In brief: Franny’s meeting with Hayes on the worst day of her life definitely isn’t a meet cute, but it does go viral. The two strangers are thrown together multiple times and find that they might just like each other…
The good: Great idea for a novel.
The not-so-good: Most of the story is devoted to the build up of romance, with the ending coming a little too rapidly.
Why I chose it: Sounded like fun. Thanks to Pan Macmillan for the copy.
Year: 2022
Pages: 309
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Setting: New York City
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
In a New York Minute strips away all the meet cute fantasies and brings to the fore something no romance reader wants to think about – the opposite of a meet cute. But in this case, it does have a happily ever after ending as the heroine and hero are thrown together on the New York subway.
Franny is having the worst day of her life. She’s lost her job and is hauling her stuff back home when her dress is caught in the subway doors and rips the back off. Hayes, a man in a fancy suit, comes to her aid and offers his jacket and the day’s emotions erupt on Franny. Little do they both know that the entire story is being streamed, earning them viral social media fame as #subwayQTs. But Franny isn’t enamoured by Hayes’ rich guy vibe and a local talk show meeting does not end well. But when Hayes needs Franny’s expertise to fit out his company’s new offices, they find that they have quite a lot in common. To add to it, they keep discovering links to the other in their lives…surely fate is telling them something?
I loved the idea for the opposite of a meet cute in this book, a kind of meet disaster. Why shouldn’t that throw people together? There is also some clever commentary on the lack of privacy that social media can bring to two unconsenting strangers – and how far the internet’s reaction and summation of the scene was off the mark. It was difficult to really get into Hayes’ character initially, he just seemed kind of clunky and not something that the masses would pick as a ‘QT’. Having alternate chapters told by Franny and Hayes did help the reader get into his read, but it was difficult for me to distance myself from Franny’s unflattering takes on Hayes. He did come across to me just as she described, and I tended to believe her as she was the stronger character.
There was a third very strong character in this novel, and that was New York City itself. There are plenty of great descriptions of parts of the city, as well as the food scene, Brooklyn, parks etc. I was equally invested in where Franny and Hayes would go next as I was in their relationship. Speaking of their relationship, the majority of the book is devoted to the building of the relationship. Then there’s the point where they get together, the sudden separation and then a reconciling where they devote themselves to each other. I would have liked a little bit faster buildup and some more romance to make their reconciliation even stronger. There was a bit too much to and fro that dragged the middle down.
Overall, it’s a sound fiction debut that would be great on the big screen (think of those New York sunsets). Occasionally clunky, but always entertaining.
Sam Still Reading 
This is certainly something different for a story. I can think of nothing worse than getting your dress caught in the subway doors, and then have the back ripped. So very embarrassing.