I didn’t get a chance to read and review Tari Faris’s debut novel, but reading the reviews left me with high expectations for Until I Met You. And, I have to admit, it took a while to see what everyone else saw.

Until I Met You starts with Libby and Austin meeting when Libby’s dog escapes and makes friends with Austin’s dog. She’s a purebred he was hoping to breed, so is less than pleased. As such, it’s not a great introduction to him as a character, and I did find him hard to warm to.

But it’s not just Libby and Austin’s story.

It’s also Nate and Olivia’s story, and that’s something that confused me at first—Libby and Olivia had similar character voices, and I mixed them up a couple of times.

Nate is Austin’s younger brother, the prodigal. Austin has always done everything right, and picked up the pieces after Nate’s mistakes. Nate, now a pastor, is all too aware of his past mistakes and can’t get over them—to the point he keeps brushing off Olivia, who is interested in him.

I found Nate a much more engaging character than Austin. It did make me wonder what happened to the Biblical Prodigal Son after his father threw the party. Was he able to accept his inheritance, or was he more like Nate? I could totally see what Olivia saw in Nate, and why she kept pursuing him even after all the rebuffs.

Austin, on the other had, was somewhere between difficult and insufferable, and I had trouble working out what Libby saw in him. Yes, he’s loyal and hardworking and puts others first, but he is, frankly, self-righteous about it. And that makes him somewhat tiresome. The first half of Until I Met You had a lot of Austin being insufferable, and it got a little tired.

But the story picked up pace and interest in the second half.

That’s when the spiritual aspects started to come through more strongly, and that was the real strength of the novel. Until I Met You is Christian fiction where the characters actually find the answers to their problems in the truths of the Christian faith. It’s refreshing, and I can now see why everyone raved about You Belong With Me.

I didn’t realise when I started reading, but Until I Met You is a sequel to You Belong With Me. The beginning of Until I Met You might also have been an easier read if I had read the earlier book, as then I would have known some of the characters—-Until I Met You introduced a lot of characters early on, and it wasn’t always easy to see how they fitted together. I guess that was covered in the first book.

Yes, read You Belong With Me first if you can, but don’t worry if you can’t.

The strength of Until I Met You isn’t in the series characters, but in the relationship between the brothers. Like all relationships, it can be hard going but it’s worth the effort.

Thanks to Revell and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

About Tari Faris

I have been writing fiction for more than twelve years. It has been an exciting journey for this math-loving-dyslexic girl. I had read less than a handful of novels by the time I graduated from college and I thought I would end up in the field of science or math. But God had other plans and I wouldn’t trade this journey for anything. As someone told me once, God’s plans may not be easy, and they may not always make sense but they are never boring.​

When I am not writing or working, I spend time with my amazing husband. We have been married for fifteen wonderful years and have three sweet children. In my free time, I love coffee, rock hounding with my husband and kids, and distracting myself from housework.

Find Tari Faris online at:

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About Until I Met You

When she hears that the small town of Heritage, Michigan, is looking for a new librarian, Libby Kingsley jumps at the opportunity. Little did she know the library is barely more than a storage closet stuffed with dusty, outdated books. What the community really needs is a new building. But the only funds available are those being channeled into the new town square, and the landscape architect in charge of the project wants nothing to do with her plans.

All Austin Williams wants to do is get the town square project finished so he can do right by the family business and then extricate himself from the town that reveres the brother who cost him so much. But the local media and the town’s new librarian seem to be conspiring against him at every turn. Will the determined bookworm find her way into his blueprints–and possibly even his heart?

Find Until I Met You online at:

Amazon | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong