Jackson and Allison were the quintessential high school sweethearts until she took a chance on fame and fortune in Hollywood, and it broke them apart. Now, years later, Jackson's still in their hometown, owner of his own construction company and working on Allison's parents' home, when who crashes into his life again while running from scandal? Allison of course. Jackson has never gotten over his first and only love. Oh, sure, he's tried, but he's never been successful. So when she comes home with her tail tucked between her legs, he's at first determined to never go down that path again with her. Not when he knows she'll always choose her career over him, over them. But, the heart wants what the heart wants, and their chemistry is still there. Who is Jackson to deny himself the one woman he's always loved, even if it's only temporary?

Gah! I wanted to love America's Sweeheart because I adore second chance romances, and I've liked everything else of Jessica Lemmon's I've read previously. Unfortunately, America's Sweeheart just did not work for me. I loved Jackson, but he's really the only thing I liked about this story. I couldn't stand Allison - she never grew or matured as a character or as a person until the very end. She remained the same selfish, self-absorbed twit she was in the very beginning, and I could not for the life of me see what Jackson saw in her. Really, if Jackson hadn't been the real sweetheart, and if I weren't giving this story somewhat of a pass because I like Jessica Lemmon's writing normally, I'd probably 2 star it. But I'll leave it at three stars because Jackson is awesome and because I'd hate to 2 star something of a writer whom I normally love.

This book is about Allison Murphy and Jackson Burke. Allison aka Allie and Jackson dated in High School and a little bit in College. When they broke up Aliie went on to be an actress known as Nina Lockhart. Jackson went home to help his dad with his construction business.

After 10 years Allie is a star and Jackson has owned his own business for a little over a year. Allie’s life in Hollywood has blown up. She is accused of being an addict and stealing another actresses Oscar. Allie leaves Hollywood and goes to her parents house in Ohio. She goes home because she knows her parents on vacation and she can recoup and get her life back together. Well, when she opens the door she see Jackson in her parents home because he is remodeling her parents bed room. Jackson is shocked because Allie throws herself into his arms sobbing. He has not seen her in 10 years. Jackson knows a little bit about what happened but only what his sister told him because he does not keep with Allies life in Hollywood.

Of course Allie and Jackson continue to be around each other because she is staying in her parents home and Jackson has serval more weeks to work on the project. One day Jackson goes to Lowe’s and Allison wants to go with him. She hasn’t been anywhere so she is a little stir crazy. They go to Taco Bell to grab lunch. Within a few hours pictures of Jackson and Allie are all over the internet and people is calling Jackson her rebound. Allies agent wants them to pretend to date because she says Jackson and his hometown appeal will help Allie. Jackson agrees because well he can’t seem to say no to Allie.

This is a sweet story. The first half is Jackson’s POV and the 2nd is Allies. The story really picked up in the second half because you got to see the real Allie. Also Cat and Brett Fox are this book as well. I enjoyed this book and I hope Jules, Jackson’s Sister gets her own story.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

Allison Murphy is known to everyone in America as Nina Lockhart, breakout star of favorite TV show America’s Sweetheart. After trusting her boyfriend, she’s finding out how quickly the tide will turn. Running to the only place she feels is safe, she returns home and is promptly and quite unhappily reunited with her ex-boyfriend.

Jackson Burke is making a life for himself running his own business. His only wish is that his personal life would be as filling as his professional one. None of the women he’s spent time with stir those deeply buried feelings quite like the one he’s avoided for the last ten years.

This book is a stand-alone though there are appearances by characters from this author’s other works. I was excited to get my hands on this one as I’ve loved the other stories of hers that I’ve read. The book grabbed my attention from the beginning and kept me quickly turning the pages.

I loved the heroine’s ability to pick herself up from the floor after being knocked down and hold her head up high. The hero is so lovable and very protective of his first love. The chemistry between the two leapt from the pages from the very beginning and simmered below the surface with their reunion.

I will definitly recommend this book and this author to my friends. I can’t wait to see what’s next!

The prologue got me. Allie and Jackson were so damn cute in that prologue, but I knew that their split was going to be nasty. And was it!

Years after they split up, Hollywood starlet Allison arrives back in her hometown, licking her wounds after a near career suicide... and as part of a publicity stunt, she somehow manages to get her sweet ex-boyfriend to agree to be in a fauxmance. As much as Jackson liked to think that he was over Allie, he was not... and he soon finds himself falling back in love with the girl who left him behind. But had he ever really stopped loving her? And when things get to be too much, will Jackson be the one to walk away before his heart is decimated once again?

I really didn't like the character of Allie; I loved Jackson, but she had a long way to go to redeem herself, in my opinion. Yet Jessica Lemmon took a real lemon of a character (see what I did there?) and made her likable by the time I reached The End.

This book is the fifth in Lemmon's Real Love series, and I have read a few of them, but not all of them. America's Sweetheart is a true standalone, and an enjoyable second-chance romance. I received an advanced copy and voluntarily left a review.

3.5 Stars

Allison and Jackson were high school sweethearts but their relationship fell apart when she moved to Hollywood to become a star. Now Allison is back home after a scandal has made her the most hated woman in Hollywood.

I love second chance romance and I really loved Rumor Has It, Real Love #4, but there was just something about this book that I didn't love. I can't quite put my finger on it. I'm glad Jackson got his own story and I did enjoy reading this book.

*This is my voluntary review of an advanced reader copy*

This is my first time reading this author although I do have several of her books on by TBR piles. I like a second chance romance and this one with Allie and Jackson is so enjoyable. I liked how protective Jax's twin was of him in not wanting him to have his heart broken a second time. (I hope she gets her own story.) Fast read, good story told from both perspectives.

This book was just fun. There's really no other description for it. Yes, there were serious parts, and those that tugged at your heart and made you feel for the characters, but overall, I just enjoyed it thoroughly.

Allison and Jackson were a couple, and then college happened. And, they split. And, really, do you know anyone who actually managed to still be together after college? It's about .0001% of the couples that start out together at the beginning of college, and that's probably a high estimate.

So, a few years pass. He's built a life for himself in Ohio and she's built one for herself in Los Angeles, as an actress. Until she steals an Oscar from the most beloved of all actresses in Hollywood and has to run. See what I mean? Serious...but fun. She stole an Oscar. How terribly Hollywood. And fun.

The entire book is like this, with moments of genuinely enjoyable humor and seriousness put together so perfectly that you are sad to see the title end.

I enjoyed and recommend this title.

This is book #5 in the Real Love Series. It was ok to me. Jackson I loved! Cute, hardworking manly man who has been unattached for roughly the last 10 years since he broke up with his high school sweetheart Allison. He has his own business when all the sudden said ex girlfriend comes back into his life. Allison and Jackson broke up when she left for Hollywood. Every time I was reading her I just was annoyed! She came across to me as shallow and entitled. She runs home with her tail between her legs and runs into Jackson as soon as she steps in town. They agree to have a fake reacquaintance for her sake. I just didn’t get a lot of relationship chemistry between these two, but the bedroom scenes are hot as heck I will give them that. It was still and OK read, with a little bit of an appearance from a couple in a previous Real Love story. I would still recommend it and look forward to more books in this series.

I've always been a fan of Jessica Lemmon's stories and her newest one is another delightful read. America's Sweetheart is a wonderful romance, a reunion story that will make you laugh out loud, smile with satisfaction and keep those pages turning. Sweet, sexy and simply delightful.

I was excited to read America’s Sweetheart. For the most part, I was happy with what I read. It was a sexy, original second chance romance. But, I was left feeling “meh” about the characters, how a certain character’s backstory was explained, and the romance was boring. Not the sex, the romance.

America’s Sweetheart is a second-hand romance featuring Jackson and Allison. Jackson and Allison were high school sweethearts who broke up in college when their lives went in different directions. Allison became a famous TV star and Jackson is a successful business owner. 10 years after they broke up, they are reunited. After taking the fall for something her famous ex-boyfriend did, Allison came home to figure out what her next move would be. Jackson, a successful contractor, is remodeling Allison’s parents’ house when she waltzes back into his life. Soon, Jackson and Allison are thrown together into a “faux” relationship to throw off the paparazzi. But, what is supposed to be fake soon becomes real. Can Jackson and Allison get through that without breaking their hearts again?

I am a huge fan of second chance romances. I like them because it is awesome seeing two people separated by years fall back in love. But, in the case of America’s Sweetheart, I felt that the romance was boring. There needs to be a rekindling of the romance between those people. Not walking into their lives and falling back into the same relationship. Which is what happened to Jackson and Allison. Plus, I didn’t know what Allison felt from one day to the next about Jackson. Did she want to be with him? Was she using him? In the back of my head, I was going “What the heck is going on!!!“

If I thought the romance was lacking in this book, sex definitely wasn’t. The sexual attraction and chemistry that they had were intense. Which in turn made the sex scenes powerful. I did have an issue with Jackson going bareback with Allison after making sure she was clean. Sorry, but if I were having sex with someone after 10 years of not being with them, I would sure as hell make sure to have a box of condoms there. I know it is nitpicking and weird but I get skeeved out over that. Other than that, the sex was insane.

I thought that the storyline was different. I liked that the author had Allison’s ex-boyfriend steal the Oscar and then frame Allison for it. But what I didn’t like, and what confused the heck out of me, was that Allison’s POV about the Oscar theft was brought up in the middle of the book. Put it this way. I ended one chapter and began the next one with Allison at that party. I was like “What the heck. Shouldn’t that have been at the beginning of the book? Maybe as a prologue????” It made zero sense to have it added in the middle of the book. While it helped me with understanding Allison better, it interrupted the flow of the story.

I couldn’t connect with Allison. It’s not that I didn’t like her, I didn’t understand where her character was going from one chapter to the next. I was also bothered that I couldn’t tell what she felt for Jackson. I couldn’t figure out if it was for sex or if she loved Jackson. She also came across as a little spoiled. Which I expected because she had spent 10 years on a successful show. But still. I wish that I had seen more of the Allison that Jackson knew.

I did like Jackson. I could understand why he was wary of getting involved in any way with Allison. She destroyed him when they broke up. I got it. I even understood why he got involved with Allison’s dating scheme. Unlike Allison, he was pretty good to read. I could tell that he was falling for Allison. Everyone could. Because I couldn’t get a hold on her feelings for him, I was hoping that she wouldn’t stomp all over his feelings again.

The end of the book fell flat for me also. The author did a great job of wrapping up all the storylines. She also did a great job at giving Allison and Jackson their happy ending. It didn’t do it for me. I didn’t think that the ending scene and what Jackson did was romantic. If anything, it stoked Allison’s ego. Call me unromantic, but “eh“.

What I liked about America’s Sweetheart:

Original storyline
Second chance romance
The sex
What I disliked about America’s Sweetheart:

Couldn’t tell how Allison felt about Jackson for 90% of the book
Allison’s side of the story thrown in the middle of the book.
End of the book
I gave America’s Sweetheart a 3-star rating. I did like the storyline. I also liked that it was a second chance romance. Plus, the sex was hot. But, I didn’t like how Allison’s side of why she went home was put in the middle of the book. Which factored in my rating. Everything else that I didn’t like was just me. I couldn’t tell how Allison felt about Jackson. Also, the end of the book fell flat for me.

I would give America’s Sweetheart an Adult rating. There is explicit sex. There is language. There is mild violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I am on the fence about rereading America’s Sweetheart. I am also on the fence if I would recommend this book to family and friends.

I would like to thank Loveswept, NetGalley, and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read and review America’s Sweetheart.

All opinions stated in this review of America’s Sweetheart are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

I have a special fondness for right person, wrong time stories and this fits the bill perfectly.

Allison and Jax were high school/college sweethearts until a Hollywood internship for her turned into more. Decisions at the time ended their relationship, but did either of them really move on?

Fast forward 10 years to Allie coming home under less than ideal circumstances.....

I really liked both characters here, even if Allie did have to grow on me a little bit. Jax is a hero that was just easy to like from the get go - it took me a little bit to realize that I had met him in one of the earlier Real Love books - he's so easy going that when he shows his more emotional side it's impressive.

For Allie, I slowly warmed up to her. I don't know if it was emotional growth or her shaking off the Hollywood persona, but the longer she was home the more I enjoyed her character. As the story progressed it was easy to see her in both places and it was hard to know what outcome to root for.

I appreciated how Ms. Lemmon crafted Jax and Allie's time together. There was a good mix of awkward, friendship, slow burn, and blazing chemistry. One of my favorite things was how the conflict of the story flowed through the whole book, there wasn't just one big blow up to fix, there were small moments all along that clued us into the struggle both characters were going through. The resolution was never a forgone conclusion and I liked the anticipation of wondering if their happy ending really meant them being together.

This was a fun read and reinforced Ms. Lemmon's status as a go to author for me.

Second chance stories are one of my favorite to read at the moment. So when I had the chance to read America’s Sweetheart by Jessica Lemon, I jumped at the chance. Allison left her hometown ten years ago and made it big in Hollywood. But a scandal sends her back home for a brief escape, but running into her first love was not part of the plan.

Jackson was left heartbroken when Alison left, but he moved on. Now she is back and old feelings are resurfacing. He is determined to keep his heart secure from her this time around, especially since he knows she will leave again. But when it comes to matters of the heart, it does as it pleases!

I loved Jackson. He was sweet, honest and caring. I did not always like Alison, however, as the story went on, we saw how much he truly meant to her. America’s Sweetheart by Jessica Lemon was a sweet and charming second chance romance and through part of series, it can be read as a standalone.

Happy reading!

I wasn’t too sure about Allie/Mini/Nina at the start of the book due to the first person POV being from Jackson for almost the first half of the book but once we got inside Allie’s mind she became much more likable.

Jax and Allie are not only former high school sweethearts getting a second chance but they are a little opposites attract and two worlds colliding too! Jessica Lemmon is so good at weaving a story that is a great balance of wit, steam, and emotion and America’s Sweetheart showcases this skill to perfection. Now the real question is does Jules get her man soon????

I adored this book. I love a good second chance novel. I love when the characters have to really work for their reunion. Jax and Allie are a perfect couple. I love how their story developed in the epilogue and how it ended up years later. A swoon worthy romance for sure!

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆
This is the fifth book in a run of books which are linked, but there is no need to read one to enjoy another. This is a sweet, second-chance romance which gives both the protagonists a voice, and an opportunity to make right what went wrong before.

I particularly liked that Jackson had made a success of his life – he may have a view that he was blue collar and not glitterati, but he had a successful business and clearly was a self-made man. It made sense that he had made the decisions he did, and allowed the story to move forward with much more parity between them than might have been expected. He is obviously also drop dead gorgeous and has morals... lucky Allison! That said, she may have been tainted by Tinseltown, but has the good sense to return to her roots to regroup and recover from a horrible situation. I like how the reveal is placed in the book, and the twists and turns that affect the progress of their renewed relationship.

This is an easy, fun, and entertaining read, thank you, Jessica Lemmon.


Mary Jo – ☆☆☆
I enjoyed the premise of this book, but found that parts of it took me out of the story. The characters didn't seem to have a lot of chemistry.

To me, the book was predictable, and I found myself skimming parts of it.

I love Jessica Lemmon books & this one is no exception. I enjoyed getting to know Jackson better from Barrett’s story. It was good to see Barrett & Catarina make a brief appearance. I also enjoyed Allie/Nina. She’s a spitfire with a lot of spirit & I love a female character like that. I highly recommend reading Jackson & Allie/Nina’s story. It is very entertaining & well worth your time.

And the Academy Award goes to...
The real star in this book...Jackson.
Talk about a show stealer. This home town heartthrob stirs more than hearts. (Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge)

It's hard to not be loved by everyone when you are gorgeous, kind, and every woman's dream. Well very woman except the one who eviscerated his heart all those years ago. Looks like the past is catching up though folks because...enter stage left- the one who ran away.

It's sweet and all kinds of perfect happiness. The kind of story that evokes giddy squirming over all the perfect moments. No deep emotional traumas....(Well, aside from the hack and slay of a heart or two ten years prior). It's the right kind of feel good book with some deliciously naughty chemistry to keep your....mind focused.

A Rekindled Romance
A good 2nd chance romance 10 years later. This story had me wondering how is this going to work a 2nd time--nothing has changed. But it has--they grew up and figured out what they could live with and what they couldn't live without.
I liked Jax a whole lot more than Allison as she seemed rather shallow and or self centered, which just made Jax a bigger hero for loving her.
There was some heat to this, along with quite a few humorous situations and was fun to read.
The ending truly surprised me!

I have been a fan of Jessica Lemmon since I read her Bad Boy series. I haven’t had the pleasure of reading any other books in the Real Love series, yet, but I will be definitely be remeding that soon! I absolutely adored America’s Sweetheart.

We meet Jackson, a hunky contractor, who certainly knows how to use his hands. But he is also a sweet, caring, and genuine man.

“He’s so damn handsome it hurts.”

Enter Allison Murphy aka Mini. His first love, the one who left him for the glitz and glam of Hollywood and fame.

After a scandalous incident, Allison comes home, the only place she feels safe. Only to run into the only man she has ever loved, at her own home.

“She smells as good as she always has. She smells like home. Like she’s mine.”

I adored everything about this story. Jackson and his sweetness, his ability to be there for his friends. Allison and her insecurities. The feelings they had separately and together. Their chemistry. The steaminess. Love. Family. There was just so much goodness in this story! You must read this book if you are a fan of heat, sweet, and oh so good! (4 stars)

“My ex and I were over so long ago that it shouldn’t have any sting left, but I’m not sure I ever shook her. Not because I’m pining, but because after we ended, she became famous. Famous famous. I’m talking walk-the-red-carpet-who-are-you-wearing-can-I-have-your-autograph famous. How’s that for a kick in the nuts?”

They were high school sweethearts until Allie succumbed to the glamour of Hollywood and Jackson was left behind. Now, ten years later she returns to her small hometown to regroup & lick her wounds after a humiliating scandal. Fleeing to her parents for emotional support, she unexpectedly finds Jackson renovating their home. It doesn’t take long for all their buried emotions to begin to begin to resurface. And when her agent comes up with the brilliant idea of staging a fake relationship to repair her tarnished image, Allie knows just the man for the job.

I really enjoyed this sexy second chance at love story and liked reading it from alternating point of views. Although this is the fifth book in the Real Love series, it was the first for me and read fine as a stand-alone.
That said, I do look forward to going back & reading the books I missed in the series.