Avon,
Thank You so much for this fun eARC!

Sadly I missed book one Spoiler Alert in the series.
(these can be read out of order) I'm just weird and prefer to read books in order.

All The Feels by Olivia Dade
Mini Review:

A beautiful, funny and heart-wrenching story.
Lauren and Alexander are one of my favorite couples I've read of lately.
This is one contemporary romance that is going to have Dade fans flipping the pages that will leave them wanting more of Lauren & Alex!
Olivia Dade writes incredible characters that are fully realistic and wonderfully complex.
Finally a book that captivated me from the very first page and didn’t let me go until the very last.  
All The Feels completely won my heart and it's because of the amazing of the marvelous characters.
The brilliant writing. Her storytelling is masterful, powerful and beautiful.
If you want a fun, flirty story that turns out to run deep with feelings, then All The Feels is for you!

I'm so excited to see book three is coming soon The Love We Feel this one I won't miss!

Thank you again to the wonderful people at Avon and NG for the opportunity to read this amazing romance novel!

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

Olivia Dades, All the Feels, unfortunately did not give me all the feels. I thought Lauren was cute and I was really proud of how confident she became, however I was sad to read about the constant descriptions about her body whereas instead of feeling “body positive” it just felt awkward. It was a constant reminder of how she wasn’t “conventionally attractive”.

Other than that I did think the book was cute. I appreciated how vulnerable, honest, and fiercely loyal Alex was. Their witty banter was funny at times, but the romance between them just didn’t seem very realistic. It felt like they were best friends in a brother/sister way. In the end, I’m happy I got to read this and if you want to read a book about unlikely couples and growth, this one is for you!

Rating: 3/5 ⭐️

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

I really, really wanted to like this book. The heroine is a plus size woman so not the Barbie doll type. The hero has issues so he is not “perfect”. But there was no chemistry between the couple.

I didn’t read the first in the series so I felt I was missing a little bit about the couple meeting in the first place but mostly the writing didn’t keep me interested.

Reading the reviews from others makes me feel like this just might have been a fluke. I may give the next one a try depending on the synopsis.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Alexander Woodroe is a seemingly reckless and out-of-control actor, so the showrunners on his show decide he needs a ‘handler’. That person is Lauren Clegg, an ER therapist who was supposed to be on vacation, but has the bad fortune to be one of the showrunner’s cousins. He ropes her into the job and neither Alex or Lauren are very happy about it. It soon starts to become clear to Lauren that Alex isn’t reckless at all, but his principles and determination to do the right thing do sometimes land him in hot water.

I loved watching the friendship develop between Alex and Lauren as they’re forced to spend time together. The two seem like they couldn’t be more different, but they have a lot of values that align. As they got to know each other more they were so beautifully warm and vulnerable with each other. I didn’t really buy the chemistry between them until right at the end though, they seemed more like friends who really cared about each other. Having said that, by the end I was 100% here for them as a couple. I absolutely adored the banter between the two of them too, it was pure gold!

This book also hit all my favorite tropes, forced proximity, dislike to love, sunshine and grump, one bed (Alex’s enthusiasm about that was just the best thing ever), etc. etc. I really related to Alex’s love of baking shows and totally agree that Nadiya’s season of the Great British Bake Off was the best.

This book had some seriously funny moments, but overall it deals with some heavier topics too, including mental health, bullying, self esteem, strained family relationships, domestic abuse etc.

I can not recommend this book enough, you’ll for sure want to hug it once you’re done!

There comes a point in every great romance book when I fall for the characters, just a little bit. When you’re really lucky, it happens early.

That moment happened for me 44% of the way into All The Feels by Olivia Dade and I celebrated, because it meant I had about 56% of the book left to bask in their presence and love.

Alex is a veritable whirlwind of fast talking and playful martyrdom. An absolute golden retriever of a man. Lauren is steadfast and observant, “nurturing acts of service” to a T. I can only imagine the situations that Alex gets himself into, having the time of his life while Lauren looks on, affectionately being the safe base to his wild exploration.

I thought this plot was so interesting and I loved the path it took us on through the build up, conflict, and resolution. I do wish Alex hadn’t been *quite* so mean to her initially, because it made me feel protective of Lauren, but I think it was true to his character overall.

Of course, any book by Olivia Dade has plus-size representation, and this was no exception. The robe comment had me with hearts in my eyes.

I loved seeing a therapist main character - but I have many questions about the ethics about the resolution of Lauren’s career questioning. Namely - how would that work?

Anyway, this book is excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to fall in love with a couple whose love is witty, steamy, and adorable.

I love that this book features a main character who is plus sized and not considered conventionally pretty and another that has ADHD.

This book is told in dual POV’s and it is kind of a companion novel to Spoiler Alert, as a lot of the storyline of both books overlaps. It could probably be read as a stand-alone but honestly Spoiler Alert is amazing so you should absolutely read it first.

The banter between Alex and Lauren was great. Alex is so annoying but in a really hilarious and endearing way.

Alex makes himself out to be this self absorbed actor, which he totally is not and he and Lauren are so ridiculous and adorable together.

The original title of this book was Slow Burn so obviously this is a bit of a slow burn but it is worth the wait!!

I received this ARC from Avon and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story is about Alex, a famous actor with ADHD on a popular tv series and Lauren, who becomes his keeper after a bad altercation. Of course they end up getting to know each other well and fall for each other. I love forced close proximity as a trope and this one was pretty good. Although I really did like Alex by the end of the story something about him in the beginning didn’t sit right. He was kind of cruel about Lauren’s appearance but then tried to make it seem like a miscommunication. I get that Lauren was all about body positivity and beauty outside of society’s precedent and I loved that. But something about the bird comparisons in the beginning didn’t work. Then it was flipped to be “oh that’s my favorite kind of bird”. A lot of the book felt a little tedious as well, it took the characters too long to confront their issues while the reader was being berated by them. Also as mentioned previously Lauren is our non conventionally beautiful MC and again I love plus size women getting representation in sexy love stories. In this case I wish Lauren showcased a bit more personality/interests. It felt like all she had was her trauma related to her body and her trauma related to her job (as someone who works in healthcare I truly resonates with this and appreciated it fully). These aspects definitely shaped who she is and influence her development as a character but it’s all she narrated the entire book. All of these points together resulted in the love story feeling a little forced and not as genuine. I didn’t really bond with either of the characters or their romance entirely.

All the Feels is the second book in the Spoiler Alert series and is one I was looking forward to.

Meeting Alex in Spoiler Alert, I knew that when he got his own story it was going to be a wild ride. This started off with Alex ending up in jail and getting assigned a handler, Lauren, to try to keep him from getting into any more fights or running his mouth. Tensions rise as they learn how to work together. Alex seems to be walking a thin line when it comes to controlling himself. All it takes is a comment about Lauren to have him throwing caution to the wind to defend her, despite what that might mean for his career. But Lauren doesn't want him to throw away all that he's accomplished for her.

I want to focus on what I enjoyed first. I thought that the growth in both Alex and Lauren was well-written and established, it just took a bit to get there. Going from a friendship to something more laid some great groundwork for a relationship. I also enjoyed the mixed media and the inclusion of fan fiction. I love having plus-size representation in main characters, and ones that are confident in their own bodies. I loved how Lauren encouraged Alex to see professional help, and how Dade emphasized that it didn't mean something was wrong with you.

There were a few parts that I didn't love though. Alex continually uses descriptions about Lauren's appearance and body that didn't sit well with me. They felt unnecessary and didn't give me the body positivity that I had expected, especially after reading Spoiler Alert. I also struggled with the fact that Alex was almost 40 because his behavior felt immature and unpredictable. I think for both Alex and Lauren, the focus too often was on what was wrong with them and it was hard to fully appreciate what made them work together because of this. Their relationship felt toxic in some ways and I just found it to be an unhealthy portrayal of how to show love.

I know quite a few of my plus-size friends feel differently, so please give this one a chance! I enjoyed the writing and will pick up the next one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC and Harper Audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review

Olivia Dade’s All the Feels is a terrific follow-up to last year’s Spoiler Alert, a charming, thoroughly entertaining read that, for all its outward lightheartedness, tackles some knotty issues in a sensitive but down-to-earth way.  We met Alex Woodroe briefly in Spoiler Alert and he charmed me completely, so I’ve been eager to catch up with him in his own book ever since – and I’m happy to say that All the Feels is just as enjoyable and sharply observed as its predecessor.

Like his best friend Marcus, Alex has been playing a lead role in the hit TV show Gods of the Gates for the past seven years.  The similarities to Game of Thrones – in the sense that the showrunners have run out of books to adapt and are going it alone (and fucking it up) are obvious – and like Marcus, Alex has become very disenchanted with the writing and the storylines given to his character, Cupid, and for similar reasons.  But there are other reasons for his discomfort that nobody else knows about, reasons related to past trauma and overwhelming guilt that have begun to affect his – already erratic – behaviour.

When the book begins, Alex is in big trouble; he was involved in a bar fight the previous night and the showrunners have had enough.  He’s always been a bit of a loose cannon, but this is too much, so for the rest of the shoot, he’s assigned a minder, someone to go wherever he goes, to keep him in line and who will report back on his behaviour.  Needless to say, Alex is not at all happy about this; but worse is the fact that nobody has asked to hear his side of the story – everyone assumes it happened just because he’s Alex, and getting into trouble is what he does.

Lauren Clegg is a former ER therapist who desperately needed a break from her job and decided to go to Europe for a much-needed vacation.  The Gods of the Gates showrunner is her cousin (a total dickhead who was always awful to her when they were kids and whom she’s never liked) so while she’d never in a million years have gone anywhere near the GotG set in Spain if it had been up to her, family pressure finds her accepting the job of “babysitter” to the show’s bad-boy star.

They don’t get off to a great start.  Alex resents Lauren’s presence and thinks she’s judging him, and Lauren expects him to be a self-centred spoiled brat, but it doesn’t take long for her to realise that he’s nothing like that at all, that he’s kind, smart and funny, an unpretentious, generous man who is well-liked by cast and crew – all things that are completely at odds with the image that’s so often painted of him in the media.  Once the shoot has wrapped, Lauren accompanies Alex back to his LA home where she’s to live in his guesthouse for the next few months, and over the weeks and months a genuine friendship develops between them as they share meals and long walks – and Alex introduces Lauren to his love of fanfic and obsession with the Great British Bake Off.

Their romance is a lovely slow-burn, full of affection and humour and honesty.  The grumpy/sunshine trope here is turned on its head with happy-go-lucky Alex as the sunshine to Lauren’s more sober, level-headed personality, and it works really well.  Alex talks a mile a minute (seriously, he never stops!) and a lot of his chatter is peppered with good-natured jibes and banter – and I’ll say now that he is NEVER intentionally cruel (and if he’s accidentally so, he’s mortified) and that Lauren very quickly sees it for what it is and doesn’t take anything he says about her shrewishness or killjoy tendencies to heart.

I liked Alex and Lauren immensely.  Alex has ADHD and has worked incredibly hard to manage it while also achieving professional success in a demanding, stressful career that often makes the condition that much more difficult to live with.  The portrayal of his ADHD is extremely well done, and while I know it’s a condition that affects people in many different ways, its portrayal here is effective and consistent.  Despite being one of the most famous actors on television Alex is refreshingly down to earth, and I loved seeing his joy in the simplest of things, his delight in his favourite fanfic tropes and his acceptance of and willingness to be a part of fan culture.  The scene where Alex geeks out at the fact that there is Only One Bed at the hotel he and Lauren are at is priceless - not only does this book use the trope, it has a character who is aware of it and adores it!

Lauren is plus sized and petite (fat and short, in her words) and is comfortable and content with that, even if the rest of the world isn’t.  I liked that she has decided not to allow others to define her, or to become upset by things she can’t control, but was saddened by the way she arrived at that position, simply because she learned that telling her parents about the cruelty of the insults levelled at her when she was a child upset them – so it was better not to say anything and remain as unobtrusive as possible.  And as an adult, that ‘lesson’ has turned into a kind of self-abnegation, Lauren putting her own needs and wants at the back of the queue and deciding that she’s not as important as everyone around her.

... she’d spent decades giving away pieces of herself, because she didn’t matter. Not as much as everyone else. She’d given herself away at work with every overtime shift she took, every holiday she worked in place of a colleague, every time she chose to ignore her increasing misery and work harder,  She’d given herself away to her parents, who’d leaned he would drop everything to help them at an time, no matter what they wanted… Eventually she’d given so much of herself away, there’d been almost nothing left by the time she boarded that flight to Spain.

Alex’s fury at Lauren’s obvious lack of care for herself and her statements that she’s unimportant finally start to wake her up to the fact that she’s let herself ‘disappear’ for a long time, so part of her emotional journey in this book is learning that she’s worthy, she’s allowed to put herself first, and that she’s important, too.  Alex’s story arc is a heart-breaking one in which he has to learn to let go of the guilt and responsibility he’s been carrying around for years about a situation over which he had no control.  I appreciated the novel’s emphasis on self-worth and learning to love oneself, and the way those things are emphasised in the journey taken by both characters.

As in Spoiler Alert, there are some entertaining vignettes between chapters in the form of snippets of Alex’s fix-it fanfics, and group chats and texts involving Alex and other cast members which are frequently hilarious.

All the Feels is absolutely delightful, a fun, sweet and sexy read overflowing with good humour and witty banter that doesn’t shy away from addressing some heavier undertones in its exploration of the issues that have shaped its two leads.  I enjoyed it very much and am more than happy to recommend it.

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Read if you
🎬Love the sunshine/grump trope
🎬Need a slow burn 🔥
🎬Want ADHD and fat rep

“I know who you are.”

This is book 2 in the Spoiler Alert series, and focuses on misbehaving, golden boy Alex and his grumpy, glorified babysitter, Lauren. I absolutely loved getting to know these two through this book - their banter was fantastic and their chemistry was spot-on. Alex’s lightheartedness balanced with Lauren’s firm attitude was everything. I always love a sunshine/grump romance!

Like Spoiler Alert, this has fan fic woven throughout the story, but not quite as frequently. It played in well to the overall storyline, especially at the end!

Thanks to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC!

This cover though!! 😍 I’m really interested in reading diverse romances, whether that be race, gender, sexuality, body type/and or neurodivergence. So it was really awesome to read All the Feels which features ADHD and fat representation, with strong, positive conversations around both.

I love that this book didn’t take itself too seriously - Alex is a love-able goof in this, and I love all the nods to fan fiction and fan culture. His relationship with Lauren was really well thought out and progressed very naturally. They had amazing chemistry too!!

I knocked off a star though for the pacing - this book felt reaaaally long. I feel like a lot of the first half of the book could have been cut down significantly. I was pretty into this story and the characters, but it did seem to drag on unnecessarily.

This is book #2 in the series, although it can be read as a standalone. I haven’t read Spoiler Alert (book #1) yet, but got through this one just fine. Although I’m sure I’d have probably caught more inside jokes, but I was on a time crunch! Gotta love it when they approve ARCs a week before the release date 😅

This book will be released on November 16th. Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH OLIVIA DADE OWNS MY HEART!!! SO many fanfic mentions and you can tell that Dade has a genuine appreciation for it. Sometimes when fanfic is mentioned in published works, it's used as a joke, but here it is treated with care and talked about how influential it can be. This is also some of the first plus-size rep that I've seen where the plus-sized character doesn't have a moment where she hates her body for whatever reason and I'm so thankful for it. Lauren loves herself (and Alex loves her) and it's everyone else that judges her. I want everything that Dade has ever and will ever write. Like right now.

This was a cute romance. I really enjoyed the character Lauren the most in this one. I loved her personality, and I connected with her body situations. The comments about the flight and everything she endures when flying...I really appreciated that part. I like seeing someone who feels real in books, and I got that in Lauren. The banter between Lauren and Alexander was fun, and it made this feel lighthearted which was great.

I really enjoyed this one!

This was a great follow up to a story I loved! I love the plus size rep and the slow burn romance. I think it's great how vulnerable both characters are and how they brought out the best in each other. I did get a little bored waiting for them to finally get together but I liked her perspective and how they both cared so much for each other.

I liked Spoiler Alert quite a bit (who doesn't love a story where the big girl lands the celebrity hottie?? Monsters, that's who) but if I had any complaints about it, it was - what I felt to be - the occasionally overly fabricated feel to the conflict, which left me sometimes feeling frustrated with our heroine, April. I wasn't necessarily expecting that here, but I'm happy to report I didn't feel that was the case at all. The conflicts felt organic, the slow-burn of their attraction to each other felt authentic, and while I was occasionally frustrated with both of the characters, the reasons for that were also organic and authentic to their characters - it only made them feel more real to me. I also loved how, because these two books have overlapping timelines, I got to relive some of the events of Spoiler Alert, and it served to make the world feel bigger to me.

But, most of all, I loved Alex. Like, really, really loved him. If Lauren has Big Harpy Energy, Alex has Big Golden Retriever Energy, and I love that for both of them.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review, even though I've since heard that a certain event that was promised wasn't included in the ARC and will only be in the final published version...that's how they get ya.

so cute and fun and flirty!!!!!!! i loved getting to know these cuties and falling in love with them as they fell for each other! i’m a sucker for love and romance and everything in between!

I have not read Spoiler Alert, the first book in the series and after reding All The Feels, am eager to read it!

This was a very quick fun read! Handsome Alex with wealth and fame has Lauren to keep him in check! There trip to California, the reveal of real reason behind Alex’s recklessness and how Lauren can’t help but fall for him was an enjoyable ride!

It was very serene to see how Alex and Lauren’s relationship transitioned from funny witty banters to true and honest friendship to genuine intimate relationship!

Thank you @avonbooks and @netgalley for this advance galley of this book! It hits the shelves on November 16, 2021 and I highly recommend!

A solid, enjoyable read that made me wish I read book one. That will be happening very soon! I loved the characters and truly felt connected to the story.

Olivia Dade does it again!

Lauren is a no-nonsense, ER therapist taking a hiatus from her job at a hospital. She finds herself in Spain, reaches out to her film industry cousin, and is hired as a 'minder' for Alex. Alex is a goofy, handsome actor who has found himself in hot water with production and thus, gets a babysitter. The opposite pair form a tight friendship and prove to be exactly what the other needs.

Olivia's plus-size characters are so real-life and authentic, it's like reading a page from your diary sometimes. Alex and Lauren both have so much to learn about self-love and self-worth and boy, do they help each other along the way. I absolutely loved this story and their love. It was so pure and so genuine. Bonus: there is an amazing one bed scene, LOTS of Alex defending Lauren against the unkind people of the world, and so much hilarious banter.

Despite not reading the prior book in this series, I had no problem jumping into this story. I loved that it centered on a fat woman without any unintentional fatphobia. I appreciated that she was the more serious and rational of the two rather than a dreaded Manic Pixie Dream Girl. I particularly loved the way she was viewed as a sexually dominant woman by Alex. It’s rare to find a story with a strong handsome male character comfortably portray himself as submissive in his fantasies and I hope we see more of it.
It was an interesting choice to have a male lead with ADHD. As someone with ADD myself I appreciated the representation. However, the various descriptions of Alex’s symptoms could at times read like an info dump. It seemed like every scene he was in had to include a reference to his ADHD and how it was affecting his life at that exact moment. It felt like he was entirely defined by his mental illness and that can be a very damaging headspace for someone who struggles with this disorder. I would encourage writers to refrain from name checking ADHD or ADD so often in their characters’ inner monologues (even if their behavior is disorder related) as it takes away an element of their agency.