I received an advanced copy of this book, due April 2020, through NetGalley and the publisher. Thank you for providing me with this advanced copy! I enjoyed the epistolary style novel, which starts out with Roxy writing letters to her ex boyfriend Everett who stays with her for a while. The novel is set in 2012 Austin, Texas, a groovy town I'd like to visit one day, in a more innocent time, politically much less stressful for sure. Roxy is a vegan deli maid at Whole Foods, with an art background and a college degree who is arguably underemployed. She is also very single, and not quite over the betrayal of her ex Brant Bitterbush (great name btw) who used her artwork for his new product with his new wife. Roxy's adventures in 2012, making new friends, getting out of her art rut by protesting the Lululemon store, and her romantic escapades are hilarious. I didn't want to put down the book. Retreating to a world in which carbon emissions are reduced by bicycling to work, eating mostly vegan, and caring about animals was definitely nice! This would definitely be a different book if it took place after 2016. I definitely recommend this book for reading pleasure when it comes out next spring.

A somewhat frustrating novel of a 28-year old millennial living in her beloved Austin. Roxy gets herself into any number of hijinks, which can mostly be attributed to her utter lack of self-awareness. She’s selfish, annoying, and really only interested in how things affect her life. Her best friend moves out? It’s his fault she’s now lonely at home, even though she basically kicked him out. It’s all things like that that rule her life.

I couldn’t tell if it was a satire in that she is clearly one of the rich hipster kids she’s so mad at. They’re “destroying” her beloved old Austin, but it all seems so faked. Like, does she really not know she’s a gigantic stereotype? I’ll have to read what millennials think of this book, because it just doesn’t resonate with me.

All that being said, it’s a quick read, and I think the author has a good voice.

Definitely humorous but probably most appealing to a millennial. The main character could get quite annoying.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46404204

Synopsis:
Encouraged by her ex-deli counter comrade Annie—now assistant to the Whole Foods CEO and planning an animal rights revolution from the inside—and her new friend Artemis, a vivacious and mercurial man-eater with a string of personas and paramours all over town, Roxy decides to take action. But can this spunky, unforgettable millennial keep Austin weird, avoid arrest, and discover good sex, true love, and her purpose in life in the process?​

I didn't love this book. I can see how some with love it and some will not. I was in between. The letter commentary was fine, but I wasn't in love with it.

Epistolary novels tend to be hit or miss for me because of how they’re structured, depending on how successful they are at grasping then preserving my interest within their style limitations. This one tottered over the line of diverting mediocrity, in my opinion. It was neither bad nor great. I liked it but wasn’t wholly engaged.

I say that because, while I found some of Roxy’s foot-in-mouth quirks and “fingerbanging” commentary to be amusing not to mention tacitly vulgar, absurd, and endearing in places, all of which helped to highlight her witty shenanigan-riddled nature in spades, I felt the plot suffered a bit by sticking exclusively to one-way letters to her ex-boyfriend, Everett. I suppose I wanted more than what I received stylistically, you know?. What I mean by that is I think I would’ve liked to see her start with letters only to then branch off into other mediums (email drafts, phone notes, unsaved documents, etc.) because it would’ve broken the chain of monotony, thereby adding a kind of modern day technological normalcy and suspense for the readers. It would’ve added something extra. Something more unique. Also, by the halfway point, her continuing to write unsent narratives to her ex, whom she hardly interacted with throughout the book anyway, grew to be a bit tedious.

The love interest subplot felt rushed and underdeveloped as well. It didn’t spark much of a reaction from me because their connection was bland. Or perhaps unremarkable is the better word? Utterly forgettable.

Despite that, I found Roxy to be an amiable, spirited character. She’s cut from a similar mold as Bridget Jones and Anne Shirley, meaning she’s constantly hurtling herself from one Austin-sized scrape into the next without realizing it until it’s too late. That allowed for a decent amount of comedy and familiarity. For instance, the vegan bologna-ing of a meth van incident reminded me a little of Lorelai and Rory devil egging Jess’s car on Gilmore Girls. And don’t get me started on the “Girls Run the World” pasty dance protest in front of Lululemon. Hilarious!

Although I took issue with certain elements of this book, I must admit her character as well as her peculiar circle of Whole Foods friends and colleagues grew on me by the end. Roxy is essentially Millennial Disaster incarnate so I think a lot of people can relate or, you know - laugh - at her “gotta get my shit together” conflicts. I know I sure did.

For those of you who like or who are not averse to raunchy humor, to screwball behavior of many variations, then I’d say this is worth a read. In fact, it’ll probably make you feel how your own life is much more “together” than you think.

I’ve never read Bridget Jones Diary although it is on my evergrowing TBR list so I don’t have that to compare this to.
What I can do with this book is fairly judge it for what it is and what it did to me and that is that it made me laugh out loud with both its wit and absurdity.
Written in letter format to her roommate and former letter this is a book that doesn’t hold back on the snark and I enjoyed it for what it was.
It’s original, sweet, and and has a way to keep you engrossed in the story. It does its job and more.
Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy of my ARC.

Lots of wacky hijinks in this novel! I didn't quite get the comparison to Bridget Jones' Diary but it is about a woman who is looking for something. It was pretty funny and entertaining. I felt like it could have been tightened up a bit, some parts seemed sloppy or repetitive but I liked the Austin setting. I also learned a lot about working in Whole Foods!

HOW? HOW DID I NOT FALL HEAD-OVER-HEELS FOR THIS BOOK?! I'm still reeling from my own disappointment. Sure, maybe I expected too much-- but hey, they promised Bridget Jones, with a Whole Foods employee (let's just say my love for WF runs deep). This should've been a home run for me. But alas, it was so far from a home run. I put it down at the half-way point and couldn't muster up the strength to continue. The one-way epistolary style was probably what ruined it for me, as I just couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to buy into the idea that she'd be writing all of these letters to Everett. Had it been set up as a diary (a la Bridget Jones), or had there been responses to her letters, I might have been able to get into it more fully. But the level of delusion required on my behalf, to go with the pretense that this woman is continuing to write to a completely disinterested and mostly absent man is beyond the realm of possibilities for me. I also just didn't connect with Roxy's desire to bring down Lululemon. It felt so contrived. I did, however, like her sidekicks, Artemis and Annie. I'd be interested in reading a book about Artemis, in particular. But Roxy? Not so much.

Thank you to the publisher and author for providing me with a digital ARC of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.
I was excited to read this title after the bright, whimsical cover caught my eye. The synopsis sounded like a fun, clever, creative book that I looked forward to reading. I thought the format of the book being written in notes left for her roommate was clever and well executed. There was some humor evident from the start. Unfortunately however, it was also evident from the start that the book was full of crude characters and strong language that personally was offensive. I won't be finishing this one.

I liked but didn't love The Roxy Letters. It took me a while to get into the story, but I'm glad I saw it through. Unique, funny and light, which is the kind of book everyone needs every once in a while!

You guys this was the most heartwarming amazing love story ever. I felt like as I read I was doing everything in the book as it was described it was so much fun. And hilarious as well at times! I had many emotions!

I was given a copy of The Roxy Letters to read and review.

This is not my normal genre’ but I did love Bridget Jones years ago so figured I’d give this a try as I saw many comparisons from others.

It wasn’t a horrible read by any means. It just barely kept my interest and to be honest Roxy drove me nuts. I did push myself to finish it and liked it ok. Yeah, just ok. It’s no Bridget Jones but was overall enjoyable after I pushed myself to keep reading. It def got better as it went along or perhaps Roxy just grew on me. 🤷‍♀️

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 stars as I do think others that are more into this genre’ would like it more than I did.

Thanks to NetGalley as always (and publisher and author) for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

THREE- I pushed myself so hard and my disappointment about not being able to find a good romance book not only cuddles my heart but also embraces my soul with its sarcasm, humor and great characterization even they consisted of all romcom clichés, is resuming because this book is another tick on my list titled: “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”( List name based of U2’s song which is definitely expression of my heartbreaking!) STARS!

First of all, I like Bridget Jones, not because of the character! I always found Bridget way too much naïve, silly, incisive and Mark is pretentious, stubborn, prideful but I was always big fan of Helen Fielding’s smart writing. On this book thankfully Roxy was not too silly or naïve, stupid but she’s way too much forcing her to be looked intelligent with her over exaggerated and repeating jokes.

If I didn’t chose and receive this book for a wholehearted, honest review, I could stop in the middle because if you wanted to write something witty and humorous like Jones’s diary, you shouldn’t write a retelling taken place in Texas and something suffering from lack of romance with a couple hardly to be rooted for!

The cover also resembles Bridget Jones’ diary’s cover which made me think maybe instead of copying the same concept, an original one could be found and added a little Bridget Jones and other romcom characteristic elements. Finding small pieces from other stories could help you to love the book but again trying too hard to write the same concept at the wrong structure could be resulted in failure.

I didn’t care to read their happy endings and the concept to narrate the story via letters to ex didn’t work for me, too. Heroine could tell her story from the first hand which will be more natural, genuine and helpful for us to connect with her.


I enjoyed reading her story at some parts but I didn’t enjoy reading her LOVE STORY. Maybe it could be served as a women fiction instead of romcom or chic-lit which would work better for anyone and I could give more stars when it comes to evaluate it.

Still I’m so thankful to NetGalley and Simon&Schuster to provide me this ARC COPY in exchange my honest review and opinions.

This was a quirky, fun read in an epistolary style that was easy to breeze through. I enjoyed Roxy's snark, even if she didn't always seem like someone I'd want to befriend in real life. The letters are funny and different, and her experiences working retail are rather relatable. I found it hard to connect with Roxy entirely but her voice was still compelling enough to keep me interested.

I had high hopes for this book based on the cover art (which seemed to be referencing Lolita) and the comparisons to Bridget Jones's Diary. There were a lot of interesting elements, and it was a pretty quick read. Ultimately, though, it fell a bit flat for me. Roxy's letters are full of scolding and criticism for pretty much everyone and everything, kind of like an unhappy teenager. But she's also angry at Austin's gentrification, kind of a like a grumpy... not-twenty-something. The insider's view of Whole Foods will resonate with anyone who's worked retail, though!

If I had started reading this book and it hadn't been a galley, I probably would have put it down after the first chapter -- I was pretty sure the tone wasn't for me, and Roxy seemed to be the kind of character who would drive me bananas (spoiler: she was). But the thing is, I kept reading since I wanted to be able to give an accurate review, and by the end of the book she had grown on me?? And her wacky friends had, too? And I wanted to know how she would resolve all the zany hijinks she'd gotten into?

I think one way this book suffered was that it seemed like it was trying too hard to be Bridget Jones's Diary, but in Austin. Roxy referenced BJD more than once, so this seemed pretty clear to me. The whole book is told through Roxy's letters to her ex-boyfriend (that she stops giving to him pretty much immediately, so it's basically her diary instead), and I really liked this setup, but I would have enjoyed it more if Roxy had her own voice from the beginning -- it felt like she was always trying so hard to be witty.

Some of the plot elements were pretty predictable, but that's not necessarily a complaint (I knew what to expect as soon as I read the description). But those zany hijinks, y'all -- they were so off the wall sometimes! Again, if it hadn't been a galley, I would have said, okay, this is ridiculous and I'm putting this book down. But I definitely felt more along for the ride by the end of the book, so your mileage may vary.

The love story was cute, but felt like an afterthought, which is both a) good because it felt like this was Roxy's story, not Roxy's love story and b) bad because I really didn't care if she got together with the guy at the end (and the twists, and the hijinks...).

Mostly, my feeling throughout this book was that Roxy seemed too old (25) to be getting up to the sorts of mischief she does in this book. But then I thought about it and realized that working a part-time job at a grocery store, trying to make new friends and figure out dating, and making a ton of stupid mistakes was true for several of my friends/acquaintances at 25 (I was in grad school, which was its own foolishness) so maybe it's not so far off after all. I expect that will be a complaint from older readers, though.

Anyway: overall verdict is that this book is all over the place but ends up being weirdly endearing.

I mean, it's not often that a book leaves me speechless, but I am really not sure what to say after finishing The Roxy Letters. I can point out so many things that I didn't like (writing letters to the ex-boyfriend/roommate really didn't make since after 1/3 of the book passed, the entire OM thing, just to name a few...), yet I finished this book really quickly-I couldn't put it down! The ending, while all together unrealistic, was funny and heartwarming, and, well, I don't know. If you don't mind a little raunchiness with your women's fiction, it might be worth giving this book a try!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

What a fun and funny read, just the ticket for a detour from my more serious reading. How unique to find a love hate relationship with
place in a youngster author written in diary form. I really hated my six months in Austin and heat hell. I would list it as a top ugly unliveable city....any
time is best spent in the suitably uppity Harry Ransom archives but you probably couldn’t get food delivered there. I’ll be looking for more from this author in the future. good that there are some Roxy like heroines on the page in our sold out to tech culture.

An epistolary novel told one-sidedly (at least as far as I got). Foxy is writing to her ex-boyfriend cum current roommate who she rarely sees and leaves long meandering letters. Ultimately, I’m calling this one with a DNF (did not finish). I just didn’t care about either character and didn’t want to read on.

This novel is an absolute must read!!! The Roxy Letters is a humor filled, women’s fiction novel that had me at hello!! I read that The Roxy Letters is Bridget Jone’s Diary meets Where’s You Go, Bernadette, which I 100% agree with, but I also got an Empire Records vibe as well!! I got so attached to the entire cast of characters and I felt Mary Pauline Lowry did an awesome with bringing everyone in this book full circle! I love Mary Pauline Lowry’s the writing style, I found the storyline was entertaining and quirky (in the best possible way)! After I finished The Roxy Letters, I sat to gathered my thoughts on this book and the thought that kept circling around in my mind was that I already really miss these characters—that to me is a sure-fire sign of a fantastic novel! I highly recommend this 5 star read!!