When a movie guy and book girl date. This was a love story made for hopeless romantics. I was obsess with these two from the jump. Such a cozy and funny read

Alexa Martin is an auto read, auto buy, auto devour. I absolutely love how her stories feel so incredibly accessible and are so easy to envelop yourself within. This is contemporary done oh-so-right!

Thank you Berkley Romance for my copy of Better Than Fiction! All thoughts are my own.

After I read Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes last year, I became a huge fan of Alexa Martin. If you haven’t read it yet, you must. It’s so good. So I was really excited for her return to Romance with Better Than Fiction and it did not disappoint!

I really enjoyed Drew’s journey and it was one I could really identify with; truthfully, after the last two and a half years I think a lot of people will be able to identify with her. I loved how clever the premise was, with a male Romance writer and a self proclaimed book “hater.” I loved the bookstore setting in a mountain town too! But who is surprised there.

This is a perfect book to cuddle up with during these colder months and dream of traveling to scenic places.

Synopsis:

“As a self-proclaimed book hater and a firm believer that the movie is always better, Drew Young didn’t anticipate inheriting her grandma’s bookstore, the Book Nook. She’s in way over her head even before the shop’s resident book club, comprising seven of the naughtiest old ladies ever, begin to do what they do best—meddle.

Bestselling author Jasper Williams is a hopeless romantic. When he meets Drew at his Book Nook signing event, he becomes determined to show her the beauty of reading. He curates a book bucket list in exchange for her help exploring the local Denver scene for his current manuscript. From going river rafting to trying local restaurants, Drew begins to connect with Jasper in a way she only thought happened in fictionWhen messy family ties jeopardize the future of the Book Nook, Drew is caught between a bookshelf and a hard place. She’s reminded that real life isn’t always big dreams and sweeping romance. But Jasper is the plot twist she never saw coming and he’s writing a happily ever after just for them.” —Amazon

What I Liked:

The Setting—I LOVE a good mountain town and loved how Drew’s passion for nature was featured so seamlessly in this book. I loved the descriptions and now want to get back to Colorado as fast as possible.

The Premise—A romance writer meets a non reader! How fun! I loved that Jasper was a believable character. He didn’t feel like a caricature of a Romance writer. He seemed grounded and real and Drew didn’t hate books, she just hadn’t found the right genre. It all felt very authentic!

The Characters—Jasper is sexy AF, just gonna say it (chapter 18, my friends). I also loved Daisy and Elsie and would loved books from their POV’s! And the DIrty Birds were a delight. The whole world of Better Than Fiction was well thought out and developed.

What Didn’t Work For Me:

Honestly, nothing. I am a huge fan of Alexa Martin’s books and I’ve loved watching her writing and storytelling grow with each release. I adored Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes and I’m glad she brought some of those elements into Better Than Fiction!

I wish we had like, MAYBE 30 more pages to explore the resolution of the 3rd act break up but I still loved it.

Character Authenticity: 4.5/5

Spice Rating: 2/5

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

Content Warnings:

grief

I couldn't get into this one. I got 20% of the way in and realized nothing had happened besides different people saying the author was hot. The lead character was kind of annoying and the lack of any kind of plot was a real turnoff. I did not finish.

I absolutely loved this book. I fell in love with story, the main characters and even the supporting characters. Drew Young is amazingly awkward, sarcastic, strong and just flat out great. When she meets Jasper Williams she becomes all of these things tenfold. It’s sweet and it’s hilarious and at times it’s heartbreaking. Finished this book in one day. First time reading Alexa Martin, definitely won’t be my last.

Romance centered around books is a current trend right now, but this is one you must read! Drew inherited the "Book Nook" from her grandma after she passed away. She has never been much of a reader but she adored her grandma and loved helping her out. She is trying to keep her head above water when the book club "The Dirty Birds" books a well-known romance author Jasper Williams to come and speak at the store. Jasper is in town to write his latest novel and needs help from a local and Drew needs some help with reading books. They team up with Drew to show Jasper all of her favorite spots in Colorado and Drew gives her a list of the must-read books along with an activity to go with them. As they spend time together they in turn seem so like each other the problem, is Jasper is just in town to write his current book.

I absolutely loved this book. I loved the characters and the cute interactions between them especially them going on their adventures together. This book was a super quick read as I finished it in less than a day. I really liked that the author in the book helped her see books she would enjoy. I loved the family and friends who are a found family for her in this book. The dirty birds totally need another book where they matchmake Daisy. The only reason I'm giving this book 4 stars instead of 5 was the main conflict between the characters at 80% it just seemed weird how that even came to be. I don't want to post too much of what I mean by this as it's a spoiler but I feel like it didn't make sense to have that be the conflict. Especially when everyone else knew about it. I'm looking forward to read some of this authors backlist work in the future.

Loved this so much! It took me a minute to get into, but I love how different it was from Alexa's other works!

Better Than Fiction gets full marks for Colorado sightseeing ideas and lessons in self-realization,. And one has to like the friends, both the ones who are contemporaries of the MC, Drew, and the older women who were her grandmother’s tribe. The dialog in scenes featuring friends was quite good. Otherwise, I say, “Meh.” Readable but nothing to rave about.

This was just so sweet and everything I wanted in a book. The dynamic that was set up by Martin in this book was perfect and I loved the development of the characters gradual romance. I couldn’t have been happier with this book, sometimes you need a sweet and solid romance and that’s exactly what this was!

This was a fun, fast romance novel that's a great summer read. The characters are well written and the plot, while somewhat predictable, kept me engaged. I especially enjoyed a lot of the secondary characters and the bookstore business, which was super colorful and fun.

I'm a big Alexa Martin fan and always look forward to her next book. Better Than Fiction fell short for me but I'll continue to recommend this author's earlier books and hope there will be more to come.

This was cute, but it didn't grab me the way Alexa Martin usually does! There was so much emphasis on setup (author/person who hates books) that I felt like it eclipsed a lot of the characters, especially in the early portion of the novel. Also, Drew's emphasis on 'hates books' for a bookstore owner that had spent a lot of her childhood in a bookstore with her beloved grandmother--it didn't really check out for me, logically. Where were, at the very least, the fond memories? Not liking to read is obviously fine, but the way this was framed felt like a weird characterization that flattened the expression of grief that the novel explored.

Better than Fiction by Alexa Martin was so much more than I was anticipating!
And I can't thank Berkley enough for this approved eARC!

I loved the Playbook series. But this will easily be one of my favorite books this year and I cannot wait to get my hands on the next one by Martin.

I knew from the moment I saw this epic cover that Better than Fiction would be a ton of fun, but I wasn't prepared for how much fun, or for the unexpected feels it hit me with.
This book completely grabbed my heart and attention. 
The characters Drew and Jasper are freaking phenomenal and I ate their story up!
The chemistry, the talk, the feels...... Everything was spectacular and I rooted for these two the entire time.
This book is amazingly adorable and addictive!

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Berkley,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

A little bit of romance set in a book store? Catnip for librarians and book lovers alike! Only this one features Drew, who has inherited her grandmother's bookstore which she loves but she doesn't like to read. Fortunately, she ahs great friends, her grandmothers friends to help and some good ideas. Then again, it turns out that maybe having authors come to the store is a great idea when Jasper Williams, author of many many romance books turns his sights to romancing Drew.

There isn't a ton of tension, but there is a ton of fun romantic dates and some confusion internally for Drew. But how will she make it all fit into her life? Will she figure out how to run a bookstore? Will a challenge from Jasper to get her to read work?

There's some plot/backstory in here that makes the whole thing much more involved/interesting which I will not spoil. If you like romance, you'll make it to that part, I promise.

NOVEMBER 8/22 - BETTER THAN FICTION

I’m going to keep it a buck, I thought I wasn’t going to like this as much as I’d initially hoped when I requested it. Drew seemed like she was going to walk this line of either being great or bothering me and I wasn’t sure which direction we were going to head in but I am HAPPY TO REPORT I LOVED HER AND THE BOOK.

I loved how she described Jasper. Like he was always just living in his golden hour. I just had this warm blanket of a human in my head and I L O V E how that turned out for me. He was a warm coffee on a cold day. A big hug after a rough week. I didn’t want anything bad to happen.

But like all books, we need some conflict. I didn’t think it was ridiculous by any means, and I felt like Drew just had the rug tugged out from under her at first, only for someone to RIP IT OUT a second later when she thought she found her balance. I felt sad for her. I think she was appropriately holding onto this last piece of her grandma and I can’t say I blame her. One thing I felt was just this deep need to hug my grandma and I wish she was still here so I could. Alice Young loved Drew and there was no doubt in my mind about that once in this damn book.

I would’ve liked more Drew x Daisy time but as they are not the focus, this is just an extra thing I would’ve preferred but is not bringing down my enjoyment of the book by any means.

I’M JUST GLAD I READ IT. I’m glad it was as good as I hoped it would be.

Bookstore owner… Denver… Hating reading… that’s me! Yep, hated reading til I started working at a bookstore in my mid 20s, then ironically ended up owning one—who knew? Finding kinship with the main character, I loved and appreciated her journey. Living in Colorado, I thoroughly enjoyed the couple’s adventures around the state. Romance, friendship and fun banter.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a huge Alexa Martin fan. Huge. I've read everything she's written and I'm constantly scoping out her social media to see what she's writing next and when it's going to come out. No lie. The second I see anything of hers on NetGalley, I'm hitting that request button like it's my job.



In Better than Fiction we have Drew and Jasper. She's a bookstore owner who doesn't like to read and he's a writer. Match made in heaven, right? Welllll, eventually, yes. but there was a little work getting there. For one, Drew is grappling with some pretty deep grief with the loss of her grandmother, the prior owner of the bookstore and one of Drew's favorite people in the entire world. Not only is she grieving, she's also grieving the loss of her dream, while trying to do a job she never really wanted. And if that's not enough, she's also dealing with one of the worst dad's ever. He's truly awful. That's all yuck, right? Enter Jasper, an Adonis of a writer who is doing a book talk at her store, due some wonderfully meddling Dirty Birds (her grandmother's friends, master meddlers, and book clubbers). He's the kind of guy who causes the room to stop and stare and ....drool.



After he book talk, he's encouraged to ask Drew for some help with research for his next book, which is right up her alley, so while she's hesitant, she decides to do it. There's one condition though. If she's taking the time to do this for him, he wants to do something for her. So he decides he's going to try to help her find the joy of reading; her excursions may be for book research, his will be to compliment the books he chose for her to read. Best set up ever. Their excursions allow them to get to know each other, connect, and fall for each other and we get to watch it happen in real time.



I loved how much Drew loved Colorado and now that I've read this book, I'm definitely going back to explore it more. I also loved the love story of Drew and Jasper. But I especially loved how Alexa Martin wrote the friendships between the women in this novel. It never fails that she not only gives us a love story between a couple, but also shows us a love story of friends. She always captures the banter and lives of women so well and it's one of my favorite things about her novels; Better than Fiction continues my love affair with the friends she writes. As a matter of fact, I'm hoping that she gives Daisy a book because I'm not ready to see these women go yet.



Better than Fiction blends grief, romance, and humor; you'll love Jasper and Drew and their journey of finding each other and love.

I found the plot became very circular, I really liked her descriptions of the setting but the romance was meh compared to her past books. Not a first purchase.

DNF@48%. The relationship with Drew and dad feels so over the top. She’s supposed to be hurt and betrayed, but it reads as annoyed, and then she’s off to make out with Jasper. Things between Drew and Jasper went from 5 to 100, and it didn’t feel like the right pace for the story, because Jasper is a thoughtful and patient and kind person who seems to understand feelings, so he should have read her frustration and asked if she wanted to talk about what happened and to dive deep. It would have read better if they closed up the book shop and went to grab a drink. She needs to learn to trust, because her dad and her sister theoretically would have shaken that.

Jasper is introduced as the “built” CrossFit hottie, but the reality is that in order to have your muscles grow and to pop out, you need to be eating a lot of protein and not a lot of carbs, and body fat percentage has to be very low for muscles to pop, so the body image portrayed doesn’t feel realistic either. Muscles go somewhat fast when you’re not using them, so in order to maintain (as he’s supposedly serious and does this traveling a lot for his books), Jasper would really have had to find a CrossFit studio there (because heavy weights needed aren’t found at hotels or rental units), and thus Jasper should have made some friends already and possibly met a cute girl who could follow along and add some drama. He’d also be eating at least 2,000+ healthy calories a day to maintain those muscles and that pop, so lack of snacking and eating is noticeably weird in that context. Alexa’s author bio says “eight years she spent as a NFL wife” so she would theoretically know all this.

With the book not coming out until November, maybe the editors have some time to work out some of this. Fingers crossed, because it could be great.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC.