This was a cute, fun, cozy read to kick off the first of many lighthearted summer reads! Mara definitely had some things to learn over the course of the book, and while some of her actions made me want to shake her at times, I still enjoyed following her personal transformation throughout the book. The side characters and friendships highlighted in the book were fun and the perfect addition to the plot. The ending, without giving it away, was tied up perfectly and it helped redeem all of the moments where I wanted to shake some sense into Mara. Overall, I was rooting 100% for Mara along the way, as she worked on improving herself. I went into this one thinking it was a romance novel, but I would classify it more of a woman's fiction with hints of  romance.

Thank you to @netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Mara Williams is not where she thought she would be. She went to film school. She was supposed to e making movies. Instead, she is a bookkeeper for a community pool club that’s seen better days. She had moved to Broadgate to be closer to her best friend Charlie, but she got married and had a baby, and she just doesn’t have time to hang out with Mara much anymore. So when Mara suggested a girls’ trip to Budapest, Mara didn’t take long to say yes. But right before they were to leave, Charlie called her and had to cancel—the baby had been sick, and she just can’t leave her. So Mara went to Budapest alone.

After spending most of the trip by herself at the hotel, Mara finally forced herself to leave her room and finds herself wandering the streets. She stumbles across a small shop for a fortune teller, and she knows she’s right where she’s supposed to be. A longtime follower of her horoscope, Mara lives for those times that fate intervenes and tells her what to do. This is no different.

Mara was having a lovely reading, finding out that she was going to meet the love of her life imminently, and that she just needs to fix something, and then she will be ready for the relationship. And then her fortune teller went into labor. The woman rushes out to the hospital, and Mara promises to lock up for her. But just for a moment, Mara wonders what it would be like to be a fortune teller. She puts on the veil and some of the woman’s bracelets and looks at herself in the mirror. She’s about to put everything away and lock up as she promised when a man rushes in. Mara is about to tell him that there was a mistake, that the fortune teller is gone, but then she notices the obvious. He is gorgeous. He is imminent. He is her fate.

Mara tries reading his palm, trying to get more information about him. She learns that his name is Josef, he is a cellist with a traveling orchestra, and he’ll be in the UK later in the summer. Mara tells him that the love of his life is in the UK, and if he were to go to Broadgate on a certain Friday in August, to a local bar, that he will meet her there. She knows she’s taking a big risk, but she’s not ready yet. But she will be in August. She will fix everything, and Josef will be hers.

Mara goes back home to her new roommate Ash. He is a builder and a thoughtful roommate. But Mara’s mind is on other things. She has to fix something, and she knows exactly what it is. She needs to fix herself. She thinks about all the things she’ll need to do to become someone who Josef would date. She has friends at work who have offered her help in the past. Her friend Samira can help her find some new clothes that aren’t all black, and maybe she could recommend someone to do something with her hair. Then she’ll need to find a new job, and maybe Ash can help her fix up their apartment.

But then Mara finds out that the lido, the pool where she works, is getting set to close and be sold to someone to turn it into luxury apartments. Mara is concerned that she and her friends will be losing their jobs, especially since she’d been trying to come up with new ideas to bring in business since she got there. But her boss Gerry had turned them all down. But when Gerry announces that he’s going to London for a week, Mara and her coworkers see that they have a short window to try to breathe some new life into the lido.

Mara starts to transform herself with a new haircut and new clothes, but as she’s working on making the lido better, she wonders if that’s not what she’s supposed to be fixing. While getting word out to the community, she finds herself in a video store stocked with shelves and shelves of the movies she loves. She and Ash spend many happy nights on the sofa watching movies, while Mara makes more plans for herself and for the lido.

But the more she fixes in her own life, the more she wonders if Josef really is the one she was supposed to meet. She finds herself more and more drawn to Ash, but that makes her question everything she has ever believed about fate, about her horoscopes, about her future. As she faces her own battered self-image and the mistakes of her past, will Mara find her true fate, or will she let her best opportunity slip through her fingers?

The Setup is a fun romantic comedy about a woman who let life beat her down and found her way back up again. It’s sweet and heart-warming as Mara finds her way back to herself, and the characters are (mostly—I’m looking at you, Gerry) great people that are fun to hang out with. Author Lizzy Dent also wrote The Summer Job, which I loved, and is back with another celebration of summer and all its possibilities.

I really enjoyed The Setup. I’m not a big horoscope reader myself, but there have definitely been times in my life that I was looking outside of myself for signs of what to do. I’m sure some readers won’t like Mara’s dependence on astrology, but that didn’t bother me. I did find some of Mara’s self-punishment a little harsh and found it difficult to read some of those scenes where she was really beating herself up for past mistakes. But sticking with her and watching her heal was life-affirming and lovely, and it made me happy I stuck it out until the end. I do recommend The Setup, and I think it works well as a summer book. But be prepared for some deeper scenes also as Mara goes through her dark night of the soul.

Egalleys for The Setup were provided by G.P. Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley, with many thanks.

The Setup by Lizzy Dent

Rating: 4.5/5

Mara Williams takes a solo trip, and, like a movie, the stars align for her. When she stumbles into a psychic's shop, she is told that her true love is imminent - but she will need to work on improving herself before her great romance can begin. In walks Joe, a cellist in the Viennese Orchestra, for a palm reading - Mara convinces him that the love of his life will be waiting for him in a small waterfront town in England. Then, with an August deadline, Mara returns home to work on transforming herself into Joe's dream girl. Along the way, she finds newfound passion, style, and friends. Now it's time for her to decide if sacrificing her real, new life is worth the fantasy of a life with Joe.

Review: I loved this book. At first, I was not sure how I felt. I am not big into astrology/palm reading fan, so it was a little hard to relate to Mara during the first chapters. But then, as we are introduced to Mara and what really makes her tick, what makes her scared - I realized that she is maybe one of the most relatable characters I have come across in some time. Her journey of self-improvement was so enjoyable to watch, even if at times Mara felt unlikable, aren't we all sometimes unlikable. She was so wrapped up in this fantasy that she thought if she changed all these things about her, she would finally be happy and get her dream guy. Mara failed to recognize all the beautiful things she already had around her. A film student to a fault, she desperately wanted to make her glow up like the movies.

I can't say enough good things about the character development in this book... I haven't even talked about the romantic plot, which was adorable and perfect and real. Sometimes I think romance books get so wrapped up in this unattainable fantasy, and this book felt like it might be that way at first. This book was such a breath of fresh air, the beautiful, wonderful things right in front of us are sometimes better than the fantasies we invent for ourselves.

Lizzy Dent - thank you for this book. It was fun. It was aggravating. It was real. It was an absolute joy to fall in love with your characters. I will always go back to this one for a pick-me-up.

3.5 - The Setup has a fun premise, but I feel like it could have been executed a little differently to make it more plausible. It was hard to remember at times that Mara was 31 as she seemed more like someone in their early 20’s. It was a predictable plot, but overall enjoyable enough to finish. This would be a good fit for someone interested in astrology or who wants a quick summer read.

The cast of supporting characters and the setting of a small-town pool that held so much promise for a beautiful seaside town saved this for me. Mara was a tough character for me to like. The astrology and psychic stuff was a little too far out there for me and her relentless dedication to it made it difficult for me to root for her. I didn't feel much chemistry with Ash and I didn't understand how quickly his feelings blossomed for Mara. I loved the lido and how they banded together to save it though.

Mara Williams isn’t really happy with her life. Her one friend is busy being a new mom, and she's bored with her job at a community pool. She’s been in the coastal UK town of Broadgate for a couple of years, but still doesn't know anybody or feel like she fits in.

She’s unexpectedly solo on a trip to Budapest and when she stumbles upon a fortune teller, she can't help but pop in for a reading. Mara's whole life revolves around astrology. If her sign says it, it must be true. She hears a bit of her fortune before the fortune teller goes into labor and bails on her. Alone, Mara finds herself trying on the veil and when a handsome customer walks in, she takes fate into her hands and tells him that he will find his soulmate (her) back in her hometown and he should visit in August when he’s in the UK.

Once back home, Mara embarks on a makeover plan, getting a haircut, buying non-black clothes, and generally getting herself ready for Josef, her unsuspecting love interest. Beyond her personal makeover, she decides to get invested in the beach club she works in, so she bands together with her coworkers to rally the town to keep it open. But of course, the idea of fate and actual fate are two different things, Mara must decide if Josef is her destiny or the fulfilling life she's starting to build to get ready for him.

This book was fairly predictable and I didn't find myself connecting with Mara or really anyone else in the story. Everything felt a little 2D, and Mara was quite frankly not a character that I was rooting for. I enjoyed The Summer Job from Lizzy Dent and will give whatever she puts out next a shot, but this isn't one I'll be gushing about.

This one starts out with a zany situation: Mara believes heavily in fate, and when a fortune teller reveals that she is going to meet ‘The One’ imminently she decides it’s the next man she meets. Cue the hijinks!

This was a really cute and fun idea, but the middle of the book dragged a bit. Ultimately, the book either needed to ramp up action, or cut the pages down.

Thank you NetGalley and Putnam Books for my gifted ARC.

I really enjoyed The Summer Job and jumped at the chance to get an ARC of The Setup. A series of events leads Mara to disguise herself as a fortune teller in Budapest. A handsome customer comes in for a reading and she advises him to meet his destiny, aka her. Is she a little desperate? Possibly. After the reading she has three months to turn her life around before meeting her destiny.

I really loved seeing Mara experiencing life and learning to trust herself. I really identified with her anxiety in making and keeping friends. I highly recommend this one. It is a great beach read that is easy to read and has a great HEA.

I loved the premise of this one: Mara Williams's ill-fated psychic reading finds her impersonating the psychic and giving a very specific prediction to a handsome cellist. She tells Josef that he will meet his true loe in a pub in the English seaside town of Broadgate on the last Friday of August and her name will be...Mara. Mara enters a summer of self-improvement, including a makeover and upheaval at her job. Her new (handsome!) roommate throws a major wrench in her plans.

I had to DNF this book about 50% in. The concept of a girl trying SO hard because of some trivial psychic didn't sit right with me. She was so insecure and I didnt feel like i could relate to her at all. With a main character like that, how can you read a book seriously?

I really liked the premise of this book and it’s well written. I got about halfway through and couldn’t stand another page of astrology and angst over a guy she barely knows, so I skipped almost to the end. The ending was exactly what I’d predicted. Generally it’s easy to tell in a romance but it’s fun to read how the couple gets together. Not so much this time.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Lizzy Dent’s The Setup has a really cute…well setup. While Mara (a hopeless romantic and strong believer in fate) is off on vacation (solo due to her friend cancelling on her at the last minute) she gets lost and ends up visiting a pregnant psychic who predicts that she will soon find ‘the one’. When the psychic goes into labor, leaving Mara to lock up her shop, Mara ends up pretending to be the psychic when a handsome stranger walks in. He’s a concert cellist on tour, and she proceeds to tell him how he’ll have the chance to meet the love of his life if shows up at a certain location at a certain time a few months from now. She then puts project Mara 2.0 into action, determined to transform herself into the woman she thinks this man will fall for. Thus begins her journey of transformation, attempting to becoming more outgoing, making new friends…and possibly falling for her new roommate?!? Wait, what? Surly that isn’t what fate had in store for her, right? The book feature a fun cast of characters, especially Mara’s coworkers, and is a really cute story of growth and selfdiscovery.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-setup-lizzy-dent/1140149723?ean=9780593422069&bvnotificationId=5361421e-e68e-11ec-ab15-12abfd570c5f&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/210468717

https://www.amazon.com/review/R3JAKCLY4UD6E0/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

I love the cover, it’s so colorful!
The Setup was a little slow in the beginning. I identified with the main character’s lack of trust in herself and always second guessing herself. I am not interested in astrology like she is, but can appreciate her wanting to find answers in things she finds appealing.
The main theme is wanting to find her place. Isn’t that a basic human desire? To belong and find acceptance?

The Setup by Lizzy Dent was such a hilarious book! I’ve never been on Tinder and won’t be, BUT if an alternate universe popped up where I was, I would definitely use one of the many outstanding bio lines that were used. I was dying at some of them 🤣

It’s been a long time since I wanted to punch a character in the tit, but man alive, Mara frustrated the hell out of me. I couldn’t relate to her way of making decisions (leaving it up to her daily astrology apps 🙈), so that brought my blood pressure up a few times. I was prepared to fight her if Ash’s heart got broken.

I’d recommend this if you like it light on the spice, funny characters, and a great community that comes together…and an indecisive main character 🥴

Thank you to @netgalley and @putnambooks for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

I loved Lizzy Dent's previous book and this cover is really appealing. However, it starts out badly and just doesn't get any better. A woman posing as a fortune teller to meet a man? This woman is a mess and so is the writing. I gave it a 100 pages, but just can't continue with this disaster of a book.

After ready The Summer Job by Lizzy Dent, I just knew that I needed to read more by this author. The Set Up does not disappoint.

There is a lot to unpack with Mara. She knew she always wanted to work in film, and sets off for college. Things didn’t pan out the way she had imagine and she now finds herself working for the Broadgate Lido as a book keeper. Mara is very resistant to change and really, of allowing anyone in. She is closed off and guarded, and clinging to past friendships. She consults her horoscope multiple times a day, untrusting of her own judgement.

A weekend getaway, solo, finds Mara at a palm readers door. She tells Mara that she will meet her love soon but that she must make changes. From here she goes on a misguided mission regarding her destiny. As the fortune teller dashes off in labor, a young cellist – Josef comes in. Impersonating the fortune teller, Mara gives him a fortune regarding destiny and for him to meet his true love on the last Friday in August at 7pm. Which would happen to be Mara.

As Mara starts to make changes in her life – she becomes more alive. But she is also hesitant in her second guessing. She has finally awakened to her small town and wants to help save it. As she transforms herself and the town, she and her roommate Ash become closer. She starts to wonder if maybe she has her destiny wrong.

So will Mara meet Josef at the bar or will she realize that her destiny has been in front of her all along?

Thank you to Netgalley and Putnam Books for opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for a digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me. Even though I struggled with the writing style, I gave myself 25% to enjoy it, but it never pulled me in. I really didn’t care about the protagonist or what was happening, which sucks because I think the premise had really cute potential. Many people are giving this book higher stars, so overall I’m sure it’s very enjoyable. It just wasn’t for me.

This is a story about what it means to follow your destiny.  Like many in their early 30s, Mara Williams is a little surprised -- not in a good way -- about the path of her life.  Instead of the career in film she imagined for herself, Mara works as an accountant for a failing beachside pool club in the small English seaside town of Broadgate, where she does not have many friends or connections.  Her best friend, who lives nearby, has a new baby and is often hard to reach.  When on a solo vacation, Mara finds herself inadvertently impersonating a fortune teller and she meets the person who she thinks is her soulmate -- a gorgeous Austrian cellist named Josef.  In the guise of the fortune teller, Mara tells Josef his destiny will be sitting in a pub in Broadgate in three months.  

Mara then embarks on what she calls "Project Mara" -- a three month initiative to make herself over, in order to become as compelling as possible for Josef when he hopefully comes to Broadgate.  She soon finds herself developing friendships with her co-workers, especially as they work to save their beach club from demolition while also helping Mara with her own self-improvement project, just as she feels a deepening connection with her new roommate Ash, a handsome local builder who seems to know everyone in town.  She can't deny how strongly she is drawn to Ash, but how can she forsake her destiny with Josef?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I was a huge fan of the author's previous book, The Summer Job, so I was excited to read this one -- and it was a delight. 

Mara is a compelling character, craving connection that she often feels elusive and more likely to trust her horoscope than what is right in front of her.  Each of Mara's relationships in the book -- between Mara and Ash, Mara and her co-workers, Mara and her best friend, and Mara and her mother -- is interesting in its own right and in what it reveals about Mara's approach to life, particularly how she is often her own worse enemy.  And the subplot about the efforts to save the beach club was a fun accompaniment to the main story.  This is a great read for summer!

Strongly recommended!

First of all I want to thank Putnam Books for providing me an advanced copy of this book for my honest review.

I had seen a lot of people give The Summer Job a good review on bookstagram and when I saw The Setup on NetGalley I wanted to give it a try since people seemed to really like Litzy Dent’s writing. I read the synopsis and it was a book that was definitely something I would enjoy.

The Setup
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
What I Loved:
- Ash, he is the guy everyone in town knows and loves. He is always there to offer a helping hand and just wants to bring joy to those around him….just overall swoon
- Lido crew, Mara’s co-workers at the Lido are just so fun and help her gain confidence in herself and break through her tough exterior
- Broadgate, as an American these type of small beach towns in England are the dream. This sounds like such a quaint place where everyone knows each other and they judge the tourists together 😹
- Adult Friendships, I really liked how Mara’s friendship with Charlie was portrayed cause it felt realistic. As a person who has lots of friends from college that are now parents and I am not this friendship and the growing pains of it just felt true to my experience and wasn’t sugarcoated to make the reader feel better which I really appreciated.

The reason why I wasn’t able to give this book more stars is that I really just couldn’t connect with Mara. This is really more a reflection of me then the actually writing though cause I do think this book was well written.

If you are a fan of a romcom with a great group of characters, and a belief in astrology/fate then I think this is absolutely the book for you!

The Setup is a cozy, small town, British seaside story of personal growth. Mara originally wants to make changes to herself because a fortune teller tells her that "some things needs to be fixed" (not a direct quote) and then she will meet 'the one.' At first it seems like Mara is making all of these personal changes for a guy (or true love, or whatever), but she's known for a while that she is stuck and unhappy and that some things needed to change in her life in order for her to be happy. This event was more of a catalyst.

Most of the story is about both Mara becoming a better version of herself, with an enjoyable subplot of her trying to save the town's community lido (pool) that she works at. I liked all of the side characters, both the ones she worked with and people from around the town.

I also really liked Ash. He is very sweet and supportive of Mara, always telling her that she is fine just the way she is and doesn't need to be making all of these changes. The story lacked some romance for me, and I would have loved to have read some of the book from his point of view to inject more of it into the book.

The ending seemed a tad rushed, but I was happy with how it all turned out. Overall this book would make a nice, easy summer read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.