I wanted to love this but it simply wasn't for me. I thought I was more of a romance reader than I am turning out to be. I definitely think there's an audience for this, the writing style is great, it's just not for me.

I liked that the book had a different type of setting, a reality tv show. That was pretty much all I liked though. The book wasn't necessarily bad, it just could have been improved in several areas. The characters were hard to connect with, and I don't think the romance aspect of the plot was well-written. To me the book was just kind of "meh". Not terrible but not a stand out either. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy.

I did not enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. I loved the premise and I enjoyed both main characters, but not together. This was a classic example of "don't make assumptions" and it was increasingly frustrating when the main characters were still making assumptions about each other and making drastic decisions based on those assumptions without having a simple coverversation. The survival game aspect was interesting but hard to follow in book format and there were a lot of characters to keep track of. I didn't really care about any of them at the end of the book.

Synopsis:
Desperate for cash, Easton Cooper decides he’ll compete on an outrageous action-adventure reality show, and he hates reality TV. But there’s a catch—he’s staring across the meadow at his partner—a tan, hot, out-of-place California girl, wearing heels and a formal dress in the middle of freaking nowhere—and she will not bring him down! Even if he has to drag her across the finish line. Amity Rose wants an adventure. No one told her that “dress accordingly” meant deck out in hardcore mountain gear. So she wore strappy heels and a fancy dress to the opening scene. Her partner is the worst—a gangly, overconfident, know-it-all mountain trail guide. Did the directors just add a romantic twist to the drama? Sure, why not? Maybe she’ll leave the race with something more valuable than money. Just not with him!

Review:
I liked the game show aspect of this book and the competition. The race to riches or romance was like a mix of The Amazing Race and Bachelor in Paradise. I thought the challenges were fun. I haven't read a romcom with an athletic competition setting before, so that part was new and fun. However, I found it hard to connect with the characters. Cooper was hard to like from the beginning. He was really judgmental from the start and was hard on Amity. Because of this, I didn't like the romance between Cooper and Amity. It seemed to come out of nowhere and it seemed unrealistic. I really enjoy the enemies-to-lovers trope, but I just wasn't feeling this one. The ending seemed rushed to me as well. Overall, this book fell short for me. However, I did like the setting and the idea of the competition, so I might read the second book to this series with Cooper's sister.

the writing in this one was hard for me to get through. i didn't find myself pulling for either of the characters. the plot fell flat and i didn't like easton at. all. i felt forced to finish and really struggled through this book.

"Hollywood" and "Easton" are competing on a outdoor reality show for romance or riches.
I didn't like that she couldn't really be upfront to him about why she was there. Especially because she loves him.
It seemed like everything happened to fast but that's how romance books go.

The concept of the reality show was nice. But the characters were meh. Couldn't connect with the characters. Especially Easton he was a big no. I ended up DNFing this book.

★★ 2 stars

I always feel optimistic when requesting and receiving ARCs. I'm just always thrilled to be reading something new that I rarely pay attention to the possibility that I may not like it, I mean I'm not going to request something that I don't find interesting. So you see, when it happens that I didn't enjoy the book, I feel bad for giving it a low rating. This is one of those reads.

At one point in time I did love watching breezy and trashy reality tv with my parents no less, us Asians just love our drama and bitch-slapping. As a trope I'm sure that's just going to be deliciously chaotic if not outright riot like we see in tv. At least that's what I'm hoping for in Crush in the Cascades.

Usually I'm a charming assholes kind o' gal but by God, Easton Cooper is one hateful bastard. He opened the book with insults after insults after insults. I mean, man calm your mouth and thoughts down, will 'ya? Do we think that's adorable? Ugh gross. Do we think boys 'like' girls when they insult them? Sweetie, no. It's 2022, we don't do that no 'mo. Nakakagigil!


The more he insults her both verbally and in his thoughts, he falls in deeply with his physical attraction to her. Not because Amity has proven herself to be a worthy competitor or that she's showed herself to be the opposite of his first impression (not that it ever stopped him from being an asshole at all) but because she is physically attractive to him, the very same thing he's blasted her about in the beginning of the contest, on camera to be shown in live tv for the whole world to see. It even said " the bug bites and scrapes peppered across her skin turned him on even more". Oh, Lord …

Nothing to say about Amity. Everyone was so mean to her so naturally I rooted for her. Yeah well ... I liked her enough until she ran trail wearing hot pink lace thong and left her backbone somewhere in the Cascades, completely abandoning her female resolve. Who does that?

The ending was like "I'm sorry", "ok haha". What?!

NOT ENOUGH GROVEL!

Don't get me wrong, I love a good ole fashioned are-we-fighting-or-is-this-foreplay kind of romcom but I'm not feeling the comedy nor am I giddy with the prospect of romance specially on Easton's side. I'm not feeling sexual tension. I'm getting major misogynistic prick, domineering asshole-who-may-or-may-not-be-overcompensating-for-something vibes. It's eww vibes.

Mood setting is very important to me. If I cant feel it, it simply would not work for me —that's my first, should I say obstacle in reading this one. It was a lot work on my part to visualize the settings and I am a runner both road and trail. It should be easy for me to conjure up the images this is describing but most of the time time I'm supplementing it with my own trail running recollection. Would I be wrong to expect that this book should at least have met me halfway in that department?

I wish I could say that the imagery improved as the story goes on but to me it felt short in feeding me the vision of the outdoors, the nature experience and accurately depicting the sweet discomfort of being in the trail. I'm not feeling it. And because there wasn't enough of those, I was not convinced that there was enough 'hardship' to bond these people at all. In fact, I felt like the major challenge was the production team of the whole show for being pricks all the time.

A prologue would be nice, if reality tv has 3-minute trailers, why not add a prologue? I felt like I was thrown in the middle of something with no basic sense of what's going on. I guess if it was mimicking the emotions of the characters particularly in Amity's viewpoint that would work for me but this isn't in dual pov.

I'm afraid I didn't much warm up to Easton's antics. I felt like the plot was set to fit his character instead of both him and Amity together as a couple. And the more it tried to fit Easton's attitude in the narrative the more it becomes ridiculous. His attitude is so ugly that no matter how good the story tried to spin his character it just didn't work for me. Even I wouldn't want to be around this guy if it were real life.

I'd say I'm an easy enough person. It's either goosebumps never lie or cringe never lie. On this one, it's the latter.

Thanks so much to Netgalley for the copy!

Plot: ★★
Writing: ★★

Publication date: 02 May 2022>

I received an advance copy in exchange for honest thoughts and review.

I truly partook in this book . In the event that you honestly love carefree sentiment, this is an ideal book for you. We have our testy activity man brought together with an alleged spoilt rich young lady, put together on an unscripted television program. The cameras follow everything they might do, including comical difficulties they need to confront. The book snared drive straight in.

Read the complete run in both deluxe editions. The two main characters are a radio shock jock and his girl friend. He is horribly obnoxious and self centered and she is dumb. The guy is so awful that it makes no sense the girl likes him, much less loves him. Great premise but the execution did not work for me at all.

Je vous avouerai que j'ai craqué sur la couverture et l'intrigue m'a ensuite intriguée. Logique non! J'ai passé un bon moment de lecture en compagnie de Cooper et Amity. J'ai aimé le côté original du récit et cet enemies to lovers a su me conquérir.

Cooper Easton est notre héros de 28 ans. Il a décidé de s'inscrire à cette émission de TV réalité avec un but bien précis et bien noble. Pourtant, quand nous le verrons à l'écran, nous changerons d'avis à son sujet car son entrée en matière ne sera pas des plus douces. Cooper ne sera pas tendre avec notre héroïne et si nous savons qu'il a des circonstances atténuantes, nous ne pourrons pas tout excuse. Il sera ancré dans ses préjugés et ne cherchera pas à creuser et voir ce qui se cachent sous les apparences. Les épreuves du cette émission lui mettront les nerfs à vif mais il se pourrait aussi qu'il soit face à un dilemme. On va donc apprendre à le connaître et chercher à comprendre ses motivations. Les alliances sont de mises dans ce genre de jeu mais il devra faire attention car le moindre faux pas pourrait lui coûter cher. Il sait certes manier une boussole comme personne et il se débrouille parfaitement dans un milieu sauvage mais il ne maîtrise pas les codes de la vie sociale ou même des relations. A la clé de cette émission: l'amour ou un million de dollars. Quel choix fera-t-il?

Amity Rose est une jeune femme de 25 ans qui ne s'est jamais fait des amies. Elle n'a pas eu une vie facile et pourtant, elle ne se plaint jamais. Elle aussi a envie de remporter le trophée et bien entendu l'argent mais nous n'avons pas au départ de précisions sur ses intentions. Elle dégage une image faussée d'elle même, ce qui conduira à des jugements hâtifs mais douloureux. La première épreuve donnera le ton mais il est évident qu'elle saura nous surprendre plus d'une fois. Avec les nombreux changements de règles, nous la verrons donc faire équipe avec les différents candidats. Si nous avons envie de baffer Miles, lui au moins sera clair dans son jeu. Elle devra donc faire attention aux alliances qu'elle va former et aussi aux sentiments qu'elle pourrait développer. Cette émission montrera les vrais visages des gens et nous espérons qu'elle s'en sortira indemne. Fera-telle les bons choix? Ne devrait-elle pas plus penser à elle?

Bref, je suis contente d'avoir découvert cette romance qui sera vraiment sympathique à lire. L'autrice nous offre un enemies to lovers dans un contexte différent des comédies romantiques habituelles et elle tire donc son épingle du jeu.

Fun, light read when you just want to sit down for a quick and easy to read haters to lovers book.

The premise was definitely new and exciting, with our characters meeting on the set of a "survival" show. I liked that there were multiple characters throughout, with different relationships and personalities. I did feel that everything was very rushed, particularly the sense of "love" from our main characters. It felt genuine enough but it was just so unrealistic and didn't have the exciting buildup that these novels typically have. There also wasn't enough of a character development to see the characters transitioning, which made the relationship work in the end, so it just didn't quite click as I was reading.

Overall, I would still recommend.

Easton Cooper is desperate for cash, he’ll even compete on an outrageous action-adventure reality show, and he hates reality TV. Amity Rose wants an adventure. So she hates bugs, cold air, tents, campfires—must she go on? Now all the contestants think she’s a pampered princess—and to add to her bad luck, her partner is the worst—a gangly, overconfident, know-it-all mountain trail guide.

Enemies to lovers has got to be one of my absolutely favorite tropes! I enjoyed the characters and the storyline. The writing was great and flowed very easily.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this story and I liked the characters. it felt like an overall enjoyable read but there was a a bit too much information about all the ins and outs of the game and descriptions about the tasks and things that the contestants were doing. I was really wanting to much more romance from the two leads much more earlier on. But it was a nice read.

⭐️⭐️- {CRUSH IN THE CASCADES- Lisa S. Gayle}

The premise of the book was great. A reality tv show in the Cascades that includes tons of physical endurance races with the chance at developing a romantic relationship in the mix. The two main characters are likable enough, kind of like the underdogs but incredibly good looking.
After three days they decide to become girlfriend/boyfriend (yes…THAT fast) and we are supposed to buy into that when day 1 they were pitted against each other. By like 1 week in they are already in love and they dont even know each other, basically just tons of physical chemistry is fueling their decision. It felt too rushed and not believable so I couldn’t get invested in the characters. Even the supporting cast was pretty bland. Its a pass for me

Thanks to @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was fun but I found it hard to get past the stereotyping towards the beginning. Apart from that this is a really fun romance Easton and Amity are great characters and this book included some of my favourite tropes. Overall I enjoyed this book once I got into it and would love to read more from this author

I like the idea of this book giving off reality show vibes, but I couldn't connect with the characters at all . It's still an entertaining read, it's just the romance in this book isn't for me. There just wasn't much to it to connect to.

Thank you Netgalley and to the publisher for this arc

What a fun read! It was unlike other books I read because of the reality show competition and it very much reminded me of The Bachelor!

Cooper and Amity compete on a reality TV show competition called Race for Riches and Romance. They are both there for the money for their own specific reasons but find they might find love too with the person they were least expecting.

I do have to admit that Cooper rubbed me the wrong way and I hated how he treated Amity in the beginning of the book. He seemed incredibly arrogant and full of himself. It slowly got better but Amity could have done better instead of falling so quickly for him. 🫠🫣

Overall a fun quick read and if you’re into competitions and racing it’ll definitely hold your interest!

I ended up DNFing this book as I was having a really busy time in my life and found it super hard to get into. I will try it again in a month or two and hopefully will be able to give it the attention it needs

I honestly wanted to read this book based on the cover because I am a sucker for camping and the fact that there was a tent on the cover pulled my attention. I will always gravitate towards enemies-to-lovers books because I have always loved and enjoyed them. Amity was actually a main female character in a romance book that I could stand and wouldn't mind reading about. This wasn't the best book I've ever read, and I will be slightly hesitant to read more from this author in the future, but I still enjoyed it.