Second chance love stories are the best, and Built to Last is no exception to this rule! The story introduces us to Shelby and Cameron, former child stars who are now all grown-up. Erin Hahn does a great job adding depth to these characters and showing us what's behind the glitz, glamour, and hard falls of child stardom. Shelby and Cameron are both likeable characters and I was eager to learn more about what makes each of them tick and how that affects their ability to connect with each other. This book had me laughing and rooting for the underdogs. If you're looking for a funny, sweet, quick read, Built to Last is for you!

For me, the highlight of this romance was Shelby Springfield's relationship with quality vintage furniture and her ability to make it shine. A former child star who has retreated from the world after a messy breakup with her co-star Lyle Jessup, she is sucked into a new opportunity assisting her other co-star Cameron Riggs in a home renovation tv show.
Lyle did not put Cameron and Shelby together out of the kindness of his heart, and it is little surprise when sparks fly between Cameron and Shelby. The two have a lot to work out from their past relationship--Cameron had walked out on Shelby, and he had some explaining to do!
Tapping into the American enthusiasm for home renovation shows, Erin Hahn created a fun world and plenty of opportunities for Shelby and Cameron to stand up for themselves and find their own path.

I thought this was a very sweet book. The characters and plot seemed different from the typical rom-com storyline. I felt like as I was getting towards 3/4 of the book there wasn't any true challenge for them. They had (what felt to me) minor challenges with Lyle and their parents but I kept waiting for something big to happen and it never came. In the end it just felt anticlimactic and kind of let me down as a reader.

This was the first book I have read by Erin Hahn.
I really enjoyed it. At first, I thought it might be a little silly, but the story jumped to present day and the characters were very well developed and realistic.
I related to Shelby and really enjoyed her friends and her relationship with Cameron.
The only thing I really thought was slightly far fetched was Cameron's job, how he went front being an actor to a National Geographic employee like a snap of your fingers.

I am hoping that Lorelia's story is next!
Thank you Net Galley for the ARC of this book.

I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good second-chance romance and believe me, this is a good one!

Set against a backdrop of farm country Michigan and a home renovation show, Shelby and Cameron are brought back together after years apart. These former child stars spent the last five years growing and learning and healing and now they're thrust back together to do a reality TV show.

Shelby and Cameron are wonderful characters! They're flawed and confused and emotional and human. The whole cast is great, really. I love Lorelai and I can't wait to see where her story takes her. And Kevin is hilarious. I could do without Lyle and Ada Mae but I guess there are always antagonists...

The pacing is perfect. We're able to see how they've grown separately but still have more work to do. And then we get to watch as they learn to do that work together. There are some steamy bits, too, if that's your thing ;-)

This story captures all the heart of Ben & Erin from Hometown, the sense of community and belonging. I want a book nook exactly like the one Shelby restores. It's a beautiful story from every angle and a lovely feel-good read. I highly recommend it!

I was absolutely giddy the entire time reading this book. Erin Hahn is a master at creating characters that come completely alive. This is a pretty quick read but the plot does not suffer at all; in fact, I’d say the pacing was perfect and the plot twists were never predictable. This was definitely a 5/5 star read for me.

✨Book Review✨

Title: Built to Last by Erin Hahn

Pub date: October 2022

Rating: 5🌟

Okay booksta babes, drop what you are doing and mark your calendars for October because you all need to read Built to Last by @erinhahn_author! I just finished the eARC courtesy of @netgalley and @stmartinspress @smpromance and I’m honestly about to start re-reading again it right now. If you loved When In Rome by @sarahadams and Maggie Moves On by @scorelucy, this release needs to be your next pre-order immediately!

Shelby is a former child star who survived that former life as well as losing her first love Cameron and then a very public breakup with her fellow co-star Lyle at 22. Fast forward 5 years later and she’s picked up the pieces of her life and heart and started a successful furniture restoration business and flips houses with her father. Cameron went on to college and then to become a documentary producer with National Geographic and Lyle went on to continue being a troublemaker in Hollywood. Shelby and her Dad are then tapped for a new home renovation show called HomeMade but things get interesting when the network feels her Dad isn’t the right fit and they reach out to Cameron to fill the co-host role they are looking for, much at Lyle’s conniving request. Cameron comes back to Michigan to give it a shot because he can’t ever seem to stay away from Shelby. The story follows from there with Cam and Shelby shooting the pilot episode while dodging their past, their current feelings, and many toxic digs from Lyle.

This book sucked me in from the start and fellow romance readers are going to swoon just like I did, while simultaneously wishing bad things for Lyle 😜. It’s a second (or third?!) chance at love trope that we all know and love and will have readers falling in love instantly too. And praying for a sequel! Like immediately please @erinhahn_author!

Thank you so much @netgalley & @stmartinspress @smpromance for the chance to read this story ❤️

second chance childhood sweetheart stories are my greatest weakness, so i was beyond eager to pick this up.

the chemistry between shelby and cam is really well done. every interaction they have is believable and feels genuine. i really enjoyed their banter and appreciated how their relationship developed. i was more than rooting for them and their home renovation show to work out.

so while this more than delivers with the second chance trope, im so bummed out that the childhood sweethearts aspect took a back seat. i would have loved to have more flashback scenes. other than quick references, i think theres maybe like one and a half actual flashback scenes total throughout the entire book. and, because of this, it creates a lot of miss opportunities for character development, growth, and connection.

but even though this may not have lived up to all of my expectations or wants, this is still a decently sweet story with a lot of heart. perfect for readers who are obsessed with home renovations shows!

This has all the fun, sweet elements I wanted in a book, so cute! I’d definitely recommend it to my family and friends.

I am finding out that I really love second chance books, so I was very excited to read this one!

I loved the relationship between Shelby and Cam - they were so adorable! The development of their relationship was on point and it just sucked me in and made me want to read more and more. I finished this book so quickly.

This was my first book from this author and won't be my last.

This was a super unique romance! I liked reading a story about former child actors. And the home renovation storyline was interesting too! My only complaint is that the reasons the love interests weren’t together for the first part of the book felt flimsy at times? But overall, a cute read! I hope the author does a book about Lorelai’s story next!

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!!

Thank you NetGalley, Erin Hahn and St. Martin's Press for the ARC Built to Last. This is my personal review.
I loved every word of this great book! The author made me really like Shelby and Cameron. I loved the chemistry between them and could feel it jump off the page as I read.
Friends to lovers stories are one of my favorites and this is one I can read over and over for years to come.
I read this book in one day and so glad I spent the day with everyone in the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an arc of this book. I’m gonging to start off by saying that this book was a breath of fresh air. I went into it a little scared of how they would handle the situation between the characters but was pleasantly surprised with how well the author managed it. I love second chance romances and books where the two MCs have to work together. The way the characters went from not having seen each other in years to friends to lovers was perfectly paced. They acted like actual adults and communicated with each other and were willing to be honest and depend on each other! Like I said, breath of fresh air!


Slight spoiler!
My absolute favorite thing about this was the lack of third act break up! I love that they were a team. I think that having the conflict be something they could fight together was great because it shows them as partners and more romances should do that instead of misunderstandings or having one of them screw up!


Anyway, to sum it up, this was a quick and refreshing read about two child actors who got out finding their way back to each other.

3.5 ⭐ rounding up to 4 because this was binge-read worthy, which is my favorite kind of read.

This was cute, and a perfect summer vacation read. I was nervous because I'd already recently read a child stars as adults trope as well as a home renovation trope so I didn't know if this would feel like a repeat. However it was very fresh and well done- bonus that it lends itself very well to a series that I'd definitely keep my eyes out for in the future. I'm off to go check out the author's backlist...
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Content cautions: Heads up there's quite a bit of lanague (f-word most pages kind of language if that bothers you) and two to three fairly steam scenes.

***
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley, however all opinions are honest and my own.

The book had such a great premise, but ultimately, it wasn't until the 79% mark that anything really happened. I also found that this book focused heavily on Cameron, almost in a role reversal to typical romance novels. Shelby, the FMC was grounded, confident, and secure in her new life away from Hollywood. Cameron was constantly on the run (sometimes literally), never wanting to make a mistake or let anyone down. It became sort of a refrain of his inner thoughts.

Once they were together sparks flew, but by then 80% of the book is over.

I was hoping for a cute second chance story with some home renovations thrown in, but this one fell short for me.

Also, a couple of grammar and detail errors. In one scene Shelby has a shirt with cut off sleeves and then she wipes her forehead with her (non-existent?) sleeve.

“She’s varnishing, looking gorgeous in her holey jeans and an old Clay Coolidge concert tee with the sleeves cut off.”

“ Shelby wipes her forehead with the back of her sleeve and puts her brush down,”

It was extremely well written unfortunately it wasn't my style. The author definitely has some talent and can't wait to read more from them. I rated it a 3 out of 5 stars for how well written it is.

Let me start off by saying this book was definitely cute! However, I think the summary provided a lot more potential than what the book was able to match up to.

I want to start off by talking about Shelby, who appears to want to come off as strong-willed, but rather comes across as the opposite. I found that most of her dialogue was rather cringe and insufferable to read, for a lack of better wording. On the other hand, Cameron didn't seem to have any personality or any depth or character development outside of his relationship with Shelby. I'd like to also say he feels very insta-lovey from the get-go, but since I'm reading a book to escape reality, I'll digress!

Personally, the writing style also wasn't for me. This is a personal qualm, however, and nothing of the writer's fault. I think the book had a lot of potential but it did redeem itself slightly with the promise of a cute ending.

Shelby and Cameron have known each other since they were little, growing up in the spotlight as childhood stars. Though they have been apart for almost 10 years, once they are thrown back into each other's lives, the chemistry is still there. Things get difficult with the world once again watching their romance bloom onscreen. Can they work through these trials to find their way together once and for all?

I really didn't like Shelby from the first meeting of her character, and it took a lot of effort to see beyond that and allow her character to grow in my mind. Cam seems like a good guy with a lot of other issues to still work through, but they are both changing.

I also would like to read a good contemp romance that isn't completely full of foul language. Some is usually fine, but it was extremely off-putting to have this amount of swearing and in this particular story.

I received a DRC from the publisher.

I want to thank St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'd give this book 3.5-4 starts. I really liked all of the characters in the story, including the two main characters, but I would have liked to see more about Cameron and Shelby when they were younger.

Cameron, Lyle, and Shelby grew up together starring on a tween show, <i>The World According to Jackson <i>. But, when it ended Cameron went off to college and eventually to make documentaries for National Geographic and Lyle and Shelby went on to date. Eventually, Lyle's breaks Shelby's heart and she decides to leave Hollywood behind.

Fast forward another five years and Shelby's found her niche, restoring furniture for her Dad's house flipping business. She's so good at it that she's had a home renovation show in the works, but when Lyle comes on as the shows producer things get a little chaotic.

I loved most of the characters in this book. Both Cameron and Shelby were well rounded people who had their own flaws and room to grow throughout the book. Their friends were all great, supportive and just pushy enough to get Cameron and Shelby out of their comfort zones.

You could feel the love that Cameron and Shelby had for one another from their first interaction and the missed communications between the two were so frustrating throughout the book. There were often times in the book where I found myself saying, "Just talk!!" so, I was definitely invested in the relationship.

I'd say the biggest reason I didn't LOVE this book is because I felt that the relationship between the two had already been built and we didn't get to see any of it. Besides one flashback near the beginning there wasn't a lot of exploration of Cameron and Shelby falling in love. The best way for me to describe is that it felt like I was reading part two of a Duet series, without having the chance to read part one. I also never understood the motivation for Lyle to act the way he did...

Overall, <i>Built to Last</i>, was a very well written book with characters you could connect to and root for. If you like second chance romances I'd definitely recommend this book.

Disney-like child stars meets HGTV meets second chance romance? And it’s dual POV?! Perfect premise!
Cam and Shelby just oozed chemistry and amazing dialogue. I loved how open and honest they were with each other after having dealt with years of miscommunication. It was super refreshing to read a romcom where the main characters aren’t torn apart by their dumb decisions, just torn by circumstances, which is very realistic.
I also thought Cam and Shelby’s respective friends added a lot to the book. Even though there were a lot of characters, each was fully fleshed out and added something to the story.
The song titles for the chapters was amazing! I even ended up making a Spotify playlist with all of the songs, because Erin Hahn clearly has great taste in music!
The novel did a great job at making me feel connected to Shelby and Cam from the first page, with me already being mad at Shelby on Cam’s behalf by page three! I felt that way the whole book.
While the writing felt a little off and clunky near the beginning, since this is an ARC, I’m hopeful those issues will be corrected with the published edition!