Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell for the ARC!

I nominate Ava Wilder as the Queen of Celebrity Romance. While writing about characters in the spotlight, she makes them messy and relatable in a way that always absorbs me right into the story. She can also write some TENSION. Whew. The past and present timelines were done well to tell the whole story of Shane and Lilah's relationship and have me rooting for them from their first audition. The side characters were fun and added to the story in a way that kept the focus on Shane & Lilah but allowed for some 'outside perspective' on on their relationship and some breaks from all the relationship drama. I would honestly read a spin-off about any one of the side characters. Absolutely love Ava's writing and this story about two stubborn but obviously-in-love actors.

Read if you:
- love celebrity romance
- like some FIRE tension
- love a redhead MC (duh)
- are a fan of second chance romance

Thanks to Putnam for the copy of this ARC.

What a unique and lovely story from Louisa Young. Two couples, Rasmus & Jay and Róisín & Nico, are brought together when both Jay and Nico pass away. Rasmus and Róisín are left in their grief after losing their partners, and Jay and Nico are both left hanging in the balance as ghosts, invisible to all others except each other. The balance of these stories is beautiful - both melancholic and promising. I absolutely loved this one - consider picking it up!

Read if you like:
- The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, The People We Keep, or The Dead Romantics
- Sad romances
- Stories of people coming together through grief
- The healing power of music
- The stories behind tattoos

"Seeing the world differently helps you see things not just that other people can’t—but that you yourself never could if you weren’t so lucky. It lets you make your own rules. Color outside your own lines. Allow yourself another way of seeing."

Katherine Center has such a way of immersing her readers in her stories, making her characters relatable and every emotion tangible. In Hello Stranger, we feel through, Sadie a struggling portrait artist on her way to a lucky break in a competition when she's hit by a car, has brain surgery, and is diagnosed with prosopagnosia (face blindness). Yep - a portrait artist who can't see faces. In the midst of this, her family is completely unhelpful (and she has the most EVIL stepsister), but she also meets a very handsome vet she thinks could be her future husband and starts having feelings for the hipster guy living in her apartment building. The suspense was built up in this book with the looming portait competition deadline and the love triangle, and I simply couldn't put it down! While feeling the ups and downs in Sadie's life, I was also laughing out loud at all of the hysterical moments in this book and really just having a pleasant time with this warm hug of a book.

Thanks to Atria for the advanced copy of this book!

Liv and Ransom met as child stars on the set of Girls on the Verge. 20 years later, they're reunited on set for the reunion episode, and very quickly discover that they still have feelings for each other. This second-chance celebrity romance was so cute, compulsive, and a great read. I loved the mix of celebrity news articles in between the chapters to add an extra Hollywood element and raise the stakes of the relationship a little more. The other cast members and friends are fantastic side characters, and our grand gesture and the "finally getting together" moments were just perfection. If you enjoyed Birds of California or How to Fake it in Hollywood, I think you'll love this book!