This book was almost a DNF (did not finish) for me. It was hard for me to get into the book especially since you are just thrown into these characters lives without getting much backstory. I also had a hard time understanding why the FMC (female main character) Lizzy had to escape her life in LA all of a sudden and head home. For me her whole story line was hard to believe. It also took a long time to get to the romance which made it feel like it dragged on and on.

I would like to mention that just because I didn't particularly care for this book doesn't mean someone else wouldn't enjoy it.

Anyone else looking to order Korean food once they finished this read? Because I am here for all the galbi, japchae and kimchi one can eat.

I appreciate and adore any opportunity I can have to diversify my reading experience and thoroughly enjoyed Jayci Lee's "Booked on a Feeling" with Korean MCs, friends-to-lovers, bookish themes, and small town vibes. I did not read the previous books in the series but I do not think that took away from my enjoyment of this book. And now that I know I enjoy Lee's writing, I will likely add them to my never-ending TBR.

Lizzy is living the lonely, anxiety-riddled life of a high power attorney in the big city. She's successful but feeling unfulfilled and burnt out. She has been focused on this goal for the better part of her life, particularly due to family pressure, and is realizing that, perhaps, something is missing.

Her best friend, Jack Park, is working in the family brewery, living at home, in his small hometown, feeling like he has outgrown his usefulness and needs to challenge himself and make some changes.

When Lizzy takes some time to deal with her mental health, she runs to her best friend. Jack, who has been in love with Lizzy since they were 10, is there to be the soft place she needs to land when managing her anxiety. I am always here for unrequited love and a pining hero - give me more of that, please.

Lizzy spends her time off helping to revamp the local bookstore, with Jack's help and with the help of his tool belt and woodworking skills, she's realizing that Jack is so much more than her best friend - he's hot as all get out too! Jack is terrified of acting on his long-time feelings for fear of damaging their friendship but also does not want to miss the opportunity to potentially have it all.

This is a delightfully sweet read that handles mental health, family obligations, and realizing yourself and your dreams in a quick, easy read. I do wish that the storyline with Lizzy's mom and her family obligations were resolved better - it did feel abruptly ended - but it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Also, I'm always here for an indie bookstore in a small town - it's included in all my dream vacations!!

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this eARC with me in exchange my honest opinions.

A wonderful second chance romance! I love that she’s the breadwinner and he’s perfectly okay with that! This book is the definition of cozy. Falling in love with your best friend seems perfect!

Booked On A Feeling
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/4 stars
by: Jayci Lee
Genre: Romance/Fiction/Contemporary Fiction
Thank you for the arc copy @netgalley and @stmartinspress

The fact that most of this book was set in a bookstore, instantly boosted my interest. I'm so jealous of Lizzy for being able to redo a bookstore on her vacay! 🙂

Lizzy Chung takes a three week leave from her job at a Los Angeles law firm due to feeling "burnt out." She decides to visit her childhood best friend, Jack Park, in his hometown. Both of them have always carried a spark for one another but are both too nervous to act on it. The friendship is too valuable to potentially ruin if feelings aren't mutual.

For three weeks, Lizzy and Jack revitalize the local shop, "Sparrow Bookstore." As they work on this project together they start to open up to the possibility of more but of course a miscommunication pushes them apart.

I loved this slow burn 🔥, friends to lovers book! ❤️

Published on July 26th, 2022

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Ok I cannot put into words how much I loved this book. The pining, oh mercy the pining! Loved so much. Spicy, book centered, friends to lovers check check CHECK!

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it was only average. When there doesn't seem to be much happening in a book, it can be difficult to get into it. We hardly ever learn anything about the characters' pasts. The "friends to lovers" trope doesn't really work in this novel because they already had a strong attraction to one another and there isn't much of a build-up to that.

I don't usually read friends to lovers, but this has me wanting to pick up more. I loved Lizzy's and Jack's romance and loved how it felt naturally and long lasting. Also, when I usually read friends to lover, we find that the heroine falls first. So, it was so refreshing to have the hero fall in love first. The biggest thing I loved most of the book is that both Lizzy and Jack showed great progress in their life personal and careerwise. Such a great read that is fun and fast.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my copy of Booked on a Feeling.

Didn’t end up finishing. Didn’t love. Read some reviews & reviewed starred ratings. The first two halters didn’t capture me or keep me interested.

Lizzie is high powered attorney on a partnership track until she has an embarrassing panic attack. She goes to the small town of Weldon, where she used to spend her summers, to recover. Her old friend Jack never left and works at his family‘s brewery. Lizzie doesn’t know that Jack has had a long time crush on her.
Lizzy discovers that the local bookstore needs an update, and she throws herself into the job. Jack is always there, helping her out. As they spend hours together, their feelings for each other grow.

I really liked this small town romance. The characters are great and the book leaves you with a happy feeling. 4 stars.

Synopsis:
Lizzy "Overachiever" Chung, Esq. has her life mapped out neatly:
* Become a lawyer. Check.
* Join a prestigious law firm. Check.
* Make partner. In progress.

If all goes to plan, she will check off that last box in a couple years, make her parents proud, and live a successful, fulfilled life in L.A. What was not in her plans was passing out from a panic attack during a pivotal moment in her career. A few deep breaths and a four hour drive later, Lizzy is in Weldon for three weeks to shed the burnout and figure out what went wrong. And what better place to recharge than the small California town where she spent her childhood summers with her best friend, Jack Park.

Jack Park didn't expect to see Lizzy back in Weldon, but now he's got three weeks to spend with the girl of his dreams. Except she doesn't know of his decades-long crush on her--and he intends to keep it that way. She's a high-powered attorney who lives in L.A. and he's a bookkeeper at his family's brewery who never left his hometown. He can't risk their friendship on a long shot. Can he? When Lizzy decides that the local bookstore needs a little revamp, of course, Jack is going to help her bring it back to life. But the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to ignore there might be more than just friendship among the dusty shelves and books... 

Sometimes the path to the rest of your life has been in front of you all along.

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

Super cute and easy read. Liz you had her life planned out and knew what her next goals were, but they just so happened to be her moms dreams and not her own. It took her a minute to find what she really wanted but she found it along with Jack. Jack and Lizzy are so cute! The angst and tension they had towards ea h other was high level! Super cute and fun read.

3.5 ⭐

I really enjoyed the third book in this series. In this one, we're following Lizzy who is a badass lawyer in LA. When she accomplishes something big at work, she doesn't feel the satisfaction that she thinks she should. Realizing she needs to recharge, she takes a vacation to Weldon and spends time with her best friend from childhood, Jack.

Lizzy can't just do nothing on vacation and decides to help out a local bookstore to revamp the interior and help revitalize the business. Lizzy also spends a lot more time with Jack than she's used to, and she's seeing him in a new light.

Both Lizzy and Jack are trying to figure out their careers and why they're not fulfilled, while also seeing what could develop between them as more than friends.

I loved their banter and just how deeply they cared about each other. And it was great to see snippets of the other couples as well.

I loved how the professional careers got sorted out, and how the conflict between Lizzy and Jack got resolved.

I tried to read this book on multiple occasions, but at about 35% of the way in I had "put it back on the shelf". This was a DNF for me. I loved the idea of the book and the summary sounded great, but the beginning dragged on and on and at the 35% mark, nothing had really happened with either of the main characters yet.

This book wasn't for me. I wanted to like it, I just couldn't get into it. I'm sure others will enjoy this it just wasn't for me.

I thought this was so sweet. The book was great! A really nice love story. I like law books and books about books, so this just worked. The issues in the book are real and I connected to the main character Lizzy a lot!

This was a very sweet rom com with more spice than was expected. The diversity was authentic. Any story that lately takes place in a bookstore is a win.

Cheesy, sweet, and charming, but lacking in true stakes or originality. I enjoyed reading it for the most part, but I’m not one for books that include words like “adorkable,” “foodgasmic,” or “scarecited” (which is a portmanteau of scared/excited of course). And two of those words were spoken by a 30 year old man, which doesn’t seem very realistic to me but maybe we just know different kinds of men. Lots of scenes felt completely rushed, the timing was just all over the place in this one. It’s certainly adorkable, I’m sure there are people who would love it. It’s perfect for someone who needs a break from serious literature and who doesn’t mind characters who don’t take anything seriously at all.

Elizabeth "Lizzy" Chung just finished winning a major career-defining trial for her prestigious law firm and instead of feeling over the moon, she is stressed and overwhelmed. So overwhelmed in fact, she decides to take a three-week vacation to decompress and recuperate... with the help of her childhood best friend Jack Park. Finding comfort in a small town and in a local bookstore, Lizzy begins to realize her feelings for Jack aren't strictly platonic and Jack is finding it harder and harder to ignore his decades long crush on his best friend.

A perfectly satisfactory friends-to-lovers romance... it was just missing the spark. While I rooted for Jack and Lizzy, I found myself searching for the passion in their relationship and I don't think I really found it. The romance could be best described as a "will they, won't they" slow-burn between childhood friends grown up. It was heavy on the yearning but the chemistry between the two was a bit underwhelming for my tastes.

I will say the anxiety representation in this book was very accurate and I did like the way Lee included both characters' journey of self-discovery and self-reflection. The plot was decent but it lacked drama and because of that, the conflict in the final few chapters felt forced for the sake of sticking to the classic romance cliche of making up after a big fight.

Swoooooon! I loved this book. It disproves the notion that the more money you make, the happier you'll be. Lizzy and Jack's friends to lovers feel good romance is sure to leave all readers smiling. I felt it progressed at a great pace and have just enough conflict to keep exciting without making it cringy. I also loved the authors love of checklists!

The opening of this book drew me in by the end of the first few pages. Lizzy's character drew me in because of how much I personally related to her character. The author did a wonderful job providing anxiety representation that was both accurate and made sense to the story, rather than being shoehorned in just to be there. While Lizzy felt like a fully formed character right at the beginning of the book, I didn't feel thay way about Jack. For the first 30-40% of the story, it felt to me like Jack was only there to be in love with Lizzy. However, as the story continued to develop and the characters grew, I really liked Jack and his character's growth and journey.

While it is the third book in a series, they can definitely be read as stand alone stories. If you are a fan of friends to lovers or want a book with well done mental health representation, I really recommend this book.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the advanced review copy.

This was a charming, sweet and quick-read romance. Enjoyable, with good characterization.

Recommended for fans of Emily Henry.