Kara is a best-selling romance novelist who has hit a wall with her latest book. Her best friend is about to get married, her deadline is looming and her wedding duties and bills are stacking up. What she definitely doesn't need is to find out that her first love is also in the wedding party.

Kate Bromley as written a romantic comedy masterpiece full of humour, chemistry and characters you want to spend more time with. Put Talk Bookish to Me on the top of your TBR pile. You'll be very glad you did!

Thanks to #Netgalley for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book in return for an honest review . #TalkBookishtoMe

A writer looking for inspiration finds it again through a meeting with her ex. Kate is a bestselling romance novelist, but she's feeling a lack of fire in her writing. When she goes to her best friend's wedding celebration, she runs into her ex, Ryan, a friend of the groom. Suddenly their matching wits has sparked the writing urge in Kate, just in the nick of time. But in order to keep the words flowing, she needs to hang out with Ryan more. Will the wedding week spell disaster or a second chance at romance?

This is a cute summer read with funny situations that will keep readers entrhalled as Kate battles her feelings for Ryan.

I love a good second-chance romance and this one did not disappoint. With lots of witty banter and heart, I just had to know what was going to happen between Kara and Ryan.

Super cute read. Generally speaking I can predict what will likely happen in a book, particularly rom-coms. However, Kate Bromley made me gasp in surprise at least twice, and yell "NOOOO!" once. The characters are well-drawn (although I did want to shake the heroine Kara a couple of times, but hey, who doesn't occasionally want to shake their friend aware every so often?), and the situations are real.

I enjoyed this book and am glad I read it. Recommended for anyone who is a fan of the enemies-due-to-a-bad-breakup-to-lovers trope.

content warnings: infidelity, mention of past parental death, grief/grieving, fatphobia

So it seems as though I am the outlier in comparison to the other reviews thus far, because I did not like this.

The Good: The dialogue was the best part of this novel. It flowed really well and was funny/quick in a natural way, as opposed to the weird wittiness some rom coms have. Kara's friends were great characters, and overall I liked Kara well enough. I definitely connected with her as "a writer who doesn't actually write". Josh was interesting.

The Bad: A lot. 1) The minimal but Very problematic fatshaming. Kara's mother spends two separate scenes disparaging over the fact that Kara doesn't go crazy with working out to "look good so she can get married and have babies". She constantly buys her tank tops when Kara mentions she doesn't like wearing them. There is also a section when Kara explains her mother's grieving process, which was to throw herself into going to the gym and looking good, getting slim and even more judgey about her daughter and her looks. These sections of Kara's mother buying her clothes she doesn't like/wear could have been included without the fatphobia. 2) the CONSTANT need from the author to tell the reader what the characters were wearing in. every. single. scene. And as a list! Not casually like throughout the chapter/scene, but right at the beginning of every scene. For example, this starts a chapter: "The next morning, I'm dressed in stretchy pants, a long knotted T-shirt and running shoes". Which isn't technically bad on its own, but it's like this in almost every single new scene. I couldn't stand it. I'm not sure if this is a me thing or a not, but it made me flinch every time.

The Ugly: 1) The infidelity plotline. It made me want to stop reading the book because it made me actually stop rooting for them. And I WAS rooting for them! [Tyra Banks voice: I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you!!!] Bad decision. And finally, 2) the ending as a whole. Bad.

I was really excited for this book and despite the missteps it had throughout the first 75%, I was enjoying it enough. Too bad that the decisions made took me out of it, but that's life I guess.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Okay, so I had never heard of this book at all but as soon as I saw the cover and the title, I knew I had to read this book!

In this book we follow Kara, a 30 year old romance author living in New York. Her life right now revolves around finishing her latest book before the deadline and making sure everything goes well at her best friend's wedding in a week. What she wasn't expecting to happen was her college ex boyfriend Ryan being one of the groomsmen and entering her life again. To make sure they don't ruin their friends' wedding, Ryan and Kara need to deal with their problems and try to be friends again.

This romance book was incredibly cute and sweet. As someone who loves posting about books on my Instagram and just talking about books, it made me smile whenever Kara talked about bookstagram and would talk bookish things with Ryan.

This is your traditional rom-com romance book and I loved every second of it.

#talkbookishtome #netgalley

What a fun debut from Kate Bromley! You know you’re in for a treat when the heroine is a book-obsessed romance author who does bookstagram! If I had to choose one thing that stood out to me in this second chance romance, it would be the banter between our protagonists Kara and Ryan. Smart, funny and just overall entertaining to read, I loved their chemistry and could feel just how perfect these two characters were for each other.

While I would consider TALK BOOKISH TO ME a rom-com, a terrible secret is revealed by one of our protagonists. At first, I wasn’t sure how Kara and Ryan could possibly get through it (wasn’t even sure I wanted them to), but the author pleasantly surprised me. I liked that instead of running back into the other person’s arms, the character in question took the full allotted time to distance themselves and figure out what they truly wanted. It was refreshing!

I have just one request for the author now... please write Liam’s story! He was an interesting character and definitely deserves his own HEA, along with Maggie, Kara’s awesome “break into song” bestie.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love a good enemies-to-lovers book, and this one had the addition of ex-lover to current lover. Kara is a successful romance novelist suffering from writer’s block helping her best friend prepare for her wedding. Unfortunately, one of the groomsmen turns out to be her old college flame, the man who broke her heart. There’s still a lot of hurt feelings involved (as well as some old flames of passion that don’t seem to have been extinguished). Kara and Ryan seem to be putting the past behind them until one disastrous moment at her best friend’s wedding changes everything for Kara.

I really, really loved the characters in this book. They were well-rounded and interesting, and the dialogue was fast-paced and funny. I loved the tidbits of insight into Kara as both a romance novelist and bookstagrammer, something many readers will relate to. This was a fun, fast read with a lot of genuine emotion and conflict, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Talk Bookish To Me By Kate Bromley
Publisher - Harlequin
Publish Date- 25 May 2021
Rating - 4/5 Stars

***Thank you to Netgalley, Harlequin, and of course, Kate Bromley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Do you love romance novels? What about a romance novel with a romance novel author as the main protagonist? YES? Then stop everything you are doing and grab a copy of this book. Talk Bookish To Me focuses on Kara who runs into her first love, Ryan after 10 years at the most unexpected place - her best friend's pre-wedding event. Ryan thinks Kara broke his heart, Kara thinks Ryan broke hers. Classic Right? What follows is a perfect Rom-Com filled with laughter, chemistry, a fictional novel within a novel, travels, twists and so much more. My favorite character is in fact - Duke, what a perfect wingman!


Well Done, Kate! I cannot recommend this for the next rom-com people read, enough!



****One Spoiler Here - stop reading!!!!!****

I wondered at the end of this book if it was indeed the book that Kara wrote in the journal. It would be incredibly interesting if that was ever disclosed, but a reader can dream!

*******

Kara sullivan is a romance writer with a hard deadline for her next book. She is also the maid of honor for her best friend. At the pre-wedding party she is surprised that Ryan, a groomsman, is her college ex-boyfriend and once true love. She is angry and frustrated at seeing him but he sparks her writing. In an effort to finish her book and help the bride out she lets him and his bulldog (yay) stay at her apartment till the wedding.

This is a fun enemies to lovers, second chance trope. The author has the best description of why romance readers can read romances with similar plots and still enjoy each one. Hint: she compares it to watching baseball games. There are of course twists and turns along the way. And one that is rather surprising and big. And no, a planned vacation is not the equivalent to Ryan's secret. I thought both characters were great at least until the wedding. You also get snippets of the the book she is writing, which is fun. The ending felt stretched but I was very happy with the outcome and epilogue.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin and Graydon House for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Talk Bookish To Me hit the spot as a fun, satisfying romcom. This story of college exes who reconnect after several years was witty and had many laugh out loud moments. I thought at first that the one liners were coming just a little too fast and furious. It turned out that the book had a great balance of humor and romance and observations about grown-up relationships. Recommendable!

Kara Sullivan is a romance author who is struggling to meet her deadline. Between her bestfriends wedding approaching and a old boyfriend reappearing Kara has her plate full. Her writing sails on paper when ex Ryan is in the picture. How far will you go to finish that book? A steamy, sexy, sassy and second chance at love, add this to your TBR now!!! I enjoyed the characters, writing,plots and twists in this book. An excellent debut for the summer time.

🌹🌹🌹🌹/5

@katebromleywrites #booksofinstagram #booksstagrammer #Reading @graydonhousebooks #netgalley #bookreviewer #bookreview

Single readers in their 20s/30s will immediately identify with Kara, a single woman who seems to be surrounded by couples in love. If you're in need of an easy read with a happy ending, consider "Talk Bookish to Me." If you're searching for a more layered plot, this book may not be "the one" for you.

“All right, so you asking me if books with the same trope are carbon copies of each other would be equivalent to me asking you if every baseball game you watch is the same. I mean, they’re all just playing baseball, following the same rules and always ending the same with one team winning. It must be boring.” (I mean this is kind of how I feel about baseball….but definitely not books!)

Kara is stuck on her next novel. She knows she needs to push through and finish it because as soon as she finishes her maid of honor duties in her best friends wedding, she is off to Italy for a 6 month vacation! When her college boyfriend and the one that got away shows up as a groomsman however, Karas life is flipped upside down. Things did not end well with Ryan, and she can think of nothing she’d like less than to spend a week with him. Too bad spending time with him seems to give her the writing mojo she needs.

Ok I need to start with a disclaimer on this one. This is not a book about a bookstagrammer. Yes, she has a bookstagram but it is such a small part of the story. I was expecting it to be more of a focus so figured I’d put it there in case you expected it too! As a side note: it wasn’t super marketed as being about bookstagram-I think I got that from other people!

This was the perfect lovers to enemies to lovers story! The chemistry between Kara and Ryan was immediately apparent, and their banter was so fabulous! I thought the look at Kara’s novel coming together throughout the book really added something extra. I also really loved the side characters, her friends were so wonderful! Though I did give a second look when her sister gave her a hard time for drinking an entire bottle of wine in one night. First of all, is that wrong? And second, she had no reason to assume she drank the entire thing the night before! She could have had one a glass a night for a week! Either way, I still loved this story, and if you love authors, readers, and romance, you should definitely pick this one up!

Oh this was fun!! It had such a different beat to it from other romance novels I've read. I loved the main character and all the side characters. This was an absolute delight.

OBSESSED! This book was amazing! So cute, and so perfect.

This is a must-read, the perfect summer book. Easy to read, will fly through it all so quickly just to find out how the story ends.

LOVED and seriously can't wait to see what the author puts out next.

*Review will be posted during blog tour dates*
Likes:
*Talk Bookish to Me is about a romance author, Kara, who is trying to finish up her next book and help her best friend with her wedding. On top of that, she runs into Ryan – her ex from college, and it seems like whatever happened in the past is still lingering between them. There is a whole emotional journey that takes place between these two from the moment they reunite to the end of the book.

*The story really does start off light with a rom-com feel but the deeper we get into the story, we get into some bitter feelings of the past, regrets, resentment, guilt – so many feelings to work through. I wasn’t expecting where this story was headed but I had an inkling after a certain event.

*The chemistry between them is electric as they remember how it used to be between them but I also liked that they could see how each other changed or stayed the same in some aspects. There is only really one particularly steamy scene in this story, but it was definitely a culmination of the tension between them.

*I love Kara’s friends, but especially Maggie, she was there for her in every aspect of her life and I loved her for that.

*How can you not love a book with a dog in it?

Random Notes:
*Triggers: grief, cheating

*I’m not a fan of a having book within a book – so at times I mostly skimmed those parts.

*This story has a great rom-com vibe and then the fun, games and sexy times end. Honestly, if it were me, I don’t think I could forgive Ryan as Kara did but they have the history together. Just for me personally, Ryan messed up bad. I will say the moment they fight about it was pretty intense and it was needed, they needed the truth out on both sides but wow…it was a emotionally heavy scene.

Final Thoughts:
I enjoyed this enemies to lovers, second chance romance love story even though I don’t think I could have forgiven Ryan as Kara did. That was the only part of the story that brought my mood a bit down. I did understand though with young love, so much can go wrong as both people in the relationship grow and change. It gives us a chance to see if grown Kara and Ryan feel like what they feel for each other is what they want to fight for. Definitely check this one out if you like second chance romance stories.

I love a good enemies to lover troupe and Talk Bookish to me totally delivered this! I really loved this story. It's full of witty banter, sexy scenes and lots of book talk. What more could you want? Well it also has really great MC's with tons of chemistry! The writing is really good too. I loved the book within a book. Some people may not enjoy this but I actually liked it a lot. Overall Talk Bookish to Me is smart, sexy and a tons of fun

This book immediately captured my interest for a couple of reasons. One, I love reading books about authors. I think it is a fun trope, and I enjoyed seeing how the main character went about her writing process. The second thing that really drew me in was the banter. The heroine and hero have these perfectly zingy conversations between the two of them and I was hooked. I'm also a fan of forced proximity and second chance romance, and who doesn't love an adorable dog?

All that being said, I had a really hard time with the last quarter of the book. I am not a fan of cheating, and I really didn't like how the hero tried to make it seem like no big deal. I spent such a long time falling in love with this couple, it felt like a betrayal and I didn't enjoy the end of the book because of it. I also didn't love that the hero talked about romance books in a way I found condescending.

There were a lot of things I liked about this book, but overall, it didn't work for me.

This was such a fun and light hearted read that moved fast from beginning to end. The characters were fun and the chemistry was on point between the characters. There many great laugh out loud moments and moments that just put a smile on my face.