Ugh this book could not have been cuter! Jayci Lee writes the yearning and sexual tension between Jack and Lizzy so well. They are both at places in their lives where they long for something different in their careers and are looking for what makes them happy both professionally and romantically. Jack has loved Lizzy their entire friendship, but Lizzy is just realizing that her perfect match might be her best friend of twenty years. If you are looking for spice, however, this book does fade to black right before the steamy part is about to get good. If you love friends to lovers and a small-town setting, this book is for you!

This book was everything I expected and more!

Booked on a feeling was light and fun childhood friends to lovers romance, with a good amount of plot and development. The small town setting paired with bright characters made the story. In particular, I really enjoyed how the author brought up the main character's struggles of high family and self imposed expectations and their struggles with burnout and anxiety.

This ended up being a really cute friends to lovers romance. Lizzy is a successful attorney in LA when she passes out during her first big trial. This causes her to recognize that she is burned out. She takes a 3-week leave from work to go stay in Weldon, where her best friend Jack lives. Jack has been in love with her since they were 10 and uses this time to try to get Lizzy to fall in love with him. I loved this book so much! Outside of the romance the two leads are struggling to find their place and true calling in the world.

I absolutely loved this book!! I am a huge fan of friends to lovers and this was a perfect example of this trope! I could not put this book down! A main reason I liked this book was how the last part of the book played out and how an emphasis was placed on life goals. I would’ve loved an epilogue or another chapter to wrap up the story more but overall it was a very enjoyable read!

Lizzy is a lawyer desperately trying to become a partner to satisfy her mom’s expectations of her career. After a breakdown in court, she takes a leave of absence to spend some time with her best friend in his small hometown.

Jack has been working at his family-owned brewery while keeping two big secrets- he doesn’t have the same passion for the brewery that his siblings do, and he’s in love with his long time best friend Lizzy.

After many long days spent together going for runs, spending time with Jack’s family, and helping a local bookstore owner fix up her store, Jack’s crush isn’t so one side anymore.

I thought this was super cute! I loved the storylines around self discovery and actualization. Jack’s family is so cute and I love getting to see more of them in this book. There were definitely times I wanted to shout at Jack and Lizzy to just speak to each other and talk about their issues. Overall, this was super enjoyable!

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for this advanced reading copy!

This book follows Lizzy who has taken a. break from her job at a firm in order to figure out the next steps of her life after having a panic attack at the start of a trial. Deciding to go to Weldon where her best friend lives, she spends the time exploring what she enjoys rather than what she does as a result of her mother's expectations and finds herself leaning into the feelings she has for her best friend Jack. As this book does have both the perspectives of Lizzy and Jack, we also see his challenges with his current life and the reasons as to why he fights the feelings he has for Lizzy.

I absolutely adored this book. This is a quick easy read where you find yourself becoming attached to the characters and rooting for their happy ending together.

I will say however, that it did take me a bit to get used to the author's writing style and the transition between the character's perspectives. Along with that, at a certain point it felt like their relationship no longer focused on the emotional aspect but turned heavily onto the sexual aspect that in some cases it seemed a bit overdone to me and just wasn't something that I personally enjoyed. This still did not ruin the book for me and I still enjoyed the book overall.

This book was a quick and fluffy read! Who doesn't love books about books? I will say, though, that I'm not a fan of the miscommunication (of lack of communication) trope, which we get in this book. I find it a bit too frustrating most of the time, especially when your MCs are of a certain age. On the other hand, I am a fan of the friends to lovers trope! In this case, though, I wish we got to see the development of the relationship between Lizzie and Jack a little bit better. This is probably the reason why I wasn't fully invested in the characters. That being said, here's a list of things I did enjoy: bestfriends since childhood to lovers, Asian American rep, Korean food, and independent bookstores! I truly wanted to love this book, but unfortunately I only like it. The perfect-bow-tie ending did leave me smiling, so I would definitely say it was still an ejoyable read. 🙂

Booked on a Feeling comes out on July 26! Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

3.5 This is a friends to lovers romance. It's told from both characters' perspectives. We find these best friends navigating their feelings for each other and making changes in their lives/ careers. The first half of the book was pretty slow. It was just okay. Something clicked about halfway through and then it was really cute. That made me round up from 3. It's worth mentioning that this book does get steamy at times. It was a solid romance read.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was WONDERFUL.
Reading Booked on a Feeling is like being wrapped up in a warm hug by your best friend.

Lizzy and her best friend Jack can't avoid the inevitable that faces them; they're meant to be together. But how will it all unfold? Can they manage to take things slow and not rush in too fast?

The tension and slow build of the romance is electrifying and will make you blush. There were many times where this book made me laugh out loud and cover my face because of the chemistry between the characters.

It's a quick and easy read that is guaranteed to make you smile hard.


P.s.... this book will make you want to be a lawyer.

double P.s... this book will make you want your own best friend named Jack.

*This review has also been posted on Barnes & Noble's website*

This book was a delight.

Lizzy Chung is an aspiring lawyer working at a firm she hopes to make partner one day. But, when an incident happens in court one day, Lizzy decides to head to a small town in California where her best friend Jack lives. Jack has always been in love with Lizzy, but when the two of them team up to save a local bookstore, they start to spend more time together and have to make hard decisions about their future, and their feelings.

While I did not like the constant "is this what you want", "but it's your dream not mine" back and forth that happened a lot in this book, I enjoyed the cutest of a best friends to lovers story. Jack is adorable and Lizzy is spunky but also relatable.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and author for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Publish date: July 26th, 2022.

The concept of this book was great; I love a good bookstore story and the whole escapism trope, so I was excited to pick this up initially.

However, I had a really hard time connecting to the characters and believing the story, and the writing (especially in terms of the dialogue) fell flat for me. It honestly felt like the protagonists' friendship was kind of shoved down my throat, without any real foundation. To me, it just did not seem believable that someone would have a mutual and pretty obvious crush on their supposed best friend (especially at their age of late 20s - early 30s). Some kind of build up or distinct event that caused the initial attraction would have made way more sense, but in this case the reader is kind of just thrown into it.

I understand why people enjoy this book (especially those who are partial to friends to lovers), but it just unfortunately was not for me. More detail and background context would have really helped this story.

Brief synopsis: After passing out during a trial, attorney Lizzy Chung decides to get some R&R and goes to small town Weldon for a vacation and to spend time with her best friend Jack Park. Jack has been in love with Lizzy for years, though she doesn’t know it. Lizzy decides to spend her vacation helping revive an old bookstore and enlists Jack for help. What feelings will arise as they spend all this time together?

This book is the third in a series, with the main characters of the first two books featured as side/background characters, but you can definitely read this as a stand alone novel and not feel like you’re missing anything.

This is a cute, easy to read romance. I love a good friends to lovers romance and I also love books about books and this delivered both. I thought Lee did a great job bringing Jack and Lizzy’s chemistry and sexual tension to life on the pages. I also liked the exploration of different family dynamics and the emphasis on following your dreams and not someone else’s dreams for you. I enjoyed seeing Lizzy and Jack both come to terms with who they were as individuals and what they wanted for themselves.

However, something about this book just missed the mark for me. I’m not a fan of the miscommunication/withholding information trope. I also did not see the relevance of such elaborate food descriptions that took place in mainly the first part of the book, but it wasn’t bad enough to completely turn me off of the book or anything. Overall this was a nice easy romance read, and I wouldn’t be opposed to going back and reading the first two in the series. I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it.

This book was a nice light read but I felt like it lacked a lot of depth about the character's backstory - ie how did they meet? What were their interactions and relationship like as children? And then the conflict felt rushed at times. Those criticisms aside, it was a nice light beach read if that's what you're looking for.

"Booked on a Feeling" is a pleasant, fun and easy read for fans of the friends-to-lovers trope. The small-town bookstore setting is a dream and the story is cute enough. The characters are likable and the romance is on-point. However, it did feel like there was quite a lot of build-up for the plot only for the conflict to be resolved uncharacteristically quickly and primarily off screen.
Thank you to the author, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sharing this advance copy with me in exchange for my honest review.
3.5/5

Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee was an absolute delight! I loved the first two books in this series and book 3 was just as wonderful! You can read this as a standalone if you want.

Lizzy and Jack are both kind of stuck. They have careers that they are good at, but their careers don't bring them joy. Lizzy takes some time off work, ends up revamping a local bookstore and falling in love with Jack. Friend to lovers. Swoon!

Lizzy has anxiety and panic attacks, and the representation is phenomenal!

I really love Jayci Lee's use of language. There are so many words and phrases that just call to be highlighted! Because this is a review of an ARC, the only thing I will say is Cannonball.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Oh my goodness, I adored reading this book and I couldn't it down. I loved reading this adorable book and highly recommend reading this!

Lizzy and Jack have been best friends since they were 10. But now they’ve both hit a point in life where they are questioning where they want to go next? Is this job really what they want? When Lizzy takes a break from her job due to burn out, she spends it in Jacks town and realizes how wonderful he really is. Does he feel the same? Can they move out of the friend zone?

This was such a cute, straight forward friends-to-lovers story. Lizzy is a to-do list making go getter and Jack has always just gone with the flow until now. This book is them navigating their changes in work, location, and relationships together. Very cute!

This book is my first ever arc! I was so excited to read this book. You had me at the title…Booked on a Feeling. I am a sucker for rom-com. This book has a dash of book-store side story, friends-lovers, and self-discovery. I love to see growth in the main characters. I felt the words when she spoke about romance books saying, “They saved me”. I think all of us who love to read have felt that way at some point in our lives.

It does start out a little slow I had to push through, but once she arrived at the book store I was completely invested. I would definitely recommend this book! Give it time and you won’t be sorry.

Lizzy reaches a pinnacle of professional success and realizes that she is burned out, and she needs a break. What would be a more natural place than returning to her childhood summer haven and the companionship of her best friend Jack.
The two help revamp a local bookstore, leading Lizzy one step closer to identifying her next professional steps, while Jack works to fulfill his professional goals on the sly.
How they fit into each other's future--and what that future will look like--is a big question. Read this story to see how Lizzy and Jack find themselves, figure out how to satisfy family expectations, and solve for love!

This book in 3 words: Darling. Witty. Entertaining. 

Lizzy, burnt out after winning her first case as a lawyer, heads to Wheldon... a small town where her best friend, Jack, lives and works for the family business (a brewery). Lizzy and Jack finally decide to see if they're meant to be more than friends... 

Booked on a Feeling is classic feel-good reading material. There were times I was smiling ear to ear and just felt so light and airy. The characters are so likeable and you find yourself rooting for them - start to finish. This is a significant strength in the story. 

I loved the representation of Korean characters and family dynamics. I'm not Korean and I loved learning about some of the traditions, foods, and just pieces of their culture. 

I read this, enjoyed it, but did find myself in a few lulls. Some of the pacing was so slow and repetitive. I think there could've been some different plot points introduced or the book could've been shorter. 

Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy for review.