10 Things I Hate about You was one of my all time favorite movies, while I've never read Taming of the Shrew, I knew that it was a modern take on it. So of course, when I heard that Better Hate than Never was a reimagining of that story, my first hope was that she was going to include tie ins to 10 things - and my heart was SO happy that she did!

First of all - Kat & Christopher may be my favorite characters that Chloe Liese has written into a book. Kat is an ADHD rep and Christopher is a chronic illness (migraine) rep. I loved their banter, I loved the laugh out loud moments, and my heart cried for both of them at times. Insanely slow burn, but it worked so well because we saw so much growth & development between the two characters that I don't think it would have worked for them to get together sooner. I really appreciated the fact that at a pivotal "possible" third act breakup moment, we saw even more growth & communication and two adults actually acting like adults.

Every new book of Chloe's shows me so much growth in her writing and I can't wait to read Jules's book too.

Huge thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My brain exploded at the end and now I can’t put together a coherent review.

I want to give this book more than 5 stars though.

Casey & Alex are my new favorite book couple. Their story of strangers to partial-enemies (she hated him because he got the job she wanted but he was friendly to her) to lovers had me laughing, smiling, lusting, crying, and then crying happy tears.

I love when you have two characters who act like adults, talk to each other like adults, pick each other up and root for each other, and have spectacular growth & development over the course of the book. They each had their own internal struggles but you could also tell that they genuinely wanted the other person to be happy.

This debut novel from Clare Gilmore has moved her to my immediate “will read everything this author writes” list. I finished the book and immediately DMed her on Instagram how much I loved it and how I can’t wait to read her next book.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants a book that a full of emotion & beautiful characters that you absolutely fall in love with (and hate the characters that you are meant to hate)

Huge thank you to St Martins Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I'm so very torn on how I feel about Friends Don't Fall in Love - I think my final rating is 3 because of how I feel about the characters and their behavior.

First of all - I LOVE friends to lovers/second chance and while I felt like this book fell into those tropes, it didn't feel like it was very well done with those tropes. It was a very short lived friends with benefits trope, that didn't feel very well done either.

Lorelai and Craig are longtime friends, previous one night stand, both deeply involved in the music industry. They are both pining for each other, but because we cannot be adults, they refuse to own up to their feelings or even tell the other how they feel. Lorelai has been gutted in the country music industry because of her speaking out against guns & now she's trying to come back.

I loved the advocating against school shootings and violence. I loved the music side of the story, but the characters made me angry reading the book. Both Craig and Lorelai felt toxic because they had very little confidence in themselves - while the whole world is screaming their praises and telling them how much they love them.

it literally takes until 90-ish% before the characters even admit to themselves how they feel about the other and 93-95% before they admit to the other person.

Honestly - I deducted 2 stars because the characters were so hard to read :(

I have other books of Erin Hahn to read and I will give her more chances.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

One thing that I love about both A Merry Little Cute & A Holly Jolly Ever After is that while they are both incredibly spicy, you have a solid plot as well. You have emotional matters that are being worked through.

I also love Christmas Notch and this was a fantastic trip back there. Winnie and Kallum were both delightful characters and I found myself rooting them on to admit how they felt about each other. I really appreciated how they handled approaching religious trauma with Winnie.

Part 2 of the book was a surprise for me with a pregnancy trope and fear of miscarriage triggers that I wish had been disclosed.

However, it was a funny cute and christmassy rom-com that I enjoyed overall.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Molly and Jude are lifelong childhood friends turned rivals - always pranking and trying to outdo the other. Until they get tasked to work together to help plan a joint anniversary dinner for each of their parents.

I admit - I can’t decide whether I want to rate this book a 2.5 or 3. I love the enemies to lovers, childhood friends to lovers trope, but this book was a struggle for me.

The characters felt like they had absolutely zero chemistry. There was no slow burn leading up their getting together - instead it was a wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Both characters were in their late 20s but acted as though they were in their pre-teens. None of the side characters even caught my attention. With the way that the characters continually changed with how they felt towards each other, I felt like I was experiencing whiplash.

This was my first book by Meredith Schorr and I was hopeful that I would like it. I will eventually read her previous book, “As Seen on TV”, and I’m hopeful I will enjoy that one a little more.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When I initially requested “The Predictable Heartbreaks of Imogen Finch”, I didn’t know what to expect - the cover was cute so I figured it would be a mindless book that I may enjoy.

This is my reminder to you to never judge a book by its cover. I adored this book. I literally loved EVERYTHING about it. I related to the emotional feels of loving a childhood friend but wondering if you were ever going to see them again. I related to the emotional feels from having emotionally absent parents growing up. And I related to Imogen in her feeling of whether she was ever going to be something besides second best & whether she would ever find love.

All of the characters are phenomenal, even the side characters (in other books, who tend to blend into the background). I cried with both Imogen & Eliot as they navigated their feelings - Imogen for feeling wanting to feel love & like she will be first to someone instead of just second & Eliot with his grief for both the loss of his dad & having emotionally absent parents. But I also cried because I just wanted them to admit their feelings to each other - to admit that they were absolutely and utterly in love with each other because Jacqueline Firkins wrote their chemistry SO FREAKING GOOD.

I have so many other feelings about this book because I don’t want to give away too many spoilers - I want everyone who reads this book to fall in love with the small town, with the brilliant characters, and root for Imogen & Eliot to find themselves & each other.

This was definitely a 10 star read for me. And one that I plan on buying just so I can read again & annotate every line that I connected with.

Huge Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.