Unfortunately, I have to say this one wasn't for me.
I wasn't invested or interested in the characters or the story at all.
I wish I was because this book should have been one that I loved, but it just wasn't.

3.5
-the friendship group had great dynamics but their past left me with a lot of questions
-i felt that nina had a lot of the same internal problems over and over again without ever really being properly addressed, even at the end
-i still liked the book, but i wish we had seen nina actually heal from her past and not just been told it happened in the epilogue
-the writing was really engaging and i enjoyed their relationship overall, just felt some things were a bit underwhelming

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington books for a copy of this ARC. All thoughts are my own.
Nina Rice had dreams of being a screenwriter in LA - but after a break-up, she finds herself diminished, withdrawn from her friends, and working in a background role for a talent agency. Nina Rice has run away. When she needs to work with the up-and-coming Ari Fox, she feels herself drawn back out into the world, but worried she will make the same mistakes again.

This was a great romance story, dealing with anxiety, and the negative self-talk that we can internalise. The two leads were compelling, and Ari Fox is a flawed catch, who is nonetheless right for Nina. I loved that Nina was a bigger woman, and that Ari was understanding of a perceived boundary.

Overall the story left me feeling warm and happy - what more could you want?

I could not get enough of this story, and hope to read more from Amy Spalding.

3.75/5

Thank you Kensinton Books and Netgalley for the ARC!

"for her consideration" is an adorabile, self-growth romance about Nina, whose job is to manage and write emails under celebrities's facade, all this while dealing with a break-up three years old from which she's still recovering. the novel picks up when one of her clients, new queer icon Ari Fox wants to meet her in person.

i really adored this book. it as all the right elements: celebrity romance (which is one of my favourite types of romances), sapphic main couple (i stan) and a flawed main character growing as a person. i really liked Nina, she felt like a real person with her insecurities and her fears, and it was wondering to see her overcoming them. the romance between her and Ari was absolutely adorabile. bonus point for the friend group and Lorna, the kind of supportino figured we all deserve in our lives. definitely would recommend.

3.5/5
For Her Consideration by Amy Spalding is a cute, sweet, fun and heartwarming story about friendship and romance and ambition and bad breakups and personal growth. It's told from the point of view of Nina Rice, a current celebrity account manager and an aspiring screenwriter, who has sworn off dating because of a bad breakup. Then she meets Ari Fox, an up and coming actress who is slowly making a name for herself. It's their story of falling in love. But it's mainly a story of personal growth, reconnecting with old friends, about career, bad breakups and their effect on oneself and one's relationships.
I had a really good time with this one. I loved reading about the cute dinner dates and adorable text exchanges. I also loved Nina's relationship with her aunt Lorna. There are very few books in which the main character is plus sized but the entire book doesn't revolve around that. And this one falls into that category and that was really great to read as a plus sized person. Just like some books are small town books, this one is a very city or even LA book. There is something that I didn't like which occurs in the latter half and would be a spoiler. Also I felt that it had great moments, but there were periods in between when I lost interest in the book.
If you like a romance in which the main focus is personal growth of the main character and is easy to read, then you can definitely try this one. It can be a great pick in spring and summer, especially when you are on a vacation.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc

It took me a little while to connect with this book but I really enjoyed the ending. I loved the relationship between the two main characters. It seemed so mature and healthy which was why the third act breakup just didn’t land with me. The drama between them just seemed so minor to be the cause of the end of their relationship. I will say that their reunion somewhat addressed that aspect so it ended up not bothering me as much as I thought it would.

I’m not a huge fan of books set in and around Hollywood (just a personal preference!) so that didn’t work great for me but I love love loved the over-arching theme of “found family” in this book. It was done perfectly! A lot of great supporting characters that add a lot to the story.

Overall, a very fun read!

I loved this romance book! I really recognized myself in our main character, Nina which made me love the story even more. I would definitely recommend this to all my friends!

I need significantly more sapphic contemporary romances of this nature. Could definitely be spicier, but these are the type of leading ladies I strive to be

It starts with a break up reminiscent of Ross and Rachel - with a list of flaws that Nina takes to heart. When her girlfriend and love of her life ends their relationship, Nina retreats to the suburbs of California. Convinced that her ex is correct and she will eventually make her friends' lives worse, she cuts all ties and tries to convince herself that her daily crosswords, celebrity communications job, and her beloved 80 year old aunt is all she needs in life. It works for a while…until she meets her newest "difficult" client only to have the sparks between them be the most difficult thing of all.

With a lot of positive representation, found family and some humor, For Her Consideration was a sweet little romance novel. I really enjoy the found family trope and this group of friends was *chef's kiss*.

This was a quick read but a fun one with some good character development. Some of the decisions that Nina made were a bit off the deep end but everyone deals with toxicity differently and I'm glad to see her grow and change throughout. Some of the writing was a bit repetitive and the characters laughed a little bit too much at non-funny things but if that is my biggest complaint for a fun romance book…trust me there are worse things in books.

This book will fit the bill for fans of Delilah Green Doesn't Care

Thank you to Kensington Books and Netgalley for an advanced copy. Publish date is 02/21/2023 so keep this on your radar!

A sweet, spicy romance featuring a K Stew-type actress and the plus sized queer woman who writes her thank you emails. I enjoyed this one more than I expected, because I found the beginning a bit slow, but it picked up speed. It does a great job at encapsulating the "what are we" that is so often found in queer friendships, while giving you a flawed main character who is fairly easy to relate to. I do think things were too easily wrapped into a nice, neat bow at the end, but I can't hold that against this book, as it is normally a hallmark of the romance genre.

4.5/5

Oh I loved this book so much! The found family trope is my favorite and Amy Spalding really knocked it out of the park with this story. I relate to Nina on a deeply personal level. She has the anxiety and unsureness that I struggle with on a daily basis but she is also so much more than that. Nina Rice is CONFIDENT in her fat body and I LOVE a good fat-friendly narrative. Ari Fox is the book girlfriend of my dreams and I wish I could take her out on a date. The only thing I would tweak was the third act breakup. It could've been a little bit more detailed and drawn out. I do feel like it was rushed and was shocked that it happened so quickly, and it felt like it happened over something minor (which Nina's friends are keen to point out at brunch, thank god). Lorna is the perfect side character and I wish I had a Lorna in my life to keep me cool! I am so ecstatic this book ended with a HEA.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC!

3.5*

this story follows nina rice, who’s an aspiring scriptwriter, and her journey to doing what she loves. nina moved to la to follow her dreams of writing for tv, but she’s been stuck at her talent agency job and isolating life. following a bad breakup, she isolated herself from her friends and stopped believing in herself. however, when she meets ari fox, an actress, she begins to realize that she can do what she loves.

nina’s character was very relatable! although i could do without the constant reminder that she “didn’t know what was cool” because she lived in the suburbs. other than that, i really liked her. she was a perfect example of how isolation can be very comfortable. ari was alright. i didn’t like how she didn’t have a lot of regards for nina’s job (which she needed to be able to live) but you could tell she cared for nina a lot.

nina and ari’s relationship was cute! i liked the fact that they were different and complemented each other very well. i also lovedddd reading about nina reconnecting with her old friends! it was very wholesome.

i was really loving it until the third act breakup. what ari did was so disrespectful and even though she apologized in the end, i don’t think nina should’ve forgiven her so quickly. if this wasn’t in it or it was dealt with differently, it definitely would’ve gotten a higher rating from me.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

This one was just ok for me. There was nothing about the plot or the characters that really wowed me, but it wasn’t bad enough to not continue. I appreciated all the representation that takes place within this story. I felt like the emphasis on Nina’s weight got old after awhile. It felt like it was more of a negative.

I thought this was a cute sapphic romance for fans of Hollywood glam. I do think that there is something to be desired in the pacing and the spice scenes— sometimes the chemistry was not there for me and I found the writing too long for how little it accomplished. Although I can appreciate a flawed MC, I did find Nina annoying, and could not connect with her.

I did however love the relationships between women in this group— Nina’s friends are awesome and I also liked her relationship with her aunt.

This story just didn’t suck me in, but I I could see it resonating with others.

This was a heart-warming, wholesome love letter to the LGBTQ+ community, with a strong theme of found family that balanced out the somewhat weaker (in my opinion) romantic plot.

The story opens three years ago with Nina being horribly dumped by her then serious girlfriend, who made her believe she was doomed to ruin every relationship she had. Determined to avoid that fate, Nina moved out of LA, cut out all of her long-time friends and abandoned her dreams of screenwriting, settling for a job ghostwriting celebrity emails. That all changes when present-day Nina is called into a meeting with Ari Fox, a hot queer celebrity, and then runs into one of her former friends, forcing her to confront her actions and decide how she wants to move forward.

The book is highly recommended to people looking for:
- LGBTQ+ representation: the majority of the characters, including secondary characters, are queer. Most of the characters with lines are cis lesbian women and a non-binary person.
- Fat positivity/representation (the MC is described as fat and curvy, as is one of her friends, and this is spoken of positively without ignoring the negative ways in which society views fat people).
- No cis straight men characters: I think there's only one cis man mentioned, who has a fun part.
- LGBTQ+ found family: As I mentioned, this was to me the strongest part of the book, the way that Nina reconnects with her found family and figures herself out.
- Diversity in small details, such as mentions of a character and their partner not being interested in monogamy, adoption, etc.
- Lots of spice!
- A wholesome ending.
- Honest conversations and references to therapy.

While I enjoyed the book overall, I had trouble believing that someone would cut out all of her very close friends based on what one person says about them and never explain herself. Like, kudos for wanting to protect your friends and the earnest self-reflection, but I can't imagine being in that situation and not going to a single person in my close circle to be like "you won't believe what just happened". THEN if they gave any indication that my now-ex might be right, I might be like "oh wow I'm garbage". And then it happened again?? I'm very glad this second time was different, and that it led to Nina opening up, but it was still a bit too much for me to believe. Even more because it really seemed during several points that Nina really believed that... she was cursed? Her ex (not a witch) had cursed her? Which is ironic because Nina did end up making the "prophecy" come true with her choices! One of her friends rightly points out that's the dumbest story she's ever heard - but why is it the whole plot?

I also wish that there had been more build-up to Nina and Ari. I've noticed that I feel this way whenever the story is told from one POV only, and I do think we would have benefited from having Ari's POV here as well to make her feel more fleshed out and see the ways she's changed by the end. I was also annoyed by her overuse of "Nina Rice" while talking... to Nina. And while I appreciate the wholesome quality of their relationship, it also makes you not as invested when there's little build-up and almost no tension until around 70% of the book... and then that's solved like it was nothing all along (brushing off, incidentally, that Nina did meddle with Ari's correspondence *again*). So I'm giving this 4 stars but it's really more like 3 1/2 because the book is a romcom and the romance aspect could have been better developed.

For Your Consideration captures the LA vibe in the way that L Word Generation Q captures the East Los Angeles queer scene. The Author goes as far as describing the interior of Bestia one of LA’s hottest restaurants and even the Pasadena Rose Bowl flea market. You can envision Nina taking the 110 fwy to get to Bestia for a hot date. The Story follows Nina an email copyrighter for celebrities her life has become insular due to a bad breakup with her ex-girlfriend Taylor. Taylor is the worst! She doesn’t get much screen time in terms of pages but she is an ominous presence that looms. She is the reason our protagonist Nina is suffering from a low grade depression.

However — Nina’s life changes when she meets her celebratory crush and newest client Ari Fox.

Ari Fox is Kristin Stewart, Kate Moening, Tegan or Sara all rolled into one. Ari Fox is a place holder for whatever fantasy dreamboat celebratory you would like to slot into the story. Where this book is interesting is with Nina on her journey out of herself and into the wide world. She must get out of her shell. Out of the places in her life that are not serving her. Out of the suburbs and away from the dark thoughts that tear her down. Ari is the catalyst for Nina’s change but the real fun is watching Nina shed all the metaphorically weight of her past.

This is a good book and a quick read I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fun and satisfying romance.


Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy! Xoxo

I was so bored reading this book it took me at least three weeks to get through it and I had to force myself to finish it. Forcing yourself to finish a book is a not a pleasant experience and probably affected my rating.

Anyway this book opens up with the protagonist's girlfriend Taylor breaking up with her. We're told that Taylor has given Nina a list of things that are not working in their relationship and why it is damaging to her own mental health. Among the 12 points is the fact that Nina is self-centered and always late which shows a lack of care for the people around her. Both those points are proven by Nina in the prologue. Reading this I assumed this was going to be the type of romance where Nina is a flawed character and her flaws will create conflicts in her next relationship and she will have to grow as a person. But no...as I learnt later in the book, you're supposed to empathise with Nina here and find Taylor toxic. Despite being told Nina indeed do some of things her ex is mad at her for.

This trend continues with learning that following the breakup Nina ghosted all her friends and that at her work she is making some nasty assumptions about her assistant whom she never met.

But the thing is Nina doesn't grow. Because the narrative doesn't want her to be wrong or confront those but rather turn the previously mentioned points into insecurities. The inevitable third act break up doesn't come from Nina either.

The prologue is reflected upon late in the book where everyone says that Taylor was toxic for writing this. I am going to be honest it was a nasty thing to write but an attempt at communication with a partner who went on to keep doing the same things. Anyway I couldn't figure out what to do with Nina and her character since the narrative couldn't either.

And the rest... it was so flat. No chemistry, the bare minimum for a Hollywood plot (I will admit that Nina's job was very interesting and really drew me in at the beginning), lackluster writing, boring friends

4 stars

Wow. Just…wow. I never knew I needed a queer Hollywood rom com but alas I have found it. All hail Spalding!

Please read this book omg

<i>Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an e-arc of this amazing novel!</i>

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
For Her Consideration is Amy Spalding's first sapphic adult romance. While I have not read her previous books, I did enjoy For Her Consideration. The FMC, Nina Rice, was such a great character! I feel that I was able to know her so well that I could anticipate her reactions to certain events in the book. Unfortunately, I do not feel I was able to really know the love interest, Ari. I think this story could have been strengthened with Ari's POV or even more in-depth conversations between Ari and Nina. I just wanted more from this character! Nina's chosen family consisted of eccentric individuals that jumped off the page. I just didn't feel the same way about Ari.
Regardless, the romance was great. The flirting was top notch, and the spice was beautifully written. I am looking forward to reading any other novels Spalding publishes in this genre.

It was joyful, thoughtful, real, and so swoony read. I felt like I was friends with Nina, who was so relatable, I loved all of her friends, and I adored her romance with Ari. I mean, a romance where a Kristen Stewart-ish stand-in falls in love with a screenwriter might as well be made for me. This was such a delightful time. Definitely a good book to read if you’re looking for a cute romance and a fast pick-me-up.