Fool Me Once was a quick, witty, deep romance! While I could have done without all the political themes, I enjoyed the unique story line. The forbidden exes gave the book the edge it needed. I truly enjoyed the character development throughout the book! Lee was somewhat of a hopeful romantic with a hard to crack shell around her heart. Experiencing her metamorphosis was truly beautiful - I loved how in the end, she chose herself, but that still included her relationship with Ben. It was a happy ending but it didn’t feel forced or cheesy! A fantastic romance from one of my favorite authors - can’t wait to see what Ashley Winstead writes next!

A history of being left, of being cheated on, of feeling like she’s not enough, Lee Stone “Stoner” decided that real love just doesn’t exist. Especially after she suspected her ex Ben was cheating on her, she quickly cheated on him first to save herself from heartbreak. Five years later, working for a leading electric car company and fighting for a greener Texas, Lee ends up having to work with… Ben.

If I’m being honest, it took me 30% to get invested in Lee’s story. Her personality was definitely fit for the plot, and I especially loved the whole idea about the bill for electric vehicles to replace gas-powered engines for a better environment. Especially set in Texas, so cool. The thing that bugged me the most was the whole cheating thing and how that became the main conflict with her understanding of love. In the end though, I believed in all of Lee’s second chances, laughed at her sense of humor and witty comebacks, and cheered for Ben. I was relieved that there was a bit of open door steam to slice the sexual tension brought on by forced proximity, too. Ha!

I recommend to fans of MEET YOU IN THE MIDDLE.

This is my second book by Ashley Winstead, and she just became an auto buy author for me! I’m so impressed she can write an amazing thriller, then a romance book. She did both so well! I highly recommend this book! I loved it!

A male/female romcom that gets 5 stars from me?! Romcoms aren’t usually my thing, so you know this one must be good! Ashley Winstead has written such a smart and funny story that is also empowering and thoughtful. Lee “Stoner” Stone is a young, rising star at a new female-run electric car company that is better than Tesla but doesn’t get the credit it deserves. After a few mishaps and broken hearts in college, she doesn’t believe in love. She’s happy playing the field and having fun with men. Until her ex-boyfriend comes back into her life and she is forced to work closely with him in order to succeed. Things with them didn’t end well, and this could be a disaster. Ashley Winstead is now a favorite author of mine and I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

I'm actually very undecided on this book. On the one hand, this was super fun and I love the author's writing style. All the different characters felt fully developed, and the dialogue was really witty, with great banter. On the other hand, wow, Lee was a mess, and Ben - sweet, Clark Kent-lookalike, Ben - deserved so much better! There was also an improbable amount of cheating in this book; almost everyone had either been cheated on or cheated on someone. Still, overall, I did really enjoy reading it - the author's writing was really easy to get sucked into, and the first half, in particular, delivered great enemies-to-lovers vibes.

📖 romance book review 📖

FOOL ME ONCE is Ashley Winstead’s first foray into romance. This book reads like a romcom, which makes it so fun. I laughed, I cried, I cheered on these characters.

Lee Stone, aka Stoner to her friends, is the communications director at Lise, a woman-run electric car company. She is helping push a clean energy bill. When her company meets with the governor to discuss the bill more, they learn that he has brought someone to help with the bill, Ben Laderman. Unfortunately for Lee, she knows Ben. He was her Fourth Major Heartbreak, having dated in grad school 5 years earlier, until Lee messed up the relationship and Ben ran away to California. This is the first time they’ve seen each other since then. And now they have to work together to see this bill — Lee’s baby — to the finish line.

Ashley Winstead excels at making imperfect, relatable characters. Ben and Lee are both great main characters. Lee’s friends are a great core group of women who are care and support each other. The romance aspect of this book is good but my favorite part was watching Lee mature and grow.

After reading and loving IN MY DREAMS I HOLD A KNIFE, I knew Ashley would become an autobuy author for me. I was curious about her switching genres for her sophomore release and how her voice would change. While it reads much differently than IMDIHAK, this book is still 100% her voice and it was fascinating to see. I will definitely buy more romance books from her in the future.

I received the eARC of this book from @netgalley and @graydonhousebooks. All thoughts are my own. FOOL ME ONCE comes out in one week on 4/5/2022.

I will read anything Ashley winstead writes. And I will love it. I LOVE her writing, but this book did not hit the mark for me. I hated the FMC and therefore hated the MMC because he was acting a fool. I wanted it to end differently. I think people will love this book, but personally it had too many glaring issues for me to fully fall in love with joy

OK, this book was HILARIOUS. This is not my normal genre and if it wasn't for Ashley Winstead's name on it, I never would have picked it up in the first place, but I'm glad I did. The beginning and the ending both had me cracking up and I know the people around me thought I was an idiot because I couldn't stop laughing, but who cares.

Lee Stone is a crazy party animal by night and the media spokeswoman for Lise Motors, a female-run, environmentally-friendly auto maker by day. She's also really bad at relationships, and since she cheated on Ben, her grad school boyfriend, she hasn't taken love seriously at all. So when Ben reappears as an assistant to the Texas Governor and the person she will have to spend hours upon hours with to get their bill, The Green Machine passed, all hell breaks loose.

This is a smart, witty, not-at-all-sappy rom com that I ended up adoring. Yes, I read Winstead's last hit, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, and yes, she can write a thriller, but when she can make me adore a romcom I know that this is one author I need to keep an eye on.

I’m totally obsessed with Winstead’s writing but I just really struggled with the political aspects of this book. When I read, I really prefer for political biases, regardless of side, to be left at the door because I want an escape from all of that.
This is totally my own fault for not reading the synopsis. I love going in blind with books and my next read will be Winstead’s new thriller! She’s still one of my favorites!

Read this if you like:
🌏 Discussing climate change
🗳 Politics
🤠 Books set in Texas
❤️ Second Chance Romance
💛 Slow-burn Romance
🙋🏻‍♀️ A strong and flawed MC

Book Review:
Lee aka Stoner was the perfect, relatable, and flawed MC for this story. She was utterly flawed in her actions, beliefs, and reactions, but to say that is she lived and loved as authentically as she could given her personal experiences. Lee had trust issues surrounding love and being loved and for valid reasons from her 4 big heartbreaks. I identified so strongly with her protection mode as I once lived there too feeling like I couldn’t trust, but I too, like Stoner finally learned that I had to be willing to accept love and pain sometimes coexist or else all I’d get was pain.

I loved the focus on rebuilding and slow growth where Lee had to be smacked with the truth of the matter from several angles before she could accept her truth and choose her happiness over her walls and choices that were only hurting her instead of providing the barrier she thought they did.

I also loved the slow burn of her relationship with Ben and how their relationship played out as it gave hope that even if you screw up, the right people will be there rooting you on, and will stay in your corner as long as you work to deserve and retain their spot by your side through your messiness.

Thank you NetGalley and Graydon House for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I liked this book. I will admit, some parts were slow and there was a heavy focus on getting a bill passed as part of the plot. I kind of wish some of these details (even though I totally would have voted for that bill to pass) were replaced with some more banter or moments between the two to heat up their chemistry - because those parts captivated me. There were parts of their relationship that needed to be fleshed out a little more. Like, some flashbacks to help me understand their passion when they were together. I think it would have helped me connect a little more with their relationship to see some more of that. With a second chance romance (thinking Love and Other Words) the emphasis on their past really helps a book.

Lee Stone works as director of communications at Lise Motors, the first female-led electric vehicle company. She idolizes its founder and has big dreams for electric vehicles in her home state of Texas. She's known to her friends as "Stoner," thanks to her partying ways and her inability to commit. Thanks to her father cheating on her mother while Lee was in high school--and a string of bad relationships since--Lee's mantra is not to trust men and never get serious. The one time she felt she truly liked someone, Ben Laderman in grad school, she was convinced he was cheating and so cheated on him--he fled to California and she's never dated seriously again. But now Ben is back, working for the governor of Texas, and the one person Lee has to make nice with to get her passion project passed: a clean energy bill that would have Texas using electric vehicles throughout the Government. Soon Lee and Ben are back to their competitive ways, but it seems like sparks are flying as well.

"The past I thought I closed was coming back to haunt me. Ben Laderman, my greatest mistake--the one person in the world who'd seen me at my worst, who'd seen the real me, who I'd thought I'd really, truly loved--was coming back."

FOOL ME ONCE is a cute read, filled with lots of romantic tension and sparks. I honestly liked a lot of the politics and drama more than some of the romance, though in this day and age, it was hard to imagine Texas even touching the thought of going green. Lee, especially her "Stoner" personality, was a little hard to like and sympathize with. She took the"can't trust or believe in love" trope to extremes and at times, I just wanted to shake her. There was a little too much unwillingness to commit and a lot of back and forth on her part. At times, I just felt bad for Ben. He's incredibly easy to like and while he may take their competitiveness a bit too far, he usually got my vote in most of their arguments.

Still, as Lee and Ben cross Texas trying to drum up support for their bill, there are lots of comedic moments and plenty of romance and silliness. There are tender and touching bits too and some serious topics as they work to save the environment and make the future better. I enjoyed an appearance by a grizzled advisor to one of the senators and some of Lee's friends. There's a good cast of characters here and some surprising drama behind the scenes. (This is politics after all.)

If you like political dramas or Parks and Rec, this one is for you. It's funny with lots of political (and romantic) tension.

I hardly ever read romance books, but when it's written by one of my favorite thriller writers, I had to see how skilled she was at writing outside her genre, and it's amazing how effortlessly she can go from writing a depraved, dark thriller such as THE LAST HOUSEWIFE to this!

I'm seeing in other reviews that this is not a typical romance as there is more substance to this one. That is one main reason I tend to avoid romances because they feel like Hallmark movies to me...light, fluffy. full of cliches and devoid of any substance.

Lee Stone (known as 'Stoner' after work) is a powerful woman with a powerful title--she is the communications director at an electric car company that is owned by a woman. Lee doesn't trust love, and as the book progresses, she becomes one of US, a woman so disillusioned by the idea of love that adopts a man's approach of "wham, bam, thank you man".

Lee was so sure that her college boyfriend Ben was cheating on her that she reciprocated in kind...but was he really cheating? The experience was tumultuous for both of them, and Lee put him out of her mind until he shows up at Lee's job. He's a policy expert, and his expertise is needed to help Lee get a clean energy bill approved. Lee is completely unprepared for his appearance but tells herself she can power through UNTIL she finds out that she and Ben have to work together.

Even with the tension, some sexual, some not, watching these two verbally spar across the pages had some hilarious moments and some somber moments. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and maybe I'll be a little more open to other romance titles in the future.

After reading In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, I was SO excited to read Fool Me Once and was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it despite the different genres.

Fool Me Once is about Lee Stone, a communication director at a women-run electric car company. When she is not a professional at work, she goes by Stoner, a fun-loving party girl who doesn't believe in love. After going through four major heartbreaks, she decided to denounce commitment. When her last ex, Ben Laderman, shows up to help pass a clean energy bill in Texas, her world is shaken up. As they are forced to work together to get this bill passed, tensions build up as old feelings emerge.

I love Ashley Winstead's writing style. I will read anything she writes. The book was easy to read and lighthearted enough that I didn't want to put it down. I found Lee at times to be a funny, relatable character. Other times, she frustrated me. I can't say I blame the way she was written because of her past relationships. Meanwhile, I LOVED Ben! I knocked my rating to 4 stars because there is A LOT of cheating in this book. Some of the scenarios could've been done without. Otherwise, this was a fantastic, entertaining romcom that I would recommend everyone reads.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lee Stone is trying to get her Green Machine Bill passed through Texas legislature and learns she’s going to have to work with Ben Laderman, the man she cheated on five years ago who moved out of state and hasn’t spoken to her since. Can she put aside the confusing feelings she has for Ben for a chance to make a difference for climate change and a possible promotion or will she blow everything up like her history predicts? What happens when she learns Ben may not be over the past either?

It took me a bit, but Stoner grew on me. I enjoyed her crazy antics and found the story ending quite satisfying and heart warming.

Lee is very competitive in all areas of her life. Whether that be in her job working at a women-run car company, getting the clean energy bill for the state of Texas rolling, or going head-to-head with a guy she just met at a bar in a drinking game. She’s confident in her abilities until she’s reunited with her ex who will be working closely as a policy expert with their clean energy bill. Ben Laderman was the last guy she dated 5 years ago and ever since their awful break-up (even if it was her fault), Lee has decided that heartbreak is inevitable. Lee’s history with men causes her to always keep her heart guarded and her walls up. This interesting dynamic makes for a very fun read with lots of tension.

First, I love that this book is set in Austin, Texas! It was so refreshing to read a book in a different setting, especially a city and state that I’m familiar with!

I also expected the tension between Lee and Ben to be more of an enemies to lovers trope, but I’m so glad it wasn’t. Ben and Lee’s relationship is definitely complicated, but their competitive nature still felt light-hearted and I enjoyed reading about them trying to navigate their friendship and professional relationship even though they have a very complicated history.

Not all rom-com lovers will relate to Lee’s character, but I still found myself enjoying her POV, how she dealt with grief, forgiving others, and herself. I appreciated how Lee’s character went into detail about her Four Major Heartbreaks and the history with her dad. These details humanized her and gave the reader reason to empathize with her and her approach to dating and her doubts about lasting love.

Lee and Ben’s differing political convictions contribute to their own personal motives as well as their relationship. Since the POV is from Lee, the reader gains more understanding of Lee’s political values, but there were several inner dialogues that felt forced. For example, “Ben didn’t back away from my invasion of his space; he leaned forward and flexed his fingers, like he wanted to grab me by the shoulders but knew he couldn’t, thanks to #MeToo.” Lee being a democrat is very important to the plot and her ideals and values can and totally would be very progressive, but a few (not all!) inner thoughts felt artificial and unnecessary in order for the plot to move forward.

Any reader of this book will fall in love with Ben’s character and his commitment to Lee. Without giving any spoilers, I’ll just say the way he handles Lee’s overwhelming self-doubt makes him the most lovable book boyfriend ever!

I gave this book 4 stars out of 5. I loved the story and the setting. If there weren’t so many cheating plots with multiple characters, I think it would’ve been more realistic, but overall, it's a great second-chance trope with a lot of self-realization about forgiving others and yourself. <3

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Love love love! Ashley Winstead has officially become one of my favourite authors. This was a fast paced book that felt so real and engaging! I 100% recommend this book and anything written by Ashley!

I loved this one!

This one is part enemies to lovers, part second chance romance, and part political push to turn Texas blue!

And yes, there is only one bed.

Stoner has had 4 major heartbreaks, all stemming from infidelity and she is haunted by her own father’s infidelity.

Insert Ben Lauderman back into her life, her 4th heartbreak and the man she loved and broke the heart of.

Oh Stoner, I love you and feel for your so much. As a child of divorce finding the will to trust is something I could relate to, and while Stoner took her personal tragedies and focused on them perhaps too much, the reasoning for it was understandable and I loved her growth.

I loved the back story of the electric car and push for the bill, I enjoyed the added political depth this added though I know not every reader will like it.

I loved it, it was cute and it had moments that were surprisingly tender (at one point I cried). I loved the added enemies to lovers onto the second chance push for Ben and Stoner. The tension with their forced proximity was great and I loved practically every moment they were together.

If you’re a fan of rom coms with some depth, definitely check out Fool Me Once!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

When I first saw this book, I was a little surprised that it was written by Ashley Winstead! I don’t think of Ashley as a rom-com writer after reading her debut novel, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife- which I loved by the way!! This new book of Ashley’s was a very pleasant surprise- and I’m so thrilled to say that Ashley can write both thrillers and romance books perfectly!! Fool Me Once was a fun, laughable book!! I enjoyed the banter, the LOL moments, and also the side characters. Our main character Lee was flawed, but likable. A few times I would have liked to shake her a little, but that just made her even more relatable. None of us are perfect!! This was a very good book about second chances. It had great character development. I really enjoyed it and would certainly recommend this one to a one who enjoys an enemies to lovers trope. It’s a fun book. I’m looking forward to more from Ashley!! Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for the eARC!

BOOK REVIEW

BOOK: Fool Me Once
AUTHOR: Ashley Winstead
FORMAT: eBook
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
PUB DATE: 4/5/22
RATING: 9/10
4.5 stars rounded up!

Thank you so much @graydonhousebooks @netgalley and @ashleywinsteadbooks for my #gifted advanced copy of FOOL ME ONCE, out 4/5!

MY THOUGHTS

What a book!! This is Ashley’s romance debut after knocking it right out of the park with IN MY DREAMS I HOLD A KNIFE, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was incredible.

From the very start until the very end, I felt so connected to our MC Lee for a LOT of different reasons (was I the character inspo???), but it really deepened my feelings for this entire story. I found myself getting frustrated with her character, but her flaws were so intensely human that I couldn’t even blame her. The writing was phenomenal; the banter, the modern references, the contemporary style. It just worked really well. I have a soft spot for second chance romance so that was a given (more thoughts on this to come).

What really sealed the deal for me were the deep, raw themes that go beyond a traditional love story. This story touches upon loss & grief, trauma and heartbreak, unhealthy coping, sexism in the workplace (specifically politics), climate change, forgiveness and love. The ending was a grand slam and I had goosebumps for the last 15% of the book.

This one was a little bit long for me. I think that was in part to the side plots happening outside of the love story, and at times I did feel like it was a little bit wordy with a lot of detail, causing me to take a little longer than usual to really get into the story. I also felt that the love story was a reallllll slow burn in the sense that it felt like a game of phone tag where they just took a really long time to get on the same page. As for the side plots, I think that due to the phenomenal ending, it was worth the length it added to the book.

Ashley, I am in awe of you!! Thank you for creating a story that so deeply resonates with me, my experiences & my character traits. This was a special one