Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee follows our main characters Lizzy and Jack as they try to help a struggling bookstore owner get her business running smoothly in Jack’s small home town.

Lizzy is a lawyer working at a prestigious firm in L.A. who ends up having a panic attack in the middle of a trial. Realizing she hasn’t been taking care of herself like she should, she takes a vacation from work to stay in the town her best friend lives in. Jack works for his family brewery but he feels like he doesn’t contribute much and is unhappy. When the two team up to help revamp a local bookstore, the sparks really begin to fly.

This book was fine. It is a very sweet, clean, cookie cutter romance. Childhood friends to lovers usually are. You can easily predict how it will end from the beginning. It isn’t exactly the kind of romance I enjoy. I like something a little more angsty. It’s hard for me to enjoy childhood friends to lovers when we don’t get the flashbacks of when they are growing up. I was hoping the bookish setting would make me enjoy it more but it really didn’t help a lot.

This things I liked about this book include the Asian representation. The author is Asian so you can really see how she pulled from that in this book. I loved all the talk about food. And I did really enjoy the scenes with Lizzy being a really awesome lawyer. I looked at the author’s bio and saw that she was a defense litigator for 15 years and that really shows in this book. I can tell Lee, as an author, writes about what she loves and cares about and that kind of connection with the author in the book is one of the main things that made me finish reading.

All in all, this isn’t the kind of romance I normally enjoy but if you are a fan of hallmark type movies, you would probably enjoy this.

Special thanks to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for allowing me access to a digital copy of an ARC for an honest review.

I had many mixed feelings on this book.
This book is dual POV and follows Lizzy and Jack. Lizzy and Jack have been friends since they were kids Lizzy is a lawyer living in LA who is struggling with being happy with her career. Jack works as a bookkeeper at his family’s brewery in Weldon and is struggling with is career choices also. After a big trial Lizzy decides to take 3 weeks off at the law firm and stay in Weldon. During these 3 weeks Lizzy and Jack start realizing what they really want in life.

I found about the first 15% of the book pretty boring. The case that Lizzy is working on is overly explained in drawn out details that made it hard to keep interest. I found myself losing interest a lot through certain parts of the book. I did however love Lizzy and Jack as characters and as a couple.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want to read a super cliche, best friends to lovers romance? Do you want to read about two likable characters even if they aren’t particularly unique or groundbreaking?

Pre-reading:
Finally onto the book I was given to read early. I feel semi-bad going into this with such a negative bias against this author, but like write better and we wouldn't be here. This book’s description makes it sound like a departure from the other two books in the series, so I'm praying it's more tolerable. I think the cheesy title is cute, and this one has the best cover of the three.

Thick of it:
The writing in these books just skews so young and childish. Like Wattpad or high schooler writing. Drink what you like, sheesh. See, stuff like that. It’s just immature. There are books that can throw in SAT vocab that give me pleasant little goosebumps while they work my brain. This is not one of them. This is like the person who learns a new word and tries to work it into any sentence even if it doesn’t fit. I don’t care about cars in rom-com. And the author’s hating on other women for their appearances again. This book is seriously glamorizing unhealthy eating habits so far. And the unnecessary foodie additions are back. Is this gonna be some legally blonde shit where the friend thinks she slept with the boss to get her position? Because no thank you. How high I can fly only makes me think of The Office. Another romcom with Pride and Prejudice. I really need to read this book at this point, or, at the very least, watch the movie so I have some idea why all these rom-come practically fetishize it. I tentatively think I like this one better than the other two books. It’s still atrocious writing though. Putting the name Jack that close to Sparrow? It’s not poetic. People don’t talk like this. I love the romance genre when it’s done well. Formulaic can be done well. It’s usually not. This is doing formulaic in the exact way that people insult it. Why am I getting deja vu from this book? I swear I’ve read this spin instructor bit before. Wanting a dude to make you feel like you’re enough? Bestie, that’s just daddy issues. Yeah, like it’s still bad, but I will happily argue that this is the best of the three books. More Charlie Brown. I wonder if I can tally up at the end of the year how many books have referenced it because it’s a little uncanny at this point. Don’t complain about a designer bag oh my fucking god. Also, if it’s super slim, then chuck an iPad in it. Like I’m sorry, but it would be useful. Proud of this book. Finally a line by this author that’s amusing and not cringey. I’m rooting for this one. I want a two-star book from her. Why is it The Sparrow and not The Bluebird? Then they could have a cute painting the bookshelves scene and like getting paint on each other and oh no now they need to share a shower. Like it’s sitting right there. Don’t make a PB and J foodie porn. You’re not good at it, and it’s just obnoxious. Her dialogue is slowly becoming more reasonable/realistic. Book I’m really, really trying to like you here, but the cringe and random metaphors are really doing a number on me. Haha, the painting is happening! So like edit the name, bestie. Update, we are not getting painting. They literally just state that they’re painting. Missed opportunity. You know this book could be something. It needs a serious edit, but this is her best book by a mile. Like spend less time on the cringey food additions that have no business being in this book and more time on the snappy dialogue and you’d have something. No, it’s completely cringe. Do not put that song in a book. I was so on board, and then immediately no. Why must all her characters cry over singing? I also keep forgetting they’re 30. They don’t sound 30. They sound like early 20s. Tired of this author’s no makeup superiority complex. I like Lizzy. I like this couple. This is the first time that I’ve liked a couple of hers. See that’s a good chapter opener. Just take out the garbage in this book and you have a decent one. I think the bad bits are ruining it from being three stars, but had they been taken out, this book could’ve been three stars easy. It’s making me warm and fuzzy; I wanted the author to get better and she did. Now I might actually read the fourth book to see how much she’s improved. I repeat: I like Lizzy. See, and a good dialogue bit right there. Proud of you, book. Didn’t she already realize she was in love a couple of chapters ago? Another good little bit right there. Come on book. Get rid of the cheese and the absurdity and the like half-baked ideas. Neaten this book up. It needs a heavy-handed edit and then it would be a good one. Not a great one, it’s still like very standard fare, but like it’s an easy read romance novel. Big words are still awkward and out of place. See, and then I’m out again because what should be cute is not cute and it’s just kind of weird sounding and it doesn’t sound anything like something a 30-year-old man would say. Also just don’t bring feet into it. No feet. Book, I’m really rooting for you, but then you just have to go and be so awkward. I want to give you 3 stars, but the cringe bits are so upsetting. Okay, what a bitch. Sheesh. It’s very Rapunzel and Gothel. Mother. You know another big criticism I have for these books is that these people don’t exist outside the relationships; like they don’t really have friends. Like they have hobbies, they have jobs that they keyword love eventually, but they don’t feel like fully developed people. I don’t know what else is missing that’s keeping this from greatness. But like I look at the Off Campus series and I’m like yeah those books have it. It’s partially a good dialogue thing, but even if this book was only good dialogue, I still feel like it’s missing something. I’ll think on it. Maybe it’s just that no one really grows and there’s not really a believable conflict? Like instead of the reader understanding why the couple can’t be together, the author just tells you they can’t and you have to go along with it. They don’t really grow as people either; the emotional conflict is always the same throughout the book and then they just kinda get over it because the book is ending. There’s nothing really pushing them into that growth. I feel like other successful romances, or just books in general that I like, have characters whose emotional conflicts affect the world around them and have other characters respond to it. These characters’ problems exist like entirely in their heads and only when the author wants to address them rather than being permanent fixtures throughout the book. They feel like immature conflicts too. At 30, it shouldn’t really be an epiphany that you can stand up to your parents. That’s like some 18-year-old personal conflict. I like this heroine. It’s her first one that has a spine and a libido. That’s a good little fight. I know I just complained about this author’s conflicts, but this tension should be throughout the book. Not just a blip to cause a breakup. The other books have been kind of dumb about their flights. This one’s more like yeah, I can understand that. Oh right, the office people exist again. Can we get some resolution with the ex-friend? I am confused. How can you afford to live in Los Angeles on an entry-level position? Hold on, how does she even have the money to buy a bookstore? That doesn’t make any sense. It’s a little frustrating to hash out the tropes when your entire audience is sitting there going this is the most formulaic thing I’ve ever read and instead of leaning into it, you’re trying to pretend it’s not that. This is like a bad version of Book Lovers. With less angst. Where is the resolution with the mom and the lawyer best friend? Have we just forgotten about them? What about her father? See, another good little subversive chapter opening. Again, it’s like she learns a fun fact and just throws it in to be like look what I know! Shut up. I almost feel like she gets these fun facts off of Facebook listicles like I do.

Post-reading:
I am going to be generous today because I feel like this is a fine little rom-com. It needs such a fucking edit, but to have the same author produce this book after producing that first book is something very hopeful. I feel like the fourth one could genuinely be good if she gets a proper editor to rein her in or just grows out of the bullshit in her writing style. But I dunno, I’m proud of it for being something that I could tolerate after having two books that I genuinely hated. And there are one or two moments in this book that I liked and was fully on board for. They did not last long, and they kept being interrupted by the same immature writing flaws that ruined and comprised the entirety of the first two books, but they were there. I really like Lizzy. I have not liked one of this author‘s characters before. I am frustrated that there’s no resolution with a good third of the characters mentioned in the book. That feels like a miss. I don’t understand how any self-respecting editor allows her to name a bookstore The Sparrow in conjunction with a main character named Jack. No one is going to be able to read this book without thinking of Pirates of the Caribbean especially with the Johnny Depp Amber Heard case being so prevalent when this book is released and coupled with the main character being a lawyer. The author needs to stop with the food bits. This book has nothing to do with food. She can check out other romcoms that successfully make you hungry with food descriptions without feeling out of place or distracting from the plot of the book. I think the book‘s greatest failing is still the immaturity of it. These characters don’t read like 30-year-olds. Their problems also feel a bit immature for being 30. I’m reading this as a 20-something, and it’s more relevant to me. I would be curious for her next book, and I fully went into this expecting to completely write off this author as not for me. I also think it fails in the scope of the book. The only subject is really just them as a couple, and you don’t get much of an outside world even though it’s supposed to take place in a small town, but then it doesn’t last in the small town, nor are you given enough small town vibes for it to be a small town romance. This book is frustrating because it’s like the bones of something that could be good, but then it has really annoying habits that need to be corrected, and then even if you did smooth it all out, you would still need to add more to it for it to be something great. It just feels like it wasn’t ready to be written. It needed more. I don’t know, I’ve got a lot to say about this after reading it just because I want it to be better because I am so genuinely impressed that it’s better than the first two books. I’m rooting for her. I want her to write well. It’s just not quite there yet. But this is the first book that I would be like this is a fine thing to read; it’s not a complete waste of your time. It is still not something I would recommend, but I don’t think it's a waste of time like the other two.

Who should read this:
Small town romance lovers
Fans of the best friends to lovers trope

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* When In Rome by Sarah Adams-cliche, bad rom-com, small town romance
* The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang-cliche, bad rom-com, diversity
* Book Lovers by Emily Henry-the small town romance book for people who appreciate the romance genre but aren’t afraid to criticize it. Can’t recommend enough.
* Fluffy by Julia Kent-easy read rom-com with people who knew each other as kids

This book was a lovely, light summer read. I would have loved to have lived more with Lizzy as a lawyer (which was laid out in such a cool way in the opening scenes) and I also would have loved more information about Lizzy and Jack as friends. Friends to lovers is one trope where I think we really need to see the depth of the friendship through flashbacks, especially if the friendship is actively shifting in the time that we’re reading about.

I thought the writing itself was good and I’ll definitely check out what Jayci Lee puts out next!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Really wanted to like this book because of the premise (I love bookstores and the childhood friends to lovers trope), but I couldn't get into the writing style. The dialogue felt a little stilted and broke immersion for me. Overall, not for me, but hopefully others will enjoy.

Booked on a Feeling is a sweet rom-com book by Jayci Lee.

It is friends-to-lovers, which is a trope I've really grown to love this year. This small town focuses on Lizzy, an attorney, and her childhood best friend Jack, who's a bookkeeper at his parent's brewery. He's also been pining for Lizzy for years, which is another trope I love when it comes to friends-to-lovers the whole "it's always been you."

This book was an easy read, and it made me smile. However, it fell flat. Nothing about the book truly stood out to me, and when I finished, I was like, "meh." It felt overly predictable, and nothing surprised me, which is disappointing. But it is a comforting and sweet read.

I will say I loved the diversity in the book! The different cultures and their households were essential to see. If you're looking for a lighthearted read with sweet tropes, then I recommend this book.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an e-arc copy in exchange for an honest review.

A fairly cute and enjoyable read. I like anything that has to do with bookstores! I finished this book a while ago and forgot to come back right away to write a review, so I don't feel like I can say anything super specific about this book. I will likely read it again, though!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish this book, because it was all talk with very little action. I didn’t really care about the characters because there wasn’t any back story. It had potential but just didn’t deliver.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to like this book so much. Friends to lovers, second chance, and a bookstore? Yes please, but I just could not connect to the characters. I found it a little boring and I was waiting for something to happen. Also, there was no background on Lizzy and Jack's friendship. I need that, I need to see what happened in the past, and what lead them to where they are now, and that part was severely lacking in this book, unfortunately.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. The best parts for me were the descriptions of the food and the bookstores. I felt that the start was pretty slow, the main characters were relatively two-dimensional, and sometimes the writing felt repetitive (e.g. everybody thinks everybody else is "adorable") or cliched.
Booked on a Feeling was fun, but I don't think the characters or story will stick with me.

The concept of the book was cute; your classic friends to lovers trope. I also loved that a bookstore was at the heart of the story. Overall though this story just wasn’t for me. The pacing of the plot felt off for some reason and moments that were supposed to be dramatic just fell a little flat.

This was a cute book, but not too out of the mold (very predictable). The writing style was nice and made this an easy, quick read. I liked the friends-to-lovers thing. It’s much more enjoyable to read than the enemy-to-lovers trope. However, there were also things I didn’t like. For instance, the gender discrimination case. It would have been nice to see a better representation of the challenges faced by women in corporate workplaces instead of writing the defendant off as a “disgruntled former employee”. That aside, overall a very cute romcom read.

Best friends to lovers? ✅ Pining? ✅ Bookshops? ✅ Girlboss? ✅ I’m emo? ✅

Lizzy is a big-shot attorney in LA and just won her first major case at the higher level. In a year or two, she might even be made partner. But, after a panic attack during her opening statements, she decided to take some time off and relax. She just happens to do that in her best friend, Jack’s, hometown where he lives and works for his family’s brewery as their bookkeeper and business analyst. Jack is so happy to have her there—he’s been madly in love with her since they were kids. But Lizzy can’t sit still, so she takes on a project for the three weeks she is there: revive the frumpy bookstore into a fun, cozy haven. Jack wants to help her. He’d do anything she wanted. And as they work together on the shop, they start to find out that maybe Jack’s feelings aren’t unrequited. 🥹❤️ Jack also wants to be the man Lizzy deserves, and isn’t loving life at home. He wants to work somewhere new, where he can be a real business analyst with a career. The two of them are just finding what—and who— they really want.

This was so SWEET. You know I’m an enemies-to-lovers stan, but my god a besties to lovers story like this melts my soul. This was adorable. Jack is the dream. Lizzy is so motivated and hilarious. And horny! She wanted Jack to dick her down IMMEDIATELY. I respect it.

My only critique on this book was that the fire play was very detailed, but when it was time for the penis to go in the vagina, or for oral, it was fade to black. What the hell? You just talked about her stroking a cock with her hand, but can’t describe their p-in-v encounter in vivid detail? DON’T BE STINGY, JAYCI!

This book is adorable, the Korean representation was so refreshing, and the food in the book made me hungry, and the characters were delightful. When this comes out on July 25th, you sexy bitches better read it. It’s approved. #girlboss

*I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Lizzy Chung is a burnt-out lawyer who just won her first case, but can't figure out why she is so unhappy. Jack Park is her childhood best friend who feels stuck in his career and has secretly been in love with her since they were 10. When Lizzy decides to use her vacation to save a small-town bookstore, she ropes Jack into helping, but when sparks fly they have to face the truth about their own lives before they can face the truth about their relationship.

This was a super cute, steamy read. Lizzy and Jack had great chemistry, which helped make up for how disjointed the writing felt at times. This had 3 of my favourite things:
1) small-town bookstore
2) karaoke night
3) friends to lovers

I also loved the journey of self-discovery that both Lizzy and Jack went through in order to be together. Their journey was about more than their journey as a couple, each of them needed to grow and change independently in order to make the relationship successful.

If any of those appeal to you, I think you would really enjoy this book! It was a super solid, enjoyable romance and I had a good time reading it!

This book was a friends-to-lovers romance that included a small town - - and it was a book about BOOKS! There was so much goodness in this book that I enjoyed. However, I'm giving this a 2/5 because there was more I wanted from this book and something that didn't sit well with me.

In chapter one we learn that Lizzy is an attorney in a gender discrimination case where she represents the corporate defendant. The corporation that is being sued is described as hardworking. The woman Plaintiff is described as a disgruntled former employee who, "genuinely believed that she was discriminated against."

I FULLY understand that this scenario can be true in real life - - but it seemed oddly unnecessary for this to be the contents of the case that the author chose to write about in this book.

I'm a firm believer that we have to create spaces where women feel comfortable coming forward in a workplace when things are inappropriate. So to have an author begin an entire story with this kind of origin just feels like a punch in the gut to me as a woman working in a corporate environment. Choosing this as a case to highlight and brushing a woman off as "disgruntled" felt unnecessary and offensive.

To be clear, the contents of this trial would make no difference to the story. It could have been a boring contract case, a murder trial.... ANYTHING and the rest of the book wouldn't have to change. So I found it incredibly disappointing that this was the choice of the author.

Representation in pop culture matters and books are pop culture. In my opinion, this isn't how gender discrimination should be represented.
--

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for giving me an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the arc!!
I love a bookstore romance novel, but I did not love this as much as I wanted to. It was a little too predictable for me and was a little too one dimensional. I wish we had more information about the characters and their childhood friendship, I felt like we had such a brief description and I wanted more. It made it really hard to connect to the characters. Jack is in love with her ever since they were 10 and I really wish the author worked with that more! Overall a silly, cute romance. I just wish the characters had more depth

I was so drawn to this book and was really excited about Lizzy’s character when I read the synopsis.
While overall it was an enjoyable read, I didn’t loved it as much as I expected.

I loved the bookstore theme and the friends to lovers trope. This book is a cute and somewhat predictable romcom that did feel a bit slow at times. I also wish we learned more about their childhood friendship and felt like knowing the characters better would have helped me connect with them.

Overall a good read and I would recommend checking it out if you like cute romcoms.

I was instantly drawn to this book because of the title and cover, and while overall it was an enjoyable read, I can't say I loved it as much as I expected to. It started off super slow, and I was confused and personally had no clue what was going on in the first chapters because of all the legal jargon. While this book had a lot of potential to be an amazing read, it fell flat for me. I found myself bored a lot during this book, and while it was cute, it wasn't very exciting. It was predictable and didn't hold my interest.

The characters and storyline just felt very one-dimensional, and while there was tension, I felt like there was no real build up or growth. I wish we knew more about Jack and Lizzy’s friendship. We know they were childhood best friends, and that Jack has had a long-standing crush on Lizzy, but I think I would have connected more with these characters if there was more background on said friendship.

While this book wasn't exactly for me, if you're a fan of the friends to lovers trope and like cute romcoms, I would definitely recommend checking this one out when it’s released.

Cute. Somewhat predictable and cheesy at times. Love the bookstore theme and the plot was very well tied together

The premise was good, but I struggled so hard to connect with Lizzy. The writing of her felt very juvenile and braggy.