protect their hearts in the process?

My Review:

Have you ever read a book that makes you want to mimic the classic swoon scene in a romantic comedy? You know the one: where you throw yourself back, bury your head in a pillow, and kick your feet in excitement. That’s exactly the feeling this book evokes. I could say it is sweet, cute, and adorable, along with a bunch of other adjectives that wouldn’t remotely do it justice. Picture that scene – the overwhelming giddiness, the flood of feel-good endorphins – that’s the best way to describe this book. Before diving into “Somewhere Along the Line,” remember to check your logic at the door. This is fiction, and while the characters are insanely relatable, the plot stretches a bit from reality. I’d hate for readers of this debut novel to get tripped up by something so trivial and miss out on a wonderful story.

It’s taken two years, but Piper has finally begun to piece together the fragments of her blown-up life. She’s working at a job she loves and living with her best friend. While she may not have two dimes to rub together, she wouldn’t trade it for anything. She even has a bonus: the six-foot-tall highlight of her day, whom she casually spies on every morning on her way to work. Meant to be admired from afar, fate keeps landing her right in front of him – once, literally, on his foot. He is everything she would normally want, but if the past has taught her anything, it’s that guys like James Newhouse should be avoided. He reminds her too much of her ex, and she’s all too familiar with how that ended. Still, there’s something different about him. Try as she might, she can’t seem to avoid him, and after one chance conversation, a crazy solution arises. What’s a little fare-fraud among strangers? What should have been an easily kept secret takes on a life of its own when a surprise subway attack makes them eyewitnesses – or rather, married eyewitnesses, according to the commuter roster. As events escalate and the possibility of a trial looms, James and Piper must decide whether they’re ready to come clean or double down on the lie and do what it takes to keep up the ruse. It seems easy until playing pretend starts to feel a little too real.

As I mentioned before, this book is too adorable for words! It’s an instalove that fights tooth and nail not to be an instalove. There wasn’t a moment in this book that I didn’t enjoy. It kept me engaged from beginning to end. I will admit, the ending was a bit of a head-scratcher in terms of logistics (if you read it, you’ll see what I mean), hence the warning to check your logic and just enjoy the overall story for what it is: two people determined to fight a connection that the universe is bound and determined to make happen. If you don’t fall in love with the main characters, you will definitely enjoy the secondary ones. I’ll gladly pause the review right now and make a public plea to Mallory to give Sami and Kyle their own story. You can’t make us adore these two throughout the entire book, tease the possibility of something happening, and then leave us hanging – that’s just mean! I also appreciated how Mallory made the subway itself a main character in the book. Its actions, circumstances, and situations played heavily into James and Piper’s interactions. If it was intentional, it was a brilliant move on her part, as it was a key component in the evolution of their relationship.

Sticking with the characters, if I haven’t emphasized it enough – Mallory did an excellent job with her character development and overall evolution. I anticipate that many who enjoy this book will be able to identify with both characters very easily. Piper was determined to protect herself because her strengths – being caring, loving, and open – were also her greatest weaknesses. She wanted to open up to James, but the memory of what happened when she let herself get swept away always haunted her. James felt the same way; both characters believed they were punished for who they were in previous relationships and were determined to protect themselves from being punished due to their shortcomings. For James, having lost two women he cared about, he didn’t want to subject himself to the possibility of pain again. He hid behind the belief that he was trying to protect Piper, but anyone in his shoes knew what he was doing – or at least trying to do. These characters felt real, pulling at the broken pieces left in all of us by those we let in. We create narratives in our heads as a means of survival. After a while, they become our truths. Piper was convinced she had pieced her life together two years after it was destroyed by Henry. Only Sami was able to make her realize that, while she wasn’t how she envisioned herself (she was still an adorable bumbling mess), she was stronger than she thought and proved she could be devastated and still emerge on the other side. She did the work and because of therapy, she had the tools. No one, not even James, was going to take that away from her. James did the same; he created a persona to hide and protect himself, convincing himself it was for the benefit of others – a lie that became his truth when, in reality, it was to protect himself. 

Mallory definitely snuck the spice up on you. I wasn’t sure which direction this book would take because she did an amazing job focusing on the heart instead of the heat. It was a slow burn but not too slow, spicy but not vulgar, anxiety-driven but not irritatingly so. She found the perfect middle ground for each situation, making it a pleasant read from cover to cover. 

One thing I noticed, and I’m unsure if it’s good or bad, is that while Piper shared what happened with Henry – at some point sharing the whole story, as James was able to mention to Kyle what Henry did to her in front of his colleagues – James never shared what happened with Sydney. The fact that he knows the whole story about Henry suggests there may have been an off-scene conversation, but nowhere in Piper’s inner monologue does she mention Sydney. When James asks for forgiveness, his past still doesn’t come up. While it wasn’t entirely necessary for them, even though they kept emphasizing the need to be open and honest, I felt it would have been pertinent for Piper to understand why James was being so closed off. She guessed (and guessed correctly) that he was protecting himself, but she made the leap more from the loss of his mother rather than past heartbreak.

The one wish I had, even though Mallory did provide an epilogue, was to witness how James proposed to Piper. If the stunt he pulled just to get her to date him again is any indication, I can only imagine what he had up his sleeve for a proposal.

“Somewhere Along The Line” is one of those sweet romantic comedy books that sneaks up on you. You know within the first few pages that you’re going to love it (I STILL want to know why Piper only had on one shoe! I swear that bugged me the entire time!), but you have no idea exactly how much until you finish and find yourself hoping against hope that Mallory will turn this into a series because you aren’t ready to say goodbye to these characters just yet.