by Jayci Lee
Childhood friends to lovers? Say no more… except I will. Lizzy is on her way to become partner in a successful law firm. Jack feels stuck in the family business and is desperate for a change. When Lizzy shows up in town Jack has to decide what to do with a 20-year long crush on his best friend. What mess will the inevitably make of their friendship? Let’s find out!
Read if you like: friends to lovers, second chance, following your dreams, falling in love in a bookstore, the guy falls first, clueless yet driven leading lady.
Lizzy’s life is going according to plan. She’s on track to live the dream her family has helped build for her, but something is off. So, she turns to her most reliable source of comfort, her best friend Jack. Jack has been in the same town for what feels like his whole life. He’s been vital in launching his family’s brewery and putting them on the map. But now, he’s an unessential part of the team and he needs a change. Just as he’s contemplating his next step his best friend and long-time crush shows up for an extended vacation. The next 3 weeks will change everything. Good thing the local bookstore needs remodeling and our duo both need to be productive to feel fulfilled.
I really wanted to love Booked on a Feeling. But I’m just in like with it. The second half of the book was better than the first so it ended on a high note but, unfortunately, a lot the writing fell flat.
The first half felt a little perfunctory. Phrases were repeated too often. Basic side characters were plugged in for plot. And our leading duo’s personalities didn’t shine through. Heck, we have a friends-to-lovers plot and NOT A SINGLE CHARACTER commented on their chemistry until they were at least realizing there was a page for them both to be on… and that was over halfway through the book. And there were ample opportunities: friends, family members, and even a random dude in a park… nothing. Where’s the lead up? There was none. It’s just Lizzy and Jack against the plot.
The way it felt to me was the plot from 60% to the end was what she knew wanted to write but then had to figure out how to get to that point in the story. The beginning was a bit bland to be honest. I was gearing up for a total Halmark-esque no spice, maybe some steam, romance until about 30-40% through and Jack finally felt alive on the page and made me think otherwise. I’m giving it a 2 on the 5-point pepper scale. It probably has too much spice for the non-spicy folks, but spicy folks will scoff at the setup and fade to black. Basically, you get spice prologue and spice epilogue but no spicy chapters.
However, after 60%, there were times I was laughing out loud and I never stopped rooting for our duo. It just seemed that everything else was basic. Family. Basic. Background. Basic. Actually, I never did understand how these two met. Was it a prep school? Their families knew each other, but other than that it was very unclear. I did appreciate Jack; he maintained a great mindset through the whole story when he’d been pining for so long. Poor clueless Lizzy.
I’m hoping that the editing team will make this gem shine because, like the bookstore, this story has potential.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC for review. Expected publication in July 2022.
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