I love me an Ashley Winstead thriller. But apparently I don't love an Ashley Winstead romance. This was far too immature for me.

the only books I've previously read from winstead are thrillers. So reading a romance from this author was a refreshing take. I loved seeing the new perspective of this author through a new genre.

🤔 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤 𝙄 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙚 𝙁𝙤𝙤𝙡 𝙈𝙚 𝙊𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙗𝙮 𝘼𝙨𝙝𝙡𝙚𝙮 𝙒𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙙?
👉🏻𝙀𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜
👉🏻𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙮
👉🏻𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩
👉🏻𝙁𝙖𝙗𝙪𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙮
👉🏻𝙁𝙪𝙣 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙡𝙤𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣.
𝙇𝙚𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙝𝙚'𝙨 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙖 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙏𝙚𝙭𝙖𝙨...𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙜𝙚?
𝙂𝙚𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙞𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠. 𝘼𝙙𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 #𝙩𝙗𝙧
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙨𝙝𝙡𝙚𝙮'𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙨.

Lee and Ben, exs and rivals find themselves working together to get enough political votes to pass a clean energy bill. I love the concept of this one. The politics part and lobbying was interesting and that Lee and Ben were in competition was fun. Lee, however, got on my nerves. She made the most awful decisions that I'm surprised she had any friends left at the end! I really enjoy Winstead's writing style though and I liked this overall.

I did not love this book.

There was the forced to work together trope which I normally love but couldn’t do much with this book. The cheating made it a harder read and it took me awhile to get through this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review.

This was a cute romance, with funny moments, but nothing really stood out as amazing. I didn't find them to be a memorable couple, but it was a fast, easy read.

The main female character and the things she did in the past made it difficult to like her at times, which made the romance slightly unbelievable that he could forgive her. But the scene where she crawls across the marathon finish line is one of the funniest things I’ve read.

I will be reading anything and everything Ashley Winstead writes!! This was super super cute. The characters were so vivid, flawed and charming (ahem BEN). I started this novel not loving Stoner, but I feel like that was the point, I saw my friends in her and I wanted to just grab her and tell her everything was going to be okay.
The conversations of climate change and politics were done so seamlessly, with funny banter and very interesting plot points. I think what really got me with this story is Stoner's desire to be loved and the thought of feeling "unloveable" because MEE AFFF.

I think this one is super cute if you love second chance romances!

3.5 stars, maybe?

This book was equal parts rom-com, political drama, and trauma recovery. It was certainly an intriguing story, featuring a second-chance romance between two protagonists, one of whom has *a lot* of emotional baggage as well as a slew of toxic coping mechanisms that she employs while trying to handle her past. There are a lot of ups and downs, and I found my attention wandering at times, but overall, it was a fairly interesting read, and I’m glad I was able to find time for it.

I laughed, I cried, I love Ashley Winstead.

I don't typically like to read about cheating or politics in fictional escapes, but Ashley Winstead works her magic once again! Not only was this a thoroughly enjoyable read and a great girlboss story, I also feel that she wrote and handled various themes so well.

Tbh I thought this would be a miss for me because of how so much of it revolves around cheating, but I was wrong. Love can be painful and ugly, people are flawed and make mistakes, forgiveness and trust, guilt and trauma — these are all things that the author did a fantastic job in exploring and I was totally won over by the end. I also love how this romance novel calls out sexism, gender inequality and double standards in the workplace as well as in the media.

Interestingly, I started out really disliking the protagonist (there was mild dislike for her love interest too). Definitely incredulous at how one point she seemed to show no remorse and played the victim card by saying, "Then Ben did the worst possible thing you can do to another human being." Which is ridiculous because I too would ice out someone who broke my heart.

Yet I grew to understand why Lee is the way she is, how she walls herself off and hurts people first to avoid getting hurt. As a fellow cynic, I soon found myself empathizing and rooting for her. I loved her character arc and the ending was perfect. Not sure why but the marathon scene made me both laugh and cry!

Goddamnit, I love Sad Crawler and Princess Fountain Oops and Stoner and Ashley Winstead. Highly recommend everyone to go into this book with an open mind because the takeaway is wonderful and I enjoyed every moment of this page-turner.

I LOVE Ashley's writing. Her books are fast paced, and full of twists and turns. She is an incredible author and an auto buy for me! I loved this one so much. I LOVED In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and thought it would be tough to beat that fave, this one Fool Me Once was AS awesome! Propulsive! 5 STAR for me!

I usually love enemies to lovers but no matter how many times I tried to get into this book I couldn’t continue. Maybe it’s because it’s political based I’m not sure I unfortunately I had to dnf this.

Thank you so much @GraydonHouseBooks & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 05 April 2022)

SYNOPSIS | Lee has given up on finding true love as she has had her heart broken too many times & now lives her life with no emotional attachments. She is trying to get a greener energy bill passed in Texas & has to work with the governors newest employee Ben (aka her last heart break) to make it happen.

WHAT I LIKED:
- the story was really nicely positioned in the beginning
- some parts of the story had me chuckling out loud

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- too much lack of trust & unnessary conflicts that didn't add to the angst instead just dragged out the romance
- that infidelity is core to this story (I'd just rather not read about it in my escapism romance)
- that the main character runs away from conflict on multiple occasions & her behaviour is consistently excused because she is a "hot mess"
- I didn't really care for the entire politics storyline

In Fool Me Once, Ashley Winstead tells the remarkable reunion story of Lee and Ben. On the road to understanding, they must learn to forgive while navigating the challenging word of politics and the quest for green energy. I enjoyed the authors writing style very much and the love story was engaging. While I support a healthy environment, my political leanings do not align with those of the characters. Normally my politics do not impact my reading but i’m this rare case they did so I found that for a romance, it was politics heavy. I feel strongly that this well written small town romance could easily be a 4 to 5 star read for anyone highly interested in politics and or the environment. I received an advanced reader copy to review and I share my thoughts voluntarily. Thank you to #NetGalley and #HarlequinTradePublishing for the opportunity to read this thought provoking novel.

Lee doesn't believe in love after a few too many heartbreaks. This book included cheating and politics, which are both turn offs for me. I didn't think Lee was very relatable. I hoped to see more character development from her. Other than that, the book was entertaining and well written.

What a fun book! Such a funny story and the writing really sucks you in. I loved the plot & I am such a sucker for a second chance romance. I also loved the bad ass career driven vibe that the MC had. The MC was a bit immature at times - but we love to see a good character arc. Such a fun summer read!

This one was fun. Ashley is a new to me author and I quite enjoyed her writing. If you're in the mood for an upbeat romance, this one is for you.,

This book has been so enjoyable to read during the Summer! There's nothing about it that particularly makes it a Summer book, but it's so steamy and sexy and frustrating in the best ways! The dialogue is also very realistic and nothing struck me as incredibly corny where it took me out of the novel. If anything, I highlighted several passages because they made me laugh so hard. After reading this, I am incredibly compelled to buy more books written by Ashley Winstead. This is a must for anyone who enjoys a good lovers to enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers book! If you like Emily Henry books, you should definitely check this one out too. Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin publishing for providing an E-ARC of this book it was so entertaining!

Pretty cute book! I really liked the political aspect of it and the idea of the bill in the book. This would be a cool thing to implement everywhere.
I sometimes got frustrated with Lee and don't know if the book fully addressed Lee's abrasive personality. I also wish some of the characters would've been fleshed out a little more.
I did tear up during the cemetery part and could feel Lee's heartbreak.
Glad I read this one
Overall: 3.5 stars

I loved most of this book. There were some weak spots to it as well. But I really loved Stoner. She was such a wonderful, flawed MC. She was so foolish at times and frustrating. But you could just tell where it came from.