At first glance, I thought this book would be similar to similar rom-com books/movies with a case of mistaken identity: Marley goes to look at a wedding venue for her best friend Anna, ends up pretending to be Anna as she makes new friends and falls for the venue manager. I was pleasantly surprised that this ended up being more a story of friendship than it did a typical love story. It was easy to connect with Marley- we've all felt at times that other friends were progressing faster than we were. They were getting married while we were single, they were getting promoted while we hated our jobs, they were rich while we were broke (or in Marley's case, all three!). I don't think most people have gone as far as actually pretending to be a friend, but I think most people can agree that it has been tempting before. I enjoyed that this book didn't wrap everything up with a perfect bow in the end, but really felt accurate in its depiction of life, friendship, careers and relationships. Overall an easy, quick read with perhaps a slightly deeper message than other similar books.

Thanks to Bookoture and Netgalley for the eARC! I loved this book and I think the main reason is because I loved the main character Marley who was sweet and relatable - even if her antics did have me wanting to groan into my hands! Neep's writing is warm and engaging and this is a great chilled out read.

This story was so engaging. It has a wonderful Wedding Planner type vibe. I loved how the characters reacted to situations and also challenges.

This is my first book by the author but I cannot wait to read more.

Genre: Romance | RomCom | Womens Fiction | Comedy

Release Date: Expected 27th May 2021


Marley is unlucky in love, unlucky in her acting career, but very lucky when it comes to friends. Her best friend Anna is amazing, although somewhat absent recently and she's getting married! So when Anna calls desperate for wedding help - how can she say no? There is a very exclusive venue tour that Anna can't get to and there is no change to reschedule.

But when Hotel Manager Cameron automatically assumes she is actually Anna, she's far too awkward to correct him and tries to enjoy being confident, successful Anna for the day - until the spark happens. There's a connection there that she hasn't felt in a long time and she's certain he feels it too. But she's spent the day pretending to be a blushing bride - witha fictional wedding and husband in the way. Marley needs to find a way out of this, but being Anna is more fun that she expected and things are starting to get complicated.

"Love always manages to shake everything up, even when it's not you that's in it."
The Mix-Up was a glorious, chaotic mess - as Anna deals with her own relationship issues, Marley becomes more tangled up in her pretend life and the more absurdly outrageous it becomes. This was seething with drama, backstabbing and jealousy but also brimming with life and laughter.

With a cast of amazing people, from her eccentric bagpipe enthusiast roommate Xavier to her accidental friend and writer Reese, everyone was so vibrant and each of their stories were just amazing. This was an adorable romance but the Friendships were the stars of the show - and this was a heartbreakingly real tale about the desperate sadness that comes when your friendship becomes second place in someone's life and not knowing how to move on from that.


RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Elizabeth Neep, Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

This didn't feel like a romance novel at all. It has some romantic threads but far too little for it to be a true romance story. Perhaps more of a woman's fiction.

I found the premise intriguing and wondered how Marley was going to pull it off, but truth be told, I only enjoyed it the first few chapters. Afterwards, Marley's excuses for keeping up the charade felt far too flimsy and at times immature. I started to wonder about her integrity and character in general.. Perhaps if this were a young adult novel and Marley were a teenager I could believe her indecisiveness and stumbling through life, but as an almost-thirty-year-old, she just felt all over the place and childish.

I also found it a bit hard to swallow Anna and Marley's friendship. It felt too broken for too long for the reconciliation at the end to be believable.

Strangely enough, I liked the portrayal of Will, Jake and Cameron. They had their faults (except for Cameron who had the potential for a perfect male lead but Will usurped that role for a while) and they bore the consequences for their actions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the advance copy of this book to read and review.

Marley is a struggling actress living with a strange flat mate and whose parents are encouraging her to get a “real” job.

Her best friend Anna has a successful career, beautiful home and is getting married to her perfect fiancé.

When Anna asks Marley to view a wedding venue for her, Marley accidentally pretends to be Anna to the manager Cameron.

But then she meets with a writer Reese at the bar of the hotel and has so much fun with her working on Reese’s script for a competition being run by a production company. Marley and Reese become friends and Marley joins in the competition with Reese and her actor friend Will.

The first half of this book made me feel so tense - I was desperate for Marley to come clean on who she really was with her new friends. But when she does confess, it makes sense as so many parts of the story are revealed.

I enjoyed the second part of this story when Marley, Anna and Reese join forces and all three realise the strength of working together and accepting who you are and where you are in your life’s journey.

I must admit I found it very infuriating reading this book, but that's my own fault for getting too wrapped up in the characters. I really disliked Anna and how she treated Marley and just wanted to shake Marley and tell her to walk away from Anna. There were so many twists and turns in the story that it quite honestly kept me on edge for ages wondering how it would all work out. Although the ending wasn't expected I did like it. I've only knocked 1 star off as I almost gave up reading due to how infuriating I found Anna

This was a fun read that had more twists that I was expecting, but I did have some problems with it.

When originally reading the synopsis, I thought this set up seemed cute... but upon reading it, I realized how immature it all seemed. And while the writing certainly was not immature, the premise came across as such.
I mean, the miscommunication was HUGE. All the characters needed to do was talk, not dig a bigger hole.
Also that ending.... I didn’t expect it, but it is not a “typical” romance. But I guess the book in general wasn’t as romantic as I was expecting.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Elizabeth Neep. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own.***

While pretending to be her best friend Anna, Marley meets some people that she clicks with and finds an unexpected opportunity for her flagging acting career. In order to capitalize on the opportunity, she continues to be Anna until she’s so deep in she has no idea how to come clean.

I expected a romance, but there really wasn’t any. This was more women’s fiction. I will give Neep credit with regard to the twists in the last third of the book. They saved the story from being entirely mediocre and predictable. I wish I could say I loved Marley or any of the characters really. Too often they were hard to respect because of the choices they made. And too many of the problems would have been easily solved if friends—old and new—simply had a chat. I think I liked her flatmate Xavier more than anyone else, and his role in the story, while important, is pretty small.

The Mix-Up is many things but not a romance.

Actually, Reese gives the perfect definition : "It's a story of friendship and forgiveness. [...] Where the men may seem central at first but are a sub-plot at best."

It wasn't unpleasant but it wasn't what I was expecting.

I got bored of Marley not "coming-out" to Anna, Reese and Cameron. However, I really liked that the bad guy wasn't the one we thought and that Xavier was more than just the person Marley shared a flat with (even if it's quite unbelievable she's been sharing her flat with someone for more than a year and virtually know nothing about him. This flat is not that big !)

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

I really enjoyed this book as a light hearted easy read. Chick lit books are a little bit of comfort and relaxation and I found The Mix-Up no different. I liked the character of Marley straight away as she was a relatable heroine with nothing going well. I grew to like the other characters such as Reese and Cameron but I really wish there had been more about him. He was briefly introduced as the obvious love interest but I wish there had been just that bit more chemistry - the will they won’t they. However that being said it was a fun read which I would recommended!

Thank you Netgalley Bookoutre for granting me access to this ARC. Let me start off my review by saying I fully enjoyed this book. That being said the premise is a bit ridiculous, but sometimes that is exactly what we are looking for in a book, an escape from reality. The idea that Marley pretends to be her best friend is not a new concept, but it felt forced at times that she continues to conceal her identity when she easily could have said nope I'm Marley. It would also be different if for some reason the hotel required the bride and/or groom to be present for the tour, but most venues don't care if they may get business, however this added detail would have made the lie a bit more palatable at times. Like other reviewers I struggled at times to understand the friendship between Anna and Marley, but having now read the book in it's entirety I can see that the point with their conflict is to show the distance that can form between friends who have known each other for years as they change. All that aside, this book is enjoyable, funny, has cringe inducing moments and overall is a wondering tale of friendship, preserverance, and fighting for what you want in life with a splash of romance thrown in the mix.

This book was a lot of fun. When I started it, I thought it would have more romance than it ended up having, but I didn’t mind that in the long run. Marley’s duplicity lasted a bit too long, in my opinion, but it was very satisfying once everything worked itself out. My favorite part was the friendship between Marley, Anna and Reese, and Xavier too. Overall, this was a quick and fun read.

I won't say this was the best book I've read! But it was ok! I enjoyed the writing but I honestly couldn't get into the story!

This is definitely more women’s fiction than romance, as the romance took a back seat to the plot. We follow Marley, who pretends to be her friend Anna, and then it gets really tangled up. There’s a lot going on and it kind of works, but I didn’t like Anna and marley’s friendship portrayal in the first half of the book. It redeemed itself in the second half. I also really liked Xavier and feel that Marley was very self centered when it came to him. I also wish there would have been more of a conclusion with Cameron. Overall, this was just ok for me. Thank you to nergalley for the ARC. all opinions are my own.

It seems like the "pretending to be somebody else" trope is becoming increasingly popular in romance and this one was done pretty well. It made sense why Marley "became" Anna and why she went along with it which helps in supporting the protagonist when what she's doing is objectively wrong. The problem with Marley, however, is that she jumps to conclusions and I felt that sooooo many problems in the book could have been solved by her sitting down and TALKING with her friends. Watching her dig herself a hole and make judgments about others got a bit tiresome. Exhibit A: she made some really stereotypical assumptions about her roommate Xavier when he ended up being debatably the smartest character in the book!

I will say that I feel this book is more strictly a book of friendship and identity rather than romance. I was thinking this as I was reading and came across the perfect quote at the end of the book that sums my thoughts up perfectly: "It's a story of friendship and forgiveness., where the men may seem central at first but are a sub-plot at best"

I liked this book.💕

I finished nearly all of the book in one sitting. The story was very unique and I wanted to know what would happen at the end, so I kept on reading. I loved the plot twists within the story, which weren’t predictable and really surprised me!
I honestly do not know if I would consider it a romcom since there are other topics like friendship that play an even bigger role in this book. But I actually found it a bit refreshing that the story wasn’t as predictable.
This book will probably be great as an audiobook. In my opinion the pace of the story might be better when listening, since the scenes were not as alive as they could have been in the written version.

All in all a good book when you just want to relax a bit.

Full review pending

Im really looking for to sitting down with The Mix Up which on first impressions promises a tale of romance and humour with a strong female protagonist. I love a "mix up" (pun fully intended) on the indentity switch angle and look forward to see the results and fall out for the characters.

As Marley steps in to help her best friend Anna tour a wedding venue she has no idea she is about to meet the gorgeous manager Cameron. He assumes she’s Anna and so the mix up starts.

A feel good romcom with a difference that turned out to not be what I thought. I was expecting more of a focus on a romance based story. A fun and light read about finding yourself, friendship and everything inbetween.

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for an ARC of this story in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one! I definitely expected more of a romance, but that didn't end up being a problem. I honestly liked how this dealt with topics other than just romance.

My favorite thing about this was definitely the shock factor it brought. The way all of the story threads connected had me on the edge of my seat, which isn't something you see very often in romances. The entire time I had a slight suspicion regarding a certain character, but that suspicion culminated in a way I wasn't expecting.

Xavier was definitely my favorite character, but I liked the others too. It was kind of hard to connect with most of the side characters because they were suspicious, but I found myself liking them. Other than Anna of course, I really didn't like her. I appreciated that the author rebuilt their friendship, but I couldn't stand how terrible of a friend Anna was.

I was slightly disappointed by the lack of resolution at the end of this. I was expecting a romance, so I wasn't too happy that that romance never really happened. I liked it, but I wish we could've gotten 50 pages of conclusion.

Thanks to Elizabeth Neep and Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!