The Rebound solidified for me that Catherine Walsh will be an auto-buy author for me from now on. I loved One Night by her and loved The Rebound as well. I can't wait to read the next work from her. This book is also set in Ireland and I just love the atmosphere that Walsh weaves in her books. I adored the small-town feel of Clonard and all of the town's inhabitants. Such a fun rom-com!

In The Rebound we follow Abby Reynolds and she is just plain down on her luck. She is newly single, homeless, and unemployed. She feels like she has hit rock bottom and so she decides the best place for her to go is back to her rural Irish hometown. She never felt she fit in in Clonard and hopes this stay is just temporary until she can get back on her feet.

Her luck seems to be taking a turn for the better when an extremely attractive man offers to give her a ride to her sister's after a mistake with the bus schedule. He seems like the perfect rebound to take her mind off of her less-than-perfect reality. However, the next day she finds out that this mysterious stranger is actually her childhood neighbor, Luke Bailey. Except this Luke Bailey is nothing like the awkward boy next door she remembers and to top it off he's known who she was the whole time. The problem is that everyone still thinks she's engaged to her ex and if she wants to be with Luke, she has to tell everyone the truth.

When Abby has to return home to Ireland from Manhattan having lost her her home, her job and her fiance in one fell swoop she feels a complete failure..... but can Luke the boy next door restore her faith in humanity? A lovely heartwarming book full of lighthearted fun and great characters making it a perfect beach read

This one was really cute, I enjoyed Abby's journey
rediscovering herself. Luke was such a nice guy and I loved their chemistry too!
I also really enjoyed seeing how Abby and Louise work on their relationship, it's always nice to have more than the love story!!
The setting was so pretty, I love small town stories and this one was no exception! I've never been to Ireland but it made me feel like I had!
Overall, a fun and warm romcom that I would definitely recommend!
Thank you to the author, Netgalley and Bookouture for an eARC of this book in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Abby thought things were bad when her fiancée broke off their engagement. When they got worse, and she lost her job, she had nothing to do but return home to Ireland to live with her not so loving sister and her brother in law. Arriving at the bus station with no ride in sight, a handsome and friendly man offers to drive her “home”. What unfolds is a rollercoaster journey of Abby reconnecting, disconnecting, and reinventing herself as she rebounds in more ways than one.

Favorite Quotes:

Louise works for the Irish Oceans Association, a charity dedicated to the conservation and protection of our waters. A few Christmases ago, she gave me a certificate informing me I’d adopted a whale. The year before that it was an eel, so I like to think I’m slowly moving up in the marine world.

You know… You pretend you’re super boring but you’ve always got some little drama happening, don’t you? It’s like the time you told me you had a migraine all weekend but really you’d gone to Aspen with that Hollister model from reception.

“I tend to follow others,” she says. “Everyone thinks I’m a free spirit but I’m not. I’m a barnacle. I latch onto people. If people were boats,” she clarifies.

“How’s your moping?” Tomasz lingers in the doorway of my bedroom the next day, eating an apple. “Going well? It looks like you’re really getting the hang of it.”

My Review:

Catherine Walsh took me to Ireland and made me smirk, sigh, and flinch with this one. Her characters were distinctly Irish and although her heroine, Abby, was not always likable and I actually wanted to smack her a few times, I was engaged and invested in the tale and had hope for her. The humor was clever and well-honed, as was the character development and their unique quirks and foibles. The romance was slow burn and a secondary thread to Abby’s long-standing family drama and career stress. While the pace and emotional tone meandered at times, the perceptive quality of Ms. Walsh’s writing and her amusing wit kept me entertained, involved, and interested in the outcome.

There's something about books set in the UK (or in this case, Ireland) that just make me love them from the first few pages. Maybe I'm living in the wrong place or something, I don't know. An author that can transport me to the countryside in one of these countries just wins me right over. Abby's return to her very small village after her company imploding and losing everything (apartment, fiance, job, investments) was a great start to this story about starting over and reconnecting with the past. I loved a lot of the side characters, the setting and small-town events (so fun), and ultimately, the way this story resolved. It might not be a book that stays with me forever, but I enjoyed it immensely while reading. Fans of Sophie Kinsella (which I am not, overall)/Mhairi McFarlane would likely enjoy as well :)

I found The Rebound to be unexpected. I was anticipating more of a rom-com. This is a situation where the cartoon covers sometimes lead me astray. That said, I still enjoyed this book. It did have some humor tucked in, but it also had some heartbreak. My favorite thing though was the uniquely clever "meet cute" between the two main characters in the beginning of the book.

As the storyline continues, you quickly find out that things aren't at all what they appear to be. The main character, Abby is in for many surprises as she tries to navigate her way around her hometown in Ireland. Things have definitely changed since she's been in New York. Her life isn't what people think it is either. She's having a difficult time coming clean about the breakup with her fiancee and loss of her job.

It's a good lesson about not judging people and situations too quickly.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Abby Reynolds lost her fancy NY job, fiancé, and apartment in the span of a couple weeks, so she's headed back to Ireland to stay with her sister (who she's not really close to). She catches a ride into town with Luke, the childhood friend who grew up to be very cute... and she tries to sort her life out. I thought this was a cute, easy read! Figuring your life out in a cute Ireland town, there could be worse ways!
*arc provided by netgalley for honest review

I read Catherine's first book one night only which was amazing and the rebound delivered again. Had the standard happy ever after like these books have but what I loved the most was abby and her sisters relationship and how it changes through the book.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read this!!!!!
I adored this book.
Would recommend it to anyone that enjoys romance, humour, light romcoms and a rural Irish backdrop - which absolutely made it for me to be honest.
Abby is that girl - like I know her. We all know an Abby.
She is a friend of ours from school that is trying to get over a heartbreak in the way we are always told works - "get under someone to get over someone"
Can't recommend this one enough!!!!

I really enjoyed this one! It was cute & charming, with the right balance of funny and sweet. I like that while there is romance, it also focuses on family, friendship and starting over. I'll definitely check out other books by this author.

This was a great little read. I probably wouldn’t read it again or request another title like this,but this was a nice fast read.

I really enjoyed this one ! It was cute & charming, with the right balance of funny and sweet. I like that while there is romance, it also focuses on family, friendship and starting over. I'll definitely check out the author's other work !

3.5 stars. This was a fun & cute read. It was good but it’s not one that will really stick with me. I didn’t get attached to the characters and thought the story was slow at times. It was still enjoyable and I can see this one being a hit for a lot of readers.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this but felt it was a bit long winded in places. It’s very predictable from the first page but it’s still an enjoyable read! Good characters who you want to have a happy ending!

The company Abby works for has just very publicly gone under, she's lost her apartment, her fiancè has broken up with her and now she's forced to return to Ireland to live with the sister she doesn't get along with. What she also didn't expect was to run into her childhood friend, her now very manly, very sexy childhood friend Luke.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with this book but there also wasn't anything that made it stand out either. There was the flirtatious banter, the pesky obstacles to the MC's getting together and a host of loveable side characters which made for a cute, easy read which I enjoyed but wasn't wowed by.

This was a genuinely hilarious laugh out loud funny story. I’d definitely recommend this to everyone. Such a pleasure to read.

Title: The Rebound
Author: Catherine Walsh

Brief Synopsis: Abby is headed back home to Ireland after losing her job and ending things with her fiancée in Manhattan. She never wanted to come back to Ireland, but here she is. As soon as she lands, she makes her way to the bus area. She discovers that the busses no longer run regularly to her hometown. As she tries to find a ride home, she runs into the dashingly handsome Luke who offers her a ride home. She agrees, he’s the perfect rebound. The next day she wakes up and realizes that she and Luke went to school together and played together as kids, and that he lives next door. Abby thinks hooking up with Luke is just what she needs to get over her fiancée. Except there is a wrinkle, she has not told her family that she has ended things with her fiancée. Can she come clean with her family? Should she hook up with Luke on the downlow?

My Thoughts: This cute Rom-Com was fun and made me want to travel to the Irish countryside. Abby’s struggle with finding a job is something I can relate to and I know how difficult it is to move home unexpectedly. I would recommend this book if you like your books low on the spice level, has characters that you can relate to, or want to travel to the irish countryside.

This book was so cute and a fun read. I read the author’s debut when it was released and I absolutely loved it. I was scared that this was not as good, but I really enjoyed the plot and the characters. Luke was the perfect hero and I kind of want him for myself. The dynamic between Abby and Louise was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time

Suddenly single, jobless and homeless Abby Reynolds finds herself on the first plane back to Ireland. Having spent her childhood doing everything in her power to leave this tiny village where everyone knows your business and nothing exciting ever happens, Abby is on her sister Louise’s doorstep of their once childhood home that she hasn’t seen in years. Instantly at odds with each other, as usual, she wakes the next morning instructed they are having guests for lunch. When the very handsome man who gave her a ride - and she may have flirted with - shows up she is oddly speechless. Standing there is Luke Bailey, the boy next door who most certainly is not a little boy any more. Instantly turning all shades of red and furious why no-one mentioned that Luke grew up into an absolutely gorgeous, sexy man. Needing these next few weeks to find a new job and get over her ex Abby works hard to be civil with her sister and ignore the electrical sparks she feels whenever Luke is around. This town may not be New York City and Abby won’t be wearing any of her fancy corporate clothes but it doesn’t take long to start to feel at home again. Digging deep to find out what this next chapter has in store brings heartwarming surprises and sisterly love. Give me a romcom with an Irish brogue and I am quickly swooning.