This is such a great book and I love that the main character is a Bookstagrammer. Forced proximity and grumpy sunshine are two of my favorite tropes so I love that they were part of this book. The steam and tensions is off the charts in this one. There’s also a ton of funny but relatable moments. This is such a cute book and I can’t wait to read more from Amy.

This was a sweet book that was just not for me. There were things I liked. The MFC is a book influencer (how fun and relatable) but to be completely honest she felt a little.. pathetic to me. She is trying to reconnect with her ex's even after many of them broke up with her because "she is a stage five clinger". I just... felt like that was semi proving their point? The MMC was fun to read about and I did think the two characters has some sweet moments. Overall, I think the book was okay.

This was such a relatable, cute, and enjoyable read! Tara is a romance book obsessed bookstagrammer and wants to find her own second chance romance with one of her 10 exes. Her new roommate Trevor, her brothers friend, decides to help her out. I related a lot to this book and highly recommend it and can't wait to read more of Amy Lea's books!

“Also, it's offensive and demeaning to be written off as crazy. Especially given the stigma of mental health. And maybe the real issue here is that some men can't confront their emotions. Instead of taking responsibility for your own behavior, it's easier to screw us, write us off as loons, and forget about us.”

“My entire life, I thought I needed to hold on to love with an iron fist. It was a feeling I needed to trap, to smother, so it wouldn’t slip through my fingers. Little did I know, when you’re with the right person, being in love never feels like the bottom is going to fall out. It’s solid, stable, and indestructible.”

“men south of sixty who regularly read fiction are an endangered species that must be protected at all costs.”

I loved this book. I thought that there were a lot of similarities in between me and the main character, so it was fun to sort of connect with the character based on them. I think that there was the perfect amount of cutesy romance, deeper themes and also steamier scenes. Overall I thought that this was a really fun book.

3.2⭐️⭐️⭐️

There was so much potential here, and I just wasn’t getting the fill I needed until I reached 75%. The whole plot line of the ‘ex hunt’ was just not as exciting as I thought it would be for Tara’s chance to finding her second chance romance. I think this is one of those books where it would of been nice to have dual povs’ from both mcs. I just wished we could of seen more of what the hell was going on in Trevor’s head throughout the story. Nonetheless I still appreciate receiving an arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Exes and O’s is only the third book I’ve read so far in 2023 and I can already tell that it is going to be one of my favorite romances of the year!

I loved Amy’s debut, Set on You, last year so Exes and O’s was one of my most anticipated books to release in 2023. I was so excited to dive in! I have to be honest though...after reading a little bit of Exes and O’s, I wasn’t sold on Trevor and I was 100% convinced that there was no way Amy was going to redeem him for me! Woah buddy was I wrong?! Amy wielded her sorcery magic and I fell heads over heels in love with Trevor! New favorite book boyfriend!

On the other hand, I connected with Tara SO much! I’ve always been the girl that feels too much and falls too easily just like Tara! You cannot even imagine how many crushes I had in middle school and high school. You just can’t help but love Tara and cheer for her to find love….and when she does, it is SO sweet!

Exes and O’s is perfect for fans of The Friend Zone and The Flatshare!

Read if you like:
-Friends to lovers
-Forced proximity/Roommate romance
-Closed off heroes (firefighter style)
-Bookstagrammer heroine
-Junk food
-The Friend Zone & The Flatshare

Thank you so much Berkley Romance and Netgalley for the gifted copy.

What a cute read!!

Bookstagrammer Tara Chen is tired of never having her own romance story. After a nasty break up and needing a place to live, she finds herself living with a new roommate. Trevor, the new roommate happens to be the most attractive firefighter she has ever seen,

One day Tara gets a crazy idea to go through all of her own exes, and create her own "second chance romance". As she goes through the list, she gets Trevor to help her. She just has to keep her attraction to Trevor under wraps. Trevor doesn't believe in love, and certainly isn't looking for anything more than a one night stand with strangers.

But living in such close proximity... can Tara really keep her feelings under control?

This was such a cute book. I really enjoyed it and Tara's wild personality. I loved the growth of the characters throughout the book and how they truly went from friends to lovers. This is a wonderful novel that I will always recommend!

6/18/2023: This was selected as a book club pick. I picked up the published paperback copy from the library and finished it within the day. The voice felt was extremely young, which I had thought the last time I tried to read it. This definitely suffered from too many characters, too many side plots, and not enough self-editing down. The slow burn was too slow, but only because there was so much other stuff going on that dragged the book out. I think, had this book been 50 pages shorter, it would have been perfect.

9/11/2022: I couldn’t get into this. I don’t know if it was the first person POV or the way the character monologues or maybe the voice just feels too young or maybe the references to romance books just kept kicking me out of the book and back to reality. I stopped at 8%. Romance is already slower moving with our patrons and this one just won’t cut it on our shelves. I don’t see it moving.

Side note - I LOVED set on you :-)

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC.

As a person who - based on the cover, title, and blurb - was expecting a romance, I can’t help but be disappointed. This book is Tara's journey of self-reflection and rediscovery in her identity when it comes to her romantic relationships. After her fiancé leaves her weeks before their wedding, her Gran suggests that maybe she should reconnect with an ex, and thus begins Tara's semi-obsessive, very much hopeful quest to find if one of her exes has turned into “the one” after their break-up. And yes, at the very end of it she ends up falling in love, but I feel like that is hardly the main focus of the book. Trevor feels like just one of the many secondary characters in this book, just grabbing your attention at the very end.

Romance book tuber - check!
Firefighter - check!
Roomies and all the forced proximity - check!
Canadian rep - check!

All of the makings for a summer beach read

Tara and Trevor's first interaction is her discovering him having sex in their soon to be shared kitchen. Ick. That should've told me something. The relationship was set to simmer for most of the book and by the time it finally happened I was losing interest in the story. Romance aside, I found Tara a bit insufferable. She seemed like a twelve year old masquerading as an adult woman - what kind of adult sticks to chicken nuggets and Cheetos, especially one who's a nurse?

This is an enemies to friends to lovers and also the first book in the series. This book is very adorable, witty and hilarious. Crystal is a curvy fitness influencer who uses social media to let people know it is okay to feel good in your own skin, no matter how you look. She ends up meeting Scott who is a firefighter, which starts off as enemies and then friendship and THEEEEEEEN into love. I recommend you read this is you're looking for a quick read.

I was expecting to DNF this because I haven't been feeling romance novels lately, but it was surprisingly charming. I liked the characters, and their dynamic seemed real. Ultimately I saw a lot of things coming, but not exactly how they unfolded, you know?

A book about a romance bookstagrammer and her fire fighter roommate?! Who is hot, grumpy, & has tattoos?!⁣
SIGN ME UP 😍⁣
⁣
⁣A friend was raving about Exes and Oh’s so I knew I was going to enjoy it & love Trevor!⁣
This was a cute read with some laugh out loud moments

Even though Tara is a big fan of romance books, she never expects when she moves in with Trevor that the forced proximity trope will be the start of her love story - her heart is set on a second chance romance. Trevor is anti-relationships, so he reluctantly agrees to help Tara on her journey to revisit her previous boyfriends to find out what went wrong. Except the more time Tara and Trevor spend together, the closer they get to their happily ever after.

This was fun! I love books about books, and Tara and I have very similar tastes in literature. I liked Tara and Trevor, and I enjoyed their love story.

Well that settles it. Amy Lea is now on the list of favorite Romance authors. How dare she write such lovable, funny characters? How dare she write another fun read that I couldn’t put down. I literally got nothing done today thanks to this book. Along with the fun banter, steamy sexy times and lovable characters, this one left me with the warm and fuzzies. Can’t wait for the next one!

"If there's anyone in this world I want to try for, it's you."

°•*⁀➷

I definitely liked this one muuuuch better than the first. Much more realistic, and more relatable to my own likes and dislikes. I felt myself laughing along with Tara so much. And I just adored getting to know Trevor and watch him grow into who he becomes in the end. Character growth is one my absolute favorite things to read, and it's why I had to give this four rather than three stars.

Because I wanted to. I think it's just the way Lea writes. It's not for me. The story for this one happened to be right up my alley and I loved that!

Tara is a bookstagrammer who has never given up on love despite it always giving up on her. She comes up with a plan to go back to all her exes and see if any of them are worth trying again with. I love that she mostly realizes that exes become exes for a reason, maybe an intuition before they turn into the person they're meant to? And it's not because they're bad people, in reason, but that their personalities don't mesh.

And I love that Tara realizes that her own opinion of herself is what matters most. That who she is already is who she should be working towards being better at. I love that Trevor begins to realize that very quickly, and in fact brings up that he never wanted her to change who she was after they begin seeing each other.

Their progression seemed so true to their characters, and so kind to the reality of what loving yourself should look like, and the progression of it.

As Tara's followers follow along on her journey, so do her friends and co workers. It becomes a story about the need for separation in a public life as well as how fun it can be to have a large support system rooting you on. It was an easy read, perfect for vacation, and I'm happy I gave it a go despite not loving the first.

Absolutely incredible and loved this story! Thank you so much for the chance to review and read❤️
The story was so swoon worthy and I’m not surprised why everyone is now obsessed!

very adorable Romance novel that im sure anyone can fall in love with! It's definitely a book i'd love to gift to reader friends!

A hopeless romantic and also hopeless in relationships, NICU nurse and bookish influencer Tara Chen needs a new approach to dating. With some grandmotherly advice and penchant for second chance romances, Tara decides that her new approach should be to revisit her past, specifically her past ten exes. Needing all the help she can get, she enlists her new roommate, Boston firefighter Trevor Metcalfe to help her find said exes. However, during their journey to connect, Tara finds herself falling for other tropes, namely forced proximity and grumpy x sunshine. Will Tara get her second chance romance? Or is she writing an entirely new story?

“When you’re with the right person, being in love never feels like the bottom is going to fall out.”

Do you like Taylor Swift references? Do you like grumpy men who turn out to have really soft hearts? Do you like book influencers? Do you like women who are hopeless romantics but still don't give the time of day to that one specific ex who happened to be a very serious piece of work? Do you like grumpy x sunshine, friends to lovers, forced proximity or hot firefighters?
Great news! There are five perfectly good reasons to read this book right here.

I devoured this in less than a day because it's such a fun, easy read. Exes and O's is a light, fluffy, fun read. It's the exact type of book that makes you feel good while you read it. The type of book that brings you joy while you're curled up reading it. It has the perfect mix of romance, humour, plot, and a little bit of spice (!)

*Thank you to NetGalley and Amy Lea for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*