Member Reviews
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced copy of this book.
I love books about books! So the title and description really got my attention on this book. There was nothing really wrong with it. I can see plenty of individuals loving this book. It just wasn't my cup of tea. I gravitated towards the cover/title/description but at the end of the day romance just isn't my top genre at the moment.
LOVED this title. In our chaotic, negative world, it was just a fun escape from reality for a little while. You found yourself cheering on the characters in a way that just makes you glad when things work out for them!
Thanks to the author Jayci Lee and the publisher St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with an ecopy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
This is the 3rd book in the A Sweet Mess series. I've read all of them except for the first book so far. I really need to go back and read that first book. Luckily these can easily be read as standalones.
I ended up really enjoying this one but I did have a couple complaints which I will mention here in a minute. But lets talk about what I liked first. Lizzy and Jack have been friends for decades and Jack has pretty much always known that he loves her but never acted on those feelings. I loved the friends to lovers trope in this book. It progressed naturally and of course both characters were kind of hesitant to act on those feeling at first because they didn't want to mess up their friendship but one of them was more hesitant than the other. Their chemistry was obvious to pretty much everyone but them.
So the romance was cute but I have the same 2 complaints that I had for the previous book in this series and that is I'm not particularly a big fan of fade to black romance scenes. This doesn't really affect my overall rating that much it's just a personal preference thing. The other thing is how repetitive some things were and the lack of communication. I hate when the characters don't communicate even more so when all the drama at the end of the book could be avoided by a simple conversation.
So yeah overall I did really enjoy reading this one even though I had a few issues with it I still had a good time with it and look forward to reading more by this author.
A cute, quick, fun read. However, it relied so strongly on a lack of communication and didn't engender me to the mcs enough to make up for it. I liked it well enough but certainly won't be reaching to it for a re-read.
This was an easy, cute, and enjoyable read. I'm usually not the type to pick up a romance, but this one was fun to read with characters you root for.
I loved the first two books in this series, so I was very excited for this one. But it unfortunately was a DNF for me. The will they/won’t they and lack of communication was fine in the beginning, but went on way too long and started to become….not enjoyable. Also, it was frustrating at times. For example, the main character had a huge win at the beginning, but immediately didn’t get time to appreciate or ruminate on it. I will still continue this series if there is another, but this one was just not for me.
I could tell early on that this book just wasn't working for me, but wanted to push through to at least a third to be sure! Unfortunately, nothing ended up gripping me, and I feel like if the first third of a romance book doesn't me hooked at all, it just won't end up being my thing. Romance is often just my happy, easy genre, and while this book was quick and easy, I just wasn't getting any joy out of it.
I wasn't feeling any connection between the characters, even though they were constantly commenting on how hot the other was, but that of course they would always stay friends. It also just didn't feel like there was any depth, both in the relationship and in the characters. It was 30% in, and I felt like I had barely any background at all on anything, and the characters and their budding relationship still just felt like a cardboard cut-out of one. I also got annoyed by the male POV a few times, mainly because of how he would think badly of Lizzy for not being able to keep up while running with him? Even though he was a daily runner and she hadn't run in years? It all felt very condescending, instead of the usual type of training that we sometimes see in romance.
In the end, I could see the path this book was setting up, but just wasn't actually excited at all to see it through. It felt more like I was trying to get through the book instead of actually enjoying any of it, so I decided to dnf it.
If you're a fan of the childhood best friends to lovers trope, than this book is perfect for you!
Booked on a Feeling is the sweetest, warmest, delicious as brownies romance with the perfect amount of mutual pining and character development. Reading this book was such a joy and watching the characters fall in love had me kicking my feet, crying, and rooting for them the entire time. The small town vibes in this book were IMMACULATE and I thoroughly enjoyed all the time I spent with this story!
This was fine, but it felt like a storyline / trope I've read too much of lately. I didn't really connect with any characters and didn't find the book very memorable or deep overall.
Awwww… This was a cute book!
Booked of a Feeling is a friends to lovers romance sat in a darling little town. Lizzy, an overworked lawyer in desperate need of a vacation, and Jack, a bookkeeper who’s never left his hometown, are excited to spend three weeks together while Lizzy recharges from her busy life. Not one to sit around, Lizzy soon takes on a project to help revamp the local bookshop and recruits Jack to help. Of course, the more time they spend together, the harder it is to ignore their feelings for each other.
Jack and Lizzy are both great characters and I’d love to be friends with either one of them. The bookshop setting was perfection and I enjoyed getting back to cozy little Weldon.
All in all, it was a great book! Ultimately not very memorable, but it was a fun way to pass a few hours! Three and a half stars— rounded up to four!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of Booked on a Feeling in return for my honest review.
When lawyer Lizzy needs a break, she ends up in small town Welden working in a bookstore and hanging out with her childhood friend Jack. Jack has been itching to move away from his family's brewery, but staying home a little longer to be with Lizzy isn't a problem. Will they make it work when Lizzy's break is over?
I love a book about books! I enjoyed this. I loved the first two books in the series a little more - friends-to-lovers is my least favorite trope. Also, talk to each other!
3.25
I loved this cute rom com! We have two dual povs that are in third person and the characters name are Jack and Lizzy, Jack works for his families bar in his small town while Lizzy works in LA being a lawyer (I could be wrong I wasn’t so into that era for her.)
Jack has always loved Lizzy since they were 10! So yes we have childhood friends to lovers trope! But i do have to say I wished we could’ve seen slash heard more about them back then? Because I feel like that would’ve been more up on my radar because it didn’t feel like childhood friends to me, which lead to me not believing in the romance aspect?
But i do adore Lizzy trying to find herself and Jack as well, And how there’s bookstores involved!? I loved that!!
I absolutely loved this book. I loved it so much I have now read it at least three times.
Lizzie Chung started out her life with a plan in place. She was going to finish school, become a lawyer (Check), she was going to join a prestigious law firm (check!) and she wanted to be the youngest to make partner at the firm, and she was well on her way to doing that! Lizzie was working her ass off and working up the corporate ladder. She was good at what she did, and she was feeling great!
That is, until she went to her first trial hearing. That is when everything took a turn for the worse. A panic attack and a fainting episode in front of the judge and jury took her out in the very first few minutes of presenting. Embarrassed and frustrated, Lizzie worked harder to prove she was worthy. She wanted to make her parents proud. She was determined to make partner! As she finished her case, she realized that she wasn't sure what her priorities were anymore.
Lizzie moved back to her hometown of Weldon for 3 weeks, and into an apartment above a little bookshop. She then started hanging out with her best friend Jack Park, her childhood best friend. Jack has been keeping a secret from Lizzie for decades, and he is worried with her in town that she is going to figure it out, and it is going to ruin their friendship forever!
Jack is the co-owner of a brewery with his brothers. Jack has a degree in accounting, and does the book keeping and other random assorted jobs at the brewery. But he isn't happy at all. He feels like a trained monkey could do his job, and he feels completely useless. He has been interviewing with new jobs down in LA in order to get new experiences and life a life outside of this tiny town and away from his family.
As Lizzie gets settled, she falls in love with the little bookstore below her apartment, and realizes that it needs a ton of help. She can't be idle, and so she takes on tasks for the owner. She makes a list and intends to accomplish all of it before she moves home. She enlists Jack's help, and soon they are spending nearly every day together. But Jack is keeping secrets, and soon it is going to come to the surface. Can Jack keep their friendship in tact after the secrets are revealed? Will Lizzie ever look at him the same way? And where will Jack and Lizzie both end up after the three weeks is over?
Jayci Lee is one of my favorite authors. She writes incredibly endearing characters that draw you in and wrangle your heart. The characters have such depth and emotion it makes me fall in love with them every time I read the book over! I can't wait to see what Jayci comes up with next!
This book wasn't for me. This was a bit on the slower side. The characters felt a little too flat and the writing a little stiff. It was hard to get into this one.
This was another win from this author. I have read other books by this author and I recommend them all. The romance was adorable and I found myself smiling throughout.
I really wanted to love this book, and while the story is good and I liked the characters, some of the writing felt a little clunky. There were a lot of instances where I felt the author could have been more nuanced with the dialog or shown the reader what she meant instead of just telling us. I also felt like I got to know Jack pretty well throughout the book but Lizzy was still distant even in the end. The pacing of the story was good and I liked the plot overall, but I think a little more editing could have gone a long way.
BOOKED ON A FEELING by Jayci Lee is a fun, straightforward love story about overachiever Lizzy and her best friend Jack. I enjoyed this story, but didn't realize it was the third in Jayci Lee’s A Sweet Mess series. I suspect I may have connected to the story and characters more if I had read the first two in the series first- I may go back and do just that!
I would recommend this book to fans of the Sweet Mess series and Lee's other work. I really enjoyed her writing and the character development! I will definitely seek out other books by Lee.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC which I received in exchange for my honest review.
Unfortunately this wasn’t for me, I didn’t connect with the characters at all. However, I’ll definitely be giving this author another go with another title. :)
I am SUCH a sucker for a book based around a bookstore. I loved the idea of chasing your dreams and doing what you love, but I do hate the idea that there are so many people working jobs in the world that they hate in order to appease their parents or an ideal that was instilled in them at some point, instead of loving what they do and doing something they're passionate about. that was my favourite part of this book, Lizzy going after her dream. Jack wasn't a horrible addition either.