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The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez: A Messy Read
Last Updated on July 3, 2026 by Sierra Richard
The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez* explores the difficult friendship dynamics when one of the men in the group falls in love with his best friend’s girlfriend. This challenging read left me wondering if you can even classify this as a romance.
Disclaimer: Commissions may be earned on links in this article marked with “*”.
Book Recap
On the night of the Jaxon Water’s concert, Larissa gets a ride from Mike and he becomes her boyfriend. However, Mike wasn’t her only option that night. Mike’s best friend Chris was there too. As Larissa’s relationship with Mike begins to unravel, Chris is there to pick up the pieces, making Larissa question if she made the right choice the night they met. This is the second book in Abby Jimenez’s Say You’ll Remember Me series.
Top Tropes/Themes:
- Contemporary romance
- Friends-to-lovers
- Best friend’s girlfriend
- He falls first
- Forbidden love
- Dual POV
- Class differences
- Financial struggles
- Severe food allergy
- Alcoholism
Spice Rating: 🌶️(a couple close-door scenes)
Release Date: March 24, 2026
Let’s talk about it…
The Night We Met* is a forbidden romance where a man has fallen in love with his best friend’s girlfriend. Their complex relationship reads more like a dramatic literary fiction love story than a romance that left a bitter taste in my mouth rather than the happy feelings I typically crave when reading a romance.
There were too many messes
Abby Jimenez is known for tackling difficult subjects within her romance novels, and The Night We Met may be her messiest book yet, but not in a good way. Aside from the romance that was filled with emotional cheating (more on that below), the author chose to tackle food insecurity, alcoholism, deadly food allergies, the poor work environment within pharmacy, grief, and class differences all in the same book. All of these difficult topics in a single, short book overshadowed the romance and also left many of these storylines feeling incomplete.
The romance felt all wrong
When you read a romance novel, you should want to root for the main characters, but I didn’t. From the start, I could see that Chris was overstepping with Larissa and this continued to happen over and over again. He knew what he was doing was wrong, and expressed that in the chapters from his POV and he continued to do them anyway. While I knew Larissa deserved better than Mike given everything that was happening with him, Chris went too far in many situations while Larissa was still dating Mike. It was uncomfortable to read and felt a bit possessive, especially when they didn’t have a real relationship at the time.
The dog was just too much
Co-parenting a dog with your best friend’s girlfriend should never be a consideration. I wish that was the worst of the dog drama, but it’s not. Aside from the questionable choice to take care of a stray dog together when they hardly knew one another, the dog was constantly killing other animals. I don’t understand why the author thought that was necessary or a good story line. The excessive amount of animal death in this book just didn’t need to happen.
Can we stop with the EpiPen?
I’m a pharmacist so I understand the importance of having an EpiPen, but the constant checking of the pen by Chris was excessive. Larissa is an adult who has lived with this allergy for years. She is perfectly capable of taking care of her own food allergy. Not only that, several pieces of information about the EpiPen were exaggerated for the purposes of the story. For example, it was said that Chris spent $700 on a single EpiPen. As a pharmacist, I can assure you he would not have bought a brand name EpiPen and would have opted for a pack of much cheaper generic pens. EpiPens also only come in a pack of 2 pens so he couldn’t have purchased only one.
I recognize that part of my frustration with the pharmacy related elements in this book are simply because I am a pharmacist and feel like they weren’t accurately portrayed. Given these are due to my profession, I believe the average reader wouldn’t have a negative experience due to these inaccuracies.
Should You Read The Night We Met?
Despite being extremely excited for this release, I felt like this book was a disappointment for me. When I closed the book after reading the last page, I felt dissatisfied and uncomfortable. If you are looking for a book that reads like a reality TV show because of the amount of drama, you might enjoy this. If you are hoping for a heartwarming romance, I recommend passing on this book and reading something else instead.
FAQs: The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez
Is The Night We Met Spicy?
No. This book only has a couple of closed door romance scenes.
Is The Night We Met part of a series?
Yes, The Night We Met* is the second book in the Say You’ll Remember Me* series by Abby Jimenez. Book 3 is titled Feels Like Falling and is expected to release on April 15, 2027.
Can you read The Night We Met as a standalone book?
Yes, despite being the second book in a series, you can read The Night We Met without reading any of Abby’s other books. However, there are several Easter eggs hidden throughout this story that are connected to the other book in this series and the other books in the Abby Jimenez universe.
Does The Night We Met have any cheating?
While there is no physical cheating, I would classify a significant portion of the book as having emotional cheating. Chris and Larissa begin to fall for one another while she is still dating his best friend Mike, and there are many moments of connection between the two before she breaks up with Mike. If you want to avoid emotional cheating, skip this title.
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