Major thank you to HarperTeen and NetGalley for the ARC!

Trigger warnings for: absent father, child abandonment, estranged parents, brief mention of car accident (ch 11), fatphobic comment (ch 20)

As a lover of rom coms (including You've Got Mail), Last Chance Books was one of my most highly anticipated 2021 releases. Needless to say, I adored it.

Last Chance Books follows Madeline Moore, a recent high school graduate desperate to save the family business - Books & Moore - from closing down. Books & Moore is Madeline's safe place; a place that has always been there even when her family hasn't. I easily fell in love with Books & Moore's charm, and could see exactly why Madeline held it so dearly to her heart. Growing up with her aunt Astrid, her half-brother Benny, and her half-brother's father, Sterling, after her mother had abandoned them to pursue her own acting career, Madeline's one refuge was Books & Moore. Between her mother, Dahlia, coming back "for good this time", and Books & Moore closing down, I felt my heart break for Madeline. I could very easily empathize with her determination to try to do everything in her power to keep Books & Moore safe.

I thoroughly enjoyed the enemies-to-lovers (or rivals-to-lovers) romance. I loved the prank war between Jasper and Madeline, and I found the development of their relationship very natural. I loved watching them figure out their passions alongside each other, and how they both helped each other get on the right track. I loved the grand gesture, and how they both got to know each other better through a shared love for books.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves rom coms! A wonderful debut for Kelsey Rodkey, and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

Full review on Goodreads. Some good characters, but I had issues with the main character who was sometimes mean and seemed to cite sex as a very minimal and throwaway whatever kind of thing. When you have young people reading these books, I think that needs handled better,

I loved this book. Initially I almost put it down because I thought it was just going to be You've Got Mail. But, the characters are so well developed and swoon-worthy, it was a super fun and satisfying read. Jasper and Madeline work for competing bookstores and flirt with each other through pranks and hijinks with lots of good family drama thrown in as well. I really liked that the characters spoke and acted how young people actually act and speak. I loved the different kind of family dynamic presented in the story and would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fun, sweet stories.

I don't normally like hate-to-love romances but I really enjoyed this story. Madeline works at her family's bookstore, Books and Moore, that is struggling and when a new bookstore, Prologue, opens across the street things get even tougher. A battle of the bookstores ensues between Madeline and Jasper, who works for his parents at Prologue. Madeline has one summer to try to save Books and Moore before she leave for college and the new lease on the store must be signed.

I enjoyed this book, it is lighthearted and easy to read. It was the exact change I needed from I have been reading lately. I would recommend this to anyone that would be interested in a lighthearted YA romance.

Disclaimer: I was given an eARC of this book by HarperTeen via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Madeline always wants “Moore” (see what I did there?) success for Books & Moore, her family’s indie bookstore filled with literary quips, that welcoming bookie-smell, and a relaxed atmosphere— until a competitor shows up across the street with an annoyingly charming Jasper to boot. Can these two find bookish love amidst a prank war, financial struggles, and family woes?

I started off loving Madeline’s voice, but found her to be very self-absorbed and rude at times. Without giving away too many plot elements, part of Jasper’s sacrifice seemed glazed over to keep the plot moving— but of course the hot and heavy scenes were worth a read. I did wish for a different outcome at the end of the book and wanted to stay in the world of literary happiness, but I do think this is a book that will be enjoyed by YA bookish readers. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

I loved this cute love story. As a lover of books, it hooked me with rival bookstores. But then I fell for the characters, with all their flaws and misunderstandings. This was an adorable book!

I thought this book was super cute and it very much spoke to the book nerd in me. I loved Madeline and Jasper's enemies to lovers romance. I also really liked the way it ended, because it was very realistic. The perfect happy ending lover in me would have loved if everything could have worked out perfectly but that isn't always the case in real life and this book really exemplified that and I am so glad that it did. But I am very happy that most things did work out for the better in the end. Overall this book was fu to read and I'm really glad that I got the chance to read it.

You say "You've Got Mail" inspired YA romcom and I say, "Gimme it." Last Chance Books follows Madeline and Jasper. Madeline's whole life is wrapped up in working at her aunt's bookstore until "Prologue," a trendy new bookstore opens up right across the street. Madeline and Jasper start a prank war, but it's not too long until Madeline finds herself spending more and more time with Jasper without pranking him. This story strikes the right balance between being light and fun, while still having characters deal with heavy things. I did find Madeline a touch frustrating as a character, sometimes I just wanted to shake her out of her head (and selfish tendencies), but this was a strong debut and I look forward to more from Kelsey Rodkey in the future!

This was a delightful hate-to-love romance set within the world of booksellers. Everything about running a bookstore felt spot-on and the book was a joy to read.

Fun, if predictable, romantic bookstore romp. I wanted success for B&M and Madeline so badly! I won’t lie—my heart broke a little when the final proclamation was made about the fate of the store. I am one who always just wants to do it herself so I related a lot to Madeline in that regard. Both she and I do not give up easily. Very much enjoyed this story!!

Madeline Moore does. Books & Moore, the musty bookstore her family has owned for generations, is where she feels most herself. Nothing is going to stop her from coming back after college to take over the store from her beloved aunt. Nothing, that is—until a chain bookstore called Prologue opens across the street and threatens to shut them down. Madeline sets out to demolish the competition, but Jasper, the guy who works over at Prologue, seems intent on ruining her life. Not only is he taking her customers, he has the unbelievable audacity to be cute. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. It’s an overall great read.

There is so much potential here. I wanted to love this and intended to do so. The dialogue is laugh out loud funny at times, but I really struggled with the characterization and plot,

Unfortunately, very early into the book, I had difficulty with our MC being a bit overzealous in her anger and the love interest being equally so. Madeline’s humor was hilarious most of the time, but when it went awry, I found it difficult to bring myself to care about her plight again.

As the novel went on, I became more invested in Dahlia, Zelda, and even Luke than Madeline or Jasper.

The pair just never fleshed out for me and by the ending I was like seriously? All this for that? It was messy the entire time and then ends in the pretty neat bow that just didn’t sit right.

This is a fun bookstore fandom romance. I loved how it had a very "You've Got Mail" vibe! The rivalry between Jasper and Madeline is adorable!
I do think that this topic has been written about and visited before but I really liked Madeline and Jasper and was drawn into their fun rivalry bookstore romance.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

I liked the concept of this book and the main characters were adorable. The rivalry between them was cute it reminded me of the movie You’ve Got Mail . Great romance!!!!

Omg, this was sooooo fun. It's just the perfect kind of fluffy rom-com that's ACTUALLY FUNNY but also has more layers to it than just the romance and I was really happy with it.

Last Chance Books is about Madeline, who works at her family's bookstore. She's spending the summer after high school working as much as she can, trying to move up to manager one day. Recently, a bookstore opened across the street, and she quickly finds herself tangled in a rivalry with the cute employee whose family owns that store.

Madeline has a non-conventional family situation - she lives with her aunt, who raised her and her (half) brother. Her brother's dad is also in the picture, and has been since they were young. The kids' mostly absentee mother comes back for the summer, and that's one of the layers of the story. Madeline has trust issues because of disappointments from her mom over her life.

The romantic progression between Madeline and Jasper felt very realistic. Their banter and the way they grew closer to each other was just so cozy while also maintaining a LOT of romantic tension. They play pranks on each other's bookstores trying to "sabotage" the competition, and sometimes it goes too far. But none of it seems SUPER unrealistic, and there are appropriate repercussions.

The major romantic conflict is a little silly, but then again, the entire book is really a conflict between the two of them, and it's more of a conflict about the emotional issues that Madeline has than about the actual situation.

As far as inclusivity goes: Jasper is Japanese, Madeline's brother Benny is mixed, and his dad Sterling is Black. Benny likes boys, maybe not exclusively, and there's discussion about the adults being accepting of whatever person the kids date, "boys, girls, or other people." There's not a ton of representation in this story, but there's also a very limited cast of characters. There's also consent conversations and adults being accepting about drinking and sex, etc., and encouraging safety.

I had a ton of fun with this story and cannot wait to see what Kelsey Rodkey does next because this was a really wonderful debut.

This is definitely a strong debut romance from Kelsey Rodkey! I loved the You've Got Mail premise and the chemistry between Madeline and Jasper, and the way that Madeline's complicated family was handled. There was a lot going on, but it never felt like too much. Both characters had strong personalities and interests. A good addition to the recent cluster of YA bookstore rom coms. My only real complaint was that occasionally Madeline's tunnel vision about keeping the book store open was intense to the point of very frustrating to read.