Thank you so much to Putnam for the complimentary copy!
Thank you so much to PRH Audio for the complimentary ALC!

This book will be out on May 27th.

Annabel is one of my queen of summer romances. Her books are not overly long and just such a bingeable read. This book is can be added to that roster!

At first I wasn't sure I was going to be into it, which would be absurd because I have loved every one of her books. The beginning took a little for me to get into. It wasn't until our FMC Jane Jackson goes off to Long Island with her kind of co worker Dan Finnegan. Then things started to kick into gear!

I think part of the reason why I had struggle was because I was unsure how I felt about Jane as a character. I don't know what it was about her but she just came off as unlikeable? Perhaps that was purposeful especially since there is a conversation between Jane and Dan later in the book about how lovable she is. As the book went on Jane did warm up to me. She had made the mistake of telling her boss Nathan that she could get the mega famous Jack Quinlan (whom she worked with as a teen on a tv show) to write a song for a movie. And since she hadn't talked to Jack since she was 15, her and Dan (cinematographer) take a trip to his hometown to try to find Jack to talk to him in person.

"When you smile at me, I feel like I want to capture it. But it's not the regular way like when I see something beautiful and I want to photograph it. When you smile, it does something to me, I feel it in my chest, and I just want to figure out how to get you to do it again."

I love seeing Jane interact with Dan's family. And boy does he have a big family! They are a lot of them and they are loud and yet Jane loves it. It always had been just her and her mom so being thrown into this house with all these people was such a change for her. She just fell into step with everyone so seamless.

I mentioned this in another review recently that I just love forced proximity. As a reader, we see Jane's inner monologue trying to resist Dan. She does not want to like him because she finds him insufferable but without trying too hard he really wiggled his way into her heart. Having to spend so much time just the two of them they really were able to connect and eventually fall in love. I did not like how Jane treated Dan during the 4th quarter squabble. She had a lot of things that just built up and she just literally built a wall and hid behind it. BUT I do love a grand gesture - I will leave it at that.

I paired my reading with the audio. The audio was narrated by Hillary Huber (who did the audio for Nora Goes Off Script) and I really enjoyed her narration! Her voice for Dan didn't make me swoon persay but I also think that was part of his character. Dan was very unbothered by things (at least on the outside) so the way he talked was the same way. So in that case she nailed that as well as with Jane and her spirals tendencies.

Overall I really enjoyed Jane and Dan love story. I love how she was able to relax while in Long Island even if she was worried about work and literally let her hair down.

If you are looking for a romance this summer with a little spice, workplace, opposites attract & total vacation vibes - give this one a read!

PS - OH one thing I didn't mention, I was surprised about how much THE NOTEBOOK talk there was in this! As someone who saw the movie once and just didn't connect to it, I was very alarmed how much it was brought up. According to my kindle it was only 23 times but it sure felt like more than that.