This book was a bit slow for me. Even from the beginning when Jack was talking about his feelings for Lizzie it was slow. So much inner fighting before doing anything. It was a cute story but just moved too slow for my liking.

Friend to lovers with a bookish twist! A workaholic, Lizzy, and Jack who works at his family's business are best friends. We know early on that Jack has always had feelings for Lizzy and she is oblivious to that. When Lizzy takes a well earned, yet unexpected, vacation from work she visits her best friend. During their vacation Jack tries to convince her that he's the one for her and Lizzy finds a small book store to help out.

Overall, this is a cute friends to lover story where we find ourselves rooting for this couple to get together. Where I struggled with this book is there was not a lot of sexual tension or flirty banter moving the story forward for me. It felt very inevitable but not in the exciting way. More of a slow and steady way. Not that it was a bad thing but I wanted something a little more exciting moving the story forward. I liked the characters and the ending though.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

This feel good romance introduces you to Lizzy. Lizzy is an overachiever with a checklist. Jack is her best friend and when Lizzy comes back to town for a vacation after moving away, it's like a dream come true. The only problem: Lizzy doesn't know how Jack truly feels.

Lizzy decides to help a small bookstore owner while create a more eyecatching store rather than its current state of dishelved clutter; making her dreams become a reality. Lizzy drags Jack in along for the renovations as well and her checklists and organization truly pulls at my heartstrings!

With a strong friends to lovers trope and a hilarious curve to second-chance romance, this adorable story (set mostly in a bookstore - heaven!), beautifully depicts exploring and finding new boundaries with someone you care for.

This audiobook was cute and sweet. That was it, though. I don't feel like it was a truly unique story that I'll remember after a while. It was a little too predictable but it was a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Booked on a Feeling is an adorably sweet rom-com that follows Lizzy, a book-loving lawyer, who is feeling really burnt out with her job as she follows her rigorous checklist to finally make partner. But after suffering from a panic attack while in court, she escapes to Weldon for a 3 week reset where her best friend Jack lives and starts helping out a struggling bookstore - and the two find that there may be more to this best friend thing after all.⁣ Sometimes the path to the rest of your life has been in front of you all along.⁣

I thought it was such a sweet story and there were parts I really adored: The FOOD. The family interactions, THE BOOKSTORES! I do wish the build up had been a little bit more, though. It felt like an instant "Hey! I love her!" and "Hey! I love him!" from the very beginning - and lots of inner monologues of "this can't happen" and I really wanted more of the "getting there" part. It sort of made it a bit more predictable than I like - BUT it's was still so cute and a really sweet story!

Lizzy is your average overachiever striving to meet the high set standards of the people in her life. When she realizes that she is getting burnt out, she decides to take a break from her work as a lawyer and visit her lifelong best friend, Jack, in the small town of Weldon. Lizzy spends a few weeks there trying to get her head on straight and slowly figures out who she wants to be.

I feel like a lot of people struggle with wondering if they are on the right path at some point in their lives. We look back at the choices we've made and wonder if we took the wrong path. Lizzy's story is so relatable in that way and readers instantly feel a connection to her character because of it. Up until now, she's been doing what she was "supposed" to be doing but she's realizing that it might not be what makes her happy.

Jack and Lizzy's relationship is so adorable. Neither one of them want to ruin their lifelong friendship yet they can't deny their feelings for each other. I loved seeing them navigate this change between them all while trying to keep a balance in their friendship. They have such great chemistry. I will always have a special place in my heart for friends-to-lovers tropes.

I loved the bookish aspect of this. However it did leave me wanting more. It was slow for me in the beginning but it did end up picking up towards the middle!

A bookstore romance! Set in California, Booked on a Feeling is about self discovery, figuring out what you love, and being happy. Working through struggles such as being an overachiever and dealing with your parents' expectations. I enjoyed learning about the Korean families and being in the bookstore!

I could not get into this book, which may be because I’ve been reading a lot of this genre lately. I appreciated the mental health representation, but found the characters predictable.

Booked on a Feeling
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Format: Kindle eBook, Audiobook, and Physical
Date Published: 7/26/22
Author: Jayci Lee
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (ebook) and Dreamscape Media (audio)
Pages: 320
Goodreads Rating: 3.47

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Dreamscape Media, I am providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: Lizzy "Overachiever" Chung, Esq. has her life mapped out. What was not in her plans was passing out from a panic attack during a pivotal moment in her career. A few deep breaths and a four hour drive later, Lizzy is in Weldon for three weeks to shed the burnout and figure out what went wrong. Jack Park didn't expect to see Lizzy back in Weldon, but now he's got three weeks to spend with the girl of his dreams. Except she doesn't know of his decades-long crush on her--and he intends to keep it that way. When Lizzy decides that the local bookstore needs a little revamp, of course, Jack is going to help her bring it back to life. But the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to ignore there might be more than just friendship among the dusty shelves and books...

My Thoughts: The story is narrated in a dual narration fashion by Lizzy and Jack, in their perspectives. This book gave me all of the feels!! Team Lizzy/Jack ALL THE WAY! I enjoyed the narration as well, I switched back and forth between the digital and audio copy. I am in the legal profession as a paralegal and I love any book that touches on the legal profession. The characters are well developed with depth, instant connection, hot chemistry, witty banter, and lovely supporting characters. I could see spin off books with some of the supporting characters. The author’s writing style is complex, creative, romantic, and the way the characters are written to be interwoven into each other lives is just brilliant. This book made me laugh, made me cry, made me mad, made me sad, and just took me on this wonderful rollercoaster of emotions. I have already added this author’s backlist to my TBR. I highly recommend that you pickup this book immediately!!!

I wanted to love this book. I love books about books and bookstores. But I just didn't care about this couple or their story. It aggravated me and I just didn't enjoy it.

I love books about books! Friends to lovers is a favorite trope of mine! The romance was so sweet and steamy! It was a great balance. The characters were so relatable. I will be reading more from this author. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ St. Martin’s Griffin for an audio arc in exchange for my honest review.

Special thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the free audiobook in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

T R O P E S: friends-to-lovers, small town love story

If you're looking for a mind numbing, background noise-providing audiobook to fill the void while you're assembling Amazon furniture incorrectly and trying not to become undone by the crippling stress of anatomy lab exams (too specific? my bad), then this is something you should pick up.

It was literally just fine. The story wasn't very complex, meaningful, or full of much depth. And that's not inherently a bad thing. Especially when it comes to the romance genre, there's undoubtedly an audience for that. It was giving Hallmark movie. Very generic. Very cookie cutter. And sometimes you want a feel-good story you don't have to think too hard about.

I will say, at times, it was kind of. a lot. to read about a character experiencing such enormous amounts of stress. while I, a medical student, have been experiencing enormous amounts of stress.

TW: anxiety disorder (represented...pretty well), emotional neglect from parent

Love the relationship between Lizzy & Jack. I could definitely relate to Lizzy not enjoying her life even though she felt like she had everything she needed - a successful career! The friends to lovers trope is my favorite! They already have a solid friendship and then both wanting to explore more BUT not ruin their friendship…..which always gets a little muddy at times. Both characters have ti “find themselves” before they can completely give themselves to each other.

I love any book revolving around book lovers, friends to lovers, bookstores, and small towns . So I thought this would be the perfect book for me, but unfortunately it wasn't THE PERFECT book.

Personally, I loved the friends to lovers aspect in this. I thought their sexual tension was top tier and their chemsitry was off the charts. But this book very much reminded me of a Hallmark film with the small town vibes and the main character's storyline; so I found everything to be pretty predictable. Though I do enjoy the Hallmark vibes sometimes, I just wanted something unique to come out of the story.

The anxiety rep was great as well. And Jack was the sweetest love interest ever!

I'd also recommend this book if you love books about books and the friends to lovers trope.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

What a cute book. I really enjoyed this book. Friends to lovers. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

This book was cute but not my cup pf tea. It was a sweet friends to lovers rom-com, and what book lover doesn't love books about books!

How fun! The audio narrator did a great job, but once again the Natgalley app has terrible quality. But that does not affect my rating! I really enjoyed this book and can't wait for more from this author!

I love the narrator. This book is just the perfect kind of escape romance for me. There is a best kind of angst between the character but also quality writing and development.

This one was a fun, adorable, and at times frustrating read! I did not realize it is the third in a series, but looking at the description of the other two books, I don’t believe you need to have read them first. We have Lizzy who is Asian, which was a nice change as we get to see a small side of Asian culture and families.

Lizzy has just won her first big court case, and to celebrate she takes three weeks off! A lawyer taking off 3 weeks?!?! That just doesn’t happen. But it was needed because Lizzy passed out due to a panic attack in front of the jury….

Lizzy returns to her hometown to relax and meets up with her lifelong friend Jack. And Jack has been in love with Lizzy for 20+ years, yet she doesn’t know it. She sees Jack as her lifelong best friend. While on ‘vacation’ Lizzy decides to help out the owner of the local bookstore and try to revitalize it. Jack also decides to help as it lets him spend more time with Lizzy. But can friends become lovers and not lose what they have had for their whole lives?

We also have both Lizzy and Jack having to discover what they want for themselves in their selective careers, which they actually keep from each other. And being part of an Asian family can complicate things with parental expectations, which we see over the course of the novel in several ways.

Booked on a Feeling surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. Jack was so adorable with his feelings for Lizzy and what he should do. His internal dialogue shows how much he truly loves her, but afraid to share his feelings because he doesn’t want to lose her. And then her internal dialogue! It just became frustrated because I just wanted them to hurry up and get together. And there is some really good sex in this one too!

If you enjoy the friends to lovers trope with family complications thrown in you should enjoy this one. If you love books and bookstores, (and what reader doesn’t?) you must read this one! Close to the end it becomes a sort of type story and I was hoping we get to see Lizzy and Jack finally get together!

Cindy Kay also did a great job with her narration!

I really enjoyed this one and I find myself wanting to check out the first two novels in this series! Many thanks the publisher Dreamscape Media for granting me a copy to listen to and review.