"'I didn't know she was yours.' I take another toward him—until I'm inches from his face. 'She's not mine. She definitely not yours. She belongs to herself. She's here to do a job—just like you. Treat her with respect.'"

many thanks to NetGalley and Donna Schwartze for the arc!!

^^when he's respectful and protective. this man really never let her out of his reach from the moment they met, always making sure she was safe. at first i did think he was pretty self-entitled and stuck up, but he actually isn't!!! he has he reasons for the way he is and you get to know sophie and seb so well and understand why.

this book is probably the funniest one i've read so far. i caught myself laughing out loud too many times and too late at night. her friends are crazy, they're crazy, everyone just knows how to have a good time. never a dull moment in this book. radiates perfect rom-com energy.

they are both very strong characters as well as the supporting ones. you can really tell how unique they are and how they differentiate from each other, which brings out specific sides in them. maisie and roman are the cutest of friends, joe coming into a close third towards the end. and when seb comes into their family you know he really fits in.

no one can stop sophie. she slayed this book and had everyone at their knees for her. not taking anyone's bs for real and always standing her ground. definitely wouldn't wanna cross her as a wsm HAHAH

one thing i will say is that this book claims to be "steamy" but it really isn't. there's only one scene and it doesn't go into detail so i wouldn't really label it as so. there also wasn't much that made this a in depth love story or story in general. they connect from the bat, LOL CAUSE HE PLAYS BASEBALL, but honestly it did make sense. it was cute for them but nothing special. they like each other, get together, have a problem, solve it. let me tell you, the person who should've groveled doesn't and it kinda made me mad because the other person did with having no good reason to. but ugh ofc it's a miscommunication too.

but considering everything, i completely had so much fun reading this and am starting raine out as soon as i finish this review. i hope a superstar baseball guy with "a chest carved by michelangelo with glorious muscles" and nice hair and eyes will let me into a VIP bar that's full and fall in love with me after i roll my eyes at him <3

addictiveness: 4.75/5 read in less than a day...
sadness: 1/5 not a sad book
characters: 4.25/5 i did dislike most of the team
setting: 3.5/5 not described too much
plot: 4/5 short and sweet
plot execution: 3.75/5 could've been better
writing: 4.5/5 easy and flowy to read and soso funny
romance: 4.5/5 especially from seb's pov
comedy/banter: 4.75/5 teasing all the time man
smut: 2.75/5 but i mean he does want her just nakey from seeing her across the street

overall: 4/5 not a lot of bad things to say about this book! i would just say some things said might be a little offense, but it's totally okay to hate the characters who say and do uncalled for things.

Truth and Tequila was an easy, feel good read for me which had a cute plot and just enough spice. PR professional, Sophie meets baseball player, Seb through a drinking game at her bestfriend's bachelorette party. She finds out the morning that her new client is the baseball team Seb's in, which makes things a tiny bit complicated.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for the fun storyline, dual POVs and easy to read short chapters.

This book is pure fantasy fulfillment and I was totally there for it. Seb is a professional baseball player with a major franchise contract. He's focused on baseball and his close-knit group of friends and family. Pretty much every other person in his life has burned him over the years, taking advantage of his status as a famous person. When he sees Sophie outside the club - and she completely ignores him - he's immediately drawn to her.

Sophie is at the club for her best friend's bachelorette party. The friends play a game of truth-or-tequila - which ends with a very very drunk Sophie trying to get Seb to kiss her to end the game. Seb ends up helping to take care of Sophie instead. So when Sophie shows up at her new client the next day - the major league baseball team Seb plays for - things are a little awkward.

Sophie and Seb were adorable together - especially Seb who in the world of fantasy fulfullment is not a bro-f*ck boy, but a sweet man who commits totally to Sophie immediately. This is definitely an insta-love situation - for which insta-trust doesn't exactly happen for Sophie. BUT some of the best things about this book (which sadly make it true fantasy fulfillment) are the parts where Seb acts like a grown-ass man and doesn't contact Sophie when she asks him not to and where Seb and other men are outraged by the sexist comments and actions about women and challenge the speakers. Dreamy.

There were a few issues that kept this from being a five-star read for me. There were some weird moments - like when Seb signs a little girls jersey. It was cute - and definitely helped develop his character as a nice guy - but who the eff brings their five year old to a Miami club at 10 at night on the off chance you might see a famous person baseball player there? Or the fact that Sophie tells us how she is a total introvert and doesn't like to be around lots of people - when she clearly is pretty much the opposite of that. She has a huge group of friends and a job that requires her to network and be extroverted.

Overall though - this book was delightful!

I received it as an ARC via NetGalley, but these opinions are all my own.

A well written book. The author really wrote the characters really well. The storyline was good and it was light-hearted and funny.

This book in 3 words: Satisfying. Sweet. Fun.

This is my first book by Donna Schwartze but I dove right in and really enjoyed it. Fancy baseball player meets sassy PR strategist and mostly good things ensue (the quickest synopsis you'll see).

I thought the chemistry between the characters worked really well. I found myself absolutely digging Sebastian and is overall care for Sophie, right from the beginning. He's charming and easy to root for.

The author does such a solid job of writing your go-to slime ball... ick factor x1000 BUT THIS FIT SO WELL IN THE PLOT!

There were some pacing issues... it felt things were revealed way to quick in the middle. I also felt like the ending was a little bit of a letdown.

I read this in one sitting and certainly enjoyed it.

Truth or Tequila was my first read by this author. As a fan of baseball romances and instalove, this one was easy for me to pick up.

Overall, the book was an easy read. There were some typos and some pacing issues, but nothing that took me out of the story. There is some humor, a little bit of steam, and a touch of mystery.

If you’re looking for a low angst beach read, pick this one up.

Truth or tequila is a fun insta-love/lust story, told from Seb and Sophie's pov.

TOT is a nice quick cute read, with a strong fmc and a hot know what he wants mmc.

Insta love is not my normal go to (actually i normally steer clear of it) but I really enjoyed this.

I really like the side characters especially the bfs Maisie and Roman.
I couldn't stand Savannah and thought Sophie's brothers where a little childish.

I knew nothing about baseball (and still don't) so I'm glad it wasn't really heavy in that world.

Special thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review

An excellent read. It has funny moments, some tender moments and a plot that really engages around misogyny and money and power and the corruption that can entail. Sophie is a great star of the book, a strong character that you egg on and want her to find happiness on her terms - both at work and with the very sexy Seb.

I received an eARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was such a letdown. I wanted to like this book but I CANNOT stand Sebastian. I don’t believe that he’s a good guy and I don’t like anything about him. I’m 100 pages in and there is literally nothing that makes me want to read anymore. The few notes I have taken consist of: saying ew about Sebastian’s thoughts concerning Sophie before they meet, highlighting how he is a whiner and being annoyed with the clumsy heroine trope that’s not even done well. I also made a note that I was wishing that Sophie (our heroine) was falling for Sebastian‘s bodyguard, Joe, because there was more chemistry in my opinion between those two then there was between Sebastian and Sophie.

Truth Or Tequila is book one in the  (Grand Slap) series. This book caught my eye when I was scrolling through netgalley and the blurb sounded so good, so I had to request it. I was so excited when I got the email saying my request was accepted to read the Arc book. Iv never read anything by Donna Schwartze so I was diving in blind. Two words absolutely Phenomenal.

"𝘼𝙣𝙮 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚. 𝙄 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩. 𝘼𝙡𝙡 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪."

I can't rave enough on how much I enjoyed this book. The first page had me glued to the story straight away. Sophie is a wicked character, fun and bubbly and outgoing. She cracked me up especially when they were playing the truth and tequila and she tries to kiss the most famous baseball player, and having no idea who he is. Seb OMG I loved him so much, he is such a gentleman and caring and kind and very protective. Not at all does he come across as being too  good for anyone because he is famous, and has everything in the world, in fact he is the total opposite. Which made me fall even more in love with him.

"𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙛𝙚, 𝙗𝙖𝙗𝙮. 𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙨𝙖𝙛𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙢𝙚. 𝙄'𝙡𝙡 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙨𝙧 𝙝𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙤𝙧 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚 𝙝𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪. 𝙄 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚."

The love and affection Seb has for Sophie gave me so many goosebumps and happy feelings. The protection and heartwarming love he had for her was so beautifully written. Donna did an amazing job bringing all these characters to life, it was so easy to love your favourites and hate the not so lovable characters. What I loved about this book too was that there was a mystery mixed in with this story too. I loved trying to guess who and what was going on. It definitely kept me captivated all the way through. This book had everything it made me laugh, gave me tears, and also mystery and love. A breathtaking and wonderful contemporary romance read can’t wait to dive into the second book (Raine Out).

“God, she makes me hungry—hungrier than I’ve been in years. Just looking at her makes my heart beat faster.”

Strong female lead working in PR meets hunky cinnamon roll pro baseball player? 🥹 Also, a book that starts with slamming some Tequila shots? Ayyyy 😛

I truly adored this romcom. It was the perfect light romance to get me out of a reading slump. I feel like there was a great balance between the heavier parts and the comedy. The author tackled some heavy topics in such a delicate way that I hardly felt like I was reading anything but a fluffy little romcom. Sophie and Seb were super cute, and their insta love romance really had me swooooning.

Read this if you love:
⚾️ Insta love
⚾️ Tequila
⚾️ Strong female lead
⚾️ Sports romance
⚾️ Protective cinnamon roll book bfs
⚾️ Dual pov

Thank you Netgalley for a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review. This is available now on KU!

Hooked on this book from the moment I read the club scene. I just knew it was going to be a great book. Shopie and seb's characters are perfect for eachother. They had such great chemistry that I couldn't put the book down. And I read it in one day.. Can't wait to read the next book...

I wished I had taken a shot of tequila when I read Truth or Tequila by Donna Schwartz. I’m not a fan of either the insta-love or miscommunication tropes, but know that some authors write them well enough that I don’t mind. Unfortunately, this novel had both and neither was written well enough to excuse it.

Truth or Tequila gets its name from a drinking game one of our main characters, Sophia “Sophie” Banks, played with her friends in college and now occurs only at their bachelorette parties. On her way to best friend Maisie’s bachelorette, Sophie runs across a celebrity making entry to club difficult. Little does she know it is Sebastian “Seb” Miller— Miami’s professional baseball team’s hot-shot catcher, who is charmed by her indifference. Sophie tries to drunkenly seduce him, only to wake up in the morning and discover three things: 1. She remembers very little last night; 2. She has a hangover from hell; 3. The eyes she does remember belong to Seb, and she just signed a contract to do damage control for his team’s discrimination accusations. Now she must fight her feelings for Seb as she gets to the bottom of who barred a female reporter from the team clubhouse.

From the start, I really tried to give Truth or Tequila the benefit of the doubt. It had traits of my favorite romance books— a cute cover, dual POVs, a fun twist on everyday pairings. These things were not enough to distract me from the fact that the characters are deeply flat (and most are unlikeable to boot) and that the obstacles in Sophie and Seb’s path to love are weak at best.

With each chapter, I kept hoping that Sophie or Seb would show some personality that went beyond “Girl Boss with trust issues” or “Sunshine celebrity romantic”, respectively. Each acted the entire book how I thought they would, which was a disappointment. They just never had complex emotions or motivations. Then, the side characters were even worse. They all had one purpose/role that they filled, with the exception of Liza. Maisie and Roman were Sophie’s overly helpful and protective friends. Joe was the paranoid security detail. Gentry and Gary are the rich sleazes. Liza is the only one who has any grit to her character and it feels more like a result of lazy writing than intentionality. I could not root for any character because they were all so boring.

Then there is the plot. As I said above, I don’t like insta-love or miscommunication. If one of these tropes are done well, it is usually in connection with great chemistry between the two mains, which this wasn’t, or a plot interesting enough to justify them, which is wasn’t. Sophie has to figure out who got Liza banned from the clubhouse and make sure it was not gender discrimination, but that fact seems to come and go in terms of importance. (SPOILER) She cannot figure it out, then all of a sudden Seb tells her outright he did it. For third-act tension, she breaks up with Seb because he has a secret Joe tells him not to tell her, only for Joe to turn around and tell her himself? What? (END SPOILER) Everything about the tension is trying too hard and can best be described as mountains out of mole hills. Any reasonable adult in their late-20s, early-30s (like Sophie and Seb seem to be) would get over quickly, but OF COURSE it cannot be that easy. It’s tension stupid enough that its annoying to read and almost made me DNF chapters from the end.

I should emphasize here that I do not think Truth or Tequila is a bad book. Its premise is funny and refreshing. It just needed longer development on several core components to make it stronger all around. Like plans made the day before, Truth or Tequila turned out to be something I want to kick earlier me for requesting because it made reading for pleasure feel like a drag.

P.S. As for that “steamy” descriptor in the summary, don’t be fooled. Truth or Tequila has one semi-detailed sex scene. That’s it. Having the main characters be frequently horny and then one scene are not enough for a romance to be called “steamy”.

Rating: ⭐️.5/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶/🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

Honestly I think this one was a great idea, but the writing needed some more work. With a couple more rounds of edits it could be a four or five star read! It's a light and easy read with some cute and funny moments but I just found the pacing a bit odd at times, and the MMC's behaviour made me uncomfortable at times. Some possessiveness can be cute, but this was taking it too far for me. That combined with the instalove feel of the book just made it a very average read for me

“You can’t tell me who to care about. You don’t have to return it, but I care about you. For some reason, it started the second I met you. That doesn’t happen a lot.”

Love at first sight? Maybe. But it worked for me in "Truth or Tequila".
Seb is a famous baseball player. It’s difficult for him to trust people. They always want something from him/use him. When he sees Sophie, she doesn’t even know who he is. He was able to be himself with her. He was surprised to see her the next day, not thinking they would see each other again since she was drunk from playing truth or tequila. The baseball team’s owner hired Sophie to help with the team’s image. The story goes on from there.

I have never read anything from Donna Schwartze before "Truth or Tequila". While scrolling on Instagram, I saw a picture and was intrigued by the title and cover. I looked at the summary and was interested in reading it.

I mean, the tagline is:
A steamy romantic comedy about good timing, bad temptation, and way too much tequila.
Seb’s the most famous baseball player in the world. Sophie’s not impressed. Game on.

By the time I read "Truth or Tequila", I forgot what it was about because my memory sucks. So I went into it blind, which is part of the fun most of the time. I’m glad that I read it when I did because it was a nice change of pace. "Truth or Tequila" was a quick, light, and fun rom-com. It was just what I needed at that moment! This book was to blame for me sleeping late. Honestly, it was my fault for starting it late. I didn’t want to put it down! I read the majority of the book before going to sleep. Then continued to read it when I woke up later in the day.

Seb. Seb. Seb. I just can’t. I loved him! He was so sweet.

While I didn’t enjoy the miscommunication, I understood it. Even if I was frustrated, it added to the story and seemed realistic to me, and it wasn’t over the top. Was it necessary? I don’t know, but it worked out in the end.

I had fun reading "Truth or Tequila" and can’t wait to read more from Donna Schwartze.

Thank you, NetGalley and Donna Schwartze, for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book had me very excited to jump into reading it, however the book had some major pacing issues which made it hard to enjoy.

The book is described as a steamy rom com - but I don’t think it was steamy or funny.

I wouldn’t recommend to a friend - but could see how others liked it for a quick easy read.

Tropes: insta love, celebrity, sports rom

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

#netgalley #truthortequilla , publication date 2 August 2021
This is a fun rom com perfect for Summer vacation at the beach. I wouldn't say this book is outstanding but it was a nice change to read something light and fluffy. 3/5 stars

Truth or Tequila is a quick no fuss romance, that is a good poolside read. I thought it was funny and had it’s cute moments, but had some issues with Seb. His instant possessiveness over Sophie was a big 🚩 in my opinion and not at all cute or endearing

Listen...I really wanted to like this book. The premise was cute, but the execution was questionable.
I have a deep loathing for people who are always late, so my first impression of Sophie was already off to a bad start. I did find some grammar/spelling errors, and the dialogue in general was a bit choppy. I also would have liked some more character descriptions, as it was hard for my mind to create images of them. I found the characters to be too dramatic and vague.
Some positive aspects: Seb always corrected people when they referred to women as "girls", and Sophie's character grew on me.
Overall, very meh.

Loved it! Summery and fun - the characters were really likeable and I genuinely enjoyed reading this book. However, I can’t really understand why it’s on NetGalley because it’s already been on Amazon kindle books for a while and the second in the series is already available to read?