Many thanks to NetGalley and Graydon Books for gifting me a copy of the debut romance novel by Kate Bromley - 4.5 stars!

Kara Sullivan is a romance book writer, the deadline is looming on her next book and she is totally stuck on even getting started on an idea. Her best friend's wedding is coming up and Kara is in full maid-of-honor mode. However, when Kara's ex-boyfriend from college shows up at the pre-wedding party, just being around him sparks her into writing mode. Those aren't the only sparks that are flying between Kara and Ryan but both are holding back secrets that will threaten their second chance at happily ever after.

I really enjoyed this book - how could you not with a title like that? And the fact that not only is Kara a writer but she's a bookstagrammer! Add Italy into the mix and instant swoon! There are great characters here besides Kara and Ryan, headlined by Duke, but also Kara's friends. Along with the romance in this book, there's much to ponder about grief, loyalty, family, second chances. Wonderful debut - can't wait to read more from this author.

This was an exceptionally fun and surprisingly emotional read from a debut author which makes it that much more impressive. There was an unexpected amount of drama and humor packed into this book and I was not prepared for the journey it took me on. While this story is still light hearted in most aspects there was also quite a lot of moments that had me tearing up. Kara is an easy character to fall in love with and since she is not only an author but a fellow romance lover and bookstagrammer she is someone that we can all easily connect with in some way. Ryan is a complicated hero that is so easy to root and yet even he and his and Kara’s situation is more complex than I was expecting. Which is probably why I love this book so much since it felt so realistic. This book also has the added bonus of giving us snippets of the historical romance that Kara is working on. I wasn’t as wowed with this extra story but I did think it was a fun addition. Overall, this is an incredible romance that perfectly balances humor and emotion and one where I will be thinking about these characters for a long time to come.

Thank you so much Harlequin Pub for sending me a free e-arc via Netgalley!

Y'all omg. I am obsessed. I was hooked from the first couple of pages! I loved that Kara's a romance writer and how she struggled to get her book written by the deadline. It was so entertaining!

Not only was this enemies to lovers, but it was also a second-chance romance and I am here for it!! I am seriously so happy to have read this and can't wait to get a physical copy to possibly re-read!

Recommended if you like: Enemies to Lovers, Second-Chance, Author Protagonist, Weddings (Friends Wedding).

I was so excited to read this romance book. And it was going to be an enemy to love with a twist of former love reuniting again. It had it all. Plus, we got to read about an author falling back in love with her former love again. But bam, big surprises for everyone that he is with someone else and they are engaged. And she was the main reason they broke up the first time. When I read the big surprise, I was in no way. Like how can you recover from this. You literally made her the other woman without her knowing. And even if you forgive, it still cheapens your love. I was just disappointed. And I got even more disappointed when she got back to him. That's not real love. I;m sorry but it's a no from me.

Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley is a contemporary romance novel following Kara, a bright romance author after she reconnects with her college ex-boyfriend for her best friend’s wedding. To her surprise, Ryan comes back into her life reigniting something inside her. Yet with some unresolved issues it’s unclear whether it’s for better or worse. Will a second chance with Ryan work out or is it better they stay far away?

For some reason I wasn’t expecting much for this romance novel and was expecting it to be cheesy. This novel was far from cheesy and had me hooked from start to finish! I breezed through this book in a day because I fell in love with Kate. Kate is such a well developed character and it was amazing to see the changes she made throughout the book and confronting some challenging issues like her father’s death. I also loved the banter between Kate and Ryan, it was so clear they cared deeply for each other but had some real challenges in themselves and their relationship that explained why it didn’t work previously.

I really enjoyed Ryan’s character and how he wasn’t afraid to tell her how he felt. This book was totally on track to be a five star book for me but I really struggled with the cheating lie in their first chance and the actual cheating in their second chance. However I think for me cheating is just one I struggle with a HEA. Regardless the author handled that surprisingly well and included heavy groveling which I love and believe was necessary. Overall I really really enjoyed this novel and can’t wait to see what other romances this author writes because they clearly are great at their craft.

Many thanks to the publisher Harlequin and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

I saw this book hyped everywhere and had high hopes that a book with the title “talk bookish to me” would fulfill my avid reader heart inside of a romance book.
Cheating and lying should not be a major plot point. How are we supposed to trust a HEA when this was how the relationship was built.

Two stars. Better luck on the next title.

Thank you so much to Graydon House for having me as a part of their blog tour for Talk Bookish to Me! This adorable second chance rom com came out today, so definitely go grab it whenever you can!

Talk Bookish to Me 4/5 Stars

Summary from Goodreads:
Inspiration can come from the most unlikely—and inconvenient—sources.
Kara Sullivan’s life is full of love—albeit fictional. As a bestselling romance novelist and influential bookstagrammer, she’s fine with getting her happily-ever-after fix between the covers of a book.
But right now? Not only is Kara’s best friend getting married next week—which means big wedding stress—but the deadline for her next novel is looming, and she hasn’t written a single word. The last thing she needs is for her infuriating first love, Ryan Thompson, to suddenly appear in the wedding party. But Ryan’s unexpected arrival sparks a creative awakening in Kara that inspires the steamy historical romance she desperately needs to deliver.
With her wedding duties intensifying, her deadline getting closer by the second and her bills not paying themselves, Kara knows there’s only one way for her to finish her book and to give her characters the ever-after they deserve. But can she embrace the unlikely, ruggedly handsome muse—who pushes every one of her buttons—to save the wedding, her career and, just maybe, write her own happy ending?

Man y'all I really enjoyed Talk Bookish to Me! There was something so sad about the way that Kara and Ryan broke up back in college and all of the misconceptions and miscommunications that led to that, so watching him become her muse and them re-learn what they loved about each other was so cute! The huge twist that caused the major conflict was ridiculous and I didn't see it coming at all, but I loved how it was executed and how it turned lives upside down. I also really liked the secondary characters- they definitely made reading this book so much fun. And Duke! What a great pup with the funniest quirks. I also really liked how we got snippets of Kara's book throughout the book- I love reading a book within a book. The only thing I wasn't a fan of is that the beginning dragged the smallest bit for me, so it took me longer than I expected to get into this book. Otherwise, I was definitely a huge fan and I highly recommend it for some fun summer reading!

I really enjoyed this story about a romance writer reconnecting with her college boyfriend. They had a lot to work through in their past relationship in order to be able to be together again. Their witty banter was funny and sweet.

Kara Sullivan is a 30-year old best selling romance novelist and an influential bookstagrammer who is helping her best friend Cristina get ready for her upcoming wedding and working against her next novel's deadline. Come to find out, one of the groom's friends and Kara's ex-love, Ryan is also in the wedding party. How will Kara deal with all of this stress coming at her at once?

I absolutely loved this novel! It brought up all the emotions for me, and I am officially a raving fan! It was funny and heart-breaking all at the same time with a beautiful ending that has me smiling...STILL! There was some spiciness but for me it was the perfect amount. I highly recommend this novel to all my romance loving friends!

This is a tale of 'what ifs' and second chances. What if you meet the right person at the wrong time? What if you get another chance with them? Kara and Ryan broke up after college and, ten years later, meet again at the wedding of their mutual best friends. Kara starts off sure that she hates Ryan for what happened (which personally, I only figured out bits of and wish the author had spelled out a little more). Their breakup and her father's death are tied together in her mind and she can't separate the emotions of the two events. But it soon become clear that not only is there still something between them, but Ryan is good for breaking through Kara's writer's block. Now that they are adults and know themselves, can they give a relationship a second chance?

I think what I liked best about "Talk Bookish to Me" is the comparisons Kara draws between the romances she writes and the reality she's living. One seems much harder than the other, although ironically she is having a hard time with her latest romance book as well. Especially in the second half of the book, Kara has to ask herself about who she is and what she wants in life as well as a relationship. Ryan may be THE ONE for her, but does she want to put in the work and heartache that inevitably come with loving and trusting someone? Kara has a tendency to get too wrapped up in her own mind and emotions and forget that she has to put in effort into all her relationships, whether family, friend, or love, which sometimes makes her a less than great person. But it also makes her very real. We've all done the same thing and it is easy to see where she's coming from and how she's trying to protect herself. I also really liked Kara's reactions to Ryan when he belittles the romance genre (which seems like a stupid thing to do when you know the person you like not only likes reading romance, but writes them for a living). I personally plan on using some of her replies myself.

Overall, "Talk Bookish To Me" was a good book with real characters, real struggles, and real reactions. Bromley presents characters like Kara who have important lessons to learn (and to teach us), the most important of which is: know yourself, know what you want, and then be willing to fight to get it. Something we could all practice.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I loved this RomCom! It has all the sweetness, will they/won’t they angst, heartbreaking moments and dear friendships that make up a great love story. And BONUS, this has a book within a book! The MC is a Romance author and her book lies within the pages of this book. (It’s really only a small story integrated amongst this actual story but it’s such a fun idea)

I was rooting for Kara and Ryan all the way. At times I just wanted to nudge Kara real hard and say stop it, or go for it!

I loved how Kara was also a Bookstagrammer and talked about prepping her Instagram photos of books and such. It made me smile every time it was mentioned. Loved this almost as much as I loved Duke!!

Great RomCom from a Debut Author. I am definitely looking forward to more reads from #KateBromley!

Thank you to #GraydonHouse and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

TALK BOOKISH TO ME by Kate Bromley is an enjoyable new contemporary rom/com with plenty of romance industry love and a couple that is meant to be, maybe. I was surprised to learn this is the debut novel by this author.

Kara Sullivan is a thirty-year-old bestselling historical romance author who is having a difficult time writing her current romance. With a deadline looming and no inspiration, she is also dealing with being the bride’s maid in her best friend’s wedding. Then the groom shows up with her first true love from college as a groomsman in his party.

Ryan Thompson’s unexpected arrival sparks Kara’s writing. Should she let Ryan, who pushes every one of her buttons back into her life to inspire her romance and just maybe grab a happily ever after for herself this time around?

I loved following Kara’s emotional journey through this rom/com. Her interactions with her family and friends felt believable and the writing flowed through all the ups and downs seamlessly. I enjoyed her defense of the romance industry as she sparred with Ryan. All of their dialogue is witty and realistic. I also enjoyed the inserted portions of the historical romance she was attempting to write.

I write spoiler free reviews, so this next bit is difficult. I was cheering Ryan on until a major plot point. Now, I can say he redeems himself in my opinion in the end because real life is messy and forgiveness is often necessary. I would cry foul in a romance genre book because I hate what he does, but this is a rom/com and does not necessarily follow the same rules.

I enjoyed this debut rom/com, the great characters and will be looking for more from this author.

What a fun book!

Synopsys
Talk Bookish to Me is a enemies-to-lovers story about second chance love. Kara Sullivan is a successful romance novelist and #bookstagrammer but with the pressures of a looming deadline for her next book, Kara is feeling writer’s block in full force. To make matters worse, it’s the start of her best friend’s wedding week and she bumps into none other than her old college boyfriend Ryan—who is also in the wedding party. As much as she hates him, she has to admit, he has always inspired her creative flow. In a crazy week of wedding obligations, writing and rekindling, Kara must decide for herself and for her book, what kind of ending she wants.

I’m not normally a fan of chick-lit books but I wanted to give this one a try because I loved the cover. It turns out, I had a blast reading this story. Kara and Ryan's relationship ups and downs felt very realistic to me. Ryan was an unlikable character, (he’s actually the worst) but that's not a bad thing. I always like books that dare to make me mad, and then bring me back for a rollercoaster recovery of laughter, crying, and then possibly love. The book-within-a-book passages didn’t quite work for me, and I thought Kara’s friends were laughably the worst wing-women ever, but I did love Kara and I was consistently rooting for her throughout the book. I also liked the bookstragram references, the cheesy bookish talk, and the bit of travel in the story. Overall, this was a fun soapy drama that I enjoyed reading. 😍

My Rating: 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you, @graydonhousebooks , and @netgalley for my #gifted copy of Talk Bookish To Me.

“I realize this moment is nothing like the last chapter of a romance novel. It’s chaotic, a little weird, it’s silly and it’s ours.”

Talk about a book I didn’t know I needed. It’s enemies to lovers meets second chance romance in the best possible way. We get all the wit and banter of enemies but with a romantic history to build upon. I loved watching them reconnect in the present while learning what happened in their past.

This rom com is definitely heavy on the com. I was laughing out loud from page one. The bookish disses, the one liners, the wit and banter. It’s hilarious all around. Although, I did maybe shed few tears too. But I love books that makes me laugh and cry.

As for our leads, get ready to fall in love with Ryan. There are plenty of moments I wanted to shake him for being so incredibly stupid but it’s also nice that he has some flaws to work on.

If you’re coming into this expecting the typical boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back (sometimes way too fast for my liking), you’ll be in for a pleasant little twist with this one.

So if you like NYC, a book within a book (a delightful historical romance), talk of romance novels and why they’re so great, bookstagram, big slobbery dogs, and hilarious one liners, this is your book. And lucky for you, it’s on shelves today! Also, this is a debut novel and I’m all in for whatever Kate Bromleywrites has next.

Thank you to Graydon House Books and Netgalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you love contemporary romances that take place surrounding an upcoming wedding, and some jet-setting travel to an overseas location, then this is the book for you! Bonus if you also enjoy a story-in-story – as there are passages interspersed throughout this novel that include the historical romance that Kara is writing. Personally, I don’t usually love the book-in-book storytelling methods because I don’t often find I care about the two stories equally, and this was the case here. I was much more invested in Kara’s story than about the one she was using Ryan to write.

While I was entertained in an overall sense – as there were some standout characters (including Ryan’s dog, Duke) – there were also some things that bothered me. If you’ve read your fair share of rom-coms, you can likely figure out how the story plays out based on the synopsis alone. I saw the conflict coming early on so I wasn’t surprised there but the pacing of how things played out between Kara and Ryan was surprising. It felt quick in such a short timeframe, and what transpires with them left me more irritated than charmed. The motivations of some characters were questionable, and the reactions from some felt unjustified. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention a small trigger warning. There are a couple of brief comments made by different characters that felt like it makes light of suicide*. They’re said in “jest” or hyperbole, but the flippant way that the comments were made was enough to give me a bit of pause. (*based on an advanced reading copy)

I did really like how connected Kara was to her family and friends. She’s got a great support network and some really heartfelt moments with her family that solidified her as a well-fleshed-out character. The theme of regret also played heavily in a variety of ways; regret of how things were left off, regret on actions done in the moment… it was an interesting exploration into all the different ways that that feeling can manifest itself.

This cover and title alone is sure to attract all the book lovers out there on sight alone. Which is why I felt that making Kara a bookstagrammer as well seemed a bit overkill, as it didn’t particularly add anything to the story and felt like an attempt to further connect this book with the bookstagramming community. There are a lot of meta moments where Kara talks about all the different romance tropes, taking photos of books, historical vs contemporary romances all while evidently mirroring her own life in some ways. It felt like a lot of elements packed into this debut novel.

All that being said, Talk Bookish to Me was still an entertaining read that kept me turning the pages. There are a cast of characters with some big personalities, wedding hijinx, a bit of romance and some Italian sightseeing. Great if you love the tension between characters – not so much a “will they/won’t they”, but more a “when will they”.

Kara is a romance writer with out the romance! When her ex boyfriend, Ryan, shows up at her best friend’s wedding, Kara is surprised to say the least. But, Kara realizes that Ryan has given her her mojo back. She might actually make her deadline for her next novel. Every time she sees Ryan she has a burst of writing frenzy. But, is she ready to fall back into Ryan?!?!

I adore Kara. She is just down to earth and funny as the dickens. Ryan, I was not a huge fan of. He has a history and it kind of repeats itself and I just wanted to pinch his head off! BUT…Ryan has the cutest dog, Duke.

This is such a cute, adorable, fun read. I finished it in about a day! So if you are looking for a quick rom com…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

This book comes out tomorrow, and I know there’s been a lot of great reviews on it. It breaks my heart to give this one a bad review, but I feel like it’s necessary. This review will contain spoilers, so I’m going to put the CW here and you can choose to read on or not: this book contains cheating.

If I could split this book up into two books, I would. At approximately 75%, there is a huge shift in the story and it hinges on the hero cheating on his fiancée with the heroine and from there, the novel devolves rapidly and I ended up hating both MCs.

Summary: Kara Sullivan is a romance author and bookstagrammer. She’s had one great love in her life, and that was almost a decade ago. When Ryan Thompson suddenly appears back in her life at their best friends engagement party, her writers block suddenly clears and she able to get the ball rolling on her new novel. One thing leads to another and Ryan ends up staying with Kara for the week he’s in town. They fall back in love blah blah blah. Then his fiancée shows up at the wedding. The same woman that was part of them ending their relationships a decade before. Then Kara runs off to Italy for the six month vacation of her dreams.

And that’s when it all goes to garbage. Literally. The cheating was one thing. The fact that they acknowledge their relationship was unhealthy because they were obsessed with each other the first time and then it happens again. And when Kara goes to Italy, she completely ditches her friends. Stops all communication and everything BECAUSE OF A BOY. Uggg that pissed me off. Her friends are everything and she totally nails on them. She goes back to Ryan after six months and it’s a HEA. But honestly, the level of distrust and chaos just killed me. It’s not a great love story. It’s a disaster. Everything she does is out of the character that we met in the first part of the novel.

If I HAD to give this a star rating, I would give the first 75% a 3.5⭐️ and the last 25% a 1⭐️ at most. So let’s call it a 2⭐️ overall.

A romance author and bookstagrammer is working on her next novel, but is just a little hung up on what to do next and while she is maid of honor for her best friend, a former fling returns to her life and may spark a little writing creativity.

What reader doesn't love a book about things to do with books! I loved that this romance book had a romance author at its core and there were a few conversations about the art of writing and specifically about the world of romance. I appreciated that this book didn't sway from the typical romance set up with the highs and lows and conflicts and resolutions while also including excerpts from the characters work in progress.

If you are a reader who appreciates all things books then you will love this romance and these characters will warm your heart and remind you why romance is the most read genre.

There were so many good things about this book, almost completely balanced out with bad. The author is excellent at banter—but everyone banters rather similarly, making the friends and even family feel interchangeable. She is excellent at making the old relationship feel real and lived in—but at no point did I feel like the characters showed any real growth, so at the end the best thing I can say about them is that two flawed, compatible people took each other out of the dating pool.

I waited a day to give feedback and mostly I feel sad. Romance should make me feel positive about love and dating and marriage, and now I feel like, "Well, if that's what you want, I guess?" If Ryan is the "hero," then I suppose the best there is to look forward to is a selfish screw-up who's good in bed. Great?

Talk Bookish To Me by Kate Bromley is the perfect story for us bookstagrammers! Kara is a popular romance author and maid of honor in her best friend's wedding. At one of the pre-wedding parties, she runs into none other than her ex boyfriend Ryan. Neither has been able to forget about the other and when they are thrown together so Kara can get over her writers block, sparks reignite between them. But will their past struggles come back to haunt them? I really liked this book and it definitely made me laugh quite a few times! And who doesn't love an adorable bulldog wingman? Talk Bookish to Me comes out on May 25th and I definitely recommend this one! Thank you @netgalley and @harlequin for the advance copy!!!