3/5 stars

Thanks for providing this precious arc in regards to the publisher and author!

What a cute romance! A bit annoyed at times but i acknowledge that it's due to their ages

The banter to this store and the love of books made this book. I loved the characters interaction with each other especially between the siblings because I could definitely see myself having the same convos with my brother. While some of the pranks seemed to have gone way to far it was a cute read.

First of all...AWE!

I love a good rivals to lovers storyline and this book delivers. I find the characters super cute and the story touching. I don't want to give away to much, but if you love books and your local bookstore, get this book.

I enjoyed Last Chance Books also! Plus, can we take another look at this cover?? A++

I loved Madeline's voice, and I was happy to see an older MC! Madeline recently graduated from high school and at the end of the summer she was going off to college. She has complex relationships with those in her life, including her (half) brother, her brother's father, her mother, and her aunt who raised her, Astrid.

I also was captured by the premise of Last Chance Books, which, naturally, meant lots and lots of books. I loved seeing the characters' creativity as they attempted to save Books & Moore, the bookstore that had been in Madeline's family for a couple of generations (and she believed that she was inheriting it). Last Chance Books has all of the bookish things and every element that makes a book lovers' heart race a little faster. Zelda, one of Madeline's bookstore friends, was a great character—I enjoyed seeing the online book community I know seep into this story because she's a booktuber (plus, Jewish rep!).

However, possibly because readers only see Madeline's side of the story, since it's in the first person, but the "enemies to lovers" relationship felt very...one-sided. Yes, Jasper definitely pulled some interesting pranks (and shitty ones sometimes like Madeline), but I felt like the heat and the "enemies" bit came mostly from Madeline.

There were many times when I wanted to scream at the characters and say, "make good choices!!" Maybe even shake them a little bit because their definitions of a "harmless " prank" is very different from mine.

Conclusion: recommend! If you're looking for a story full of tension and spark (and books), I would recommend checking out Last Chance Books!

If You've Got Mail and Tweet Cute had a baby, it would be this fun YA read! I appreciated that Madeline's life wasn't picture perfect, but I would have liked for Jasper and his family to be a bit more fleshed out. Overall I really enjoyed this book.

Thanks to HarperCollins Children's Books & NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I dnf this at 30% so by all means ignore this review
I went into this book expecting a swoon worthy retelling of You Got Mail and what I received was far less than that.
I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes every other page and don't get me started on the dialogue which was written very weird and I can't pinpoint exactly why it read weird but it was awkward.

Madeline Moore loves her family’s independent bookstore and plans on running the bookstore when she graduates from college. When a chain bookstore opens up next door, Madeline quickly begins a feud with Jasper (the owner’s extremely hot son). This has lots of You’ve Got Mail energy, so Madeline and Jasper definitely fall for each other!

I enjoyed this Young Adult novel, and I’m a big fan of books about books! I really liked this quick read. Madeline has some family drama, and I thought those relationships were super interesting. Her relationship with Jasper is also so fun!

Thanks to @NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for my ARC! The Pub Date for this is May 18th - definitely check it out (#libraryjoke)!

This story is truly a book lover's dream, thanks to its premise of competing bookstores and the two teens who quickly find themselves becoming more than rivals. This book was funny, heartwarming, and dreamy. It's the perfect light-hearted quirky contemporary romance. Perfect for fans of Morgan Matson.

This was SO freaking cute! And, honestly, it's probably one of my favorite book-centered books I've ever read. I saw myself in Madeline so much, and her whole bookish-ness/nerdiness was written so well and completely on-point.

The relationship was ADORABLE and everything I could have ever asked for from a YA book. Jasper and Madeline's banter was perfect, and the arc of their relationship was wonderful.

Everything about this was so. freaking. good. The family relationships and dynamics? Amazing. The friendships? Wonderful. There's literally not one thing I disliked from this book.

Thank you to HarperTeen (via NetGalley) for the ARC!

4.5 stars

All Madeline wants to do is run her family’s bookstore, Books & Moore. She’s only going to college because her aunt Astrid, who basically raised Madeline and her younger brother Benny, insists that Madeline get a degree “just in case.” Madeline knows she’s just going to come back in four years and run the store, so it’s just a waste of time.

Across the street, a new bookstore, Prologue (a franchise, yuck) has recently opened up. Madeline is convinced they want nothing more than to run Books & Moore out of business, and she’s sure Jasper Hamada, who works for the enemy, is intent on ruining not only her life, but her family’s business. The fact that he’s really cute is just an unfortunate detail.

Madeline just wanted to enjoy her last summer before college working at Books & Moore, but instead has set out to destroy the competition across the street, cute boy be damned. She will do whatever it takes to save her family’s livelihood. But things get even more complicated when she finds out that Dahlia, Madeline and Benny’s mom, who has been absent most of the last eighteen years, is coming back. For good.

………..

I have been having a string of good luck with my ARCs this year, and it continues here! This was a strong debut from Kelsey Rodkey, and tackled several different topics: we get a prank war between rival bookstores, enemies to lovers romance (my FAVE!), a heroic effort to save a dying bookstore, and also some pretty heavy family issues. It seems like a complicated thing to balance and still end up with an overall lighthearted/happy book, but Rodkey achieves this quite well.

This is definitely a book for older YA readers, for a few reasons. Madeline is a recent high school grad and on her way to college by the end of the book. There is a mild sex scene about three quarters of the way through, and that is honestly the only reason I probably won’t buy this book for my middle school library (which is a bummer). I thought the family issues were really interesting because I haven’t seen that a lot in my travels of YA contemporary novels. Madeline and her mother have a pretty bad relationship throughout most of the book (when they have one at all) because Dahlia abandoned Madeline and Benny (who have different fathers) and left them with her sister Astrid. Benny’s dad is still around, but Madeline doesn’t know hers. It’s a really complicated family dynamic that you don’t often get to see in YA novels, so I’m glad that it’s explored here, in all its messy glory. It’s not easy, and Rodkey doesn’t sugarcoat how hard it is to have an absent parent who all of a sudden wants their job back. I can’t speak on this from personal experience, but I think the way Madeline and Dahlia interact throughout the book seems authentic to how a teenager would feel when an absent mother showed up promising to stay after eighteen years of inconsistency.

The romance is cute, but I do think the description of the book is a little misleading because it is definitely not the main plot of this story. It's one of many plots happening all at the same time. And the fact that it really isn't defined until literally almost the last pages of the book makes me wonder why all the other aspects of the plot were entirely absent from the description. Jasper Hamada is a fun, intriguing love interest, but I did want to know a bit more about him. But honestly, with so much else going on in the book, I see why there wasn't any time!

Again, definitely a really solid debut, and I really enjoyed it! I can’t wait to see what else Rodkey writes, and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for her next book.

First what I want to say is this is such an adorably cute cover and I was so excited to be given the chance to read it. I only have read part of it so far and I’m loving it. I know you are usually supposed to give reviews after you have read the whole book/ARC, but I couldn’t wait because I love this book so much and just wanted to share my review. Please read! Such a cute adorable story about love and books, or I should say love of books. And plus who wouldn’t this adorably cute cover.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me this ARC copy of “Last Chance books” for a honest review.

Words cannot describe how much I loved and enjoyed reading Last Chance Books. This is a perfect read for the Summer. I loved all of the characters but especially Madeline and her rival/ love interest Jasper of course. I loved how similar Last Chance Books was to You’ve Got Mail. It is my favorite romance movie. I loved all of the pop culture references. Especially the Pokémon references because I grew up playing and watching Pokémon. I have to admit there were multiple times that I cried while reading Madeline interacting with her biological absent mother. Last Chance Books include some major themes of abandonment and forgiveness and as I mentioned before I cried several of times. I will definitely be purchasing two physical copies. One for my classroom for my students to enjoy and one for my personal library. Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an amazing book!! Words cannot describe how grateful I am.

Rodkey presents a whimsical romance in Last Chance Books. Madeline's family-owned bookstore is threatened by a new competing chain (it's also family-run, but they have more than one store, it's a chain-ish). Thanks to some very Nora Ephron-esque twists, Madeline's personal and professional well-being are put to the test. Ultimately, she needs to find out how to save her business, or risk finding out who she is apart from the bookstore.
Rodkey has a light touch to developing the characters and story to give them room to grow, but keeps things moving forward plot-wise. While the rom com of it all is certainly front and center, there's a clear commentary about the dying print publishing industry and what it means to see digital and corporate book sales grow.

Two dueling bookstores and a cute, sweet romance? Yes! I was so excited for this book. Unfortunately, this book just did not live up to the expectations. The book was just ok, and didn’t elicit any strong feelings or emotions from me. Madeline was not a likable character, and I felt like most of the other characters were not fleshed out enough to connect with them. It also took me awhile to figure out the age of the MCs, because at times the acted like 40 year-olds and other times acted like 13 year-olds. In addition, I thought there was not enough romance in the book, and I didn’t always understand it or see the connection. The concept was intriguing and very interesting, but unfortunately the execution was just not there. 3 stars.

I received a free digital ARC from NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 stars

We have Madeline Moore, who is the assistant manager of her family bookstore, Books & Moore. The family bookstore has been there ever since her grandmother started it. But, the bookstore is in danger of closing down when a chain bookstore, Prologues, moves across the street. Madeline is outraged and is set on destroying the competition. When she realizes that Jasper, the cute boy who has been coming into the bookstore every week is the son of the owner of Prologues,they engage in a prank war.

This book just didn't do it for me. When I read the synopsis, I was extremely excited. But, after the first 100 pages, the book just got slowly worse. I really wanted to enjoy this book, I mean rivals to lovers and BOOKSTORES, but it fell short.

The characters, They were just unlike-able. Madeline takes things too far more than once and is unbelievably stubborn. She does not know when to back down and get's mad at people constantly and for the dumbest reasons. Jasper was a little better, but not really. Both of them take it too far with the "war" in many ways. Their romance felt half'-assed too. It could have been developed better, one day they just forgive each other and then they make out. The other characters were okay, they don't really stand out or anything. They're just there. My favorite character would have to be Astrid. Her actions always made sense and she was like-able.

The plot. It was fine. Nothing spectacular. I found myself bored many times and cringing. It felt like a chore having to read some pages because I knew whatever happened would lead me to have second hand embarrassment. My main issue is with the "war" that Madeline and Jasper had. They took it too far way too many times. Sabotaging someone's business should never be okay. It was also extremely childish. Both characters are in their late teens and are engaging in a prank war. Yeah, makes sense.

I mean this book is okay. You might enjoy it. It's just not great.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars

Nothing feels like home to Madeline more than her family's bookstore. It has been there for her through the repeated heartbreaks of her mother showing up in town and leaving again, helping her cope with her resentment that her brother's dad stuck around while hers disappeared and as an escape any time life let her down. But now Books & Moore's longevity is at risk because a big fancy new bookstore opened up across the street. And it doesn't matter that one of the guys who works there is extremely cute. Mostly he's annoying and smug, and she can't wait to destroy him. Their prank war started as a battle to keep her family's store afloat, and she's definitely not going to let any pesky feelings distract her. Let the games begin!

This was a cute update on You've Got Mail, and it had a lot of potential. The writing is fresh and flows well, and Madeline's voice was snarky and sarcastic (my favorite). However, there were some pacing problems throughout where I couldn't really figure out how things jumped so quickly from one issue or situation to another. They hate each other and suddenly they're making out, literally within minutes in the same scene? I mean, you know that's where the story is going but getting there was SO abrupt. Also, some of the characters felt real and had some depth, but I wanted to know more about most of them. Especially Jasper! I got to the end of the book with very little idea of who he was or what Madeline liked about him (which doesn't mean he was a jerk, just that he was a big question mark).

So, I liked a lot about this book, and it's entirely possible that some of my issues above will be addressed before the book is published. It was a fun debut, and I'll definitely be interested to see where this author goes from here.

**Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!**

I feel really awful when I specifically reach out to a publisher and end up not enjoying a book. I tried. Honestly. The rivals-to-lovers trope is a fun one. Make it about bookstores and it's even better. But, I did not like the characters. I rolled my eyes so much. I couldn't keep going. But, but, I know many people will love this book. It has a cute premise. And I'm a firm believer that a book someone doesn't like may be the perfect book for someone else. That's the beauty of books. And this book is about books. 😉 Okay. Okay. I'm done. If you like Romcoms and/or bookstores, then you should definitely check out Last Chance Books.

***Thank you to Kelsey Rodkey for posting about the review opportunity and to Netgalley and Harper for providing me with a review copy.***

It did take me a while to get into this book, but then suddenly I could not put it down. The will they won't they, enemies turned lovers arc gets me every time. The character development was great and the story was intriguing. Great debut novel!

Madeline in working at her family owned bookstore in the summer before she heads off the college. Her goal is to end up running the store after graduation but that idea seems to be fading as a rival chain bookstore opens across the street threatening their business. This is a fun hate to love YA romance that doesn't go too deep into drama, but is definitely entertaining! The characters are quirky enough to keep you reading, but not fleshed out enough for me to remember them forever. Personally, books about books is a favorite trope of mines I obviously enjoyed this, but it's not a book I would necessarily read again or consider a favorite.

While every book deserves a last chance, this one deserves them all! Featuring feuding booksellers from rival bookstores, this novel is the perfect combination of humor and romance. Full of witty comebacks, prank wars, and enemies-to-lovers (to enemies, back to lovers again) energy, this story is a perfect for book lovers and romance fans alike!