Read Me by Lauren Connolly is a delightful fit for readers who adore lighthearted, emotional, and humorous romances with a touch of grumpy-sunshine charm, featuring a strong-willed librarian and a brooding writer, and are eager to be swept away by a sweet and suspenseful tale of good girl-bad boy love.

I can't resist to a book with a cat on the cover and wanted to love it. There's potential but I found the story very slow and didn't keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Read Me by Lauren Connolly is a story about a librarian, Summer, who lives to help and serve others. She is single and occasionally known to date men who check out books from her at the library. She has been on a few dates with Joshua, but things keep landing at a dead end. She watches out for Jamie, a teenager, but something seems amiss with him, and he does not want to talk about it. Then there is Cole, who attends Thursday night writers class at the library and comes back on Sunday, builds a fortress of books around him, refuses anyone to touch them, and reshelves them himself. Summer has a dark secret that has her skeptical of everyone around. Can Summer find love and happiness, or will she remain the lonely librarian? Can she find peace? Get your copy of Read Me by Lauren Connolly today and find out.
Bridgett R Veltman

I have really struggled with this book, very slow and then not very realistic. Explicit and bad language. Got half way through the book and gave up.

Very good novelist. Exciting, engrossing, page turner. Keeps you involved even if you know it's fiction. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Mein Leseerlebnis

Das erste Buch in der Reihe hat mir mit leichten Abstrichen gut gefallen (Rezension dazu folgt), jetzt hatte ich die Chance auch den zweiten Teil zu lesen.

Den Anfang der Geschichte fand ich interessant und amüsant. Gerade Summer hat mich durch ihre Gedanken und verbalen Ausbrüche immer wieder zum Lachen gebracht. Cole blieb dagegen für mich lange Zeit etwas blass.

Die Liebesgeschichte zwischen beiden entwickelt sich erst nach ein paar Kapiteln, was mir gut gefallen hat. An sich fand ich die Beziehung auch überzeugend, auch wenn ich gerne noch mehr Knistern und Chemie zwischen Summer und Cole gespürt hätte.

Im Buch gibt es verschiedene Handlungsstränge, von denen leider nicht alle gut verfolgt und aufgelöst werden (Coles Vergangenheit, Summers Stalker, ein jugendlicher Bücherreibesucher mit Problemen, Coles Jobsituation, die Familien der beiden, Coles Schreiberei). Weniger Handlungsstränge und dafür ein stärkerer Fokus auf sie hätte mir wahrscheinlich besser gefallen. Die Situation mit dem Stalker schien mir leider nicht mehr zu sein als ein billiges Spannungselement.

Den Schreibstil der Autorin fand ich generell gut und unterhaltsam, einige ihrer Beschreibungen erschienen mir aber etwas übertrieben und überflüssig. Generell ist das Buch meiner Meinung nach einen Tick zu lang ausgefallen. Fünf-acht Kapitel weniger hätten der Geschichte vielleicht gut getan.

Da es im Buch aber auch immer mal wieder schöne und unterhaltsame Szenen gab, war mein Leseerlebnis glücklicherweise nicht komplett enttäuschend. 🖤🖤3/4

Für wen?

Wenn euch der Klappentext anspricht, ist “Read me” einen Versuch wert. Erwartet kein Meisterwerk des Genres, sondern eher eine kurzweilige Unterhaltung.

This book was incredibly hard to put down. It challenged stereotypes of a so-called 'bad boy' and that looks are not everything, which the ending challenged perfectly. It contains mutual pining for a few chapters which has you hooked almost instantly. Told from the two main characters perspectives, Summer and Cole, you find yourselves attached to both characters rather than just one: this is just the benefit of a dual perspective, and something I always prefer when reading this type of romance.

This is an ideal book for quiet nights in, on the beach or just when you're looking for a quick, easy, enjoyable read where there is no cliffhangers left or anything. It touches upon difficult topics, but it doesn't darken the book in any shape or form, if anything the author highlights the fact that there are good people still in the world, when you feel like there isn't.

One thing I would suggest and that is the author briefly mentions that Cole suffered with mental health and then nothing else was brought up about it. I felt the author could have made more references to how/when he suffered, how he copes as it's such an important topic that is still sometimes brushed over. However, this didn't affect my view of the book at all as I can see why the author didn't mention it again.

It started off well and held my interest, but too be honest, by chapter 30 I was flagging. It went on for a while with very unbelievable stuff happening, but also from 0 for ages then straight to 100 very quick. I skipped from chapter 32 to the end just to find out if I was right about who the stalker was (I was). This has explicit sex scenes in it and expletives and I wouldn't recommend for under 18s.