Thank you to St. Martins Press for the early reading copy of Booked on a Feeling. My review contains my own thoughts and opinions.

Booked on a Feeling was a very cute friends-to-lovers, second chance romance that also focused on finding yourself and what makes you truly happy. I enjoyed this read but would have loved to see more depth to the main characters. Overall, a warm and fuzzy book about being you and falling in love with your best friend.

This book was so cute! I got a little nervous in the beginning with Lizzy almost passing out giving her opening at court. The friends to lovers isn't something I generally would pick but Jack and lizzie's story had me hooked once it the ball was rolling! I wish it had been a little bit faster but overall it was a good read!

One of my absolute favorite reads of the summer! The best friends turned lovers trope is at the top of my list. Lizzy was very relatable, as was Jack (in the friend zone and then the lover zone)!
-Dual POV
-Charming characters
-Best friends to lovers
-Mutual pining
-Spice
-HEA <3

This book follows Lizzy Chung a prestigious lawyer in the heart of busy and bustling Los Angeles. She decided she needs a break after the crazy amounts of stress start getting to her! Therefore she travels to her childhood comfort place Weldon to try to relax and unwind. There she runs back into her childhood best friend Jack Park! Jack is feeling stuck in Weldon working for his family’s brewery! He wasn’t expecting Lizzy to walk back into his life and Weldon! Maybe this relationship is just what each of them needed 😍

I definitely recommend this book! It gives small town romance vibes! It gives sweet Hallmark with some added spice vibes 🔥🔥 Really enjoyed the banter between Lizzy and Jack! Who doesn’t dream about a get away with your best friend and a bookstore??

A huge thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC and to @authorjaycilee for writing such a great one 😍

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Contemporary romance author Jayci Lee has just come out with Booked on a Feeling, her standalone follow-up to A Sweet Mess and The Dating Dare (while characters from the previous books do appear in this one, it isn't necessary to read them ahead of Booked on a Feeling). It takes you into the life of Los Angeles-based lawyer Lizzie Chung as she's heading down the road toward making partner and pleasing the wishes of her parents (particularly her mom), but not without experiencing some exhaustion and anxiety with her job. Her burnout worsens so much, in fact, that she ends up having a panic attack and fainting in court. Realizing just how crucial it is that she takes time to unwind and figure out what her next step is, she flies off for a three-week trip to Weldon, where she'd grown up as a kid with her best friend of twenty years Jack Park. Unbeknownst to her, he's been pining after her all this time but has chosen to keep it hidden in order to preserve their friendship. What will happen, however, once Lizzy suddenly starts to catch her own feelings for Jack?

**Trigger Warning** Readers, please beware this book's depiction of on-page panic attacks, a dysfunctional mother-daughter dynamic, and minor bits of body shaming.

As of late, I've realized that I'm becoming a fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, although it will never knock fake dating and enemies-to-lovers off their top spots on my Favorite Rom-Com Tropes list. A major element that prevents me from sending an overwhelming amount of adoration towards friends-to-lovers is the way in which it's often used for M/F relationships, as if such platonic dynamics must eventually reward the men with romantic and sexual reciprocation from the women. When the friends-to-lovers trope is set up in a contrived fashion, it further detracts from my ability to root for the romance to work out. And I have to admit it felt like that throughout the first act of Booked on a Feeling. While it was logical for Jack to experience such intense feelings for Lizzy because he's spent the past two decades harboring them for her, it didn't come off like that for Lizzy, who has viewed him as nothing more than her closest buddy all this time. But then she starts abruptly noticing just how sexy he is, especially when he's wearing a tool belt, and it all leaves you feeling like she went from zero to sixty in three seconds. The fact that both of them could act and talk like cringey teenagers sometimes in spite of being full-grown adults isn't great, either.

At least the book improves once the relationship follows a much more natural and heartwarming flow in the second and third acts, with some nice steam making its debut towards the story's latter half as the culmination for the heavy flirting that the two MCs have been tossing back and forth. In addition, I appreciate how the book focuses on each of their personal lives. You've got Lizzy, who's trying to come up with a resolution for her career and avoid falling into the trap of needing to meet her mom's impossibly high expectations of her. Oh, and she's also volunteering at the floundering bookstore beneath the studio apartment she's renting, determined to save it from shutting down—a subplot with which I very much connected. As for Jack, he's contending with insecurity over how much he really contributes as bookkeeper for his family's microbrewery and anxiety over whether he should accept an entry-level analyst position in L.A. should the potential employer decide to hire him. Sure, their arcs might be predictable, particularly Lizzy's, but they helped me bond with the MCs nonetheless.

Booked on a Feeling may not have blown my socks off, what with the forced nature of Lizzy and Jack's dynamic in the beginning and their capability for immaturity, but it's an overall sweet romance that I'm glad I consumed. I've already followed Tara and Seth's fake dating journey in The Dating Dare, and I'd still like to read about the one-night-stand and rivals-to-lovers mischief between Aubrey and Landon in A Sweet Mess.

{2.5 ☆} I would just like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced reads’ copy.

Despite instantly clicking with the cover and the title, this book unfortunately just wasn’t for me.

While reading Booked on a Feeling, I found myself to be bored a lot of the time. The story was slow and didn’t have much going for it and the characters weren’t as well developed as I’d have wanted them to be (if that makes any sense).

This book isn’t my favourite but at the same time it’s not worst thing I’ve read so that’s something… :) Even if this book wasn’t necessarily for me, I still recommend it because it’s possible you might have a different opinion and end up really liking it.

Happy release day Booked on a Feeling!!

Booked on a Feeling is friends to lovers romance that easy to read. Jack and Lizzy have been friends for a very long time, and Jack has loved her since the age of 10. The ever questionable do I ruin my friendship and make a move for more played out with both characters in the story. The bookish elements made this a fun read, especially with all the bookstore antics. I especially enjoyed when Lizzy broke down the romance section of the bookstore for a strategy to win Jack affections back.

Thank you St. Martins Press for the gifted copy of this novel is e-book format.

Booked on a Feeling is a hilarious and relatable slow-burning friends to lovers story. The characters are lovable and the banter between them genuinely transforms into brilliant chemistry.

Deeper than just a romance, the familiarity of stress over expectations from family and society shines and the message of working hard to check the boxes, doesn’t automatically equate to happiness is close to home. Definitely a book to pick up when you need a relatable, feel-good romance that focuses on relationships and finding your own happiness.

Booked on a Feeling is a cute friends-to-lovers novel. Lizzy is feeling overwhelmed and full of anxiety as a lawyer on the partner track and her best friend, Jack, is feeling lost and bored at his family’s brewery. He’s also been in love with Lizzy since they were kids.

Lizzy takes a 3 week break to visit Jack in his hometown and due to restlessness, takes on fixing up the local bookstore too. Slowly after spending so much time together, their chemistry sparks and they start dating.

The guy falling first is something that I love and Jack was no different. He was so cute and endearing and just seeing how he was with Lizzy made my inner girl swoon. Lizzy was, of course, clueless until she wasn’t.

I also loved the Korean family dynamic of the book and the tie-ins with language and food. I thought Jack’s family was a great addition and I didn’t realize that this book was the third in a series. You definitely don’t need to read the first two if you don’t want to.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC.

I loved heading back to Weldon. I was concerned how this would pan out initially due to the beach beginning.

I'm pleased to say that I "cannonballs" 😉 straight in and loved it. I especially enjoyed that the main characters were so driven by their passion to be themselves. That was refreshing

This is the third book connecting this town but it can definitely be read as a standalone.

Thank you St Martin's Press for the advanced copy.

Release date: July 26, 2022

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of Booked on a Feeling ebook from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Lizzie has the high profile LA Lawyer career she has worked so hard for and won her first case as lead counsel. So why isn’t she happier? Or excited as she expected to be? Even after the big win her anxiety continues to creep in…..

Deciding she needs a break, Lizzie heads to a small town outside of LA where her best friend Jack lives. Having known each other since they were 10, Lizzie expects to fall back into their easy friendship while she takes some time to determine what she really wants out of her career.

Things heat up in this friends to lovers romance story. I loved both Lizzie and Jack’s characters. I often find friends to lover/enemy to lover stories can have too many roadblocks and restarts but not in this case. The story moved along and built up the relationship perfectly! I highly recommend adding Booked on a Feeling to your summer tbr!

#NetGalley #Jaycilee #bookedonafeeling

Jack and Lizzy have been friends forever and Jack has always had a crush on Lizzy. Now that Lizzy is in his hometown while she is on a little vacation from her job, Jack needs to decide if now is the time to take a risk to get Lizzy to fall for him or if he should try to move on and keep his feelings hidden. As their relationship begins to shift, they are both trying to make tough decisions regarding their career paths that could impact their relationship. The author does a fantastic job creating tension and getting you fully invested in their romance and wanting them to succeed. I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more by this author!

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC of Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee. I love stories that center around the love of books and bookstores. When you tie a romance in, it's even better!
Lizzy and Jack have been best friends since they were ten years old. Lizzy has always been pressured to do as her mother wishes so is an attorney in LA on track to be partner. Ever since becoming an attorney her anxiety has been hard to control. She has to do exercises, therapy and take medication to control it. But sometimes even that isn't enough. After passing out at her first trial, she realizes she needs a break. She goes to Weldon, four hours away, where Jack does the bookkeeping and is a part-time server at his family's brewery. Lizzy stays in an apartment above a bookstore and being who she is, decides to volunteer her time, during the three weeks she is there to help the struggling bookstore get on track. One thing leads to another and what started as a three week break from a stressful job ends up changing both Jack and Lizzy's futures forever.

3.5 stars
I liked this one, in the series, the best so far. Any book about the love of books catches my attention right away and the friends to lovers was not annoyingly unrequited for the whole book, which I appreciated. This ended up being middle of the road for me because the writing is easy but not captivating enough for me to be invested in the characters or their love story and this isn't a clean book.

I recommend to anyone who wants to read a quick and easy sweet friends to lovers romance read.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy in return of an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

Jayci Lee looked into my childhood (and parts of my adulthood), pulled out all of my hopes and dreams, and turned it into the love story I didn't know I needed until I was reading it. To then find out it is the third in a set, but is solidly a standalone, just gives me all of the warm fuzzy feelings that I want from an adult contemporary romance. I mean, can I just be Lizzy when I grow up? We can ignore the fact that we are the same age, and that I also have a law degree from a CA law school (though I purposefully didn't take the CA bar because I already knew I didn't want to be a CA lawyer) - just let me be her. We have so much in common and if I can't be her I want to be her friend.

This follows Lizzy Chung as she goes through an identity crisis after finding an incredibly happy moment to everyone else to be super lackluster (which is a total mood), so she goes to a small town where her childhood best friend Jack Park lives to 1) find out what she wants to do with her life, and 2) take a break . We get alternating points of view between the total sweetheart who is just too hard on himself that is Jack and the neurotic type-A personality that is Lizzy, and it had all of the tropes you would want in a book like this play out in the best way.

I had such a hard time putting this book down, and it had the best HEA/HFN ending - because everything was realistic. There is something so satisfying about a deeply realistic book that is romantic and sweet. It had a bit of spice, by my standards, though it is fade to black more than some super detailed scenes in other books, and I think that made it better. And the best/worst part is that now I want to buy and renovate a bookstore even more than I already did. Read this book.

Booked on a Feeling is a rom-com that is sweet and spicy.

As I am sure many of you know, I am a sucker for any romance that takes place in a bookstore, which meant I was thrilled to get a copy of Booked on a Feeling. Overall this book is a fun, and fast rom-com read. Perfect for reading on your porch on a summer evening. The story doesn’t break any romance moulds, you know how the story will unfold and end, but I still enjoyed the ride. The characters are fun and delightful. They all have different passions, whether it be books, beer, baking, or family. You could feel their excitement leap from the pages. I loved Lizzy and her obsession with lists and checking things off lists (something I love doing myself). She is a smart and kind person who doesn’t know if she wants to be a lawyer. I loved going on this mini vacation with her and watching as she helped revamp a local bookstore.

Romance readers who love friends to lovers tropes will adore Jack and Lizzy’s relationship. These two have been friends for roughly 20 years, and both just have the cutest friendship. Jack has been secretly in love with Lizzy since they were kids and hasn’t said anything to her because he is afraid it will ruin their friendship, and he also believes that he isn’t good enough for Lizzy. During her stay in Weldon, Lizzy starts to notice Jack not as a friend but as a hot guy with whom she wants to kiss and have sex. I rather enjoyed their relationship. These two are a lot of fun, and their banters are super witty. Jayci did a great job building that sexual tension between these two and getting her readers all hot and bothered. Lizzy and Jack’s relationship isn’t smooth sailing; they both have insecurities and are unsure how this new romance will unfold between them.

The only thing that threw me through a loop was internal dialogue and some of Jack and Lizzy’s conversations. I tended to get a teenager vibe from those parts of the book. If it wasn’t for the fact that they said they were 30 years old, I would have pegged them as late teens-early twenty years. It felt like I was reading a YA and not an adult book.

If you are looking for a fun easy-breezy rom-com to read this summer, then you should check out Booked on a Feeling.

Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You ever have someone make you your favorite dinner and it just is eh? Like it should be great, but just doesn't meet expectations. That's how I felt about this book.

Lizzy and Jack were super sweet and I mean, I guess I can see the friends to lovers but eh. That's how I felt the whole time.

The logic and thought process for both characters needed major work, I found their reasoning and excuses to be pretty eh.

I feel like I'm using eh too much but that's just how it felt. I struggled to get through this book.

Maybe if you need a good transition from young adults books to romance this will be a good read?

Y’all, this book made me giggle, made me cry, made me feel other things 🥵, and I adored every minute of it.
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Booked On A Feeling follows Lizzy and Jack, who have been best friends for 20 years. When Lizzy takes some time off work and visits Jack in his hometown, things start to happen (catch my drift 😏).
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I just loved the feelings of pure joy and love that this book gave me. It kinda felt like a Hallmark movies at times, but Lee does such a good job of keeping Lizzy a strong, independent female character even if it is a romance.
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Booked On A Feeling published TODAY so head on over to wherever you buy or borrow books and check this one out asap!! You won’t regret it. ☺️

I loved this friends to lovers romance!!! It was both believable and perfectly paced.

Jack has been pining for Lizzy for years, and is getting ready to uproot his comfortable life in their hometown so he can be closer to her.

Lizzy thinks she’s happy in her job as an up and coming associate at her law firm, and she’s on the path to make partner in record time. She thinks she’s happy but her nerves are always on edge, she has no time for a social life because she’s always burning the midnight oil for her clients, and she can’t remember the last time she was able to unwind. Pushing away her panic attacks has become a way of life. Lizzy’s brain decides enough is enough and lands her in the hospital. She takes a much needed vacation and decides to return to her home town. She starts tackling the trauma of her past and her relationship with her overbearing mother. She starts realizing that the choices she made were because of pressure from her mother, not because she wanted them.

She rents a room over a struggling bookstore and starts regularly hanging out with her childhood best friend. The more time they spend together, the more she notices how he’s always listened to her, always supported her and always been there for her. She notices how beautiful his eyes are, wonders about his kiss and wants to ogle his muscles.

Moving out of the friend zone is scary for both of them. Jack has his own feelings of insecurity and inadequacy to deal with because he feels like his skills are underutilized at the family brewery. Lizzy has nightmares about the stress of her old life, but doesn’t know where to turn if she doesn’t go back to it.

When the two of them start meeting for morning runs and upscaling the book shop to give it more curb appeal, they realize maybe they need each other to move on. That maybe they are meant to brave the world together.

Pick up this lovely romance if you are looking for a slow-burn that delivers all of the feels and steam!

A huge thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Booked On A Feeling by Jayci Lee is such a great rom com! I loved the main characters from the first page and friends to lovers is my all time favorite trope. Lizzy and Jack are loveable characters with interesting personal storylines. The second they introduced Weldon and the bookstore, I was sold! This is a fave star sweet romance full of all the things that make my heart smile.