I struggled with this one, and almost DNF'd a few times. In the end, I'm glad I stuck with it, mostly for Dez more than Violet, if I'm being honest. Also the ending made me roll my eyes a thousand times.

CW's for infidelity and infertility/miscarriage

Delightful, relatable and honest - what more could you ask for? I absolutely loved Libby Hubscher's sophomore novel dealing with an advice columnist coming to terms with her own need for help.

A cheating husband, a hot firefighter, and an anonymous advice columnist. Violet was great - she certainly was no shrinking violet. Even in the face of adversity and polite society, she was totally herself. Her and Dez's relationship was super cute - I love a man who is unabashedly into whoever he's pursuing. One thing I wish this book had, though, was the same emotional depth there was in Libby's last book, Meet Me in Paradise.

Picking up this book, I expected a romantic comedy, and to some extent I got that. But I also got SO MUCH MORE. If You Ask Me by Libby Hubscher has a little something for everyone. I laughed, I cried, I got angry, and just in general felt all the emotions a book can make you feel. Following an advice columnist as her picture perfect life implodes, the book tackles big emotions like grief, infidelity, infertility, and ultimately moving on. Believe me when I say, this isn’t for the faint of heart. However, Hubscher handles the topics delicately, realistically, and gives voice to mental illness in all shapes and forms.

Violet Covington, from the outside, has the perfect life. She has the man of her dreams, the job of her dreams, the house of her dreams. However when she arrives home early to announce the news that her column is up for syndication, Violet finds the man of her dreams in bed with perfect Shelby down the street. Her visceral reaction to this is to do what every Southern woman is taught to do with their emotions: push it down, hide it and never let them see you cry. My heart broke for Violet here. I understood and empathized with the fact that her life was never going to be the same going forward. All those dreams, all her plans that she thought her husband shared with her, were gone.

How does one recover from that? That is the point of this plot. I absolutely love that while this does have some romance with a sexy firefighter, the book focuses more on Violet, her grief, and her self discovery as she moves through grieving not just her marriage, but all those dreams you share with your significant other. While some of what Violet does is cringeworthy, a lot of it is relatable. She’s picking up the pieces of her life, examining what to keep or what to toss, and putting herself back together again. I love her resilience….and Dez. I love Dez 😉

Overall, I really enjoyed If You Ask Me. This is a love letter to all women (and men) dealing with grief in some form or fashion. It’s a gentle reminder that the outside picture isn’t always a reflection of the inside and that you shouldn’t always judge what you don’t understand. If you are a fan of romantic comedy full of heart and emotion, I highly recommend it.

What seems like an easy light read, but gives you so much more depth.

I enjoyed this book for many reasons, it does start off as a fun rom com, but as you read more the world and the depth of the characters (Violet) really click. The craziness with Violet and Sam her ex, are crazy, but the heart fulling Dez makes up for all of it. I enjoyed the "Dear Sweetie" columns a lot, they really made the book for me.

Unfortunately, my Netgalley download expired when I was less than 10 chapters from the end of this book.

However, I loved the premise & meet cute of this novel. I loved the way Dez arrives on the scene of the novel. What really shone for me in this novel was not the romance between our main characters, but the relationship that Violet has with the side characters; Kyra, her mom, etc.

This was a cute but emotional rom com. I loved the dear sweetie advice column, I loved watching Violet become stronger through out the book and learn to be a bad ass that doesn’t take shit from anyone. Des was oh so dreamy and I loved how he helped Violet so much on her journey to healing.

Unfortunately, this one wasn't for me. While I absolutely adored Hubscher's last novel, this one just didn't hit for me the way that I had hoped it would.

Ultimately, I DNFd this one. the narrative style and voice just weren’t for me and I couldn’t connect to the main character. I felt like way too much was happening way too fast in the first couple of chapters so it was hard for me to enjoy.

After reading and absolutely loving Meet Me in Paradise, I had such high hopes for this one. However, it feel just a bit flat for me.

I was not a very big fan of the MC. On top of that, the romance felt a bit instalove, which is just not for me.

It was a pretty quick and enjoyable read, and I will definitely be reading Hubscher's next book!

This is a quick read with a sweet romance. However for two people who meet recently to fall in love so quickly seemed a little unbelievable. I really liked the advice column responses from Sweetie as they were so hilarious. Dez is very likeable and it was nice to see him give Violet space to figure stuff out. I’d recommend this.

Violet's advice column rapidly changes once she is betrayed by her husband and things in her life start getting really interesting. This was a fun, quick read - and the advice that Violet gives out is hilarious! My favorite part has to be the character growth throughout If You Ask Me! Violet is a on a rollercoaster ride, and it is enjoyable to be on this journey with her as she figures out what she wants and who she is!

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and author Libby Hubscher for this digital review copy for me to read and enjoy. As always, my reviews are voluntary and my opinions are my own.

Dear BookReviewer,

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵? 𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵?

Sincerely,
𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴

Dear Readers,

This book is about Violet Covington, the woman behind the locally popular “Dear Sweetie” advice column. Violet discovers her husband is a no-good lying cheater and responds by burning his stuff on the front lawn. Fortunately, a hot firefighter shows up to extinguish the fire, and a different set of sparks fly for Violet.

Reeling from her husband’s betrayal and some potentially positive job news, Violet goes a bit rogue and posts a few columns that raise a few eyebrows and get her in hot water. Fortunately, the book is out today, and you get to read what happens next!

Sincerely,
𝘈𝘕𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘔𝘺𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬
BookReader

📰Ever since Stella got her groove back, I have always enjoyed stories of getting revenge, especially when the payback comes in the form of self-discovery and personal growth. And while this book has several funny moments, Violet carries the pain of infertility and miscarriage, alcoholism, and often lets others take advantage of her.

The romance aspect of the book is sweet, and I adored Dez, the handsome firefighter. I could relate to Stella’s struggles with her feelings for Dez while also learning to confront her fears.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!
If you ask me is a cute story that was an easy read and did a good job of keeping me entertained. However, very little time has passed since I read it and it was not memorable enough for me. I had to go back and read the synopsis to spark a memory because I had already forgotten all about it. It honestly was just ok for me
Thank your for the advanced opportunity to read this book

libby hubscher could publish a book with no words and i’d buy it and say it’s the best book in the world. i love anything and everything that she writes

I enjoy Hubscher's writing style and thought she wrote about fertility struggles with care and respect. Violet has a redeemable character arc but I found her spirals and self-destruction to be overly dramatic at times and hard to read, though that may have been the point. Dez was a great character and I wish we had gotten more of him or even his point of view. Overall I liked this book but Meet Me in Paradise remains my favorite of her novels.

In If You Ask Me, Violet is going through a tough part of her life- she just found out her husband of 12 years is cheating on her. She’s dealing with infidelity, infertility and now she’s drinking pretty heavily as a coping mechanism. She meets Dez, a hot firefighter when she’s burning her ex husband’s clothes on the front lawn and it gets out of hand. (This remind’s me of that episode of friends!) Dez catches Violet’s eye, but

Violet is an advice columnist for the local paper and normally gives out good suggestions to her readers. But after find out about Sam, she begins to dole out more “tough love” advice. Some readers love the new Violet, some miss the polished, thoughtful Violet.

This book is less of the romance and more of the life crisis that Violet is forced to deal with. Things happen out of your control and there’s nothing you can really do about it, but roll with the punches. I liked that after floundering a little, Violet was able to pull it together and move on with hunky Dez. I laughed out loud at parts and really felt for Violet as she worked through her issues.

Thank you so much to @berkleyromance and @libbyhubscher for my gifted ebook. If You Ask Me is on sale now!

This was an easy, light read but in some ways I feel like 3 stars is a stretch. Dez was so easy to love but it all just felt way too fast, and the story only scratched at the surface of so many deeper topics that never got explored. It just wasn't believable that she could go from burning her husband's stuff after finding out he cheated on her to insta love like, literally, the next day. Her depression and processing of it all was never truly dealt with and Dez's past so was so breezily discussed it also felt like a missed opportunity to add some layers to him. I just wish there was more to both of them and their journey.

I wanted to love this one. I wanted to so bad. It's not a bad book by any means. I can see why a lot of people have given it 5 stars and love it. But for me, there was one really big thing that bothered me:

I found out I'm really not a fan of advice column plots. It was preachy. It was obnoxious.

I did like Dez - he seemed to be a strong character who went for what he wanted, but also knew to back off when appropriate.
I also really like how this author weaves in difficult and real topics. I really enjoyed her first novel and will absolutely be checking out her next book. This one wasn't a hit for me, but I still enjoyed her overall writing style.

*Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my eARC in exchange for my honest review.*

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book I’m exchange for my honest opinion.

*Slight spoilers ahead.*

This book was cute! And a quick read for me. I loved that Violet felt real in her response to her husband cheating on her. She does some poorly chosen things, she starts to spiral. She tried to hide her separation because she’s ashamed, and it broke my heart to see what she thought of herself, simply because that’s how her husband treated her. I love that she stood up for herself later on, and that Dez loved her because of her messy parts, not in spite of. A very cute, fun, and quick read.