Member Reviews
This is my first title by Oliva Dade and it was a fantastic one. It was funny and cute. I loved the romance and who doesn't love a golden retriever male lead. I will definitely look forward to more!
I loved this one even more than the first. Alex is a human golden retriever/manic pixie dream boy and I am clearly here for Lauren’s Big Harpy Energy. This made me laugh and made me swoon and gave me…All The Feels.
This book was so good!!! I fell in love with the characters right away!!! I don’t know why I didn’t read this sooner. It is one of my favorites for the year so far!! I loved the chemistry between Lauren and Alex. They are seriously perfect for each other! I really liked Alex’s story arch also. Not the usual for a hero in a romance novel!
Olivia Dade has done it once again! It's the mark of a good story for me when someone can introduce you to two characters and their respective issues, outline those underlying struggles clearly, and then make it plain that BOTH sides are ultimately not without flaws when it comes to the big misunderstanding or dark moment event. Lauren and Alex are a match of seeming opposites, but that also means they're well-equipped to notice one another's shortcomings as well as their strengths too. And once the love scenes finally happened? Hello, page-scorcher! This series also continues to serve as a love letter to fanfic, which remains a wonderful and charming aspect in this book as well. Very much looking forward to Ship Wrecked!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I had a hard time with this one. The characterization felt off in a way that made the characters unlikeable and unrelatable. A shame because I loved Spoiler Alert.
Cute! Slightly disappointed by the lack of pegging (iykyk) but I guess we can't have everything. The *constant* mention of fanfic tropes was a little much.
TW: ableism, fatphobia, discussion of past domestic violence, ugly-shaming (there's got to be a better word for this??), groping, mentions of professional burnout (in health care, specifically)
I liked this book must more than I liked the first book in this series. I found these characters more enjoyable to follow and I was interested in their story. I would read much more about this couple! I'm excited to see where this series goes!
Yes yes yes to everything this author puts out! Her characters always draw me in and I love the variety in them as well.
Thank you to the publisher for my review copy. All opinions are my own.
I am putting this down at 20%. Frankly, I'm bored. We know what is going to happen and I feel absolutely no spark between the two main characters.
Mehhhhh, the writing is not terrible...I just have zero interest in continuing.
(This review was written months after having read the ARC, after dealing with a period of some personal issues. Apologies for the tardiness as I catch up on the backlog of reviews.)
This is the second book in the series, after "Spoiler Alert," which I found charming, genuinely funny, smart and the best by far of Olivia Dade's romances (I checked out her previous stuff, which was cute but just OK). As with the first, this involves a civilian woman and one of the hunky actors from the Ancient Roman period drama "Gods of the Gates," which is set up to have a "Game of Thrones"-like fame. Oh, and a lovely fanfic community.
Alexander Woodroe plays Cupid on the show and has the reputation for being a bit of a wild child with emotional outbursts. After a bar fight, the show's producer hires Lauren Clegg, an ER therapist, to be his handler or nanny or something. Yeah, it doesn't really make sense, but that's fine. Suspension of disbelief is important here because this "Gods of the Gates" show sounds awful. But I digress.
What's good.:As in the first book, we learn of Alex's burgeoning hobby with writing fanfic about Cupid, particularly a certain kind of racy fanfic, which I found delightful. The look into that world is so honestly well done. There's a lot of affection there.
Also, Dade makes a decent effort in finding the issue that is holding back each of the characters from getting a happy ending right away. While Lauren's feels very real world, Alex's does feel slightly contrived. To be clear, it's believable as in it fits in the real world, but it does feel a little bit too pat to explain his issues while simultaneously making him perfect for Lauren. Do I sound to cynical here? Alas.
What didn't quite work for me: I'm all for romances that don't pair two gorgeous people. That gets to be very annoying to read because often their good looks are conflated with goodness by the author. Dade has been making a point to present women who aren't always the most pursued for their looks, which is great. What I find odd is that in writing about Lauren, Dade seems to not exactly be able to describe why Alex and Lauren like each other, or rather, we're told that they do but I had a hard time feeling it (I guess I'd prefer to be shown, not told). So when Alex is looking at Lauren, who's often describe with a beak-like nose, round body and skinny legs making her look like a bird, he is drawn to her because he finds her looks "interesting." Maybe it's just my hangup but "interesting" is not a very specific word to me and in fact can be used as an insult. I feel if someone is genuninely drawn to someone, they'd find their eyes fascinating or mesmerizing or compelling. "Interesting" seems as if the author is trying to hard to prove "Lauren is interesting!"
And then when it comes to their dynamic, I also found that they both kept being drawn together despite what I found to be a very conflict-driven type of interaction. Again, I am not questioning the actual attraction, rather I wish I could've been pulled along for it. So after a slew of terse exchanges and having Alex miss them, I want to find out why. Like, do those exchanges make him feel amused, familiar, like he's being valued? What? As the reader I felt I was often an outsider and saw the exchanges as unpleasant ... so I just wanted the curtain to be drawn back a little I guess, not made to just accept that acerbicness is sexy.
Regardless, I was gunning for the relationship and how each had to make some difficult accommodations to meet in the middle eventually. There's a great scene later on with an on-camera interview I found fun, having been in the entertainment journalism business.
Also, there's some fun castle shenanigans and that one guy on a text thread that doesn't belong I found amusing. The details are fantastic. While I didn't embrace this book as fully as the first one, I still found it to be a very alive and intriguing world Dade has created. I'd be interested in the next installment, if there is one.
Review based on an ARC provided by NetGalley & Avon and Harper Voyager
This is my first Olivia Dade book and it will not be my last! I've been dragging my feet to read this because I haven't read the first book in the series, but I am a mood reader at heart and my mood said this is the one. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! As a plus sized woman myself, it is already hard to feel like most of the main characters we read about, but the representation and body positivity was truly amazing.
I really enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to reading Olivia Dades other books!
The way this book pokes fun at itself and at romance tropes in general made it an refreshing read. All The Feels is the sequel to Spoiler Alert, which you definitely need to read before this book or you lose out on a lot of context. Both Lauren and Alex were sweet and caring character, there was no big drama.
I gave this book 3.5 stars on Storygraph (@/emilycmarshman on there if you'd like to be friends!) - the more romcoms I read, the more I think that maybe I don't like romcoms as much as I think I do?
I did like this book, but I found myself pushing through when maybe I should have just DNF'd. I do love Olivia Dade for looking romance as a genre straight in the eye and showing it everything it's been lacking - she definitely writes for plus-sized women who deserve to see themselves represented in the genre more than they are at the moment.
I typically like mixed media in books, but in this one and in Spoiler Alert, her use of mixed media really brought me out of the story. 9 times out of 10 I skip the fanfics and chats and emails she includes in her books.
If you like romcoms and fanfiction, this series might be for you - but, like I said, I just don't think I like romcoms as much as I thought I did?
This was a wonderful follow-up to Spoiler Alert with two characters that I really enjoyed. The conflict felt a bit forced and unrealistic, but the book overall was a fun read!
I hate to do this but All the feels by Olivia Dade was kind of a let down for me. I really loved the 1st book of the series but I just felt like this romance was very force. I didn't think the characters had any chemistry so unfortunately I really didn't like it.
I didn't like this one as much as the first book, Spoiler Alert. Mainly because this one felt like a repetition of the previous book's themes and general plotline. But, also partly because I simply did not buy into the character's supposed chemistry.
I didn't like the way that Alex talked, or even thought, about Lauren. He was lowkey disrespectful. He kept going on about how she was unattractive and 'bird like', only to act surprised when Lauren took offense to this.
Honestly, I was so excited to read this one. I loved Spoiler Alert and the relationship between those two main characters. I also really liked the subtle hits in that novel about what Alex and Lauren's relationship would be, and I couldn't wait to get to it. Unfortunately, it just wasn't what I expected it to be. I am very disappointed, but I simply couldn't get into it like I would have liked.
Overall, this one just wasn't for me. That being said, I still really look forward to more of the author's work in the future.
All the Feels by Olivia Dade was a delightfully amazing read! The banter, the representation (both in body size and also mental health), and the character development was truly everything. This was my first Olivia Dade novel and I had no clue it was a part of a series when starting it. This book was witty, heartwarming, and had me giggling throughout. I absolutely adored these characters and their stories. This will not definitely not be my last Olivia Dade novel and I HIGHLY recommend it to all romance lovers, especially ones who want more representation of others or themselves.
Dade does it again with her second book in the "Spoiler Alert" series - All the Feels! This sequel follows Alexander Woodroe, hot celebrity actor from the hit show "Gods of the Gates" and best friend to Marcus Caster-Rupp and the spunky woman Lauren Clegg who has been hired to try to keep him in line (not an easy task). Basically Lauren has to make sure Alex doesn't say something inappropriate online, or get in a fight with a fan, or accidently stumble upon the paparazzi in a less than favorable way.
Not surprisingly, the two fall in love. But feelings are never easy especially for a falling star and his PR manager. Lauren isn't sure that she can keep up separating her feelings from the job. And Alex is determined to make her see that he is willing to do anything to win her heart. Mix in some scandalous fanfiction writing and a road trip up the California coast and you might just have a plot that is too hot to handle.
I loved Dade's first book in this series and I continue to love the second! I will continue to buy her books for the library as long as they keep being this good and fun to read. I haven't been disappointed yet! I can't wait to see where her third novel in the series takes us. 10/10 highly recommend.
I'm a big fan of Olivia Dade after reading Spoiler Alert (and finding a few of her other books) and this one didn't disappoint. I'm enjoying this series so much and hope it continues.
This was delightful. I loved having a sequel that focused on Alex! A fun read that addressed tough subjects head on.