[ARC Review] The One Night by Meghan Quinn
"Something dimmed inside me after the divorce, and she just turned on the light."
After finalizing his divorce from his wife a year ago, Cooper Chance found himself perfectly content to (occasionally) spend a Friday night hanging out with his parents. But Cooper's parents had other ideas. Tired of seeing him alone and closed off, they haul him out on a Friday night and volunteer to be his wingmen. As if that wasn't embarrassing enough, the woman they zero in on is none other than Nora, his ex-wife's best friend and all around friend of the Chance family. Cooper knows spending time with Nora will be awkward, but then they actually start talking. . . Nora has had a lot of alone time recently herself, and she can't help but notice that her childhood friend is pretty attractive when he finally gets around to smiling. But the guilt over sleeping with your ex-wife's best friend can be a powerful thing, and Cooper can't help but feel that his one night with Nora has ruined everything.
This novella was a perfect sampling to lead into The Reunion. While the full-length novel focuses on the Chance family as a whole, The One Night sets up so much potential drama for the upcoming book and I can't wait to see Cooper and Nora the next time they run into each other. As a novella, this was a quick read, but I loved Nora and Cooper's interactions so much that I probably would've devoured this just as quickly had it been a full-length novel. Normally, if a character does what Cooper did at the end of The One Night I would absolutely hate him, but I'm actually super excited to see what happens next when they meet up in The Reunion. I just know it's going to be fire on the page.
I would definitely recommend reading The One Night before diving into The Reunion. Quinn gave us backstory, introductions, and plenty of character development in this novella. This introduction to Martin and Peggy Chance was hilarious and really gave us insight into who they are as parents; it will be very interesting to see how they end up celebrating their anniversary and what they will do to Cooper when they inevitably find out what happened after they left him with Nora at the bar. Quinn might have written The One Night to tease us until The Reunion is released, but she did more than tease when it came to the spice in this novella. It is slow-burn, and a bit more reserved than some of Quinn's other books, but you can tell The Reunion is going to more than make up for it.
A huge thank you to Montlake for providing an advanced review copy of The One Night via Netgalley.
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Release date: 12/14/21
Format: eARC
eARC provided by: Montlake via Netgalley
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