I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating = 3.5, rounded up to 4

"What's cool on him - his aloofness and self-contained personality - is perceived as cold on me. But I suppose you can't compare the two of us. Now when Deiss makes no effort at anything, and I feel like I never stop trying to get every little thing right."

Note to the author = Mia is my darling and my whole heart and could we possibly PLEASE get her romance?

I'd read "The Layover" by Lacie Waldon and thought that was pretty cute, if nothing groundbreaking, and I ultimately feel the same about "From the Jump." The novel follows our Main Girl, Liv, who tries hard to do everything she's supposed to do to have a good life. She's the epitome of a responsible adult, but she's not really happy. Luckily, she has a super close group of friends so, when her life starts to go a little crazy, she leans on them for support. In particular, she leans on her hot friend Lucas Deiss. I assume you can see where this is going.

The shining star of this novel was the friend relationships, which made it stand out from your run-of-the-mill contemporary romances. All of her friends, particularly my boy Mac, came alive on the page and you could tell how much they genuinely all loved each other. This book checks the "totally solid" boxes in basically every category: romance, plot, characters, humor, and writing. That said, I didn't really love it. I feel like Waldon is still hitting her stride as an author and I will absolutely keep reading her work, but this was very much an "I enjoyed it but will probably forget it pretty soon" type of read for me.

Totally unstructured thoughts below:
- Liv, who is a pretty self-contained character, strikes a great balance between being humorous and fun to read from and being painfully quirky. I liked her a lot and would like to see more characters like her in romance.
- The Black Moment in this novel is honestly a bit cheesy and I had a hard time buying into the heartbreak I was supposed to be feeling at the moment.
- There were some grammar and spelling issues, but I assume those will be addressed before the final release.

I really enjoyed From The Jump, a romantic comedy from author Lacie Waldon!

The two leads were so cute together, though super frustrating at the same time, haha! I love their banter and chemistry! Also the supporting characters were fun, except that one female villain towards the end was a bit much.

Overall a fun romantic comedy!

This book is about people who became friends in college . After college Liv ,who was not raised in the affluent homes the others had, has made herself “perfect” . She finally decides to be true to herself. Her life takes several twists and turns but the friends help each other. It was fun watching how she grew and how her relationship with Deiss progressed. I enjoyed this book.

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, I was provided an ARC of From the Jump by Lacie Waldon via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

*****Publishing July 19, 2022*****

From the Jump will transport you to South Africa as Liv decides enough is enough with saying yes to everything at work. When Liv receives another assignment she is not thrilled about, for the first time stands up to her boss and tells him No. After further conversations with her boss, Liv decides to use her 6 weeks of vacation she has saved up, so ends up joining her friends on a South African vacation. During this time she re-examines her life, will she be able to figure out what she needs in life to make herself happy again? This book will have you turning the pages to find out her fate!

A fun light read with likable charterers and a great story line! This book is perfect to take on vacation!

I was drawn to this book by the super cute cover but unfortunately I couldn’t get into it. Made it about 20% and decided to DNF. I definitely think this could be a great read for a lot of people but it just wasn’t for me.

The MC is your classic type-A, workaholic, rule follower and I am… not. So I had a hard time relating to and rooting for her. Not to mention the whole friend group’s dynamic was a little confusing. They were supposedly each other’s favorite people in the world but also felt weirdly distant from each other. The dialogue/ writing style fell short for me but I’m sure others could really enjoy this read!


Received this as an ARC from NetGalley.

I was very excited to read this because one of my friends really liked this one. I liked this one. It had a really good balance of romance, friendship, and finding ones self. This was a good plot, I liked the characters, and I never got bored. Overall a really good book that I would suggest.

This was really enjoyable! I really liked Liv's journey toward things that actually bring her joy and I liked the slow burn of Liv and Deiss's friends to lovers arc.

However, I thought the end was entirely too quick. Maybe I hold too much of a grudge, but Simone definitely would not have gotten off that easy with me.

Lacie Waldon's writing has impressed me once again, so I will definitely pick up her future works.

Thanks you to Putnam Books and NetGalley for an ARC to review.

Soooo 4.5 stars!! This was so romantic and a perfect vacation read! There was barely anything wrong about this book! I just wish it was a tiny bit more developed with Liz’s life. I understood what was going on, but some of it was confusing. Her friends, who she calls family, she only sees like once a month-stuff like that. I also wish the romance was also a bit more developed. It felt very forced…other than that, it was great. Friends to lovers is always an amazing trope.

From the jump is a cute, friends to lovers romance that is light hearted and a feel good read. I love the arc of all the characters and how much Liv and Deiss’s relationship develops throughout the book. One of my favorite things about this book is the fact that we get to see the friends develop into their own characters as well. There are not many books that allow the reader to see how the other characters come into their own. I really enjoyed seeing the friendships play out along with the main character, Liv.

This book was so cute, swoony, and romantic! I loved the friendships that this book gave!
It’s perfect for reading at the beach/poolside. Easy and lighthearted book and such a quick read, this book left me want more and wanting to know more about their relationship! Overall I think this was a very fun read and I definitely recommend it!

From the Jump was my first introduction to Lacie Waldon as an author, and it did not disappoint!

As a fan of women’s fiction, the genre can tend to be written following a cookie cutter recipe. While they manage to hit the spot more often than not, I have been left wanting just a little more depth. I loved that Lacie Waldon delivers depth by writing a character like Liv, who has had to endure many hardships throughout her life.

Growing up in a single parent household,
Liv, saw first hand what can happen when you rely on your appearance to get ahead in life. The mother and daughter bounced from living arrangement to living arrangement, and molded their personalities to fit the needs of those momentarily in their lives. As a result, the two of them were unable to authentically connect with others preventing healthy, honest relationships. Their entire lives were nothing more than facades.

It was heartbreaking having to watch Liv fade away as a result of trying to win the acceptance of others, especially men. She projected an image of having the picture perfect life- a healthy lifestyle, an established career, and group of friends who became her chosen family.

I loved the journey Liv is forced to go on throughout the book. She transforms from a type A personality stuck in her rigid ways, to a go with the flow girl who gets everything she has ever wanted. From the Jump proves that if you are willing to take the risk and make a change, you just might get your happily ever after! Especially if you allow others to see the side of you that is not so pretty.

Special thanks to NetGalley.com and Penguin Group Putnam for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest feedback!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded intriguing to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have
decided to stop reading this book.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

It was hard to connect to the main character, Liv -- the veneer of perfection that she projects throughout the first half of the book is obviously a trauma response to/coping mechanism for her chaotic childhood, but because of that veneer she lacked personality. The friend group was charming, but not every character was well-developed, and it was hard to understand some character's motivations for their actions throughout the story.

From The Jump
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 7/19/22
Author: Lacie Waldon
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Pages: 352
Goodreads Rating: 4.07

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for providing a digital copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: Liv Bakersfield is so overworked that she is about to miss yet another vacation with her beloved group of college friends. She says no straight into quitting her job and hopping on a plane to join them in South Africa. Such close proximity makes everything more complicated, especially with the emotionally unavailable Lucas Deiss. Their friendship is the only thing in her life that's still solid, and she vows to do anything she can to keep the group together. But once they get back to L.A., Liv discovers that her leap of faith has become a freefall, sending her crashing into Deiss's arms. Liv must decide between doing what she should … and risking everything for what she shouldn’t want.

My Thoughts: Love this friends to lovers trope. I did enjoy this book and while I know that this is fiction, I did not care for Simone’s betrayal and it was breezed over and there were no heart-to-heart scenarios and everything goes on as normal in the group, as if there was no betrayal. The characters are well developed with depth, chemistry, amazing banter between them, and loved the college friend themed message throughout the book. Liv and Deiss are likable, relatable, and realistic. The message of achieving happiness versus perfection was brilliant. The author’s writing was complex, creative, and intriguing, with the exception of the part mentioned above. Overall, I enjoyed this read and would only change that one snippet. I have Lacie Waldon’s first book in my Amazon Wishlist and will definitely be getting it sooner rather than later. I would definitely pick up other novels from this author in the future.

This was a cute read. I liked the main characters mostly, but some things happened that I think were glazed over. I wish there was more depth in each character and into this history they supposedly had, even though they knew nothing about one another.

I just couldn’t get into this one. Hoping to circle back around to it another time but I found myself not very interested from the beginning. Love the cover art though!

A quick summer rom com- slow burn romance, a quirky heroine who struggles to say "no" Overall there were some parts of the book that required suspending my belief for, uneven pacing, but the chemistry between the characters was good.

The friends are you chosen family troupe was great, but dang, Liv, pick better friends. I hated Simone. She really ruined the book for me. Also I needed more from Liv and Deiss. All in all it was an ok read but not a page turner

This wasn't quite my taste. I had a hard time liking the main character as she complained a lot and the plot didn't do it for me.

Lacie Waldon does it again! She takes you on an adventure, introduces you to fun and witty characters, and keeps you entertained throughout the whole book. From the Jump has a great cast of characters. While this book primarily focuses on the relationship between Liv and Lucas, you really become invested in all the characters and want to know where their stories will go. What I especially liked about this story was the dual timelines and the flashbacks that allowed me to see how this group of people became friends and solidified their relationships. Lucas Deiss was dreamy in a broody and mysterious way, loyal and unassuming, and the perfect friend to boyfriend material. I liked how we got to know his character throughout the story. Liv evolved well, too. At first she was a little uptight, but I thought she relaxed and developed at the right pace in the story. I didn't get annoyed with her and the book moved along nicely. Of course, I'm always wanting more at the end of a good book. I hope Lacie Waldon keeps writing more books that take you to amazing and exotic locations!

I would give this book 4.5/5 stars!