Review: The Pick Up - Sadie Ryan - September 2026 I'll be honest, when I sat down with this one this morning, I really didn't know what I was walking into. Something about a bar, a meet-cute, maybe a slow-burn romance? That was about the extent of my guess. What I got instead was so much richer, and honestly, a little more heart-stopping than I expected. We meet Melissa, freshly out of a ten-year relationship and staring down forty with the sinking feeling that love might have left the building for good. I think anyone who's ever felt that particular kind of post-breakup dread will recognise themselves in her immediately. Then comes one night out with her friends, and suddenly she's swept into the orbit of Ralph Darling. And swept really is the word. The whirlwind romance moves fast, with a wedding on the horizon just two months in. But here's the thing that had me gripping the pages: Ralph is too good to be true, in the most unsettling sense possible. He's a ...