This was definitely a slower-burn romance that is more understated and simmering rather than explosive. I think I would've appreciated having more chemistry and passion between the two leads throughout the book. I felt like Wilsner told me that the two were attracted to each other but that I didn't really *see* the attraction and chemistry until much later in the book. Still, this was entertaining and a lovely debut that I enjoyed.

When Hollywood A-Lister Jo takes her assistant, Emma, with her to a red-carpet event, neither have any idea of the scandal and rumors that soon surround them—and how there might actually be some truth to the rumors. As Emma's promotion is threatened and Jo's future teeters, both struggle with their professionalism and feelings. Are the rumors just rumors, or is there something more?

This was very cute, although it rushed the ending (and I wanted a longer epilogue).

I liked it quite a bit, although the writing was a little rough. I felt like Jo, a powerhouse and Type A dynamo, had literally one emotion: that of a teenaged child. She rolls her eyes so much I thought they'd roll right out of her head, and the constant overuse of this expression nearly made me DNF within the first chapter.

Maybe the eye-rolls stayed in the final edits. Maybe they were removed.

Regardless, if the eye-rolling (see, even I'm doing it!) is too much and that's the issue—keep reading. It gets better.

Mild spoiler: they do get together. This is a romance, y'all!

I loved how this March-September (it's not that big of an age gap) romance was portrayed, with Jo at the height of her career yet poised for more, and Emma just at the beginning of hers. I did like that the power dynamic was addressed—although resolved too rapidly—between the two, and I also appreciated the nuance towards the cessation of Jo's acting career and the racist microaggressions she experienced throughout her child-acting and current rise. I also appreciated that there was a heavy nod to the #metoo movement, although I had wished there was a little more resolve to it.

Emma liked knowing how the whole thing worked. She knew every part of the machinery of the show.

Anywho, I loved Emma and Jo separately. I liked the juxtaposition of Emma's drive and lack of ambition. She loved her job in and out—and I completely empathized with her feeling of being a failure, when in fact the failure wasn't her at all but was still internalized.

And I really liked that Emma was fantastic at her job because she freaking worked at it, and the work was shown. She knew the ins and outs of everything because she was curious, she asked, and she was nice about it. She had initiative and anticipated Jo's needs, and was just a fantastic assistant (that this gets addressed later as a potential obstacle in their relationship was good too).

She was an open bisexual, and tall (she was tall!!!) and filled with insecurities based upon what had happened in the past. But she had a dream of one day directing, even if it had been sidelined.

"The original recipe for this called for one clove of garlic, which is ridiculous," Jo said. "I used three tonight."


While Emma was my favorite, I did like Jo (minus the eye-rolling). She had scrambled upwards in a profession that valued women only for their beauty, and reached the top in a male-dominated world as a successful writer and as a (closeted queer) woman of color. Now she was about to be a woman writing a James-Bondesque script, which was so cool—and I loved the comments on James Bond, script-writing and who can and can't write action movies.

Anywho, I also loved the supporting cast. It's been a hot minute since I read the book (shame, much shame heaped upon me for procrastinating), but they were hilarious. Jo's support network was fantastic and uplifting, and her best friend was truly amazing.

This one is definitely worth the read if you're into Hollywood romances and are thinking of stepping into sapphic romances.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

This one was cute!

It was sooooo swoony & slow burn that it made me enjoy every single step of that way for what was to come. I haven't read a whole lot of f/f romances, but this one was a good starter!

It was the slow burn of all slow burns though, so be aware it takes FOREVER to get going. Overall it was cute. Not my favorite, not my least favorite! I'd recommend it to a friend.

This book was a wonderful read! I heard that this is Berkley's first F/F romance novel, and I was really excited to read it! And it was so easy and short to read, and I just devoured it, it was a really great story and so entertaining to read!

This book deals with one major issue, sexual harassment in Hollywood. It mentions the lack of diversity as well, which is a small part of a bigger problem, but it's an underpinning part of the book, that Jo is Asian, not a active part of the book, like the situation that Emma has to deal with.

I just really enjoyed their relationship, they worked well together, boss and assistant, and that showed in the picture that made people think that they were dating. I was so glad that it didn't show people looking down on them for their supposed romantic relationship. They had to deal with other issues.

Like the fact that people think Emma was sleeping with her boss to get her job. And the complexities of the fact that Emma does work for Jo. And the misunderstandings! Oh, man, the misunderstandings! I loved all the emotional drama, especially since it ultimately ends with a happy ending!

This book was so cute and precious and amazing to read, and I really enjoyed it!

This is a sweet lesbian/bi contemporary romance set in Hollywood.

Emma is a showrunner's assistant on a long-running television show. Her boss Jo, a former child star, is fighting against Hollywood conceptions on race and gender as she works toward her first blockbuster screenplay. When Jo asks Emma to accompany her to an industry awards show, the world assumes that they're dating.

This is a fun inversion of the pretending-to-date trope, in the realms of she-doth-protest-too-much. Emma and Jo's connection to each other is sweet and supportive and completely darling, even when it's merely professional.

The story confronts a lot of issues of power imbalance, including age and career position, as well as a B Plot exploring sexual harassment and male toxicity.

The primary romance is born out of a 14-year age difference, and a boss-assistant relationship. For my part, I don't love seeing these elements at play in a meaningful relationship, and I think the story could have played out just as well if the age difference was cut in half. Still, I thought these dynamics were well-handled. Both characters are aware of how inappropriate and damaging it could be to pursue a relationship given their working roles. The harassment B Plot created a clear foil between mutual attraction and conscientious response, and demeaning sexualization and abuse of power.

One thing I love in the background of this story: Jo considers it her job to set her assistant's on the career path they want, and to help them transition out of their assistant role and into something better. It's a small non-central detail, but says so much about what people can do to support each other, and use power for the greater good. When it comes to the romance, this outlook of support recontextualizes their age difference as part of a cycle, and sets them up as equals who are on different parts of the career course, who both admire and support each other's work.

I loved the characters' relationships with their friends and (most) family members. There's a sassy undertone in a lot of the friendships at play, and it's kind of adorable how everyone ships Emma and Jo.

I typically prefer YA to adult fiction, because there's a guaranteed focus on identity and character growth, and because there are so many fun friendships at play. For me, this had all of the elements I typically love in YA, and I thought it was a fun, sweet read.

I'm often on the lookout for a lesbian contemporary that is as fun and sweet as some of the gay fiction I adore. This may be the first time I've found a book that feels like it's hitting the right notes.

Well, I quite literally read Something to Talk About in one sitting.

I'll admit right off the bat that I have a particular weakness for age-gap lesbian romances, and as I work in the entertainment industry I do enjoy Hollywood-based romances, so my enjoyment of the book is definitely a little biased. It's not a perfect novel, but it was enough of what I wanted that I INHALED it.

The positives: I loved how much of a badass Jo was, and I loved that her journey with Emma was a true slow-burn romance. There's a subplot in the novel about sexual harassment in Hollywood that hit me like a gut punch, and felt like it was handled in a similarly satisfying way to how The West Wing handles politics--as in, "that's not how things work in the real world, but gosh, wouldn't it be great if it were?"

The less-than-positives: If you'd asked me right when I'd finished the book, I would have said "Loved it! No complaints!" Having sat with it for a day or so at this point, I'm looking back on some things that I excused because I'm starved for lesbian age-gap romances. The main one is that some of the conflict seems a bit contrived in the middle--there's an arc where Emma is upset over something Jo has done, but the thing Jo has done only kind of justifies the upset? It was understandable enough as I was reading it, but in hindsight it makes me go "hmm... sure, I guess."

I also felt like there was some dissonance in the way they get closer versus the way they actually get together. Their reliance on each other makes absolute sense, and the strengthening of their bond makes absolute sense, but I'm not entirely sure there was ever justification for crossing the line into romance in the way they ultimately do. Maybe there was? It's certainly not bad, but in hindsight it also feels like it could have been better.

Ultimately, I enjoyed reading it, and I WOULD recommend it to anyone looking for an easy read in this genre. Is it perfect? No. Does it have to be? Nope! It still gave me an enjoyable escape from reality for an afternoon, flaws and all.

I read this back in January when Berkley so kindly sent me a paperback galley. I really enjoyed it. It is super SLOW burn. But it felt very authentic to the characters. I really enjoyed watching Emma and Jo’s friendship blossom into romantic love. There are little hints throughout the story that even as “friends” they are more than just friends. They each do little things for each other that shows how much they care.

There is a scene where Jo apologizes for a bad that she did and Emma isn’t joyous and immediately back to business as usual-

“Just because you apologize doesn’t mean I’m not still hurt,” Emma said. Her voice waversm but she held eye contact. “Just because you apologize doesn’t mean that you suddenly have my trust again.”
This felt so real and true and different. I think a lot of times in romance we see forgiveness granted so easily. And sometimes it is fine. But sometimes it's okay to say, what you did hurt me and I am not ready to move on quite yet.

I thought the boss/assistant relationship was handled really well and caused some trouble but wasn’t overly dramatic.

I really enjoyed this story and look forward to future books from this author.

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT has interesting main characters (Jo, the successful Chinese-American show runner with tons of Hollywood clout and Emma, her loyal Jewish assistant) and I appreciated how the author handled difficult topics like boss/employee power imbalance in romantic relationships as well as the #MeToo Movement in Hollywood. What didn't really work for me was the extremely slow burn romance, which normally I don't have a problem with but here it was frustrating. My enjoyment of the cute moments Jo and Emma did share together was hindered by their reluctance to just communicate their feelings, which subsequently led to several avoidable misunderstandings. The conclusion of this book didn't feel as rewarding as most slow burn romances normally do. Despite all this, the LGBTQ and other representation in SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT was very enjoyable and I hope to read more from this author.

There was a lot to like about this book, but I was also left wanting in a lot of aspects. I never really felt connected to either of the MCs, and this lessened the impact of some of their moments together. There was also A LOT of "oh my goodness, why don't y'all just TALK TO ONE ANOTHER" that really impacted my enjoyment of the book - but when looked at in the lens of the characters personal and professional lives, it made sense. (It was still difficult, though.)

However, readers with more connection to the characters in this story have lauded it and it does represent a much needed addition to the romance genre - so I'm happy it is here. There's also great subplots regarding abuse in the workplace and consent in a relationship that I felt were very well done.

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley, & Penguin Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

So I absolutely adored this book! I'm sure you've all seen images of this one circulating all week because it published Tuesday, but I'm going to give a few great reasons why you should pick up a copy ASAP!

What I loved about this book:

1. This book addresses the #metoo movement and the stress that a victim experiences when they do decide to come forward. I felt this was written into this book with sensitivity and accuracy and that Jo's character reacted perfectly to the situation.

2. This one is a F/F slow burn romance (like super slow burn) with diverse characters that are absolutely amazing. I loved reading their story and was highly invested in the will they/won't they from the very beginning. When the book starts you get know each of them individually before you see them develop feelings and that makes the romance even more enjoyable. Their banter back and forth was amazing and had me laughing more than once.

3. Even though this is a workplace romance, I felt the author did a great job of addressing the power imbalance between the two characters. While I personally feel a workplace romance is ok, I think it's important that both people are consenting and neither is feeling pressured into the relationship.

If you're looking for a slow burn romance with very little steam, this book is definitely for you. I hope you grab a copy and love it as much as I did.

This review will go live on The Bloggers Girls on May 28, 2020.

I admit I was rather weary approaching LGBTQ romance with “Famous People” / Hollywood trope attached to it. Probably because it usually has the all hiding and deflecting that usually surrounds the relationship. Interestingly, it’s still the deflecting part that annoyed me here, but more towards each other rather to everyone else – because everyone else actually supported Jo and Emma to be together.  

Jo Jones, a powerhouse showrunner in Hollywood, decides to take her personal assistant Emma Kaplan to the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards. Tabloids soon going rampant with gossip of they are dating after the photo of Jo making Emma laughed at the red carpet surfaced. Jo refuses to make comment though, saying that after years of never commenting on relationship, she’s not going to do it now. So, the story goes…

Let me say that this book is VERY slow burn. Like, VERY, VERY much.  The actual kissing and any sexy times didn’t happen until almost the very end, and it was quick, and heck, even the happy ending felt abrupt. Most times, it’s because of the boss/employee dynamic that plays strongly into the story – with Jo being Emma’s boss. I could understand the tricky part of navigating any path to relationship.

Unfortunately, as someone who adored slow burn, I thought this part wasn’t worth the reward in the end. I love slow burn romance, and I don’t mind when authors keep any physical action of the romance near the end. But I usually love it because the journey to get there is filled with unresolved sexual tension, or those sweet little moments of intimacy, or even some treasured heart-to-heart conversation…

Due to the fact that Jo is Emma’s boss, and gossips that follow that photo, Jo and Emma tries hard to NOT fuel the fire. Yes, there are few of sweet/caring moments, like when Emma’s asthma is acting up, or Emma helping Jo out of her writing block… but most of the times, they either keep the feeling to themselves (in their head, for the sake of us readers), or shared it only with their family and friends. Therefore, I felt that I didn’t get enough of built-up. I was rather bored to be honest. The writing made me feel rather detached to the characters and wasn’t too invested in Jo and Emma.

It’s still a nice book to read though – at least, we have an interracial relationship with Jo being Chinese American… ALTHOUGH, at the same time, this part of her identity is not being fully explored me thinks. We have a #metoo moment, which I think is very ‘current’ type of situation in Hollywood… ALTHOUGH again, that part disappeared very quickly. 

I just didn’t love it as much as I wanted it to…

This super sweet, slow burn romance is really a delight. I loved spending time with these characters and watching them fight their feelings throughout most of the book didn't feel frustrating (as it easily could), but instead we see them struggling with their power differential (Jo is Emma's boss) and the public eye. This f/f romance is also set in Hollywood and often on set of a television show which is super fun. This will be an easy recommendation.

Welp, I am bummed as heck. I was SO excited for this book because it is Berkley's first F/F title, but I gotta be honest: nothing happened in this book. It started out fun enough, but the pacing was sooooooo slooooooow and the characters had little to no sexual OR romantic chemistry and this just.. let me down in a big way. It wasn't tHe WoRsT thing I've ever read (hence the 3 star rating and not anything lower), but it was just especially disappointing because I had such! high! hopes! for this one. I am big sad. Womp.

This romance delighted me. What can I say, I want the movie adaptation to happen ASAP!!! The book just came out on Tuesday 5/26 and I recommend it to all fans of romance and/or LGBTQ+ books.

This book took me by surprise, and I like it!It was great and interesting!Great characters and the romance was good! I loved the little things these two did for each other, it was sweet slow burn!The supporting characters, especially Avery and Evelyn were so fun!Overall it was a great read!Well done to the author love the writing!

I thought this book was very sweet and fun. I really appreciate a f/f romance with a happy ending. I liked the characters a great deal, the dialogue felt snappy and realistic, and the story moved along quickly. Sometimes in fact I felt that it moved a little too quickly, jumping between some major topics and important scenes in a way that almost seemed to minimize their impact. On the other hand...the romance was a slow, slow burn. Perhaps too slow? Regardless of the overall pacing, I had a great time with this book, and I look forward to Wilsner's next novel.

Something to Talk About might need to be renamed Something Miles Past A Slow Burn, Like Embers that Just Aren’t Finding Their Footing, because, dear readers, it was delightfully EXCRUCIATING. Wilsner is a master of the almost-kiss, the not-quite-kiss, and the kiss-that-doesn’t-count, as well as a real champ at “tension that could cut your gay ass in half,” a speciality for which she stands above the rest. Lovers of the slow burn rejoice, others may find the pacing slow.

Something To Talk About takes place in Hollywood, on the set of the award-winning TV show, The Innocents. The show’s head writer, Jo, is a child star turned script writer, who found such success as a child star that she never needs to look at a receipt another day in her life. Her life is crazy busy - her assistant, Emma, shoulders the burden of making sense of Jo’s life on the day-to-day, and does an excellent job of it. When Jo is in the running for a big film project and rumors are flying that she isn’t ready for it, she asks Emma to accompany her to the SAG Awards. Emma accepts, and a rumor is born: the two are dating. Look at the way they could see no one but each other on that red carpet!

As a debut, Wilsner’s writing shines - the book is expertly plotted, a stream-of-consciousness third person that allows even the most straight of them into the minds of two extremely chaotic gays. But that chaotic writing is an acquired taste - for those that prefer more structure, it might be hard to follow this book into its more deliberate moments. Still, for those looking for sapphic romance novels that delve into feminism, racism, and a lot of pining, this is for you.

Something to Talk About really brings the slow to slow burn. For the majority of the book, Emma and Jo are not pursuing a romantic relationship with each other (are they interested? Sure. But Emma works for Jo).
I struggle as a reader with slow burns where they get together at the end because I want to see how the relationship can work. This is alleviated somewhat in that Emma knows Jo very well but I can't really say that was reciprocated. Then Jo becomes friends with Emma's sister, Avery, and doesn't tell her. This causes Emma to struggle as Avery has always been the one who gets everything right while Emma dropped out of film school and didn't find her path right away. Now Avery knows Jo in a way Emma doesn't and Emma takes that as a sign to be less personable at work; she thinks her feelings are showing too much and doesn't want to make things awkward.
Emma is Jewish and Jo is Chinese-American. I can not speak to how these are covered but Chinese New Year is not mentioned, at one point Jo thinks about how she last talked to her father at Christmas, which seemed odd. The book takes place over a year so it's not as though it wouldn't have come up, particularly as it could be around the same time as awards season, where the book starts.
It's awkward with how Jo refuses to comment on being with Emma on the red carpet, because the fallout for it falls on Emma's shoulders. She's the one who gets sexually harassed by another director, because he assumes she does favours for work (also, he's a jerk). She also has to deal with her family and work friends constantly speculating on her relationship with her boss when she's not even sure of her feelings for her boss.
I find it hard to judge this as a romance. It's more getting two people to a point where they acknowledge they'd like to give a relationship between them a go. I hope we get more f/f romance in the future as it is a major gap in traditional romance publishing.

I overall definitely enjoyed reading Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner. The first third of this novel was very entertaining and I thought it was really easy to get into the story. I also really liked the premise of the novel because I don't think I've ever actually read a f/f workplace romance and was very excited for it since it sounded like a book I'd love. Unfortunately though, I ended up having a few problems with this novel.

My main problem definitely was that I feel like we just never really got to know either of the main characters Jo and Emma. For most of the novel they only spend time together at work going about their usual routine and I just feel like I didn't learn enough about them to actually figure out whether they'd fit well together. Thus, I was just never actually rooting for their relationship or waiting for them to finally get together. At first it actually didn't bother me too much because I thought it would get better at some point but around the halfway point of Something to Talk About I kind of began struggling with it and had to push myself to actually finish the book. That was mainly due to the fact that I didn't really care about Jo and Emma's relationship since I still didn't know them well enough to say whether they'd be a good couple and so there wasn't really anything about the novel that still kept my interest at that point.

Furthermore, I also think this book was too much of a slow-burn romance. I'm usually a huge fan of the whole slow-burn thing but due to the fact that we mostly saw Jo and Emma interact with each other in work situations and nothing really happened between them, I think the book would've benefited from them falling in a love a bit earlier. That way they would've spent some more time outside of work with each other and I'm pretty sure the book would've kept my interest for longer if I'd just cared about the main characters a bit more.

However, I really liked Meryl Wilsner's writing style and I think they did a good job with their debut novel, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for future releases. I also liked the thematisation of sexual harassment in the work place in Something to Talk About because it's unfortunately a very current problem and I liked seeing how Jo was using her position in Hollywood to help people and how seriously she was taking the topic.

Such a lovely debut and overall romance! It was the perfect witty, escapist read for both springtime and the ongoing quarantine. Very sweet, slow burn and the payoff by the ending makes it so worthwhile.