The title sums this book up quite perfectly

I really enjoyed it. Light and fun and the characters were a joy to read. The meet-cute was more of a meet-awkward/disaster which was very entertaining.

The characters Kate and Drake were incredibly likeable (even loveable). I enjoyed the career centred theme where both characters were trying to shift and grow in their own ways.
Drake’s career as a horror writer, dubbed the knight of nightmares, paired with his sweet side was so lovely to read.
I loved that Kate’s career goals and aspirations weren’t seen as a downside or even a problem in any way. Drake’s response to her concerns was *chef’s kiss* perfection.
You made me swoon Drake! You made me swoon.

If you need a feel good pick me up, an ice cream after a heavy meal, read this.

She is the Queen of Happily Ever Afters - He is the Knight of Nightmares and they're soooooo sweet !

Kate and Drake seem so different : she's an extravert event planner really focused on winning an award and he's an introvert writer torned between what he would like to write and what he thinks his readers expect from him. Their one a kind meeting leads to a really, really cute romance I didn't want to end.

This is a 5 stars story (lovely and just a little steamy to hook you if hadn't been hooked yet) and I hope so much Dylan Newton is preparing a series to give Imani, Zander and Ryker their own books !!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an eArc in exchange of an honest review.

Loved every minute of this book. I loved this story. It's friends to lovers with one of the best meet cute I've read in a while. The dialogue between both characters was awesome and the chemistry palpable. It deals with some issues while still being a light and fun read. I'm excited to read more books hopefully about Drake's brothers.ok. I'm excited for more Matthew's!!

How Sweet It Is is a chaotic little romcom! I really liked the premise of the book -- the idea of an event planner who traditionally does weddings taking on a splashy book launch to diversify her portfolio was really unique and interesting. I really liked Kate's professional ambitions and the tensions with her family about her career added some depth to the novel.

Kate and Drake's meet cute is pure chaos -- climbing your prospective client like a tree is certainly one way to make an impression. I liked their dynamic and the Kate-as-Drake's-muse scenes are silly but fun. I wish the "conflict" at the end had been a bit more believable -- Drake pops off and makes a series of assumptions based on a miscommunication that seemed pretty out of character. But overall this is a fun romance novel if you're looking for something fluffy and sweet! 3.5 stars rounded up!

Kate Sweet is a mile a minute event planner. She's all about the details with her spreadsheets to prove it, ever planning to give people their "Awww moment". Her specialties are weddings, and she basks in the Happily Ever After. When one couple don't make it to the alter, she has an unexpected gap in her schedule and her publisher friend convinces her to plan an event of a different kind - the upcoming release of Drake Matthews' next novel.

Drake Matthews is known as the Knight of Nightmares - a horror writer, who supposedly lives in a house that's haunted. When Kate is stood up by her friend to meet him, she's chased by his overexuberant dog, and injures him with her impossibly high heel. Things look to be off to a shaky start and it's apparent it's going to take all Kate's experience to make the event a success.

How Sweet It Is takes it's sweet time to get going. It's particularly character-driven in the beginning as readers begin to get to know Kate and Drake. On the surface, the pair couldn't be more different "If I wrote this scene, I'd have the shows all cancelled, so you'd have to stay", Kate announced "And we'd go down and ride that boat into the mist". "And if I wrote that scene, a kraken would emerge, wrap the boat in its tentacles, and drag it down to the craggy depths", Drake said.

There's also details aplenty about Drake's home and it's importance in the story. I'm thinking a la Stephen King and Maine here .... Things start to get more interesting due to the close proximity and the pair's preoccupation for one another under their close working conditions. Some meddling from Patty, Drake's mother helps as well. Once the pair declare their intentions after a brush with Drake's ex partner on a "business trip" there's some real warmth in the characters and they seem much more robust.

This one is a feel good read, with some substance. The reader gets a real sense of them looking for someone for a partnership as opposed to them not feeling complete with their own lot as individuals.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing this copy for me to read and review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 4/5 stars

Such a cute, breezy romance with an excellent storyline. How Sweet It Is is about Kate Sweet, a rising event planner who is asked to help with the book launch event for the hugely successful horror writer, Drake Matthews (think Stephen King-level horror fame). Drake is tired of being known as the “Knight of Nightmares” and, after meeting Kate, finds himself inspired to write something completely different.

I just loved this storyline. Also, the autumnal vibes combined with Halloween and old Victorian houses just spoke to me. This was a fun romance that was full of meet cutes, hijinks, grand gestures, and banter. Fans of Lauren Layne and Tessa Bailey will love this read!

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Full review to be posted closer to release date.

This was a really fun debut from Dylan Newton.
Kate Sweet is an event planner and known as the "Queen of Happily Ever After"
Drake Matthews is a best selling horror writer with the unfortunate nickname of the Knight of Nightmares.
In order to help a longtime, childhood friend, Kate agrees to help plan the launch event for Drake's new book.
Drake has been stuck in writer's block for his horror novels and has decided on a secret project that he thinks Kate can help him with, unbeknownst to her.

This is a very sweet and funny rom-com. I loved the two MCs as well as the supporting characters. There were things about them that happily surprised me. The banter was fun and I loved how Kate took charge and rolled with all of the punches. It was a very fast read for me as I didn't want to put it down. It seems as if there will be more coming from these characters and there's definitely a set up for it. I will definitely be reading anything else that comes from Dylan Newton. 4 1/2 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever Publication for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dylan Newton’s debut novel How Sweet It Is is fun, sweet and witty. I enjoyed following along as the main characters got to know each other and fell in love. I loved this book and did not want to put it down. I am definitely a big fan of Newton’s writing and can’t wait to read her future novels.

Thank you Netgalley for the e-arc in return of my honest review.

"HOW SWEET IT IS" is a book you would like to read if you want not so cliché romcoms.
The story starts of with Kate Sweet (heroine) how she runs her business successfully as an event planner. Then she gets a offer to set up a book launch of horror writer. Where she meets Drake Mathews also known as King of Nightmares. Though their first meet was not so meet cute I would rather say it was a complete disaster it was overall a fun romcom.

Do you expect to click right away with the person where your first meet was a complete disaster? I would rather not show my face to him forever. But here the Queen of Happily Ever After's meets her King of Nightmares there's supposed to be some out of the norm scenes that may be extraordinary or disastrous so that's fine.

The story now revolves where they both need each other for their work. They spend days together where Kate helps him to write his book and Drake helps her to set his book launch successfully for her profession. This is a close proximity trope. If you like it then you can have fun reading this. However, for me this book was little off the track and not so intriguing so it didn't work for me that well.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

It's a quick, light-hearted read. The romance development following their disastrous 'meet cute' was so quick I sometimes couldn't follow. But there are fun banters and scenes that I enjoyed.

Thank you to @readforeverpub and @netgalley for a copy of this book. The title, How Sweet It Is, sums up how feel about this book. This was a fun rom com with so many funny moments. I love that Drake was a romantic at heart despite being known as Knight Of Nightmares. Kate and Drake was so perfect for each other.

Thank you NetGalley and Forever for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really loved this book. The chemistry between Kate and Drake is apparent from the moment they (literally) run into each other and gets stronger as the plot moves on. I loved that it was written from both POVs so we got to experience both characters falling in love. The scene where they met was so chaotic that it had me in tears from laughing so hard.

The only thing I didn’t love about this book was that it was a bit slow moving, and then it ended abruptly. I wish we got a little more spice/romance earlier in the book, instead of in the last quarter.

Overall I definitely recommend this one if you’re looking for a sweet romance with a ton of charm.

I could not get into this book. I DNF'd at 18% after Kate and Drake's meet-disaster. I felt it was incredibly long-winded and not funny for me. I didn't like the characters. It didn't grab me off the bat. The action was dense but the pacing was slow. I just grew impatient with the characters. I wanted something to happen that was not them harming each other in some way.

This book is very cute. Loved the premise of a wedding event planner who deals in happily ever afters planning an event for a horror book author (an author who is cute and not as scary as his books)!

I was drawn to How Sweet It Is because of it's cute cover, -which told me this was going to be a cute rom-com, and its premise: a wedding planner (Kate) plans a book release event for a horror book author (Drake). I expected a light, cute & sexy sunshine-grumpy read. And I did get that more or less. But there were a few things that didn't fully do it for me.

There was a good amount that I liked about this book. This is a classic feel good contemporary romance that will put a smile on your face. And I liked the romance, they were pretty cute together, and it got quite sexy at times. My favorite was their first time at the falls, from beginning to end a very romantic, fun and sexy adventure. It made me wish we had a bit more time of them together before the big conflict.

I really liked the plot of the book as well. A horror author, going around doing research and a wedding planner tagging along creates such a good juxtaposition that is immediately endearing. What makes it even better is Drake's side project which makes him a great multi-faceted character.

I also really liked the characters in the book, I especially liked Drake and his family. Drake's brothers were really fun and I'd love to get to know them better. This book was setup in a way that the door is open for one of the brothers and Kate's best friend might have their own book in the future. My least favorite was probably Kate, who seemed to be a woman of contradictions. She kept claiming to not be easily scared, while getting scared of everything, and kept making promises of a classy book release event, while planning a giant mechanical spider coming down the side of a building (though my fiance disagrees and says he'd find it classy), just to name a few.

Now onto what I didn't enjoy as much in this book.
First off, the writing was not really my style. I found it too flowery and overly adjective heavy. Since this is more of a preference thing, I'll give you an example. If the following quote don't bother you, then you should up my rating by at least half a point.

"Kate grinned with delight as the gorgeous red stove ticked several times and whooshed to life, a blue-white flame dancing merrily above the burner." (tl;dr he turned on the stove)

The other issue I had with the writing was the unnatural/forced exposition. Some examples are, the daughter telling her mother about her work history, which you'd assume the mother would already know about her own daughter. The mother telling her daughter about how the daughter's best friend stayed with them for a year, which you'd expect the daughter to know. Speaking of which the best friend staying with the family comes up at least 3 times in the story, but never seems to have any bearing on it.

Finally, for me, in a romance book, the flirting, the will they won't they, the sexual tension, are the best parts. But in this book, the time where most of that would happen is just basically skipped through. So you see their meet cute, them kind of liking each other, but then all of a sudden it's 2 weeks later and they're much more comfortable around each other and talking about dating, which really comes out of nowhere.

Overall this was a book that was strong on the romance, but not as strong on style. If the author does write more books in this world involving Drake's brothers, I might still read them.

Thank you to Forever publishing and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow. Wow is all I can say after reading this great novel.

I recommend it for all romance fans. It is amazing. Don't go in with any expectations, I am confident you'll enjoy it.

Things I liked:
- It felt very fresh to me. The voice, the story, the plot felt very unique. It's not many times that the MMC is actually a horror writer
- The characters were lovely and well fleshed out. No manipulation at all by the author here, which is very rare.
- I ended up laughing many times while reading and also ended the book with a smile

Thing I didn't like as much - the ending felt a little rushed. I knew a HEA was imminent but it just felt good, not great - not an "Aww" moment exactly. It wasn't bad by any means, just not as great as I had envisioned.

Overall, a very solid 5 stars

PS - Also, how cute is that cover?

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and it doesn't impact my opinion in any way

This was so cute and sweet, It was a tad corny but it totally worked for this. This book would be a great palette cleanse in between heavier reads or a perfect beach/pool read!

This book was delightful!! Such a cute, light romance. Kate is an event planner and Drake is an author known for his horror novels. Drake has a reputation as the Knight of Nightmares. The internet is full of rumors about him sleeping in a coffin and other creepy things. His mansion is creepy and rumored to be haunted. Fans wait by the gates to see him or a ghost. Kate is looking for her next event to plan and hoping to win a coveted award. Kate’s parents are surgeons and her sister is in medical school. Her mom pressures her throughout the book to go into medicine. This is part of the driving force behind Kate’s desire to win the award and prove to her family that she is successful in her field. When her best friend asks her to help with Drake’s next book launch chaos ensues. This book has many humorous parts. The scene where Drake and Kate meet is laugh out loud funny. This book shows the difficult side of fame: trying to meet fans expectations, coping with constant attention and dealing with false rumors and people who try to profit off of your success. There is also an element of how to cope with self doubt. Kate and Drake have great chemistry. I loved how the book spent most of the time focusing on the relationship away from the bedroom. Drake’s brothers were great side characters. Would definitely read additional books by this author with them as the lead characters. Drake is keeping the romance novel he writes a secret. This book does a nice job of showing how romance novels are often treated by people as “less than” or not respectable books to write, read or love. The requisite problem thrown in the way of Kate and Drake having a happily for now ending was not what I expected. This book would be great fall release because of the horror novel component and the Halloween book launch event. Thank you to Net Galley and Forever for the digital ARC.

You know when you get instantly approved for something and you think to yourself "This has to be too good to be true"? Well, that's what happened for me with this pre-release novel from NetGalley. However, How Sweet It Is by Dylan Newton was not at all what I was expecting after thinking that! It was good! Like really good! I had a hard time putting it down, I would read a few pages here and there when I was supposed to be working, or when trying to fall asleep at night.

Drake and Kate couldn't be more polar opposites if they tried. Drake writes horror novels and is the "Knight of Nightmares", while Kate is the "Queen of Happily Ever After" who plans amazing weddings. Kate is signed on to plan his newest book release and ever since she arrives in his little town of Wellsville, just about everything turns into chaos for her! However, this makes for a very disastrous, adorable meet-cute. Neither of them are prepared for the direction their lives start to head in while working with each other.

Dylan Newton really seems to know how to tell a story and develop her characters - Both Drake and Kate were both such good, likeable people. Even that typical "something goes wrong so the characters can get back together"-thing that romance novels do, was handled so skillfully that I wasn't rolling my eyes when it happened, I was actually smiling for these characters! It wasn't just added drama thrown in for the sake of drama. And there was that elevator scene.. WOW!

This was a fun, easy read with an amazing romance story between two people who are more than just their careers, or more than just their good looks. They thrive off each other, grow into better people because of each other. I would highly recommend. 5/5 stars

In Dylan Newton's new rom-com, Kate Sweet is an event planner striving to win a prestigious award for her creative efforts. When asked to plan a book release for horror novelist, Drake Matthews, Kate jumps at the opportunity. She is sure this is the opportunity for her to win the award she has strived for her entire career.

If you haven't been to Western New York, Newton captured the setting perfectly in the book. I loved that Drake's mother was the owner of the local establishment, and Kate (an outsider) speaks to her openly, unknowingly. That is WNY.

If you are looking for a summer beach read or something light to take you away from the stress of the world, this is an endearing novel. I absolutely loved Kate's character from the beginning. It took me a little longer to relate to Drake's character, but that may have been intentional because the world misunderstands him in the book. There were several quirky characters that made this book enjoyable, as well.

Thank you Net Galley for an arc of this cute romance in exchange for my honest review.