“How Sweet It Is”, by Dylan Newton, is a saccharine-sweet romance novel that is very much like a Hallmark movie. Set in a small town just outside of New York City, it’s your typical opposites attract type of tale.

Kate Sweet works as an event planner, and her primary focus is on planning unforgettable weddings for her clients that include that “aww” moment. She is so great at throwing these breathtaking events, she has become known as the Queen of Happily Ever Afters. Drake Matthews writes popular books of horror. Given the nickname the Knight of Nightmares, people think his life, including his Victorian home, is as creepy as his books.

When a publicist for a book publisher, reaches out to Kate to help with an infamous horror author’s book launch party, Kate agrees to manage this event, even though it is not her typical type of party. Let the awkward moments and insta-love begin!

Regardless of the consequences that you would think to happen between the Queen of Happily Ever Afters and the Knight of Nightmares, there’s little controversy in this book. The pacing became a little bit patchy for me and at times felt too long and excessively descriptive. Throughout those sections I found myself skimming the pages, losing any connection to the characters.

The plot is unique and encouraging, which is the only thing that kept me reading. I kept hoping things would improve and turnaround, though it never did.

Thank you to NetGalley, Forever, and Dylan Newton for the ARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️️

This is such a cute read. Kate is an event planner who primarily focuses on weddings. She's known as the Queen of Happily Ever Afters. When her best friend calls in for a favor, Kate finds herself planning the next big book launch for horror writer, Drake Matthews...the Knight of Nightmares. While horror and scary settings are not normally Kate's focus in event planning, she feels up to the challenge until a hilariously disastrous first meeting with her new client.

From the second that Drake and Kate meet chaos ensues. Even still, he can't but help find his new event planner endearing despite all the mishaps she seems to bring along with her. These two made me laugh so much. Their "meet-cute" is perfection. Kate is a type A planner girl who thrives on organization and I love her for it. Drake is handsome and sweet and a true introvert which I totally related to. The setting in upstate New York in the fall brings warm and cozy feelings. I love how the book launch ties in with Halloween. I cold totally see re-reading this in October each year.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a romantic comedy. It is a quick read and so much fun. I love finding debut authors that I can add to my must-read list and Dylan Newton is just that. I'm looking forward to the next book from her!

A cute rom com! The characters are easy to love, the story is funny and interesting, this is great for a nice, breezy summer read!

Oh, How Sweet It Is!
As far as I'm concerned this book is perfect!
Bookish (but totally hot) character - check
Takes place in the fall (My favorite season!) - check
Can absolutely be enjoyed as a beach read regardless of taking place in the fall - Check
Adorable dog - check
Small town feels with a cafe - check
Sweet, funny, and perfect amount of spice - check, check, check

I could absolutely go on and on about everything I adored about How Sweet It Is, but I'll let you read it to find even more to love than what I've listed. I'm reallllly hoping we'll get another Matthews brother story!

This book was a great rom com! I will definitely be recommending this for fans of Lauren Layne and maybe Tessa Bailey too.

My luck with cutesy covers and blurbs that have the words “romantic comedy” in them hasn’t been the best lately. So I was keeping my fingers crossed that this book would be the one that held true to its claims. AND IT DID. This is an opposites-attract romance, pairing a successful event planner who is known for her big happily-ever-after send-offs at weddings and the Knight of Nightmares, a horror writer with a big upcoming release.

When Kate Sweet gets a last-minute request from her BFF to fill in as a planner for the Knight of Nightmare’s upcoming book launch, she agrees simply because she has a last-minute opening and this just might be her chance to plan a big enough event to be in the running for her industry’s top award, the EVPLEX. But when the two finally meet, she doesn’t make the best impression and in fact, might end up fired on her first day on the job.

Drake Matthews is just a small-town guy who happens to love to scare the crap out of people with his writing while being able to financially support his family and his favorite veteran charities. He doesn’t care about a book launch, especially while in the middle of writer’s block. Then a woman practically launches herself into his arms and chaos ensues. Turns out this woman is his new event planner and may just be the inspiration he needs for his secret writing project.

This really was a fun read. I grinned, I laughed, and I shook my head at the shenanigans. Low-angst with just a bit of external conflict, I was happy to finally get a romance that I would consider a romantic comedy. Their relationship builds nicely from the moment they meet, even after their disastrous introduction. He’s not the scary King of horror that she expects and she’s a professional, detail-oriented, clever businesswoman that surprises him at every turn. They are sweet together and I even liked him using her for his inspiration for his book. The HEA was lovely.

The small-town setting was a nice backdrop and I enjoyed getting to know all the residents who have known Drake most of his life. There were some moments where I had the sense that this author was setting up Drake’s brothers for upcoming books. I would be interested to see if this is the case.

All in all, an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon with my Kindle. If you are looking for an easy read that will make you both laugh and sigh, you might want to check it out.

Kate Sweet is THE event planner who plans all of the best weddings, major bat mitzvahz and other celebratory events through her company. She is also the daughter of two doctors and the sister of a future doctor. She is reminded regularly of how close she is to getting into med school, just 12 credits. And she has always coveted the EVPLEX an event award given out yearly.

Kate agrees to help her BFF Imani by hosting her clients book launch. The caveat is that the book launch is for super famous horror author Drake Matthews. After an amusing introduction and a series of unfortunate incidents Kate and Drake manage to find a proper direction for the book launch event which Kate hopes will win her the EVPLEX and Drake secretly hopes will jumpstart his writers block.

How Sweet It Is takes us on the sweetest and most horrifying (not really but there are some minor scary moments) story of Kate and Drake and the adventure of their time together, the wild book launch and all things sweet and romantic. A novel you'll both want to read again and one you'll cherish all the same.

Have you ever felt a book was written for you? That's how I feel about How Sweet It Is, the debut novel from Dylan Newton. Thank you to Forever for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Kate Sweet is an event planner known as the Queen of Happily Ever After creating "aww" moments for all of her clients. An "aww" moment is a secret moment created for either the couple or one of people in the party to help make the moment a little more special and make you say "aww". When her friend Imani reaches out to her for help with the upcoming book launch for Drake Matthews, a.k.a. the Knight of Nightmares, Kate accepts the offer since Imani is her best friend and it may help her win a prestigious award. Kate is not a horror fan but that doesn't deter her from trying to figure out the perfect "aww" moment for a horror book launch. Drake Matthews can't wait for his book launch to be complete. He hates being in the public eye and just wants to hide away in his house writing. It would be great though if the writer's block for his upcoming horror novel would go away. When he meets Kate he discovers the muse he has been missing. Kate may be the key to getting his writing back on track and Drake may be the key to Kate's event planning future but with all romances there is more in store for both of them than they could have imagined.

There is just so much to love about How Sweet It Is. First it's a romance set around Halloween. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I love dressing up and the scares that come with it. Both things are represented in this novel but the scares are more talked about from Drake's novels than actually shown on the page. Drake Matthews is loosely based on Stephen King so it was fun to find Easter eggs hidden throughout the book for King readers. Although there aren't a lot of steamy moments between Kate and Drake, their chemistry is undeniable from their first meet-cute. I could just go on and on about this book for days. The last bit I will say it's fun to see the bond between the three Matthews brothers which will have their own books in the future. Dylan's next novel is set for Summer 2022 and will focus on another Matthews brother. If you read How Sweet It Is you can easily guess which brother it will be and who is potential love interest will be as well.

How Sweet It Is, as the title suggests, is a very sweet romance.

Kate was very type A, her lists had lists, so it was pretty funny to see everything go wrong every time she was around Drake. Drake was actually quite a cinnamon roll, he’s a sweet guy trying to support his family.

Their relationship felt a teeny bit rushed to me, I didn’t catch a lot of swoony moments between them. It felt a little like they were strictly coworkers then they were in love the next day but that’s okay.

Overall it was a fun story and I enjoyed reading!

Did not finish at 20%

First of all I’d like to thank Netgalley as well as the publisher for allowing me access to the arc. Let me start off by saying the book isn’t necessarily bad. This is a it’s not you it’s me situation.

I have been in a horrible slump since classes ended and reading on kindle makes it 10 times worse because the page count is weird and it makes the book feel too long. That being said I’m willing to read on kindle if the book captivates me enough. The premise of this book is cute but I didn’t immediately love either characters or the plot once I was reading it. I feel like there could be a lot to like further in the book but I’ve had this marked as currently reading for 2 months now and I don’t think it’ll happen.

It felt like your standard romance book but nothing was immediately special to me. The way the two main characters meets is kind of awkward and I think the dual pov’s ruins the mystery of Drake that’s set up by Kate in her pov.

It’s unfortunate that I had to dnf this but I hope someone else can find something to love where I wasn’t able to! Or hopefully once it’s released I can try out the paperback version and see it differently.

How Sweet It Is is the story of Kate Sweet, an event planner known as the Queen of Happliy Ever After and Drake, a horror author known as the Knight of Nightmares. They thrown together when Kate is hired to plan the book launch for Drake’s upcoming book. I enjoyed seeing Kate and Drake’s relationship develop as she unknowingly became his muse to overcome his writer’s block.

The supporting characters are great - Imani, Kate’s BFF and Drake’s publicist, and Ryker and Zander, Drake’s brothers. And I wouldn’t mind a book about either of these characters.

I loved the small town vibes and it reminded me of a Hallmark movie in that it was light and fun with very little conflict but there was more steam than a Hallmark movie.

I recommend for fans of:
- grumpy/sunshine trope
- workplace romance
- light beach reads

Thanks to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Drake Matthews is the author of very popular horror books. When Kate Sweet, who is an event planner, is hired to plan his new book launch. Kate brings chaos with her everywhere and gets herself into some sticky situations with Drake. Drake is very closed off due to an old girlfriend but when he meets Kate he doesn't know what to do.

I LOVED How Sweet It Is. It had a very realistic story to me because I'm such a klutz. I would recommend anyone in my friend circle to pick up this book when it comes out.

First and foremost, How Sweet It Is was a super fun read. It had all of the elements I love in a romance like the quirky meet cute, the misunderstandings, the adorableness. Drake and Kate had such a solid chemistry I yearned for more of them. They played off each other really well and it made reading their story a fun time. I also loved the awkward situations they both kept getting into with the other. It added a fun lightness to their story and was woven in really well with the plot. With that said I didn’t love how quickly some of the things went at the end of the book. It felt a tad rushed and I felt like I was trying to catch up. But even will all of that I really enjoyed the journey Newton took us on. Definitely add How Sweet It Is to your TBR. Be prepared though, there is a lot of cupcake talk. You have been warned.

This was just the book I needed. It's such a fun read and had me regularly laughing from the first time our two main characters met. There's a mix of physical humor and great banter that yielded a really great book.

Kate Sweet is an event planner trying to prove herself to her family. She is the Queen of Happy Ever Afters, I'm an for creating magical moments. Drake is a horror writer dealing with writer's block. Kate is hired to help launch his tenth book, and they clash from the start. I expected a standard enemies-to-lovers trope with two opposites, but I found the story so much more fascinating. Drake's character in particular, is much more nuanced and complex than the stereotypes about him and his genre. We get peeks at his work in progress; I especially loved that book within a book aspect.

Plus I adored Drake's family. His interactions with his brothers, Ryker and Zander, were perfect. The three had great teasing and felt so real. And their mom is even better. I would like to adopt his dog, Sasha. I loved this sweet read.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

4.5 stars

This book is, well, super-sweet and fun!

Drake is the most-perfect cinnamon roll book boyfriend ever! Creative and charming, intelligent and thoughtful with a military background, devoted to his family and just a bit awkwardly introverted, with washboard abs, he is the stuff of dark haired, golden eyed dreams. He's absolute perfection!

Kate is a great character too, an independent successful entrepreneur who rises above the numerous embarrassing disasters, powering through with grace and determination.

I loved watching their relationship grow, although I would have liked to have seen it go a bit faster so we could have had more couple time!

If you're looking for a light and breezy rom-com, with nothing too heavy weighing it down, this is the perfect escape!

Event planner Kate Sweet is the Queen of Happily Ever After always put together and she always gives her clients an "aww" moment for their events. When her best friend asks her to plan a book launch for the Knight of Nightmares, bestselling horror author Drake Matthews, Kate knows it's going to be challenging. After an initial meeting that is full of chaos, Kate is determined to plan the best event she can for Drake's new book launch. And Drake, well he's just happy that being around Kate is inspiring his latest novel.

How Sweet It Is is an adorable read. I loved how Kate and Drake had awkward interactions that also had humor and made me chuckle. I enjoyed watching them get to know each other and that they seemed to fit well together, despite being opposites. I think having the story told from both Kate and Drake's perspective allowed for me to invest in their relationship.

Despite being the Knight of Nightmares, Drake was a big cinnamon roll. He was so sweet to Kate and his fans. Kate made me laugh because it seemed like she was pure chaos whenever she was around Drake, which was so different from how her life was before meeting him. I loved how being around Drake helped her realize what she wanted.

I loved all of the references to Western New York! I also hope that either Imani or Drake's brothers get a book, because I want more of them and Wellsville. I want to live in a small town like that, oh and have some of Drake's mom's cupcakes.

If you're looking for a romcom without a lot of angst, check this one out!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

If you’re looking for a sweet, zero angst, fun book, then this is the one for you! The plot is very much like that of a Hallmark movie--with some humor, the setting of a small town just outside of New York City, and adorable interactions between the hero and the heroine. 

Kate Sweet works as an event planner, and her primary focus is on planning Cinderella-like weddings for her clients. The book opens when her best friend, a publicist for a book publisher, reaches out to her for help. She has to plan an infamous horror author’s book launch party in only thirty days. Kate agrees to do this, but this type of event is a lot... spookier than what she’s used to…

Right off the bat, the first chapter sets the tone for the book. Despite the implications that the book’s description gives, there’s very little conflict in this book. It’s light and airy, and despite the hero being a horror novelist, there is absolutely no gore or scary bits (unless you consider accidentally making a child cry at a pumpkin carving contest horror).

Despite the lack of a fear factor, this book is chock-full of second-hand embarrassment-inducing scenes. If something can go wrong, Kate messes it up. Kate is ordinarily very organized. She’s an event planner, after all, and she takes pride in having everything she plans go down without a hitch. But from the moment she takes this assignment, everything seems to go wrong. Kate and Drake’s first meeting is just like this - with a humorous misunderstanding and some physical comedy thrown into the mix. 

Drake is used to being stereotyped. He’s a horror author, people think his house is haunted, and they generally either worship him or call him a freak show. But he’s far from his nickname the Knight of Nightmares. He’s just a guy who likes to write stories that scare people. 

Because this book is set in the month of October, and the book launch happens on Halloween, this is a perfect read for the autumn. I’m surprised that the cover is the way that it is--why doesn’t it represent the contents of the book at all? Kate herself would be offended that the book cover has streamers and balloons. She’s an event planner, not a party planner, which she reminds characters frequently throughout the book. The cover should have some pumpkins, maybe a representation of the animatronic spider she was so dead-set on getting for the launch, maybe a cutesy little ghost or a backdrop of Drake’s grandmother’s beautiful Victorian house. 

Honestly, the event planning aspect of the book was quite interesting. The entire time, I was low key jealous of Drake’s book launch and just how big of an ordeal it was going to be. 

All in all, this is a cute read, recommended to those who need an escape this summer.

Two and a half stars. This book didn't land for me. It isn't bad, though it isn't necessarily good either. The storyline is unique and promising, which is the only thing that kept me reading til the end. I wanted to see how things turned out, and I kept hoping my reading experience would approve though it never did.

The premise is fantastic for a romance novel. We have an event planner known as the Queen of Happily Ever Afters who is desperate to win an award, so she takes on planning the book launch for a famous horror writer known as The Knight of Nightmares. What a great idea! Their meet-cute is hilarious and I had high hopes there at the start, then things quickly fell flat. The writing is weak in spots (lots of adverbs and over-explaining) and the dialogue often felt forced.

I never connected emotionally with the characters. Nor did their connection feel believable to me. There was a lot of physical chemistry, then the author never delivered on it. We get one steamy scene and there's no real foreplay (a new pet-peeve I have with romance novels) I believed they were attracted to each other but no so much the feelings stuff. They were simply too shallow as characters.

Despite my issues with the book, I'm glad I finished it. The event planning/book launch angle was genuinely interesting. Plus, I love reading stories about writers. If the writing quality of a book doesn't matter much to you, I'd say give this one a try. Otherwise, there are lots of romance novels out there that are stronger and deliver a better reading experience.

This is such a fun fall themed romance and I would definitely recommend picking this one up in October. This one follows Kate who runs an event planning business and loves to create magical moments for couples on their wedding day. Drake is a bestselling horror writer known as The Knight of Nightmares but he secretly wants to write a historical romance. Kate gets asked to help create an epic book launch for Drake's newest release and the two clash on how they think this should be done. There were so many laugh out loud moments in this book and I loved reading about Kate's parties and Drakes stories as well. Kate has a great best friend who is also Drake's publicist, I loved their friendship so much. I also love Drake's relationship with his two brothers ad his mother. Im hoping that this will be a series and we will get the brother's books too. Again I highly recommend picking up this one especially if you love seasonal reads. Thank Forever and Netgalley for my gifted copy for review. This comes out 7/13/21.

How Sweet It Is was a really cute romance! When event planner Kate Sweet, a.k.a the Queen of Happily Ever-After's, is unknowingly roped into planning a book launch for horror writer, Drake Matthews, known publicly as the Knight of Nightmares, she's hesitant. But regardless of his scary reputation, she goes forward with just as much motivation and vigor as she would any other job. But from the moment she steps foot into his town, chaos ensues. One thing after another goes wrong but Kate persists and finally starts to find her footing.

But for all her planning and spreadsheets, she didn't count on falling for the real Drake. The kind, soft-hearted person underneath the surface. The one who's been spending the last decade trying to write a historical romance inspired by his grandparents while feeling stuck and stifled under his reputation as the king of horror.

From the second Drake meets Kate, it's like his mental block has been removed and the words just start pouring out of him. He's finally able to put the story he's been seeing in his head on paper and tell the story that's been haunting him his entire career. And along the way he just so happens to start falling for his muse off the pages and in reality.

This book starts off with a bang. It has one heck of a meet cute and manages to maintain that emotion throughout! On paper, Kate and Drake are exact opposites. With reputations as the Queen of Happily Ever-After's and the Knight of Nightmares, you don't really expect them to have a whole lot in common. But the people behind the personas are not what either of them expected and there's only so much time they can spend together before their feelings start to surface!

The book was dual POV, which as always bumped up my feelings about this book! Just getting both perspectives made this so much better than if it had been a single POV. The writing and pacing was good and the whole book flowed really well. It didn't really feel like a debut rom-com because it managed to hit all the major points and ended with a picture-perfect HEA!

As an event planners, Kate's signature detail is that every one of her events has an "Aww Moment." It's exactly what it sounds like. A moment that just makes you go, "Awww," and this book had plenty of those moments! The dialogue and the moments between the MC's was super cute, and even when they were hanging out in places like a graveyard (he's a horror writer, it was bound to happen at some point), they still managed to hold on to their chemistry and keep you hooked!

This book was as sweet as the title suggests and I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a light, fun rom-com that is heart-warming and sure to make you smile! :)