deeply emotional journey, captivated me from the description. it was a slow start and sadly i did dnf this, but as i’ve read so many other reviews of people raving about it i think i might just pick this up again! cover is phenomenal and description drew me in.

What a sweet, cute, but also serious rom com. I love a second chance romance and this one had more weight behind it that I think was handled very well. I loved getting to see Matty overcome his addiction and try to show Keelie how he has grown.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Thanks to FoxGlove and NetGalley for this book for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This review may also be posted on Goodreads & Instagram.

Before anything else, I think it’s important to look up trigger warnings if you’re thinking of giving this one a read. This book can be quite heavy at times, so make sure that this book is good for you!

This book was a lot different than I thought it would be! I expected a typical, cute, second chance romance - but this book had DEPTH. This book discussed many serious topics, including mental health and addiction. Although it could be a lot, it was written and portrayed in a great way & helped push the plot & character development along.

This book was kind of a slow start to me, but once I got into it I was so deeply invested in Matty’s sobriety & relationship with Keelie. I was rooting for Matty the whole time. Matty & Keelie’s relationship had a much different dynamic than most romances I read, but the extra layers & depth made it even easier for me to get attached to.

My biggest, & basically only, complaint about this book is that there were quite a few handfuls of characters & I had moments where I struggled to keep each character’s relationship to the protagonist straight. I adored many of the side characters, especially Matty’s nieces, but it got overwhelming at times.

Overall, this is definitely a book I recommend. It’s first person, which is my favorite, & written so well. I really enjoyed reading a book that had romance but also focused on so many other things as well, not just the romantic relationship.

I seriously loved this very honest and fresh take on a second chance at love.

Matty and Keelie’s love story was cut short thirteen years ago and a wedding gives them the opportunity for a second chance at love.

The story explores addiction in a brutally honest way. It’s not a hearts and flowers love story but that makes it even better.

Matty is an addict. Keelie had enough after a couple of relapses and left him. The book starts with Matty at his lowest, still in love with Keelie and taking more and more pills to numb himself from feeling her loss three years later. His parents have had enough; his brother Chris arrives to help him detox, and with no other choice, Matty goes with him.

This book is raw, emotional, and real. While I don’t have personal experience with addiction, I’ve seen loved ones struggle and I thought this book did a great job in illustrating the internal dialogue I’d imagine one to struggle with when fighting back against their addiction. I really appreciated the inclusion of a therapist to help Matty talk through these thoughts and how to combat and reframe them.

I’ve never read a book like this one before. There’s second chance romance, yes, but it’s centered around a much bigger problem (opiate addiction) than simply their pairing. I also enjoyed the flashbacks to their past, and how the experience with Keelie’s father impacted them as well.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
As someone with bipolar disorder, it can be troubling to see some fictional portrayals of the illness, but I actually appreciated how it was dealt with in this book. I especially appreciate the parts where medication was discussed in relation to the father’s disorder, and specifically how his ultimate demise was a result of lack of medication, and the dichotomy between his experience with the disorder and Emmy’s experience later on. While it’s never confirmed Emmy was diagnosed, it was speculated by the characters and mentioned that she was being evaluated. This paired with the authors intent on highlighting her thriving life at the end of the book really struck a chord with me and I am so grateful for this portrayal as well, as bipolar disorder can absolutely be managed with medication and therapy (which is also explicitly mentioned by the characters in the book in contrast to their dad’s refusal to take medication).

I will absolutely keep my eye out for more from this author in the future!

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t it for me. I was hoping this would be a book that had a fair representation for mental health… and it didn’t.

"The phantom taste pricks the back of my throat. It infiltrates my life, even now. In this moment, when I have everything I've ever wanted, oxy slithers its way in, reminding me that one pill can make me feel this way and more. But I don't want more. I have everything I want right here."

thank you so much NetGalley, Foxglove Publishing, and Kelly Piazza for the arc!!

truly unlike anything i've ever read before. i actually started talking to my mom about this one because she found it just as interesting as i do. don't go into this searching for an easy, from the get-go love story. in the beginning and throughout the book, it does flashback into the past, showing what matty and keelie once were, but other than his longing for her the main focus is getting over his addiction.

honestly, getting into this book wasn't insanely easy only because i didn't see how i could be so sympathetic for someone i had no idea about. how much that changed mind blows me. the intro gets straight to the point and shows you how absolutely terrible and far gone his life is. when things start to change, you begin to have hope, but knowing how he feels and what he's thinking shows how hard it is to just stop.

it's understandable how he gets to that point in life. and once he was there, him and i both weren't sure there was any point in return. i was scared for him and the people around him. you see what he's gone through and how drugs are the only thing that keep him close to happy. one thing i will say is, be open-minded. you really never know how things can change.

going further into detail about what happens after that point in the story will kind of spoil it, but it's so worth it to find out. it was a little slow for me, but it totally added to the affect of being in his situation. matty's story is something i can only hope will help those struggling with addictions of their own or have in the past. he really loves keelie and u get to love her too. just wait to see what goes down at the wedding. time flies by after that, and kelly's book really blooms into something beautiful and touching.

the people around him become so extremely important to him. actually finding a reason to keep going was very tough, and he wouldn't even have gotten the chance to think about it if the family and friends who still love him kept trying. each of them and their meanings to him is so cute to see and learn about. proud of all of them, although what matty does repeatedly was heartbreaking.

addictiveness: 4.75/5
sadness: 4.5/5
characters: 5/5
setting: 4.25/5
plot: 5/5
plot execution: 4.75/5
writing: 5/5
romance: 4/5
comedy/banter: 3.75/5
smut: 3.5/5 (towards the end and through flashbacks, but not like insanely descriptive or anything just sweet and short)

overall: 4/5 easily tops most the advance reader copies i've been approved for. so glad to have gotten the chance to read this

It took me about three weeks to finish this book, but it has nothing to do with the book itself but with me. It's such an emotional story, very raw and quite graphic when it comes to dealing with addiction, depression and recovery. It made me feel so many things that I genuinely had to take long breaks while reading it.

It's such a good debut novel, I enjoyed the writing immensely - it's smart, emotional and so beautiful. The dialogues are quite good as well.

The characters have depth and I think they are very well built. I love second chance romances, and even if this book focuses more on Matty's recovery, I felt the romance, their chemistry, their love.
I'm not a fan of alternate timelines, but my god, in this particular instance they worked perfectly. Having the present showing Matty's struggles, but also the past, documenting Matty and Keelie's relationship was extremely well done.

Congrats to the author for building and telling such a good story. Kelly Piazza is definitely on my radar now.

Having a family member with dependencies and mental health issues is draining and unsettling. Reading about Matt’s and his struggles felt so close to home. He was very lucky to have a brother and a supportive circle who saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Not every person has that or the willingness to want a future. This must have been a cathartic story to write … done with love and passion for life.

Matty has my heart! I just wanted to reach through my Kindle and give him a giant hug. Kelly does a fantastic job of showing the ins and outs of recovering from an opiate addiction. She not only shows the physical side of it, but the emotional side of it as well. She also shows how it doesn't just affect the person who is addicted to opiates but also how it affects family, friends, significant others, and more. Keelie did the right thing, which was leaving Matty so she didn't continue to enable him. I'm sure it wasn't easy for her, and you can tell how emotional it was. I liked that Matty gets a chance to redeem himself with his family and friends, and that he was invited to the wedding to be the best man. Kelly also shows how undiagnosed mental illness can often lead to addiction through the depression and anxiety. Everyone from Keelie's dad to Matty's brother plays a role on his journey, and I really enjoyed following his journey. Thank you to the publisher for giving me a chance to read a digital ARC of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Foxglove for sending me an ARC of this book.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this one. I feel that I am not in a well enough state mentally to read this right now. I will be coming back to it. I thoroughly enjoyed what I read but this isn’t one I can handle right now.

This book was read thanks NetGalley.

OMG WHAT A BOOK, first I want to say that this book may trigger you if you have a problem with reading about addictions and substance abuse, this book may not be for you, because the book doesn't center on romance, but most is how addictions affect people's live and how it affects people around you, and how after overcome an addiction is hard and how it makes people's trust on you disappears.,

It's a nice book. if it's on your possibility give it a shot.

What an absolutely beautiful story about second chances and forgiveness. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and I look forward to future books from the author!

4/5: This was definitely not what I was expecting or a typical romance. The first half of this book is focused on Matt's addiction and it was HARD to read. I found myself just wanting to reach into the book and shake him for making poor decision after poor decision. We see the background of Matty and Keelie's relationship through flashbacks, but you're really just watching him screw it all up. The second half of the book focuses more Matty trying to recover everything he has destroyed, which is where we get more of the typical romance story. The flashbacks made me really invested in the friends and family, and I was absolutely rooting for Matty by the end. I found the Italian somewhat distracting after awhile, but I get what Piazza was trying to do.

Thank you to Natgalley and Foxglove Publishing for an arc!

DOT was realistic in a gut-wrenching way. I had read books about recovering addicts before but Piazza gave me a whole new perspective and I appreciated every page.

I loved how the recovery centered on family and the support you get from your kin, it removes the icky feelings of "why does a woman have to bear the load of a man's recovery" and changes it up a little, which I always appreciate in romance like DOT.

I also loved the big cast and how every friend really cared for Matty. I adored the scenes with the nieces because I've got a lot of nieces and nephews and those little gremlins can save you, that's for sure. I think this is a treasure of a book. If you love romance that's nuanced and speaks of uncomfortable topics in a well-balanced way: pick it up.

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
SPICE: 🌶/5
TRIGGER WARNINGS: addiction, drug abuse, withdraws, depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, panic disorder and death of a parent due to suicide
INCLUDES: second chance

This is book is not something I would have normally picked out to read but I'm really thankful that I had the opportunity to read this story. Although this is a romance book, to me it's not heavy on the romance which I was missing at the beginning of the book but understood when I finished why it wasn't the highlight of the book.

I've never read a book that focuses so highly on battling addiction and I learned so much on how not only it affects the individual but the people they surround themselves with. You get to see every detail of the main character battling his addiction in flashbacks to the past as well as in the present in such raw and honest way.

The first half of the book goes from the present and flashbacks that highlight Matty's battle with addiction alongside how he shatters relationships with his family and ex girlfriend. Although he's hurt them, no one on his side has ever gave up on him which was so beautiful to see. Matty's story felt so realistic through the good and bad parts and didn't sugarcoat to make his journey seem easy.

I really thought that I wasn't going to like the book halfway because there wasn't so much romance but you're quick to find out that even if it's not explicitly stated, it's there. From learning about everything Keelie did for him and how a picture frame of them two is an anchor for Matty to keep going, it's a true second chance romance.

I'm so thankful I got introduced to this book because it told me such an important story and I can't wait to read whatever this author makes in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and Foxglove Publishing for choosing me for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own ☀️

4.5 ⭐️

I’d like to start by saying thank you to NetGalley and Foxglove Publishing for the eARC.

I first heard about this book on a romance writers Facebook group. Kelly was asking for opinions on a cover. Nearly every response was something along the lines of “why are the pills in such strong focus, it should be about the couple.” I had such respect for Kelly standing up for her story and defending WHY the pills were so important.

Don’t Overthink This is a love story, not just a romance. Of course, you are rooting for the main characters to get back together and rekindle their decade long romance, but the story is so much more than that. It’s about the love of family and friends and the redemption that comes when you stop putting yourself first and accept the love that is being given to you.

This book does not read as a debut novel. The writing is beautiful and the story is expertly crafted. I definitely cried for the last ~30% of this book and it singlehandedly pulled me from a reading slump. This book is IT, guys. The message is important and the characters are incredible.

Out everywhere as of 4.19, so please pick this one up.

I gave this book a 4.5 stars because Kelly did an amazing job at telling such an important and heavy story in not only an engaging way, but an educational way too!

This isn’t just a romance; it’s a harrowing tale of one man’s struggle with addiction, and the affects it’s had on his life.

There’s two parts to this story. Part One tells the history of Matty Arvali, a young man who found a love for pills in his teen years. It furthers on to detail how he works to get sober (hopefully) one last time. We learn of his relationship with his family and friends, and the love of his life, Keelie through various memories Matty shares, and flashbacks.

Fast forward five months from the book’s start point, and Matty is invited to a wedding for his best friend Josh, and his fiancee Jess.

Part Two shares Matty’s experience in battling sobriety on his own for the first time, in a foreign city, with old friends…and Keelie and her new boo, Logan! This part we get to hear a lot more dialogue surrounding Matty’s internal struggles with facing his past, and owning up to mistakes made while under the influence. We also get to watch a love rekindle 🥲🥹
This story is written so beautifully, and truly showcases the every-day battles faced by addicts trying to recover. It is raw, it feels real, and it will rip your heart out at points!
But, the happy ending is really one I think everyone struggling with mental health should read - because it’s a fantastic depiction of how surrounding yourself with the proper love and support can help you flourish personally / on your own 💖

This is out now, and I absolutely recommend it soooo go pick it up when you can!! 🙈 lol

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I received an ac for this book. Thank you net galley ! This was an original story. I’ve never read anything like this before. Recovering addicts , second chance at love. This book is real and different from what I’ve read before. Realistic, sad and happy. Such a good book. Check TW

Don’t Overthink This tugged on my heartstrings HARD. It’s raw, emotional and honest, and an unbelievable debut novel that broke my heart and glued it back together again. 💔

Let me preface my review by saying that you shouldn’t go into this thinking it’s a fun, lighthearted second-chance romance; there’s certainly a love story involved, but it’s a pretty heavy read overall and I personally wouldn’t call it a romance novel.

The story revolves around Matty Arvali, who’s fallen victim to drug abuse over the years, and in doing so, has forced his high-school sweetheart to cut ties with him, distanced himself from long-term friends, and brought great pain to his close-knit family.

The first half of the novel deals with Matty’s struggle to get sober after an intervention from his brother, peppered with flashbacks that reference how he got to where he is. The second half focuses on his ongoing battle to stay clean and regain his loved ones’ trust, after he’s presented with an opportunity to get his life back.

I think what struck me most was the amount of empathy we have for all the characters. Empathy for Matty’s loved ones, who’ve had to watch him deteriorate for years, and empathy for Matty himself, who’s shown to still be worthy of love and happiness even when he struggles to see it. And even in the moments Matty isn’t a great person and makes some poor decisions, it’s clear that the love his family and friends have for him is bursting at the seams.

As emotional as the story is — it has more than its fair share of heavy content — there are enough lighter, funny moments that it doesn’t feel overbearingly intense, and you just can’t help but root for Matty throughout.

Don’t Overthink This is a story of empathy, second chances, and a reminder that giving up on yourself only works when everyone else has given up on you too. And the likelihood is, your loved ones never will. ❤️

Released on 19th April 2022.

Thanks to Foxglove Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC!

Major content warnings for drug abuse, addiction, depression, anxiety, panic attacks and suicide.