I liked this. I really liked the progression from enemies to flirty friends and finally to lovers. But then I didn’t like the conflict near the end, or how it was resolved. And I didn’t buy that by the end a close enough bond had been formed between them.

Overall, the characters never felt as vividly drawn as in the previous book, or the world as lived in.

As I said, I liked this book. But compared to the previous book, and also to Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail, another book about the granddaughter of the owner of a failing and run-down hotel who clashes with someone wanting to modernise the hotel, and who doesn’t respect the history of the building, during the filming of a reality tv renovation show, this one doesn’t quite hold as special a place for me.

Super intense and stressful in parts, but really beautiful. I can see why this is a classic.

This is really cute and sweet and very, very funny.

Very cute! Only problem, and possibly this is just because I have terrible brain fog from Covid, but towards the end I sometimes had trouble working out which character’s PoV it was at any point, which took me out of it because I was confused.

I love Jamey Moody’s incredibly sweet dialogue, and this is a peak example.

There is something so incredibly sweet about Jamey Moody’s writing, it makes me feel warm and happy inside 

I likes this, but something felt like it was missing, or wasn’t quite hitting the mark. Enjoyable, but didn’t quite do it for me.

Knowing quite a lot about fountain pens and paper through my wife who loves them made this a joyous read. Also, knowing that the author lives in Freiburg and, like one of the characters, grew up in a small wine-producing region, made this book feel special. The romance is really lovely, one of Jae’s best.