I loved this book! 5 star read for me. Great second book in series. Her writing style is constant humor and cleverness and I really enjoyed the story she wrote!

This book is a DELIGHT. The chemistry between Tara and her roomie Trevor is absolutely SIZZLING — but I also just adore their genuine affection for one another, and the friendship they develop as roommates. They have a real connection and I just cherish the special bond they form over the course of the book, supporting each other and being there for one another. As Tara looks to spark her own “second chance romance” with one of her exes, and Trevor stands by his bachelor lifestyle, the two discover that what they think they want may not be what they really need.

You can read this as a standalone, but bonus if you’ve read SET ON YOU, as it features characters from the first book. I ordered myself a finished copy even before finishing because it was THAT good.

Tara has not been lucky in love… but second chance romance is a trope in books for a reason. Inspired by her social media followers on her romance book account, she decides to track down her exes to find love. Even her grumpy new roommate, Trevor, gets roped into Tara’s ex search, and maybe he’s not as closed off as Tara first thought. This book was so cringey and secondhand embarrassment inducing. It was hard to read. The friendships were fun to read, and the end romance was worth trekking through the awkward moments.

This book was an absolute delight. The combo of fun, charm, and steam paired with characters I'd want to hang out with made this the perfect summer read.

Exes and O’s by Amy Lea is the second book in the contemporary romance The Influencer #2 series. As with a lot of romance series each book in The Influencer #2 series changes the main characters so they can be read as a standalone or in any order if choosing to do so.

Tara Chen is prepared for her fresh start as she is moving into a new place and hopes that starting over will help her find her “one’ in life. Just as Tara arrives at the new apartment though she runs into her new roommate in a rather awkward encounter.

Trevor Metcalfe is a firefighter who rushes into burning buildings but definitely not romances. Tara and Trevor know they are wrong for one another but do become friends in their new living arrangement. When Tara comes up with the plan to revisit her exes to see if maybe her “one” got away Trevor is there to be the friend she needs.

When first picking up Exes and O’s by Amy Lea to read I never even realized this was part of a series and simply enjoyed my time getting to know these characters and their stories. After finishing I can definitely say you do not need to read the first in the series to enjoy this one. Exes and O’s is a fun read with a few laughs along the way as the romance slowly builds from friendship to more. Definitely an author I will return to in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book is one of the hardest to rate because there were some aspects I really, really loved and others that really, really fell flat for me. The positives: I loved Trevor. He was so funny and charming and I loved his easy chemistry with Tara. Tara was also a fun character but she got to be a little immaturish, especially as the story went on. I really found some of the BookTok, TikTok, etc references to be a little bit eye rolling too. Solid three stars for me.

Cute proximity/friends to lovers trope, with second chance romance woven throughout. It was vute and very quick to read with a little bit of spice

Amy Lea is a new favorite author of mine! I loved Set on You and I loved this one even more!

If you are a romance book lover, you have to read this book. Tara is the romance hero we all need and Trevor is the hero she deserved. This book gave me all of the happy warm feelings. It was like a warm hug of a book.


I truly adored this book, especially Trevor's growth and every interaction he has with Tara. I also really enjoyed how true Tara was to herself. I relate so much to her and seeing her be her authentic self and find love that way was a huge boost to me.

I have never read an Amy Lea book and after this hot mess I don't plan on reading another one.

I was super excited for this one, the premise was cute: Tara loves romance novels, has had her heart broken and sets out on a mission to create her own second-chance romance. Unfortunately this novel relies so heavily on tropes and executes badly.

The synopsis does warn us that Tara is "dramatic" but she actually comes across as a parody of women who enjoy romance, and overall, this seems like a subconscious insult to women who enjoy the genre.

There are also so many weird inconsistencies with Tara's personality and her knowledge of romance/actions in romance. Tara is "romance-novel obsessed" and doesn't know what a one-night stand is, right. One of her exe's refers to her as stupid and unfortunately he is right. She is written absurdly stupidly. How does one read so many romance novels and yet not one piece of information seems to sink into her head? Again, it just made it seem like the author was pandering to a weird ass demographic. On pandering to a weird ass demographic: the tik tok references, and the not so overt uses of popular tik tok trends... please stop. It wasn't done well, and even then, how long can a book really be "good" if it references something so momentary as an online trend which most people forget within a few months.

Some more quick issues:
-Tara is 30, but without context she could easily pass for a middle-schooler
-predictable in the boring way
-the exes we are suppose to hate are better people than our protagonist, drastically so.
-the sex scenes make you want to never read one again.
-there's no chemistry between Tara and Trevor, the two people we should be rooting for
-more on Tara: she is one-dimensional in a way that gives new meaning to the phrase
-If the author purposely chose to write a hard to like protagonist, she did not succeed. There is no reason to even put up with Tara's unlikableness.

The cover of this book is what attracted me to start reading it. I was hoping to love this book more than I did, it was okay, but nothing life changing. It was an entertaining read despite the MC annoying me, she was a bit immature and maybe not ready to be in a relationship. Everyone else has loved this book, though so there is that.

This was a cute read, a fun continuation to the Influencer series world…. But I wanted more! I was so excited for Trevor and Tara’s book because I really liked those two characters in the first book.

This one was just a meh read for me. I didn’t feel that much spark between the two other than they lived together. I mean the first time Tara walks in the new apartment Trevor is… shall we say… busy doing extracurricular activities in the kitchen! I liked Tara revisiting past relationships but her idea that they would actually work a second time around was kind of far fetched for me. All in all, it was a cute rom-com but I don’t think I will rush out to buy the physical copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkeley publishing for the gifted ebook in exchange for a review.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for my advance reader copy; all opinions are my own!

EXES AND O'S is the meta-romance of meta-romances, tackling head-on critiques of the genre and those who love to read it. I appreciate how Amy explored how we frame and treat heroines, and I really loved seeing Tara's unabashed belief in love and happy endings, despite the disappointments she'd experienced. Trevor was super swoony, and his chemistry with Tara was top-notch.

***3.5 STARS***

THE 411...
In this friends to lovers story, we follow Tara Chen a “stage-five clinger” who has had her heart broken by ten different men but it hasn't soured her to romance. Our girl is in search of the right one and that means kissing a few frogs. Tara is a Pediatric nurse, social media book influencer, lover of the romance genre in search of her own happily ever after. The idea to revisit her past exes in hopes of finding a missed opportunity takes off after she shares it with her followers. She is locked in and committed to going down that list despite the awkward encounters she sees coming. We see her move into a new apartment and meet the new roomie Trevor who isn't attached to anyone and isn't really trying to get into anything serious. He finds Tara's experiment to be not quite a great idea but this firefighter who has NO problem keeping it casual with the ladies, is also her wingman. He’s also the only one Tara doesn’t seem to scare away with her optimistic approach to love and dating...if there was a fast forward option, our girl would definitely hit it if it meant meeting and falling for the one. Along the way he starts to see how great Tara really is and sparks begin to fly...

WRITING & FINAL THOUGHTS...
Too many times I’ve picked up a rom-com that’s somehow missing the comedy but this one had the right recipe, the balance was just a bit off. The whole premise of going back and calling these guys she's broken up with sounds pretty awkward but she takes up the task with genuine hopes that one of them was a missed opportunity. Although we did get to meet two of the guys, these scenes felt rushed. I feel it would've added just the right amount of humor to the story if we had more time going through her list. Also, her ex fiancé is first class trash and any time he was on the page I cringed so hard for Tara SMH! 

I would’ve loved to have seen our male lead Trevor’s POV a bit more fleshed out. We spend a lot of time in Tara's mind which made for an unbalanced attraction. While it's true that Tara is very clingy which probably made her POV come through a bit stronger, I felt we only got to see Trevor's feelings towards the very end. That being said, the friends to lovers trope is my favorite and reading a MC who is a member of her fictional book community was pretty dope. The opening scene alone with Tara riding the train while reading her romance novel and making eye contact with a cutie had me shaking my head with thoughts of BEEN THERE! Who can resist a steamy dust jacket?!? Haha! I will be continuing on with The Influencer books, Mel’s story arc "The Catch" is next and it’s already snagged a spot up on Goodreads!

Two words: couples crocs. Tara definitely had some growing to do as a character and, I'm not gonna lie, I found her kind of irritating for the first two-thirds of the book. She asked for help (or, at the very least, feedback) but refused to follow any of the suggestions until literally the last minute. But Trevor was sweet and patient and how he dealt with his own issues made perfect sense. Altogether a fun, hear-warming read.

I loved this book so much! Amy Lea is growing as an author each book and I can’t wait to read what she puts out next! Tara and Trevor were hilarious together and I loved the friendship between the two that really grew into something bigger. This book had me giggling and kicking my feet because of the sweet moments . Tara felt like such a love letter to all bookstagram girls and romance readers. This is such a fun book to read for Valentine’s Day.

This is the second book in The Influencer series but can be read as a stand-alone. The main character, Tara, is the sister of the main character in the first book (Set on You). This is my favorite of the series so far.

Tara moved in with Trevor as Trevor's former roommate is now living with Tara's sister. They both have shift work (nurse and fireman) so thought it would be a good arrangement. Tara's reeling from a broken engagement. She decides to excavate her past relationships- her thought is maybe she actually already met 'the one.'

What this means is that Trevor ends up sort of being her sidekick in this journey. So, we have a romance book influencer, a hot fireman roommate, forced proximity, friends to lovers, and slow burn. There are also some great side character, like Tara's grandmother. I really enjoyed getting to know both Trevor and Tara. This was a good one.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy. All opinions are my own.

This one was quite the slow burn, but oh so worth it! You could feel the chemistry between the FMC and MMC; and the banter was great. Amy’s books are truly the perfect amount of romcom and spice!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

𝘼 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡-𝙤𝙗𝙨𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙖 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙡𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙭𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙪𝙣𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙮.

📍 Read if you like:
• Forced Proximity
• Friends To Lovers
• Slow Burns
• Opposites Attract

This book was phenomenal!

I read Set On You before reading this one. They can technically each be read as a stand-alone, but some characters are mentioned in this one from the first one.

I loved the forced proximity between these characters and the roommate's trope. I laughed so much with this book, especially when Tara walked in on Trevor doing the deed on the first day.

From there, their friendship immensely grows and it’s so adorable following both of them. Tara believes in second chances and therefore tries to find her soulmate by talking to all her exes. Trevor agrees to help her, but they eventually catch feelings for each other.

The romance in this book melted my heart so much. I loved Trevor’s character and how he opened up to Tara. Also, Tara’s character was so fascinating with her being a book influencer. It felt so relatable and I think it’s one of the most unique aspects of a romance I’ve ever read about.

I can’t explain how much I loved this book and the characters. They were so adorable together and the roommates-to-lovers trope was so wholesome. I enjoyed this one more than Set On You, I can’t wait to read the next one in the series.

Another wonderful book from Amy Lea. I really enjoyed getting to know Tara after seeing her in the first book through Crystal's lens. Tara and Trevor are both really well done characters and I could not wait for them to get there HEA. I will say Tara was brave for hunting down her exes and seeing if she was still compatible with any of them because no thanks. Overall a solid read and I look forward to the next one in the series.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

I enjoyed this but it was nothing special. I didn’t really feel the chemistry between the characters or even understand why they would be into each other. But I like the bookstagrammer FMC!