wow. let's just say that i was not expecting to enjoy this as much as i did! i loved everything about this book-- it may have finally gotten me out of my reading slump?? the pacing kept me hooked and the build-up of the relationship was so satisfying! definitely 5 stars!

thank you netgalley for providing me with a copy of this arc!

After surprising myself with how much I enjoyed this author’s first book, I was so excited to dive into this one! While I loved the characters and the ending, this story fell a bit flatter for me than the author’s debut novel. I’m thinking that a busy season and a slower reading pace than my norm may have been partially to blame, but I found this a little too predictable and some of the characters were a bit harder to connect with.

That being said, I did enjoy the banter, romantic competition, pro-therapy messages, and was very content with the ending. If you’re looking for an enjoyable and predictable romance read, this is a great choice! Thanks for the chance to read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books for my gifted copy.

I really enjoyed the author’s first book (Lease on Love), but I think I liked this one even more! This novel is perfect for readers who enjoy second chance romance, enemies to lovers, coworkers with forced competition, breakthroughs with the help of therapy, and characters learning to love themselves as they are. The competition aspect helps move the plot along nicely and the characters actually talk about their past so you don’t have to read through flashbacks. While the romance is great, I especially loved the theme of friendship woven throughout the book and how Lana built such a strong support system around her. I would read a spin-off about Tessa or May in a heartbeat! Overall, such a good book and I highly recommend it!

This was lovely. It’s funny and aggravating. There’s depth and hard truths. Seth is…dreamy. Lana is imperfect. They’re both imperfect. There are good messages here. The biggest for me is that there will be toxic people in any stage and environment of your life. It’s up to you to recognize them and decide how much power you give them. Didn’t love that Lana cries frequently. Big thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

Rating: 4.5
Laughing Score:5
Crying Score: 3

As I keep reading books that I LOVE I find the reviews so much harder to write because I never know where to start and feel like my reviews are a bit chaotic. So let the chaos begin.

I loved this one. Like I loved Lease on Love, but I LOVED this one. The one thing about lease on love that I didn’t really love was the third act break up, and although this one kind of has some third act drama, it’s smooth, and fits right into the story line.

Reading Falon’s books makes me want to be friends with Falon because I feel like she has got to be as fun as the friend groups she writes about. They have been 2/2 perfect. I loved the slack convos/texts in this book, and I found myself laughing out loud at all of the banter.

I also found myself weirdly emotional with this one. I don’t think it was meant to be an emotional story, but I just felt so emotional about the characters who were getting their second chance. And beyond their love story, how great is it to have two people who are so passionate about their work that it's more than a career to them? The volunteer scene had me a little misty eyed.

I did find Lana to be a little bit immature, and found myself rooting for Seth more than Lana. I know she was hurt, and this is the tricky thing with time gaps, but I found myself just kinda wishing I could tell her to get over it, the past is the past, and focus on what’s in front of you. Especially since she never had the full story. But then I also feel for her because of how she grew up and I absolutely loved the revelation she had in the eat. I’m here for the self discovery story line and thought it was just perfect in this story.

Just My Type comes out 2/7/2023. Thank you Putnam and Netgally for an advanced copy of this book. I hope you all preorder it, order it or at least look into it. It’ll be the perfect read over valentines day :)

An excellent second novel from this author! A fun and quick read about two authors competing for a dream job and fighting for a second chance at love. I loved watching Lana and Seth grow throughout the various to-dos of their respective challenges.

Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Just my Type by Fallon Ballard ✨

This is a cute rom com! It’s got some How to Lose a Guy in 10 days vibes since most of the plot is based on a work competition.
I enjoyed it! I liked how at the beginning of each chapter there was a quote from one of the main characters pieces of writing - it gave you more of a glimpse into their career.

One thing I would have changed was the way the main character used Marvel references. It really bugged me, but that obviously didn’t affect the storyline!

bookish things:
✍🏻 journalist mcs
✍🏻 competition
✍🏻 one night only
✍🏻 second chance romance

Lana is not having the best luck. She gets broken up by her boyfriend of four years on what she thought was the night she was going to be proposed to and then her first love, Seth, who was also her first heartbreak shows up as her new coworker. The two end up competitors for the position she has been working towards for years and even worse being forced to spend time together. But what of everyone in her life is right about her inability to be alone and what if her past with Seth isn’t exactly what she thought it was?

Second chance romances can be so hard to do well but I think that this one did a great job of creating tension but making past mistakes redeemable. I genuinely liked Seth and Lana and could feel the chemistry between them even when they were exchanging barbs. What I loved most was the work that Lana did on herself and the results showed in the clarity she achieved regarding herself and he relationships.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

⌨️ARC Book Review⌨️

Just My Type by Falon Ballard

Synopsis: Lana and Seth were high school sweethearts that didn’t make it. Lana has jumped from long-term relationship to long-term relationship since and Seth has played the field. When Seth comes to work at the website Lana writes for, they are pitted against each other in a battle of writing. Lana must stay single and Seth must settle down, while they write about their experiences. Pushed together again and taking a hard look at the paths they’ve taken, sparks fly.

Review: I’m a little nervous to get into how I felt about this one because it was an ARC but they ask for honest reviews so here it goes. This was not for me. Lana says “thank Odin/Thor/Loki” instead of “thank God” and it drove me up a wall. The writing just wasn’t to my style. I felt like the love story was underdeveloped. They kept going from I hate you to I love you, with no discernible reason why. I felt like the supporting cast was underutilized. That’s not to say I hated this book. It was an easy, quick read with a HEA. I enjoyed Seth much more than I enjoyed Lana and found myself rooting for him. The supporting cast was fun and interesting. Overall I could see myself giving this author one more try but if the next one is similar to this one, she may just not me for me. 3/5⭐️

#NetGalley

Another fun read from Falon Ballard! This one is a second chance romance with great banter and another fun group of friends. I wish there was more of Seth and Lana. More detail between their dates would have built up the tension between them more. Other than that it was a super enjoyable read and would highly recommend if you also loved Lease on Love.

Lana, a writer at an LA publication, is shocked when she shows up to work hungover after a breakup of a 4 year relationship and finds her high school sweetheart is the new hire. Since their breakup 12 years ago, Lana had been a serial monogamist while Seth has been a serial dater. Their boss pits them against each other in a contest for a promotion. They create a list of challenges for each other, forcing Seth to look at long-term relationships and Lana to stay single, and write weekly articles about it. These challenges often have them interacting with each other and they have to face lingering feelings from so long ago.

LOVED this. Feeling nostalgic for How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days with a twist of second chance romance? This is for you! Loved the classic rom-com vibes. Lana and Seth both showed a lot of personal growth which was fun to watch. We specifically got to see Lana work through some issues with her mother that added some depth. I was cheering for them both the whole time. It was so much fun, I could see myself reading this again at some point. I can’t wait to see what this author writes next!

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for my honest review.

NetGalley Review — my rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
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This one was SO cute! Meet Lana and Seth, childhood sweethearts & current rivals! Love a good friends to enemies to lovers trope!
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I knocked a star off for a couple reasons — I couldn’t tell you what Lana looks like other than brown eyes. There was almost no description of her. That threw me off immediately. I also felt like I needed a little more from the enemy part of the book! It was pretty clear that he was still into her entire time…but maybe that’s how it’s meant to be read. Lastly, didn’t vibe with the cringeworthy geeky “Thank Loki” and “Thank Thor”….I get it that she was a “nerd” but it only felt that way sometimes so I needed more of a character-commitment from her if she was gonna be using the nerd phrases.
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Overall, YES! Would definitely recommend! This bad boy will be published on February 7! Maybe @wwpointsandpages will pick it for her valentine book of the month! Yes yes! 👏🏼
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As always, thanks for the ARC, @putnambooks & @falonballard ! #netgalley #penguingroup #arc

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinions.

Publication: February 7, 2023

Ballard has been on my radar and TBR for a while now and I'm so excited to have a chance to read this book! I loved her writing style in Just My Type and I look forward to reading Lease on Love.

The only thing that didn't jive with me was Lana. She seemed juvenile and a tad petty. This led to me not really appreciating the banter that is shared between her and Seth. I wish she was a bit more realistic for her age rather than high school feeling.

Overall, I think this book will resonate with a lot of readers! It was a cute read with How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days vibes.

This is my first book by Fallon, and wow! I LOVED THIS BOOK! I will definitely be going out to buy lease on love asap!

I’ve really been loving the second chance romance trope, and add in a little bit of enemies to lovers/ co working rivals made this book so good.

I really adored Lana. She’s fun, and quirky, and I really enjoyed all the little marvel/Star Wars/ pop culture references. I laughed out loud at the Mulan quote.

And Seth is so swoony, I loved him too. He was such a genuinely good and charming man, he was easy to fall for!

The banter and tension between Lana and Seth was *chefs kiss* and with the added competition it just amped everything up.

This is probably one of my top read of 2022!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for this ARC

I really enjoyed this book! There was great character development for both Lana and Seth. I enjoyed the journey of Lana and Seth’s complicated relationship. The side characters were equally enjoyable. I really enjoyed how it wasn’t immediately revealed why their break up was so bad and the story built up to that. Loved the ending!

This book was everything I needed at the moment. I have to admit I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. Such a light and easy read and I absolutely loved the MC's. Definitely recommend this one.

Thank you NetGalley and Fallon for this ARC! I want to first of say that I really did enjoy the premise of this book and the internal struggle and journey we went on with Lana in her path to self-discovery. That said, the last 20% of the booked seemed rushed and not as cohesive. However, I overall really enjoyed the book and would recommend!

Goodreads review:
I absolutely adored this book and would give it 4.5 stars, I thought it was even better than the author's first novel (which I also really enjoyed)! This hit so many of my favorite tropes: second chance romance, workplace romance, competition/rivalry between the main characters...it just did it for me!

Synopsis: Lana is a serial dater - always in a long-term relationship, even if she knows they aren't the perfect match. So when her boyfriend dumps her at what she had assumed was a proposal dinner, she's back at square one. Disheartened, she goes into to publication where she writes the relationship column and finds out that they're being bought by a larger newspaper, and that one of the paper's potential new hires is going to be working at their publication for the new couple months. To Lana's horror, the new hire turns out to be Seth, her high school sweetheart who broke her heart.

Seth has spent the last 12 years traveling as a hard-hitting journalist, enjoying his bachelor lifestyle. Lana, who has been over writing the relationship column for a while, wants the job that Seth is up for at the newspaper. So her boss proposes a competition: Lana will need to learn how to be single, and Seth will need to learn how to be relationship material. They'll write a list of tasks for each other and each week complete one task and write about it. Whoever attracts more comments/likes, wins the position at the newspaper.

Working on many of their tasks together, Lana and Seth are suddenly spending a lot of time with one another. Even though there is endless witty (and sometimes aggressive) banter and a lot of hurt feelings about how their relationship ended, underneath it all there is still a sizzle between the two of them. But Lana doesn't know if she can trust Seth, and she wants to take the competition seriously and learn why she has always needed to be in a relationship, and get better at being single...it's just so hard with the attraction to Seth!

Review: This book was giving How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days vibes and I was very much here for it. The tasks that each had to do were a lot of fun and contributed to the tension between the two. It was easy to see that they were both still very attracted to one another, but they had to work through the hurt from their teenage pasts in order to move forward again as adults. There was a great balance between the banter and the tension, I felt like the rekindling of their relationship really was paced so well. And finally it all came together with some good open door scenes!

I also appreciated that Lana took the tasks seriously and wanted to examine her own history and situation to try to improve on herself and understand why she always needed to be in relationships. I really like her personal growth and felt like it made her a better person and ready to be with Seth.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Instagram post:
I absolutely adored Just My Type, it hit so many of my favorite tropes: second chance romance, workplace romance, rivals to lovers… this just really did it for me!

Book 📚: Just My Type by @falonballard
Genre 💖: Contemporary romance
Rating ⭐️: 4.5/5
Spice 🌶️: some open door scenes

Synopsis: Lana is always in a relationship, so when her boyfriend dumps her at what she thought was a proposal dinner, she’s back at square one. She shows up the next day to the publication where she is the relationships columnist and finds out that they’re being bought by a larger paper and will be hosting a potential new hire for the next few months. To Lana’s horror, this turns out to be Seth, her high school sweetheart that broke her heart. Not only that, but she really wants the job at the paper that he’s up for.

Seth has been traveling the world as a journalist and living the bachelor life. Lana’s boss proposes a competition: Lana has to learn to be single and Seth has to become relationship material, both completing tasks and writing about them each week. Whoever gets higher engagement on their stories wins the position at the paper.

Working on their tasks together has Lana realize there’s still a sizzle between them, but she has a lot of hurt over how the relationship ended and is committed to bettering herself and learning to be single…it’s just so hard with all these feelings for Seth!

Review: This book was giving some How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days vibes and I was very much here for it. The tasks that Lana and Seth had to do were fun and contributed to the great tension between them. It was easy to see that they were both still very attracted to each other but they had to work through their past to move forward. There was a great balance between the banter and the tension and the pacing was spot on. The romance and love they had for each other was so palpable!

I also appreciated that Lana took the opportunity presented by the tasks to try to understand her own motivations and issues better and try to grow. I really liked her personal growth!

Thank you to @netgalley and @putnambooks for this ARC! Just My Type is out on Feb. 7!

Lana Parker is a serial monogamist and the book opens with her getting dumped by her boyfriend of 4 years, when she thought she was getting engaged. Lana works as a relationship columnist for a LA based website. She goes to work after her break-up and with a massive hangover and during that meeting she learns that her online magazine has hired a new writer and it is Lana's first love and the man who broke her heart.

Seth is a serial dater and has been working as a freelance writer, traveling the country. He decides he wants to set down roots and picks LA. When their boss learns of their past she devises a competition for the two. Lana must stay single and do things single people do and write about it. Seth must do things that a relationship person would do and write about it. At the end, the winner will get their own column.

This was a fun enemies to lovers and second chance romance, two of my favorite tropes. Lana really tries to discover herself alone, since she has gone from relationship to relationship since she was a teenager. Even though Lana and Seth are rivals, it is really hard to not like Seth! He is another great Fallon Ballard book boyfriend.

Overall this was a super fun read. It tackles important topics and features both characters going to therapy, I think we need to continue to normalize therapy as a good thing! Like in Lease on Love, the friend group is fantastic and the group chats are so much fun. Fallon really writes great friendships in her books and this group is incredibly supportive of both characters.

Read if you like:
*enemies/rivals to lovers
*second chance romance
*workplace romance

Thank you to NetGalley and Fallon Ballard for the ARC of this book. It is due out in February 2023.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After falling head over heels in love with “Lease on Love,” I was so excited to have received an advanced copy of the author’s secondary book.

Unfortunately, this book was a struggle for me to read. It didn’t get interesting until about 35-40% of the way through the book, and I really had to push myself to keep reading and not DNF it.

Maybe I set myself up for failure, but I’m beginning to realize I don’t enjoy books about characters that are writers/authors, especially when both main characters are writers and have to collaborate on something. I didn’t enjoy “Beach Read” or “The Roughest Draft” and I guess this book kind of felt like a combination of those two. So if, unlike me, you enjoyed either/both of those books, you’d probably love this book too.

I think a lot was missing from this book by not having Seth’s POV. And as much as I loved “Lease on Love,” I feel like the author used the same tactic in this book by leaving Seth to be a kind of mysterious character that you never understand fully. Having the MMC’s POV would have added so much more to his book and made it a lot more enjoyable.