A "former pastor's kid who knew too much" and a "youth group girl who knew nothing at all" explore faith and first love in Never Saw You Coming, a bold and compassionate contemporary YA novel.
At the age of 18, Meg Hennessey's mother reveals to her a shocking truth that causes Meg to question her conservative Christian upbringing. Meg abandons her original plans for a gap year and travels instead to northern Michigan to meet the extended family she never knew she had. Nineteen-year-old Micah Allen has his own messy family history: his ex-pastor father is in jail and his mother is pressuring Micah to publicly forgive his dad at an upcoming probation hearing. After a chance encounter, blue-eyed Meg and "darkly handsome" Micah bond over their complicated relationships with faith and the church. Friendship blossoms into romance and the two teenagers help each other "become who [they] are meant to be."
Erin Hahn (More Than Maybe; You'd Be Mine) conveys the heady excitement of first love as Meg and Micah experience "electrically charged glances and earth-quaking butterflies in the region of your heart," while tackling serious themes such as prejudice and intergenerational trauma. Meg and Micah both have been harmed by their parent's choices and a stifling conservative Christian culture, but together, they are able to heal. Their hopeful story perfectly communicates Hahn's message to "all the church kids": "You. Are. Loved. Just as you are." --Alanna Felton, freelance reviewer