Once again, Christina Lauren made me fall in love with the entire ensemble of their book (ok, minus Ian). This wasn’t my favorite book of theirs but it was enjoyable none the less. Full of drama and love that maybe shouldn’t be, Twice in a Blue Moon was a good read.

**Thank you to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

At the age of 18, Tate Jones is able to escape her sheltered life for two weeks on a trip to London with her overprotective grandmother, where she meets Sam Brandis. They wind up in a whirlwind romance and share secrets with each other that no one else knows - and, in Tate's case, secrets she's been forbidden to talk about for the past ten years. Tate pours her heart out to Sam, but when her carefully hidden identity is exposed, she knows exactly who to blame. Years later, Tate is shocked to run into Sam again on the set of her first big role as an aspiring actress, and she's forced to confront the idea that things aren't always what they seem.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I have other Christina Lauren books on my TBR, but this is the first one I've actually gotten around to, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The dialogue was genuinely funny and didn't feel forced, and I especially appreciated the "like" that fell into a lot of Tate's lines - one of those very human traits that often doesn't get translated into writing. Christina Lauren spends just enough time in the past to develop Tate and Sam's relationship while still leaving plenty of room to discuss their present.

I loved the characterization of Sam and Tate. Early on, you can tell that Sam's motivation for spilling Tate's secret is more than what it first seems, and Tate's journey to unpack what she considers a betrayal makes her question whether people can do bad things for a good reason, and whether or not that is enough for forgiveness. The start of their relationship is just awkward and endearing enough to resonate with real life experiences and I found myself relating to Tate at the height of her uncertainty all too well. Sam also happens to be perfect - until he lets slip Tate's biggest secret, and even then, it's hard to look past how great he is.

Twice in a Blue Moon delves into the secrets of Hollywood and fame, and all of the calculations of the press, and at the heart of it all are Tate and Sam. Their relationship is hard enough to navigate because of their complicated past, and navigating Tate's very public life only makes it harder. Luckily for Tate she has people who keep her grounded in her tumultuous world, including her best friend/make-up artist Charlie, who I ADORE. While the premise of the story is centered around Sam's initial betrayal, the rest of the book does a lot to unpack how Tate's dad first betrayed her years ago. With so many of Tate's relationships fabricated for the sake of publicity, she has to differentiate between the genuine and the make believe, the people who have her best interests at heart versus those who are only looking to serve themselves. Not to mention the complex addition of the Milkweed script, which is a love story that talks about white privilege in the past that's still relevant in the present.

This was a great introduction to Christina Lauren books and I can't wait to read more, and pick up a copy of Twice in a Blue Moon once it's published!

When we first meet up with Tate and Sam, their romance is sweet and innocent. Everything your first love should be. Tate and Sam found love and friendship without having to look hard for it, only for the deepest betryal to happen. But, when it comes to Tate and Sam's story, it's not a malicious as it seems. There's more to their story than meets the eyes, and it will be fourteen years before these former lovers are reunited and the truth finally sees the light....

Overall, I thought this book was an ok read. I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with it. So, let's start with the things that worked. I really liked the beginning of the story. I loved the way that Sam and Tate met. They just hit it off and couldn't help the pull they felt for one another. I think for Tate, it was a breath of fresh air to be around someone she liked, but that didn't know her. She found it easy to confide in Sam and just be who Tate wanted to be. Sam and Tate's beginning was filled with lots of stolen and sweet moments and those moments left me with butterflies in my stomach from all of the cuteness. The betrayl was a great twist. I wasn't expecting it and defintiley didn't see it coming. I liked the overall plot of the story. I thought it was a unique take on a first love/second chance romance. 

Sadly, this book was not a 100% hit for me. So, lets touch on what did not work. First thing being first. There is a huge gap of time between when we last see Tate and Sam. Now, usually that isn't a huge deal, but for this story, that gap left me with a lot of questions. For me, I wanted to see what happened to both Sam and Tate after their seperation. I wanted to see Tate rise up and also see what led her to her new career. I think if we had gotten to expierince those moments instead of a blip of a mention of them, I feel like I would have connected to the "new" Tate better. Same can be said for Sam. His life changed in many ways and I would have liked to see how he got there and those moments that led to his reunion with Tate. This is definitley a time where I feel that dual point of view could have really helped with character growth and connection. My other issue was the ending. While I really liked it, it felt a bit rushed to me, like we hit our climax and that's it, show's over. After everything these characters went through, I would have liked to gotten more of their reunion and their future instead of just tiny blips of it.

So, my final thoughts. This book was an ok read. For me, it had a totally different feel from what we normal get from this duo. It was much lighter, less angst, less steamy moments. Don't get me wrong, there was still drama and some steam. But, it just didn't have that spark or signature humor that I'm used to from Christina Lauren. There were some parts that worked and some that just didn't. I think this book will be one of those that some will love and some will hate. And while this isn't my favorite book by this duo, I'm still glad that I checked it out and gave it a chance.

I enjoyed Twice in a Blue Moon, but I just didn’t love it. Christina Lauren books have been hit or miss for me so I wasn’t sure what to think going into this one. Unfortunately, this one was just a bit lacking in plot and uninteresting characters. The premise was tempting enough. Tate and Sam meet while they’re young on a summer holiday in London. This leads to a whirlwind romance that ends abruptly when Tate’s long kept secret is revealed to the media by someone she thought she could trust. Years later, we catch up with Tate as a successful movie star starting a new film written by, you guessed it, Sam.

Sam and Tate were cute, but there was no sizzling chemistry between the two, in my opinion. The banter and humor was not there, which I felt was a huge disappointment. I felt there was a lot of build up for Tate and Sam’s reunion, but it fell pretty flat for me. Overall, Twice in a Blue Moon is fine but not anything special.

Any one that has had a first love, and thus, a first heartbreak will connect with this book. Christina Lauren does NOT disappoint with this. Fans of her novels will definitely want to pick this one up.

Twice in a Blue Moon was fun romance that took me from the sites of London to a movie set in the states. Any book about finding your first young love brings on the warm fuzzies. This one hit the spot on the feels and read like a young adult (YA) story. The second half of the book, fourteen years later, had the same characters as grown adults. The characters were fun to cast as there are so many real daddy and daughter mega-stars to imagine in their place.

Interestingly, it was a subplot that I most enjoyed about the book. I was completely absorbed by Sam’s background. His grandparent’s love story and the torment they faced for their biracial union made me want to know more about them. Maybe others will feel this way and Christina Lauren will be prompted to do a one-off about Luther and Roberta.

Christina Lauren was introduced to me with Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, in which I compare all of their other works too. Yes, I meant ‘their’, because Christina Lauren is a writing duo. I know that comparison from book to book is completely unfair, but still, Josh and Hazel blew me away with exciting chemistry and tension. Overall, I really did enjoy reading this book, but there were parts that felt unrealistic, even for fiction. For example, without any spoilers, how Sam and Tate met was a highly unlikely scenario. Of course, as any avid reader does, I let the story reel me in and didn’t let the small stuff bother me.

Christina Lauren has a nique in the rom com arena. They never fail to write a story that is total escapism and is a great vacation read.

I am not sure the storyline of Ian added much to the story. I know the authors wanted the reader to be annoyed and frustrated with this character and boy was I.

3.5 stars

I'll preface this by admitting that I am obsessed with everything Christina Lauren publishes. I'd read a grocery list, at this point, I love them so much. Twice in a Blue Moon was no exception. Stepping away from the usual romantic comedy plot, this book borders more on Women's Fiction (or Chick Lit), but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. It was much like their 2018 release Love & Other Words, which is easily in my top three favorite Christina Lauren books of all time.

We spend the first few chapters learning who the main character, Tate, really is and how she meets Sam on vacation when she's eighteen. Something HUGE happens and we flash forward fourteen years with oh-so-many questions and it is such a fun, cute journey toward the answers. I'd recommend this book to anyone who already enjoys Christina Lauren's books (of course) or to anyone as a great introduction to this author. The descriptive writing was beautiful as ever but it never felt like telling over showing, which I appreciate. If I have to mention one thing that could have improved the book to a five-star rating, it would have been the epilogue -- there wasn't one!? This could just be an ARC thing so I will definitely be reading again once the book is released.

I have read and loved many Christina Lauren novels, and even though I love smutty books as much as the next person, I am a big fan of the recent direction they’ve been going with their newer releases. They’re more “chick lit” esque where there isn’t as much sex and more focus on the characters, their relationships and the plot itself.

I thought this book was simply beautiful. It starts out really strong with an 18-year-old Tate Jones on a trip to London with her grandmother. It’s her first taste of freedom after a life of strict rules and being sheltered, and Tate loves getting to see a different part of the world other than her small town in California. There she meets Sam Brandis, who’s on a trip with his grandfather, and they two fall fast and hard for each other. She trusts him with all of her secrets, including the fact she’s the daughter (sort of long-lost) of the biggest film star in the world.

After the biggest betrayal that rocks Tate’s world to its core, they don’t see each other again for 14 years. Now in her early 30s, her life now revolves around Hollywood as an up and coming actress with several great projects under her belt. Her relationship with her father is less than stellar, but now she’s going to be doing a movie with him. A movie that’s set to change her career path altogether, and where her movie-star father is playing a side character. She’s the main lead and it’s role is more than ready for.

Until she finds out the person who wrote the screenplay is none other than Sam. The second half of this book follows as these two as they work on making this movie and their feelings about one another after all this time.

I really did love this book. The atmosphere in both “parts” of this book were beautiful and so well developed. I felt like I was on the farm with Tate and the crew making that movie right along with them (fun fact the movie was set in Iowa, which is where I live. Even though it wasn’t filmed in Iowa, it gave me such major Iowa vibes and I was loving it. We Iowans get super stoked when Iowa is mentioned in anything).

I also love the way these two women write a story. Love and Other Words is one my favorite book of theirs and I think always will be, but Twice in a Blue Moon also gives me the same kind of feelings it did. It’s a book packed with raw emotion and depth as these two main characters try to reconnect after years of silence and betrayal. I love books that give you so much more in-depth emotional background to the characters in books because it just makes the reading experience that much more memorable because they’re characters I can understand and relate to. I just love emotional books, I guess.

There are so many aspects I love about this book. I do have some things I didn’t like as much – mostly the fact the ending felt rushed. I kept looking at how much I had left in my e-arc and being worried because the story wasn’t really close to wrapping up. Maybe it’s because I loved these characters so much, I felt there needed to be one or two more chapters, or at least an epilogue. It just sort of…ends…and then that’s it. What?! I need more, Christina Lauren. MORE of this. I need to know how the movie did at the box office – where there awards? Nominations? Where do they live? I just have so many questions and I just want more content.

I felt like there needed to be more overall. More interactions between Tate and Sam as adults. We got so much great chemistry and tension between them when they were younger, but it felt in the second half of this book there just wasn’t enough. I also needed more conflict between Tate and her dad. You felt the tension between them a little, but I just wanted more. Without spoilers, there’s something that happens toward the end of this book that, while I understand why it happened, I feel like the repercussion didn’t match the conflict. The fall out with a character just didn’t happen and I felt like it should have. Was that vague enough? I think so.

Overall, this is still one of my favorite books in Christina Lauren’s repertoire. They are so talented and write books with characters that tug on the heart strings and usually leave me a little teary-eyed and giddy. Sometimes they’re funny and sexy, sometimes they’re emotional and heart-wrenching – but I love them all.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Gallery Books for an arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review posted on my blog:
https://mybookjourneysite.wordpress.com/2019/07/19/twice-in-a-blue-moon-by-christina-lauren-netgalley-arc-review/

Christina Lauren have become an auto buy and give me everything they have ever written author(s) because I know I will love it. I was shocked and so excited when I got approved to read and review Twice in a Blue Moon from Netgalley and Gallery Books. Like all of CLo’s books, I was hooked and finished reading in basically one sitting.

“I want every wish he ever makes to be for this. A penny in a fountain. The first star. An eyelash. Eleven eleven. Just for one more time.”

Tate left her small California town for the first time ever, to celebrate her 18th birthday, with her grandmother, in London. While there they meet Sam, and his grandfather who are visiting from their small town in Vermont. After a few meals and a night under the stars, Sam and Tate have an instant connection. Over the next week, they have a whirlwind London romance. They confide in each other about their wants for the future, and their pasts. They both experience love for the first time. Their trip seems like the start of their future together, until one betrayal shatters that future before it even has a chance to start.

Fourteen years later, that betrayal is still very much present for Tate because it changed the course of her entire life. She is chosen to play the lead in a new movie, Milkweed. While on the set the first day, Tate sees a familiar body, one that she would know anywhere, even if she hasn’t laid eyes on it in over fourteen years. Once Tate sees Sam, she feels 18, and heartbroken in London all over again. Now having to film a movie together, with the past looming all around them. They both must decide if fourteen years and the heartbreak too much to come back from? Or is your first love, truly your only love, and worth a second chance, when it comes around Twice in a Blue Moon.

For me, this book was hard to rate. I did want to know what was going to happen and I did enjoy reading the book. But overall, Twice in a Blue Moon fell short for me. I didn’t love Tate or Sam and I didn’t connect to their story. I felt like the story was very predictable and I wasn’t moved by it, like I have been with so many of their other books. Overall it was a good second chance romance, and a light summer read. And although it is probably unfair to compare Twice in a Blue Moon to other CLo books ... I am doing it anyways, and this one just didn’t measure up for me.

Parts of this were as swoony and lovely as Christina Lauren always is, but the balance between Tate and Sam's first meeting and relationship and their re-meeting as adults seems off. There is too much time spent on them as teenagers, at the expense of the wonderful second half of the book, which is full of interesting movie set moments, well-developed supporting characters, and Tate's complicated relationship with her dad. I wanted far more of their adult relationship.

However, I would still purchase this and promote it to fans of Lauren and contemporary romance.

Christina Lauren does it again! They know how to right swoon like no one else. I really enjoyed the adult summer camp feel of the movie set.

I don't think this book was for me. I thought it did a good job explaining the pasts of these two characters, but not nearly enough to explain why they are in love now. So much time has passed that it would make sense to have more of a build up or reconnecting before they just jump in like all is forgiven. Especially since it seems like they totally moved on from one another and didn't really pine away for years.

As always, the writing is awesome, the swoon is formidable, and I blew through this in a day.

But...BUT...I cannot for the life of me get behind Tate forgiving Sam for doing such a terrible thing. Yes, I get it, Luther was sick, but there were so many other ways to solve this problem. I love a HEA, don't get me wrong, and I love love and romance, but this was all too much for me.

Twice in a Blue Moon is a cute, yet predictable, romance. After meeting Sam in London & getting hurt, Tate becomes an actress. Several years later, they surprisingly meet and get a second chance at love. I was rooting for Tate and Sam the whole way, as well as hoping Tate could work on herself and her relationship with her father. It’s an easy read, but had an ending I could guess based on reading the first chapter.

Opening lines: (Fourteen years ago) Nana turned to inspect the hotel room. Behind her, the curtains drifted closed with a whisper. With her dark, sharp eyes, she surveyed the cream and red decor, the generic paintings, and the television she no doubt thought gaudily perched on the otherwise beautiful dresser. Never in my life had I been in a room this fancy, but her gaze, as it touched everything, read Given the cost, I expected more.
Reason I picked up the book: I'm a huge Christina Lauren fan and have read all of their books (it's two people, writing under one pseudonym).
And what's this book about?
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners and the “delectable, moving” (Entertainment Weekly) My Favorite Half-Night Stand comes a modern love story about what happens when your first love reenters your life when you least expect it…

Sam Brandis was Tate Jones’s first: Her first love. Her first everything. Including her first heartbreak.

During a whirlwind two-week vacation abroad, Sam and Tate fell for each other in only the way that first loves do: sharing all of their hopes, dreams, and deepest secrets along the way. Sam was the first, and only, person that Tate—the long-lost daughter of one of the world’s biggest film stars—ever revealed her identity to. So when it became clear her trust was misplaced, her world shattered for good.

Fourteen years later, Tate, now an up-and-coming actress, only thinks about her first love every once in a blue moon. When she steps onto the set of her first big break, he’s the last person she expects to see. Yet here Sam is, the same charming, confident man she knew, but even more alluring than she remembered. Forced to confront the man who betrayed her, Tate must ask herself if it’s possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason… and whether “once in a lifetime” can come around twice.

With Christina Lauren’s signature “beautifully written and remarkably compelling” (Sarah J. Maas, New York Times bestselling author) prose and perfect for fans of Emily Giffin and Jennifer Weiner, Twice in a Blue Moon is an unforgettable and moving novel of young love and second chances.
Recommended for: Anyone who enjoys a love story or stories about the movie industry.
Favorite paragraph: (Now) The tires crunch over gravel, and I stir awake at the sound: we've reached Ruby Farm. I'm nervous and excited and feel the proverbial weight of a thousand pounds on my chest, but still - something tight inside me unwinds instinctively at the unfolding green serenity directly ahead of us.

We pass through the gates, waving to a guard there who notes the license plate, and I assume, check the box to indicate Tate Butler has arrived.

I am officially on set.
Something to know: I'd compared this to a situation like if Suri Cruise (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' daughter) all of a sudden disappeared from the limelight, and Katie Holmes disappeared as well. It was a pretty compelling read.
What I would have changed: Nothing except the ending was a little short, and I wanted more! (can we have a sequel?!)
Overall rating: 5 stars out of 5.
Where can I find this book? Click here to order on Amazon.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a fan of this author's books and can usually devour a story in one sitting because i'm engaged immediately, but this took awhile to get there. I'm glad I finished the book as the ending was the best part.

Sam and Tate meet while on vacation in London. Their chemistry is immediate and they wonder if their feelings are the real thing. After all, Tate is 18 and Sam is 21, but their feelings are intense and they enjoy the time they have together with plans to see one another in the future. However, a betrayal is revealed that ends their relationship.

Fourteen years later, Tate is a star on the rise as an actress and is starting a new film that could propel her status. Unbeknownst to her, she is reunited with Sam and the old feelings begin to surface again, beginning with the pain of their separation. They can no longer avoid one another and are forced to discuss the event that divided them and if there is any chance to move past that.

I did like Tate and Sam's characters, however, there were so many supporting characters that did not add alot of value to the narration and they became a distraction. Good story, not the best.

Second chances and life. When something is meant to be fate will always find a way not matter curves life throws. This is a fabulous read. If one piece of the past changed nothing would be what it is but was the heartache worth it and can you ever return to what you once had?

All is answered in this addicting Christina Lauren read.

I really enjoyed the first part of the book during their younger years. Second part had a lot of daddy drama rather than Sam. There is a time jump so we don't see Tate grown up after "the incident". Ending was good and it was interesting to see an on set experience through her eyes.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC. Below is my opinion of Twice in a Blue Moon.

Another hit from the duo- Christina Lauren- who have quickly become my favorite writing team!

I read this book in one day much like their other books. And, much like their other books, I give it ALL THE STARS! I love the characters: Tate and Sam, Charlie, Marco, and I even loved Nana. The story is sweet and simple and yet not like one I have read before.

I look forward to many more books by Christina Lauren!