Do I judge a book by its cover? Yes. Yes I do. Did I see a cover that could rival a Hallmark movie when I picked up Eight Perfect Hours? Yes I did. And when reading the blurb, I read “romantic and heartwarming.” The main character is named Noelle and there is snow – it was released during the prime holiday story season time. This set my expectations for this story quite high, but I just don’t feel like the story delivered what was promised, or what I hoped for.

In this romantic and heartwarming novel, two strangers meet in chance circumstances during a blizzard and spend one perfect evening together, thinking they’ll never see each other again. But fate seems to have different plans.

On a snowy evening in March, 30-something Noelle Butterby is on her way back from an event at her old college when disaster strikes. With a blizzard closing off roads, she finds herself stranded, alone in her car, without food, drink, or a working charger for her phone. All seems lost until Sam Attwood, a handsome American stranger also trapped in a nearby car, knocks on her window and offers assistance. What follows is eight perfect hours together, until morning arrives and the roads finally clear.

The two strangers part, positive they’ll never see each other again, but fate, it seems, has a different plan. As the two keep serendipitously bumping into one another, they begin to realize that perhaps there truly is no such thing as coincidence.

The beginning of the story pulled me in – the meet cute had SUCH potential. But it didn’t last very long. For Noelle and Sam to spend 8 hours together, I would think more chapters in the book would be spent on that. But we time jump forward pretty quickly to when they are back to living their own lives and begin bumping into each other. One of the ways they did, when she worked up her nerve to give Sam her phone number only for him to toss it away, and she still didn’t give up on him? That made me so mad!

There were quite a few side stories going on as well. One was the reason Noelle was stuck in traffic (class reunion where she was trying to obtain a camera from her friend who had died – grief trigger warning). Then there was Noelle’s family, her best friend (post partum depression trigger warning) and her ex-boyfriend popping back into the picture. There was just a lot going on here.

When I read through the story, I found myself not connecting with Noelle at all. There were no Christmas vibes, and I couldn’t believe that Sam and Noelle were meant to be bumping into each other. Strangely, I did like the tiny twist at the end though.

I will have to give this one 3-stars, and I hope to find an easier romance for my Christmas in July reads coming soon!

Thank you to the publishers for providing a free digital copy via NetGalley for review. All opinions are my own.