I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this book, because it was not like any other Hallmark movie. Here we had to wait and see who she would choose at the end. In many Hallmark movies we usually know from the start who the main character will end up with, because there is an obvious flaw with the guy she doesn't end up with. But in this movie he doesn't have a necessary flaw that makes her choose someone else.

Even thought it was a good book, and I liked the storyline, I just can't get over the unfaithfulness. It is something I do not tolerate, and therefore, it does have quite a big impact on my rating. I don't believe unfaithfulness should be romanticised, because it is not okay.
I was team Spence through out the book, but I couldn't put my finger on why I would choose Spence over David, so in some way I don understand the main character, but that still doesn't make cheating okay.

But other than that, I really did like the book, and would recommend it to people that needs a easy-read book to read when it is dark and cold outside.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a short story but wasn’t a quick read for me. I didn’t really enjoy it and didn’t feel a connection to any of the characters. It was just okay. Maybe I’m biased because I didn’t like the cheating and men fighting over her part.

My Thoughts- Reading this book is like eating my favorite sweet and spicy jalapeño kettle chips, The first bite is sweet but then once you savor the chip it’s got quite a bite to it. This book has some steamy scenes and also has wonderfully sweet scenes like when Laura takes Spence on a hike to see the local hot springs and watch the sunset. This was an enjoyable and quick read and my very favorite part is the title… At the very end of the book the title becomes totally clear and I absolutely loved it!

This book was the perfect escape. It was lovely and fun. It was my first book by this author and I will definitely be on the look out for more!!

This was a weird for me. Overall I liked the writing and tone of the story, it kept me engaged and moving forward. However, the story itself was just off. In the very first scene we have the main character, Laura who is asleep in her car with no bra on and some boy in the parking lot is wearing it. While it was funny it was not explained well enough to make sense. Right after this she meets two men, one she is immediately attracted too and one she did not like. However after starting a relationship with first guy she starts a working relationship with the other and over time develops feelings for both men. I did not like that the main character slept with both men pretty close together and that she couldn't make up her mind. When she was one man she was all about him but then would switch and only want to be with the other when he was around. While there were many aspects of this that I didn't care for I think I will try from this author again as her writing was engaging. Thank you to Rhapsodic Press and Netgalley for my complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for a honest review.

What I've just read??
Loved it from the very first paragraph until the last phrase.
It can be one of my favorite rom-com books of the year.

SYNOPSIS
To preserve her beautiful hometown, Laura hires a hotshot marketing team to figure out how to inject the old magic back into North Powell’s sagging tourist trade.
That team includes David Hharper the sweat, handsome and perfect man every woman wants. And they fell for each other in the moment the met.

But not everything is that nice in Laura's life. She is assigned to work with Spence Markham, the most valuable member of the company. And David's nemesis.

The next six months are so hard for Laura. She loves David. And she knows it. But there are some feelings for Spence that she cannot hide.

OPINION
First, I thought this book was about Christmas holidays but no. I was so offended when I realized that the book starts on June and end during December. Anyway, I loved it even if it wasn't during the holidays.

This is the sweetest book I've ever read. It's a beautiful love story about a woman in love with two handsome, gentlemen, funny and good lovers men.
It's a love triangle very well developed.

I understand Laura's situation.
David is a good lover. He's kind. He cares for her and loves her so much.
But Spence is so handsome, funny, silly and so beautiful.
How can she decides?

I recommend so much this love story. It's so funny, easy to read and your gonna fell for this three amazing main characters.

WOOOOAAAHHHHH...!! WHAT DID I JUST READ?!! 🙊😅

That's 👆how you feel, when you read the first paragraph of this book!
And YOU CAN'T HELP RE-READ IT, AT LEAST TWICE! 🙊✨
______
Welcome 🎉 to the #booktour of this AWESOME book,

✨WHY I HELD YOUR HAND
BEAUTIFULLY PENNED by
@augustareillyb
______
💗Genre: Contemporary Romance; ROMANTIC COMEDY; Women Fiction. 🔞

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I LOVED this 📖read!
It came as a FRESH 🍃💦BREATHER in this stressful pandemic.

🍓FUNNY, WITTY, TACTFUL HUMOR WITH A PERFECT DOSE OF LOVE & ROMANCE.
______
✨LAURA DELANEY, 27, single, lives with her 50 year old mom.
She is a beautiful, independent girl who loves her home town, it's people, her mom & is ready to mingle.
She meets a handsome young man, who is perfect, with his looks and emotional compatibility & humour quotient. Sparks fly and they mingle but..then they both start feeling that the bond they shared is gone..there's no anger, hurt or forgiveness needed.. Both move on. What they'd had together was gone & it was never coming back.
In the meanwhile she has already met someone, a colleague of this handsome, perfect man & moves on. Now this 2nd male, is nowhere near perfect but he fits perfectly with her like two peas in a pod! Both of them share mutual love and admiration & respect for each other and their interests. Will this bond, flourish? Is this true love ❤or will it end like the previous one?
One is DAVID HARPER, who lives with his mom and the other is SPENCE MARKHAM. I won't tell, who is who, though!
_______
📖READ this BEAUTIFUL STORY of a NORMAL GIRL, who is LOOKING FOR SOME EXCITEMENT & TRUE LOVE, in her life, amongst other things.

🍓Throughout, YOU WILL SMILE, SMIRK, LAUGH & FEEL SO SO LIGHT!
_______
It also FOCUSES on the LOSS OF A FATHER, THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A WIDOW MOM & HER ONLY DAUGHTER, THE RAPPORT & ALSO HAS A BEAUTIFUL, WARM, SMALL TOWN VIBE.
________
21 chapters, 192 pages, it's a FAIRLY QUICK READ.

#justreleased📣 on 23rd Oct. 2020.

Read it for 🆓free on #kindleunlimited !
I read it on @netgalley

What I liked -

Never a dull moment, just a quick fun moving storyline. Lots of romance and very very steamy. ( did I mention steamy? If you don’t like steam sexy books, this isn’t the book for you)

What I didn’t like as much - ( may be a spoiler so look away if you don’t want to know)

*****Spoiler below *****

The cheating. I just had to let myself think of this as a soap opera and enjoy it as it was. It’s not happening in real life, it’s not actually hurting anyone. Then I was able to fully enjoy this story. And I really did enjoy this story. I finished it in just a couple of hours because I couldn’t put it down.

If you are a fan of love triangles and steamy reads, check out Why I Held Your Hand by Augusta Reilly. This book was light on Christmas, but high on steam. This book had more drama than what I like in a romance, but I think those that enjoy the gossip and drama of reality might enjoy this small town romance.

Take a look at this cover, I’ve included a second photo with a close up...I’ll wait. Doesn’t this look like an idyllic Winter scene? I saw the cover of this book and thought, “Yay, sweet holiday romance!”

Hold on to your hats friends cuz this is not a sweet little holiday romance. Nay, Nay this is the late night edition, I kept thinking Skinamax, Cinemax’s late night sister!!

I absolutely LOVED the banter, the sarcasm, the witty comebacks and the characters in this small town romance!

Laura has the unfortunate luck to meet not one but 2 amazing men at the almost same time.

In an attempt to save her fledgling town, Laura is meeting with high powered marketing firms to increase tourism in the area. North Powell is surrounded by larger cities with ski slopes, hot springs, fancy eateries, and late night bars and clubs. North Powell can’t compete. Enter David, Spencer, and James....

Laura meets David first, in an opening scene that is so funny and memorable, I read it aloud to my husband 🤣! Laura and David are soon dating and happy but Laura is working closely with Spencer to save the town. As they work together they develop a close friendship...that evolves into so much more. It almost takes Laura by surprise, how much she cares for Spencer.

Laura was a very likeable main character that just happened to meet the man she was destined for while she had something pretty great with someone else.

The was literally a one sitting read, at less than 200 pages, I flew through this book! I was so invested in who Laura would end up with, I couldn’t put it down! I liked both men so I expected to be sad, but the author wrote the ending so well, I wasn’t upset.

I thoroughly enjoyed Why I Held Your Hand and 100% swooned when the title was referenced near the end of the book. I loved this one! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, pick it up ASAP, it’s available now!

Thank you Suzy Approved book tours, Augusta Reilly, and Rhapsodic Press for my digital copy of the book to review!

Are you looking for a steamy, swoon worthy holiday read? Then you must check out the romantic, love triangle, Why I Held Your Hand! Laura hires a big time marketing firm to help attract tourists to the small town of North Powell. When she meets David, who is on the team, she cannot resist him! He is everything she wants, but then she is assigned to work with Spence. Spence and David don’t get along, but Laura for some reason can’t stop thinking about Spence too!

I love that their idea is to have a Dickens Festival to revive the town! There is a huge one here every year in Franklin, TN, that people from all over attend! As the festival approaches in the story, Laura realizes she has intense feelings for both men, and it seems like they are both thinking the same about her. You will have to read to see who she chooses!

I feel like this romance is behind the times in all the wrong ways. At no point do the characters discuss sexual health (protection, disease, pregnancy) but the main character has unprotected sex with multiple partners in a short time span. No discussion (although a bizarre period of prolonged waiting which is also not discussed.) They ejaculate inside her! In some states this would fit the definition of a violation of consent (where consent has to be a verbal yes!) so I was just.. thrown off. I realize not everyone wants to have to consider details like this in an escape read but it was so glaringly absent.

Not to mention that one love interest purchased clothing one woman was reluctant to wear "for his enjoyment only" and never introduced her to his mother and we never really know why (I felt his excuses were pretty lame) and the second love interest touches her before they ever establish mutual attraction... yes she is wearing something sexy and alone with him... this is also... not consent! He exhibited so many traits of a controlling, abusive partner and yet she was constantly at the brink of choosing him over the other guy.

The main character also has a short-term memory problem that seems like will just keep going past the end of this book, where the man she is in the room with is the one she's feeling strongest for. At one point I backtracked to the beginning because she was talking about a second man the same way she had talked about the first and I thought there was a mistake. We never see any inner turmoil just like, "Ooh, he's handsome and would be a good father for my children that I'm CLEARLY PLANNING TO HAVE since I have as much unprotected sex as I can get."

Other short notes - It was short. The original meetcute scene was confusing but unique. Still not sure why Deborah is texting her about her boobs.

Holy steam! This book was definitely surprising. From the cover I thought it would be a cute little winter love story. In some ways, thats exactly what it was, but Laura, the main character was extremely indecisive. Laura owns a craft shop in a North Powell, a small town between two booming ski towns. When North Powell is failing to create the buzz the surrounding towns are creating she hires a marketing team to help bring her hometown back to life. She falls head over heels in love with one of the men in the marketing company, David. He seems perfect in every way but as she works more closely with Spence on the Charles Dickens festival she develops feelings for him as well. She's not sure exactly how to handle these new feelings. It was a cute book but there were some things that Laura did that I found really unbecoming of her character. I think we missed out on a little character development of David as well. Not my least favorite, but not my favorite romance book.

Thank you to @suzyapprovedbooktours for my copy of Why I Held Your Hand in exchange for my honest review. This was a sweet small town love triangle that brought a bit of cheer to 2020. I enjoyed this novel and I hope you will too.

The small town of North Powell is struggling to bring in tourism dollars so Laura hires a marketing firm to help bring people back to the town. The team includes David and Spencer who do not care for each other. Laura finds herself developing feelings for both men.

This classic love triangle is packed with lots of steamy moments. It was a fun light read that I flew through. Definitely worth picking up this book available now!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. I didn't connect with the characters at all, and it was far more graphic than I expected.. There absolutely are people it would suit for, but sadly not for me!

This was my first book by Augusta Reilly, and I really enjoyed it! I loved the setting of the small town of North Powell, and all the Victorian elements in this book. Laura was faced with a hard choice in this book, to pick between two great men. Without giving anything away, I was really glad with the choice she made. This was a delightful quick read, a great escape from all that is going on in the world.

This is my honest review of an ARC I received on netgalley.

Read this book if you like;
-love triangles
-small-town romance
-the setting/coziness
-steamy scenes

Avoid this book if you're not a fan of;
-kind of weird pacing
-love triangles

I was unfortunately not a huge fan of this book. I thought I would like it because I'm a sucker for holiday romances, but there was very little holiday stuff and more sex scenes. I don't mind steaminess in books, but I was not a fan of how this book handled the steaminess. The main characters didn't really discuss birth control or anything, which is something I always notice in books.

I did like that this romance novel's main character explores her options in terms of romantic partners. She doesn't just automatically stick with one guy for the entire book which I appreciated. It was a nice change from the type of romance books I usually read.

Overall, this book had some positives and some negatives. I do think the "holiday" part was a little lacking. I also thought the ending felt a little rushed, and it overall felt like this book was just lacking a little bit of structure. But if you're a fan of love triangles, small-town romance, and some steam, then check this one out!

Thank you Netgalley and Rhapsodic Press for the free copy of this book.

I am not a huge love triangle troupe fan. So imagine my surprise when I started to read Why I Held Your Hand by Augusta Reilly. Reilly's take on a love triangle is really well done up until about 60% of the book. Unfortunately, it did not stay that way,

In my true review format, here are my loves of Why I Held Your Hand:
* I love the stark differences between Spence and David's personalities. The relationship between Laura and Spence is a slow burn romance while the relationship between Laura and David is a sudden flame. The correlation between personality types and how each relationship is built makes complete sense.
* It's extremely steamy. No close door scenes here. The more you read, the more intense it gets.
* In a lot of love triangle stories, a character commits some type of unethical act (i.e. cheated or suddenly evil), but In Why I Held Your Hand, the only person who really does anything wrong is Laura. I appreciated that because it adds a tiny element of suspense.

Here are my dislikes:
* The cover of the book gives the impression that this is a holiday book. However, it is not. There is a holiday festival and that's it.
* The reason as to why Laura stuck with one man while clearly in love with the other / while clearly meant to be with the other is dense.
* There is no break up scene or break up talk. It is glossed over at the end.
* The ending felt rushed.

I will recommend Why I Held Your Hand to readers who:
* Love the love triangle troupe
* Love steamy romances
* Are intrigued by which man Laura will choose

I’m in love with the cover and this was such a cute romance novel! Laura is from the sweet, charming town of North Powell. It has so much to offer but is being overshadowed and swallowed up by the neighboring towns, who have more money and more appeal to attract tourists. Having grown up in North Powell, Laura knows its history and all of its hidden secrets better than anyone. So she hires a marketing team to help her get the place back on its feet. But what she doesn’t expect, is to be caught in a complicated love triangle with two of the guys on the team.

✨ I definitely enjoyed this book, however, Laura was a bit complicated for me and found myself frustrated with the decisions she was making regarding David and Spence.
I ADORED the setting and the cozy feelings I got when the author described the Victorian homes and walking trails. It made me want to visit the town and be a part of the Dicken’s Festival. David and Spence were great leading male characters-David had the patience of a saint, and Spence-oh sweet Spence 😍

✨Do yourself a favor and grab this for a holiday read!
P.S. 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (I definitely wasn’t expecting this)
Thank you for my review copy in exchange for an honest review.

As advertised, a cute rom/com with a predictable ending but some little twists along the way. It was fun to read and escape snowy Minnesota for a few hours!