This was one of the romances I was most looking forward to this year. Did I enjoy it? Yes, definitely. It was an entertaining read with a lot of heart, and very loveable main characters. But. I also kept waiting for more. More of a spark, more banter and flirtation, just more. I think the main issue was that the writing style didn't quite work for me. But I also just kept waiting for the book to really start.

Spoiler warning! I personally really like a slow burn. But, I also need my romance to actually have scenes where the characters are together. I need dating, and domestic stuff. So when a book ends when the characters are just getting together, that leaves me pretty unsatisfied.

Rep: lesbian Chinese-American MC, bisexual Jewish MC

CWs: sexual harassment, asthma attack, homophobia, racism

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book!

Rating: 3 stars
Rep: F/F romance. Jewish & bisexual MC, Chinese-American & lesbian MC.
Trigger warnings: racism, sexism, sexual harassment

"Something to Talk About" was by far my most anticipated contemporary romance of 2020. Everything about it seemed perfect for me, and while I did enjoy it, it wasn't entirely my cup of tea. First off, this is not a bad book at all and I would still recommend it! This is just a "me not you" situation.


Pros:
-I finished this in a couple of sittings, it held my interest throughout and it was pretty fast-paced!
-I loved how the author handled sexual harassment in the workplace, it was amazingly done.
-I also really liked how the power dynamics between Jo and Emma was handled, as Emma is Jo's assistant and Jo is richer and older, I thought the author handled the situation very well.
-I adored that this book was dual POV, I love my romance books to have perspectives from both the main characters!


Cons:
-This is the slowest burn I've ever read, and while I like a slow burn romance as much as the next person, this one was just too slow for me. I didn't feel any spark or chemistry between Jo and Emma (the main characters), I wanted that intensity and pining. As it is, the first kiss is at around the 87% mark and after that point, the romance between them was just way too fast-paced.
-I think I was expecting something very different, I was expecting a lot of this novel to focus around the tabloids, maybe even a little fake dating, but a lot of the plot felt sort of aimless and a little boring in places.
-The miscommunication/misunderstanding trope is one of my bookish pet peeves and this book was rampant with it. I have no idea how Jo and Emma could ever form a steady relationship when they literally never communicated at all (except for maybe the last 15% or so).


Overall, I would still definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a romance book full of diverse characters and I will 100% be reading more by this author in the future!

I was so excited when I saw this book on Netgalley! I'm certainly always on board for some queer romance, and slow-burn is generally one of my fave kinds, but sadly this burn was too slow for me. I also didn't super love the writing style, it felt like there were missing details about the settings and characters. Overall, the romance was sweet but I wasn't drawn in and invested.

♡♡I was given a free advanced readers copy on NetGallery by Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review. ♡♡


**THROWS BOOK AT ANYONE I SEE**
READ THIS BOOK! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS QUEER AND GOOD, READ THIS BOOK!

Oh my god guys. I finally found something that brought me as much joy as Casey's outstanding 'Red White & Royal Blue'. This will be my second romance read of all time and my god I guess I'm a romance reader now. Although I like to think of those 2 books as genre defying. The wit and effortless chemistry of Emma and Jo will make anyone reading forget that hours have gone by. I sat down to read this after trying to decide between several others because, get this-- I have too many queer ARCS right now!--I know. Not a problem younger me could ever imagine having.

It took me a day to read this (I mean I stayed up till 2am to finish it..) and that's because I wanted this to last. Reading it on a kobo, I was constantly staring at the % read going up and up and I hated seeing that. I reread pages because it was so funny and theres so much there to it that you just want to reread it immediately to soak every possible morsel up. This book is everything I didn't know I wanted till I had it. The interesting insight into Hollywood's film vs television industry, the powerful yet not all consuming look into #metoo movement, all woven perfectly with a love story you cant help cheering for. I loved these characters. So real and relatable, with just enough authenticity to balance out hypocrisy of hollywood elitism.

@merylwilsner I need more. I hate that my bookstore is closed so I can't push this into every customer's hands, but I will shout on every social media I can. Because this book deserves to be read. It deserves to be loved. It deserves to be made into a major motion picture.

#SomethingToTalkAbout #penguinrandomhouse #advancedreadercopy

I picked SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT up on a whim. It was on my TBR, of course, but I hadn’t planned to read it the day I picked it up. I was actually going to just read a chapter or two to get a feel for Meryl Wilsner’s writing style as a debut author and come back when I had time to really sink into the book. Well, the book was so easy to read and such an effortless page-turner at the beginning, I quickly read more than 40% of the ebook and became incredibly invested. Unfortunately, the book failed to keep my interest, and I slowed way down.

The cover and premise of this story are engaging! A F/F fluffy romance set with a Hollywood backdrop and an age gap romance? Count me in. Although boss/employee relationships aren’t my favorite, I was willing to set aside some reservations and just enjoy. Emma is a young assistant for her boss Jo, a longtime Hollywood star turned writer/director.

I liked some of the banter and the secondary characters, so I kept waiting for things to heat up between our heroines… and waiting… and waiting. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a slow burn romance as much as the next person, but there was NO tension between our main characters. None. Zero. Zilch. I didn’t feel so much as a zap between them. I don’t really think they did either based on their actions in the book. Often, Emma’s admiration for Jo felt more like hero worship rather than true love. On Jo’s side, she was so reserved I just didn’t get much from her at all, even during the chapters we were in her head.

In addition to the couple’s storyline slogging along slowly, I thought many of the plot points (and there were many plot points because the relationship between the main characters was often on the periphery) were incredibly amateurish and predictable.

As I mentioned, Wilsner is an excellent writer, and the story flows well. I think that almost made the uninventive plot and fizzled out romance even more of a glaring problem. I am glad to see F/F romance getting recognition in mainstream publishing, and I hope Wilsner has a long and successful career, this book just didn’t work for me.

**I received an ARC of this book in order to provide an honest review**

This is a lovely slow-burn f/f Hollywood-set romance. I enjoyed the twist on the fake romance trope, and the characters' relationship development. Some of the beats and miscommunication felt a little repetitive, but overall this was very satisfying and emotionally-driven romance.

This book was amazing and I need more sapphic books like this in my life.

In this book, we follow Emma, a young assistant that loves her job and is doing everything that she can to help the life of her boss, Jo, a forty-one years old woman who has never commented on her love life in her entire career. She's a successful writer and she is challenging herself by branching out.

One day, Jo invites her assistant to go with her to an event. She tells her that she needs her as a buffer but we know deep down, it's because she likes her company - more than she probably should as her employer. However, when Emma tries to rescue her boss when photographers are asking her uncomfortable questions about her new job, the way they look at each other on the photos taken create a rumor that both women are trying to shut down by not commenting on it, hoping it will die down. Emma doesn't want to be seen as someone who would sleep with someone else just to get a job and Jo doesn't want Emma to be hurt.

I started reading this book not knowing anything other than it was a F/F romance and that's all I needed. I fell in love with the main characters but also their families and friends who were so adorable and funny. This book also addressed sexual harassment (especially in Hollywood) really well.

This book comes out on May 26th and you all should be prepared to read it. I'm not kidding, this book is one of my favorites now and is definitely one of the best books I've read this year. It was so enjoyable and the whole time, I kept swooning over these two women who I wanted to just KISS already! Because yes, this is a slow burn romance with an age-gap so be aware of that. The only negative thing (which isn't negative if you think about it) I have to say is that I wish we would have had a little bit more time with the characters as a couple towards the end. It was satisfying to finally see them together but I would have loved to have just a little more.

I would gladly re-read Something to Talk About and that's something I never do with contemporary romances. I'm so sad the author doesn't have any other books out at the moment because I would have read them asap. That's how much I loved this one. I hope Meryl Wilsner will write more because I might have found a new favorite author to follow! <3

Also, I could picture everything so easily that I could imagine this becoming a movie I would love to watch. I truly hope you will love this book as much as I did.

(Thank you so much for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

This sweet, slow-burn romance was lovely. It featured diverse characters and nice, long, believable timeline. It successfully tackled the issue of workplace harassment, without being too triggering or cringey. It was also very refreshing to see a mature female protagonist portrayed as vital, exciting, engaging, and sexy. I will definitely recommend this to romance readers who want something fun and different.

If I could give this book 6 stars I would. So, I am. 6/5 stars. I really enjoyed this novel by Meryl. The characters were relatable and realistic. I love it when I can actually see the story play like a movie in my head. The writing style was well done. The plot flowed nicely. I couldn't believe the story ended. I highly recommend this novel to everyone.

This is a light novel set in Hollywood. Emma is the assistant to Jo, who initially became famous thirty years ago when she was just a youngster. Jo, who’s Asian-American, called out the TV show she’d starred on for its racism. That made her less popular as an actress, so these days she’s the writer and showrunner for a network TV powerhouse.

The book alternates between Jo’s and Emma’s points of view, so we know that they are attracted to each other, but both feel they can’t act out on it because of the power differential. Jo is rich, famous, and successful, but when she invites Emma to accompany her to the SAG awards, rumors start flying that Emma is sleeping her way to the top. Even though the rumors aren’t true, it makes them both examine their feelings for the other.

This is a sweet book. Not tons of tension, sexual or otherwise, although the attraction they can’t act out on is always there.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES MAY 26, 2020.

I stopped at 14%. It was just eh for me. One of the main characters was closed off to everyone but the other character was infatuated with her. I don't get it. How someone treats me is how I'm going to treat them. Jo, the closed off one, is big in the tv/movie scene. I didn't find anything about her that was interesting. Emma, Jo's assistant, is a better character. The book is set in Hollywood and that's another thing that puts me off. I really don't care about celebrities. So everything about this book is just eh.

"Something to Talk About" would make for a great popcorn movie night, which seems to be perfectly fitting for the story of a renowned Hollywood writer and her assistant. The charming romance is a perfect will-they-won't-they story, with a refreshing amount of character growth through friendship and respect. Most of the drama centers around movie industry gossip, paparazzi, and the effects of public opinion.

Some of the additional drama loses a teeny bit of momentum near the end, and the impressively current pop culture references may not have aged well in a few years. Recommended for most readers, especially fans of romance, LGBT, and film industry fiction.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

So, as most of my followers know, I'm a dude... a dude that's married to dudes, totally into dudes and just dudes. But I wanted to try to support a writer in the LGBTQ+ community, and I wanted to branch out of my comfort zone a little bit. I'm so glad I did!

This slow burn but realistic FF romance was just the right balance of light and fluffy and deep and sophisticated. The relationship grew over the course of the book, rather than starting with sex and moving into love like a huge portion of the MM romances you read. To be fair, most of the MM books I read are more naughty fantasy romance rather than just romance, and this leaned more into the plain romance side of things.

Of course, that worked out well for me, because I'm not into lady parts. The slow burn built into a magnificent crescendo, and even though things do finally come to a peak (if you know what I mean), it was tasteful, romantic, and not at all too detailed for my vajayjay-averse mind. In fact, I think it was a perfectly beautiful scene.

I will warn readers - while I appreciated the diverse writing and the much needed message about the Me Too movement, there are a few moments in their relationship where the miscommunications seem more like a high school romance, rather than two working adults well past their formative years. But they worked through them, and let's be honest, sometimes adults act like teens anyways.

All in all, I'm excited to see what Meryl Wilsner will do next. I hope she writes some more like this so I can widen my "community" readings into a more diverse field.

A nice contemporary romance debut featuring a Hollywood star and her assistant. It's a SLOW burn of a novel that focuses on the development of a solid, trusting work relationship to a friendship to eventual girlfriend-dom. It thoughtfully navigates the #MeToo movement and addresses racism in Hollywood while meandering through the romance storyline. It's sweet, and there's lots of pining and teasing the growing feelings between these women, so if you love the excitement of anticipation, this is definitely your book!

WHEW, what a dud this was.

honestly it had a fairly decent start and had a few funny lines. but when we got to the 35% mark and I still felt zero chemistry or sexual tension between our main characters I started to worry.

now I understand that slow burn romances are a thing but this was more like a sluggish simmer. we didn’t even get a kiss until 85%. not even a KISS in a ROMANCE. truly what did I read this for?

let me tell you if I wanted to read this for boring and infuriating main characters I got what I wanted. emma, our assistant character, was mad for about 15% of the book because jo, her boss, and her sister were friends. FRIENDS. no jealousy at all, just friends. and she was SO MAD about it!! this is just one example of how the miscommunication trope was used and it honestly wasn’t even spicy to the conflict. it was just annoying.

overall this was immensely boring and flavorless which is a shame because my fellow queer ladies deserve way better. if you want a melodramatic book about show business with a subplot of a bland romance that doesn’t bring anything to the table until the 75%, here ya go. I hope you enjoy.

Unfortunately I just could not get into this book. I tried twice -- the first time I read about 20%, and put it down for about 10 days, and then I picked it up and read another 15%. But at 35% I'm going to call it quits.

I love the premise, but I just found the writing style to be clunky, overly wordy, and sadly not for me.

I want to like this book-I am so happy that main stream publishers are looking to same sex characters and stories-but the age difference and power difference in this book between the characters made me uncomfortable. Yes, I know that it was handled delicately but still-why? Knowing what we know, why have the age difference at all?

I just finished this book, literally just set it aside, and I almost feel like I never even read it. It was like it was a Wikipedia article of a book or movie: scenes slimmed down to summary-size, huge chunks of time and movement passing before my eyes in a blink, page after page after page. I feel like I skimmed this book more than I actually read it, that's how little seems to happen here. Even at the end - when we're building up to that moment that alllll romance novels build up to - there were these summarization-style passages: they had dinner, their conversation became relaxed, they sat on the couch. And fine, we know what they had for dinner, but...why can't we see how their conversation became relaxed? Why can't we see what they talk about as they're falling in love? Isn't that what we're here to read about, those little moments?

Now, fine, there are a few moments like that elsewhere in the book but, to be honest, a lot of them felt summarized too. Or at least it felt like they were talked about way, way more than they were actually shown. (In this way, honestly, the author could not have picked a more perfect title for the book.) There is so much discussion of feelings and the appropriateness of said feelings and why this character is currently feeling this feeling that it felt like a bunch of therapy sessions stacked together. And look, I get wanting to make a point to the reader like, it's okay if you've been in this position, it's okay to have feelings like this...but there comes a point where these therapy-talk conversations strain credulity - especially when they come from side characters who seem to exist purely for the sake of having these conversations.

Which was another thing: the characters here barely felt fleshed out. There are a whole host of characters who exist to seemingly just support or tease the main characters, and yes, their own lives are alluded to, but never enough for them to feel truly real to me. Hell, to be honest, the world in general here is strikingly devoid of detail. There will be instances where we'll get a glimpse at depth and description - Jo's past, what happens to Emma on set - but no sooner will these potentially major plots come into view than they're whisked away into another summarization. And those always felt like such a lost opportunity to me, because there was SO MUCH that could have been delved into here. Jo's backstory alone would've been worth another chapter or three.

I really, really did want to fall in love with these characters, but ultimately, there was simply not enough depth and detail in them or in this world to hold me.

CW under spoiler tags: [off-page parental death from cancer (years before book starts); on-page asthma attack that requires medical attention; on-page sexual harassment and an ensuing #metoo storyline; on-page fight/difficulties with toxic parent (hide spoiler)]

Don't get discouraged by the 3 star rating. SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT is a well-written and polished f/f debut; unfortunately, the execution of the slow burn and the languidness of the relationship development didn't appeal to me. I liked the book, but didn't love it. And that's fine! Not every book is for every reader, and SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT will deservedly receive love and accolades. Read other reviews and an excerpt to figure out if it'll be a good match for your reading preferences.

Not gonna write a longform review, but here are some brief thoughts:

1) The age gap + boss/employee trope is handled very well. I liked the navigation of consent dynamics, particularly around the problematic aspects of the boss/employee trope. It's generally not something I enjoy, but the thoughtfulness in execution made it wonderful here.

2) I enjoyed the Hollywood setting and I thought the brief #metoo subplot was handled well. I wish that it hadn't disappeared suddenly. In the middle of the book, it seemed like it was going to be this big storyline... it wasn't. It took the spotlight for a few chapters and then quietly went away. It felt like a wasted opportunity, especially because I wanted to learn more about the aftermath and the Cassandra Project. Still, what little there is on page handled the topic with sensitivity and empathy toward the victimized women.

3) Emma is Jewish and Jo is Chinese-American. As I am neither Jewish nor Chinese-American, I am unqualified to assess the rep and will defer to #ownvoices reviewers. From my limited perspective, these are some things I noticed. The only Chinese spoken out loud is the word "Aiyah" (per google: an exclamation of surprise, dismay, and exasperation). There is a scene where Jo speaks in Cantonese with a family member. Jo's ethnicity affects her career and history in Hollywood. Jo's best friend is also Chinese-American and she has a good relationship with her brother; I'm happy that she isn't isolated from her community. Nothing struck me as offensive or problematic (keep in mind that I might have missed something, so this isn't a definitive assessment).

I am disappointed in the packaging of the book. I wish Jo's ethnicity is evident from the cover and blurb. Jo's legal surname Cheung isn't in the blurb (her stage name is Jo Jones). Jo's face isn't showing on the cover, either. It's just the back of the neck. Once you know she's Chinese, the skin color is easier to recognize as not being white. But it's not 100% obvious from just glancing at the cover. I really wish that the blurb/cover art made an effort to center Jo's ethnicity so that it's impossible to miss. I didn't even realize that one of the MCs was Chinese-American until I started reading the book.

4) I enjoy slow-burns and assumed this book would be perfect for me. After I finished reading it, I came to a revelation. I only like slow burns with the following criteria: 1) it can be slow initially, but it needs to heat up intensely once the MCs begin a relationship, 2) it can't be slow for the entire book; I need a romantic confession/being in love for at least 30% of the book, and 3) I don't like slowness when most of the pining/angst happens in one's head and not between the couple.

I'm sure you can see where this is going, right? SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT isn't just a slow burn; it's the slowest burn that I have EVER read. I love slow burns, but this was too slow for the reasons described above! For good reasons (Emma is Jo's assistant), they don't make a romantic declaration of interest for a long time ("long time" being the 92% marker of the book). The first deliberate kiss is at the 85% marker. The first and only on-page sex scene occurs at the very end of the book. These things are all fine, but it took SO LONG to get to the romantic declaration. I was bored/tired by the time we got there. Emma and Jo are adorable together, but I couldn't handle 80% of the book being two different inner monologues of pining/unrequited love on either side.

I would've liked the book more had the romantic confession occurred earlier. Emma and Jo talk about their romantic feelings to OTHER people all the time; it's all they ever muse and pine about. But they rarely talk or address it to EACH OTHER. Most of the action (aka pining) in the book occurs in their heads. I prefer slow-burns where both parties are aware that the other one is interested in them. Here, Emma thinks that Jo has a secret girlfriend until the last quarter of the book. At a certain point, you just want to scream at them to set a proposal date already. It was less of a slow burn and more... slow.

YMMV of course. For all the reasons above, I don't think I am the correct audience for this book. If you're into everything I just described, you'll love SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT and I highly recommend it.

Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is a cute lesbian romance novel, which I do believe the world needs more of. However I found it to be shallow, ordinary, and predictable in terms of the storyline and character development. The author identifying and non-binary I would have liked to see more gender non-conforming characters in the book and more depth to the main characters. Nonetheless , it is a cute easygoing read which can be a good thing. Great beach or pool-side story.