This is a great choice for those looking for a light, slow-burn romance with a little something extra.
The author deftly handled issues like sexual harassment and racism in the workplace. Especially in a location like Hollywood, I enjoyed the response that the characters had to difficulties. The reader easily becomes invested in the lives of the characters in a way that makes all of this feel natural.
I also enjoyed the character building of the side characters. Those relationships really round out the main characters and their story.
The novel could have been strengthened by a singular POV rather than switching between the two characters. Though I understand the appeal to giving both sides of the story, I feel like in this case it would have been stronger to simply show through Emma’s perspective how their story unfolded.
Overall, it is a lovely read that doesn’t shy away from the hard conversations.

I've been super excited about this book for the past 6 months. Sapphic romance? Sign me up! Unfortunately, it was a miss for me.

The biggest issue was the lack of chemistry and sexual tension. The reader is constantly told details instead of shown, so I had a hard time picturing Emma and Jo together. I felt I didn't get to truly experience the characters, they felt two dimensional. The personalities the main characters showed felt juvenile. I tend to dislike the miscommunication trope and this definitely missed the mark and made them seem like they had the maturity of teenagers.

I don't mind a slow burn romance, but this went at a snails pace and I felt there wasn't much payoff.

Something to Talk About follows Jo, a script writer and former actress, and her assistant Emma. Throughout the book we see them go through their days in the workplace and working on the job.
When it comes to the story’s romance, if you like slow-burn love stories, this is the book for you! If you like office/workplace and age gap romances this is the book for you! We get to see a lot of Jo and Emma’s work in the film industry and that was very interesting because it is not something I ever see or read about. The film industry setting also lead the characters to deal with issues such as scandals and heavy topics like sexual harassment.
While this is more of a romance type book, we get to see Emma’s sister Avery all throughout the book. The addition of Avery was great because she is such a funny, lighthearted, and caring character. We also get to see Avery interact with Jo who she brings out a wholesome side of which was really nice to see.
Overall this book was good. For me it wasn’t my favorite but that is because I am not a big fan of slow-burn romances. I would’ve loved to see more of the developed romance, but I did love that we really got to know the characters and their relationship as it was before they officially got together. I do still definitely recommend this book as it is a fun, fast paced, F/F book that would make for a great beach read!

this book is indeed something to talk about! i loved how slow-burn this romance was. the pacing did feel off at times which is why I'm only giving it a four, but I am so excited to see where this book (and author) will go.

I liked this book. It was fun to watch the two main characters, Emma and Jo, slowly come to the realization that they were attracted to each other. I also liked that there was an age difference that didn't seem to be insurmountable in their relationship. The story contained a lot of humor, especially when Avery, Emma's sister, appeared. And there were some serious issues such as racism and sexual harassment, that were touched upon in the story. It wasn't a perfect story - Emma did a lot of second guessing regarding Jo, and that seemed to slow down the story - but I would recommend this book to readers.

I've only made it to 1/3 of the way in but I won't be finishing it. It not bad, it's not goid, it's just nice. The conflict is tepid. I'm not attached to the characters. I see no reason to keep reading.

This was a pretty highly anticipated release for me, and to be completely honest, I was a little disappointed. Perhaps it has something to do with the writing style, which seemed a little choppy to me. Or the fact that the slow burn romance was a little TOO slow (something I never thought I'd say) I mean, we didn't even get a kiss until more than 80% of the way through the book. The chemistry between these two characters built extremely slowly and I'm pretty sure that wasn't supposed to be the case. I think there was meant to be a lot of tension between these two characters, but instead it just seemed like stilted interactions.

I always appreciate a love interest who comes off as a little standoff-ish, but really they have a heart of gold, and I think that was supposed to be Jo. I almost wish this book was entirely told in Emma's perspective so that Jo was less mechanical and more mysterious.

All that being said, I had so much appreciation for this book. We need more F/F romances, contemporary and otherwise. I appreciate an excruciatingly slow burn, though perhaps not quite this slow. I love the diversity and how this book brought to light some very timely issues that we have in the entertainment industry.

I think there were some really great elements within this book, though it may not have been my favorite execution of it. I absolutely can see a lot of people enjoying this one, even if I didn't love it.

Something To Talk About surprised me, but in the best way possible.

The story follows Jo, a middle-aged show runner, and Emma, her assistant. After Emma went to the SAG awards with Jo, a ton of rumors filled the press regarding their relationship. Everyone thinks they're dating. Jo has never commented on her love life in the history of her career, and doesn't want to say anything except No Comment. But things get messy once it starts to affect their personal personal lives. People begin to think Emma is sleeping her way to the top of her career. Papparazzi is following them everywhere, and there's an inside *source* who keeps spilling information about them. As they spend more time together, they begin to wonder...are the rumors really that unbelievable?

I read this book in three sittings. It's very addicting, and I loved both of the main characters. I also enjoyed the setting, and the slow-burn romance. For being a debut novel, Meryl Witsner knocked it out of the park with this one. It will definitely give people something to talk about.

This was super cute. The writing wasn't my favorite, and I do wish there was more showing and less telling. This was a good book for scaping the world, and I read it at the perfect time. I'll definitely be recommending it.

I've read a lot of Mariana Zapata, so I'm no stranger to a slow burn. In fact, I love that style - I love the moments of angst and sparks between love interests, only for the fog to clear and the moment to pass. It's the best kind of torture. Meryl Wilsner brings it to another level with Something to Talk About. There's so much will they/won't they, that you start to think they won't! It works for the majority of the book but does start to get a little tedious toward the end when you want them to just suck face already.

Unfortunately, I think this is my first ever romance centered around queer women. I read a lot of queer romances from the male perspective, but there aren't nearly enough representing LGBTQ women (if you have recs, I want them!). This book centers around Jo Jones, a former child star turned Hollywood powerhouse, and her personal assistant Emma, who tends to her every need. After a picture is taken of them on the red carpet looking quite cozy, rumors of their relationship hit every tabloid you can think of. Both women spend plenty of energy convincing everyone nothing is going on, which is true, but both women can’t help but wonder if there actually could be something...

For a debut novel, Something to Talk About was almost perfection - I would say that even if it wasn't a debut! The writing style was crisp, the banter was entertaining, and the story, in general, was captivating thanks to an original plot and well-developed characters. Wilsner addressed all the issues between Emma and Jo in a believable way - the imbalance of power, the age difference, the circumstances around their relationship - they were all things that could've been cringe-y, but they were handled brilliantly.

I just had a couple of issues with this book towards the end. I mentioned this is a slow burn romance - I wasn't kidding. There was a ton of angst to keep the character apart so they would take a half step forward, only to take 10 steps back. I didn’t mind for a while, but towards the end, their wishy-washy-ness starts to get tedious. Instead of creating this huge payout where finally the characters see the light, it just made the ending feel rushed. I was honestly shocked when I turned the page and saw the word "epilogue." If Wilsner would have just cut out one angsty moment and turned it into a bigger step forward, it would have progressed the story and the relationship to a more believable level.

But at the end of the day, I highly recommend this book. Meryl Wilser definitely has talent, and I look forward to whatever story she writes next! Now, back to singing Bonnie Raitt, since "Something to Talk About" has been stuck in my head during this entire book!

Aaaah! This is more of a 3.5 star read for me but because it doesn’t have anything wrong with it per say, I’m bumping it up.

I don’t read many age gap romances because it always feels like there’s a power imbalance, which in this book is aggravated by the boss/assistant situation. HOWEVER, the author handled it incredibly well and I was pleasantly surprised.

The writing is really good and the issues addressed in the book, especially the sexual harassment situation in Hollywood, were well explored imo. I loved that Jo is Chinese-American and spoke out against racism in the industry. I love that Emma is Jewish and that she’s super proud of her family. The cultural aspects in the book were definitely a big highlight for me.

I love how the book ends how it started, I thought it was cute. The relationship between Emma and Jo was super cute.

Honestly I can’t complain with anything that has to do with the book because it is nearly damn perfect. But I wasn’t wowed by it and it’s mostly my “fault”, as I’ll explain now.

The pace felt a little off to me. I love slow-burn romances and the built up of tension between the characters, especially characters that don’t necessarily think they should be together as is the case here, but I felt that the romance was lacking the intensity and climax I’ve learnt to expect from these types of romances. The romance felt too mellow and a bit dull if I’m being honest. I love sweet romances, just read one recently that I loved, but I think the lack of romantic action in 90% of the book on top of the lack of intensity didn’t work for me.

I also felt that the fact that the characters didn’t communicate and rather made assumptions of how the other felt in their inner monologues put me off. I don’t mind a bit of miscommunication but it happened so so often. It definitely didn’t feel like there was enough character growth in that department. I don’t mind them pinning after one another but this takes place over the span of nearly a year and they barely address their attraction throughout the entire book.

This book is not for me but it’s a good book so I’d still recommend it to people looking for a VERY slow burn VERY sweet romance. I’m happy that Berkley has finally taken that leap and published their first f/f romance. I definitely hope to see many more in the future.

3.75 Stars. This was a sweet and enjoyable read. By accident I seemed to have gotten into a roll of debut reads. This is my third debut in a row and not only is this Wilsner’s debut book, but this is also Berkley’s WLW romance debut. I love seeing lesfic in mainstream so I hope this is just the first of many WLW books to come for Berkley.

When I heard that not only was this a Hollywood romance but that one of our mains was an ice queen too, I could not wait to read this. That is pretty much a perfect combo in my mind and I was instantly hooked into this story. Jo Jones is a Hollywood powerhouse, think Shonda Rhimes meets Miranda Priestly. And Emma is her personal assistant who keeps her grounded. After a picture taken of them on the red carpet looks anything but innocent, rumors of their affair abound. While having to spend plenty of energy convincing everyone that it is not true, both women can’t help but wonder what if. Could there ever be a chance for anything more or is the power imbalance in their jobs too much to overcome?

I want to talk about some of the things I really liked or thought was well done. First of all I was happy to see that one of the mains was Chinese American and there other was Jewish. Secondly there is a bit of a #Metoo moment that I thought was handled well and I also liked the way Wilsner addressed the power imbalance between a boss and employee. I thought it was much better done than in a lot of boss/employee romances.

I mentioned before how I was hooked instantly and just loved how sweet and angsty this book was turning out to be. After the first half I was thinking this was going to be in the high 4 stars maybe even hit 5. I’m sorry to say that started to change and I was a little bit deflated in the last quarter of the book. There were a few issues that started to compound in the end. The biggest issue for me was that this was a slow burn romance. I love slow burn and I prefer them, but this wasn’t slow this was so super slow! This might be in the running for slowest ever read by me. There was a ton of angst to keep the character apart so they would take 1 step forward, 30 steps back. I didn’t mind for a while, but towards the end I wanted to yell “enough already!” This was so drawn out to the very end that the big payoff, the big payoff of a slow burn romance of waiting the whole book, felt too rushed. This is a romance, we want to see the couple together as a couple. As readers we want to connect with these characters as a couple so a potential HEA means more. It’s the same as any M/F romance, no one wants to wait to the last couple pages there either. If Wilsner would have just cut out one of the angst moments and turned it into another couple moment, it would have made my heart so happy.

In the end I liked this book, I’m just a little bummed since I could have loved it. Ice queen-Hollywood romances are just such a good premise and so many parts of this book were really enjoyable and a lot of fun. And while I really needed more couple time, this is well done for a debut. I like to think that Wilsner’s next book and Berkley next WLW release, both will only improve with more experience and it makes me excited for the future.

If you're looking for a slow-burn sapphic romance, oh boy, this one is one to read. In fact, it may be the slowest slow burn I've ever read. It makes it all the more worth it when they finally get together in the end.

I've been on board with this book the moment Berkley announced it's first romance featuring queer woman. And then they through this cover in, and I had been dying to read it ever since. I'm so happy I got my hands on an early digital copy, and I can't wait to hold this physical book in my hands.

Emma and Jo are truly likeable characters. The writing was quick and fun, and the Hollywood setting made this story shine. The banter between the characters is entertaining and really had me rooting for them.

I really enjoyed the addition of the #metoo plotline in this. I wish we got more of it, and had a bit more followup on what happened with the Cassandra Project, but it added another element to this book to enjoy. These characters really shined throughout that situation.

And as much as I love a slow burn romance, that might've been the one thing here keeping me from rating this 5-stars. A super slow slow burn may work for a lot of people, but it was a little much for me. The pining for each other didn't start until much later in the story than expected, and as entertaining as the rumour plotline was, I wanted a bit more of the pining for each other to happen earlier. I like my slowburn to feature more pining, and that nice sweet get together at the end. But here the two didn't happen much until the last section of the book.

The only other thing that bugged me was some of the main conflict coming from really bad communication. I understand that with characters who communicate properly, there's not much conflict for the plot, but oh my god, they literally just weren't talking and it so much could've been resolved with just talking. Bad communication plotlines just aren't my thing, but again, that's a personal preference.

Overall, I am so happy to see this book being a thing and it truly gave me overall good feels. I am ecstatic to see this hitting shelves and giving us sapphics what we've been waiting for.

I’ll start off this review by saying I did like Something to Talk About but I didn’t love it. I think the problem I had is I went into the book expecting a straight love story, however the love takes a backseat to other topics throughout the book. The romance is a slow burn, which normally I enjoy but in this book the slow burn was a bit to slow for my liking. For me personally I kept reading because I was waiting for the book to really start. Now I do have to say I thought the author did a great job addressing the boss/employee relationship along with an age gap on top of that. This is the first book I’ve read that had those themes so it was interesting to see Meryl Wilsner’s take on it. Another aspect I really loved was the Hollywood setting. It was awesome to get to see how tv shows and movies are written and all the work it takes to bring a script to life. Overall Something to Talk About is an enjoyable read and if you are a fan of slow burn romances this is the book for you.

A romantic comedy set in the world of television production, and switching back and forth between the point of views of the two main characters, this book fell a bit short for me. There were parts where it was really engaging, and parts where it dragged on and on. I also wasn't a huge fan of the way the story was structured. I would have been much more interested in reading about the repercussions of the events at the end of the book, and feel like the events of the book could have taken up at most 50% of the book.

Jo Jones is a former child star turned script writer. She's about to make her move from television to movies writing a new script for a beloved action character (think James Bond). There are many who doubt Jo's capability to do the script justice. To avoid being inundated with with questions, Jo invites her assistant Emma to accompany her to the SAG Awards. Emma's job is to act as a buffer - at least that's what Jo tells Emma (and everyone else) but could it really be more?

Emma has been Jo's assistant for about a year and Jo has never asked Emma to accompany her to an awards show. Of course she's going to go despite being completely out of her comfort zone. She'll always be there for Jo.

The next day, the tabloids are running with the rumor that Emma and Jo are dating. While Emma admits to having a crush on her boss her feelings don't run that deep and she would never dream of crossing that line, and knows Jo would never either. But now that it's out there both Jo and Emma start considering "what if".

I think that, besides providing a sweet romance, Something to Talk About really digs into the workplace romance trope, in the era of MeToo, with expert precision. Meryl Wilsner really spends time ruminating on the power dynamic between Jo and Emma and while it's clear to readers that their feelings aren't coming from a place of one party putting pressure on another party, or pushing feelings that aren't there for threat of job loss, it also acknowledges that these are very real considerations to take when you have feelings for someone who is your boss (or vice versa when you may be a boss and have feelings for a subordinate). I think it's something that has been lacking from other workplace romances I've read in the past and even more recently. Characters looking at the potential repercussions of their actions from all sides.

There's a lot of tension of "will they or won't they" because, really, it's a slippery slope to contemplate even with Jo and Emma both being consenting adults. I think that Meryl Wilsner handles everything really well, and you're really rooting for Jo and Emma to figure out a way to make things work, but you're also preparing for the fact that they just may not.

I will say that it took me a bit to get into the characters. But I think once you get into the story more, Jo and Emma's personalities are, at times, products of the industry in which they find themselves. Jo has learned to be a bit closed off or "cold" with people. Being a child actor has ingrained within her that oftentimes the fame and celebrity will have people presenting a fake visage. Jo closes herself off as a means of protection. Emma is seemingly very open with everyone. Since she is the point of contact for people who want to get on Jo's appointment list, it's understandable that she be friendly and welcoming. Over the course of the book, you see this waiver about her character as she deals with the paparazzi and the press. The best moments are the moments they have just for each other. When their walls come down, maybe just a little, to reveal their true selves. Since the story is so full of lines and trying not to cross them, there are quite a few times where things are left unsaid between Jo and Emma. Things that could have been done to avoid conflicts from escalating, but as I said it's all about navigating the slippery slope of feelings.

I really enjoyed this debut. I loved Meryl Wilsner's writing and I cannot wait to see what comes next. If you're looking for a slow burn romance that deals with the workplace dynamic in a genuine way, look no further than Something to Talk About.

This is a good romance novel with vibrant characters. Jo is Chinese-American and Emma is Jewish, and these aspects of their identities are presented well in the text.

Apparently, it’s a recent trend for me to be unsure about a book at the start and then be head over heels for it by the end.

This book is about Jo, a celebrity and her assistant, Emma, who attend a red carpet together and immediately the red carpet thinks they're dating, even though they are not. Shenanigans ensure after that point.

So let’s start with characters first. Jo is a middle-aged, Chinese-American show runner with Emma is bisexual, Jewish, and asthmatic. There's a bit of an age gap as Emma is her late 20s, but it's nothing the average reader to be creep out by, they are both adults.

This book does not start with their introduction, as they are already been working together for a year or so, which is a first for my romance reading experience. My initial issue was that at first, I felt we weren’t in the character’s heads enough, but that quickly changed as I began picking up on the small stuff that made up their relationship. Like, the book starts off with a very cute scene, but I still felt detached from the characters. That changed as the book continued.

I really got into the romance as it became clear this relationship is built on respectful mutual pining, and I have no choice but to stan. It’s all small acts of kindness and caring followed but inner monologue of “I’m just concerned, there’s no deeper meaning behind it” and I was here for it.
As this book is about an assistant and her boss showing up, it is made perfectly clear that there is no power imbalance in the relationship. It’s also set in Hollywood and so there’s a side-plot in the middle of the book regarding the #MeToo movement. There is no overset sexual assault, but there is a scene with sexual harassment and the emotional fall out, but the sexual harassment is challenged multiple times.
4 stars! A solid romance debut, would have been rated higher if I had gotten that introspectiveness from the beginning, but I would recommend.

This book is absolutely EVERYTHING! Thank you so much for making this one of your first queer female romance! Berkley!
It follows Emma a young assistant to a famous writer/producer/actress named Jo. When they both attended an awards party together there are rumors that they are dating. Because of these rumors both of them are now fighting to keep their reputations good while also trying to navigate their own feelings for each other. Emma is now looked at sleeping her way up in the company while Jo is looking at taking advantage of a young assistant. I think this book is so important especially today when sexual harassment is a big topic. I absolutely loved that Jo allowed Emma to responded to the harassment any way that she felt was right and supporting her decision. While not allowing anyone in Jo's company to harass any employee. Which it should be like that in real life but we know that is not how it actually is.
The book alternatives Jo's and Emma's perspective throughout the book. I love learning how each one of them analyzed the situation and how two people can experience the same but feel completely different about it. Also, I love Emma's relationship with her family. It shows a positive strong family bond for a woman who is queer. I would love to see that more in books.
ALSO THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHOWING HOW CONSENT REALLY SHOULD LOOK LIKE! I have been on the hunt for books that are showing consent within the main characters. And this book nailed it!
The only reason I am giving this book a 4 star instead of 5 is I wish it progressed a little bit more in the beginning. I felt like I needed more until about halfway through the book when it started to pick up. But I promise if you also feel this way, the ending is worth it! Everyone needs to read this!
For Berkley's first queer female romance they absolutely killed it in every single way!

What a fun women loving women rom-com! A lot of the tropes in this read like a classic "chick-lit" romantic comedy, but in a refreshing non-straight manner. The characters are believable and adorable, and the payoff is lovely.