Unfortunately this one didn’t work for me. I think it would be better suited for teenagers and felt very much best for that audience.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Ella is Cool Now felt like a 90s-2000s Drew Berrymore Rom-com. Fun, light and just a nice little literary escape.

This one was pretty good, I liked the concept, especially as someone who isn't a fan of high school reunions. I like the idea of her going back to fix some of the regrets she had and repair relationships. The book was very light and definitely a quick read. The romantic lead gave me the ick a bit and I wasn't a fan of Ellie's lack of maturity at times, but I still enjoyed the book overall.

This was fun but not groundbreaking. I was a little skeptical going in since this book had its start on Wattpad before being traditionally published, and honestly I feel like it met my expectations. I thought the bits about tv writing were fun (who knows how accurate they were), but overall this book felt very young.

Thank you @readforeverpub for sending Ellie Is Cool Now by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren it was a fun read!

Ellie is challenged by her boss to complete a list of tasks during her high school reunion in order to get a promotion. She writes on a high school tv drama but hated her high school experience. I thought this was a fun read but you have to suspend reality for a while but that isn’t always a bad thing. Definitely a lot of fun and some pretty interesting characters so worth the read!

I FLEW through this book! It was a very enjoyable, easy, and slightly cringe worthy read. Ellie was very dislikable and highly annoying and immature, but that wasn't a deterrent for me because the plot was readable. AND the character growth was enough for me. It was very easy to relate to the bad high school years and I just had my first high school reunion this year. YIKES

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

This was a quick entertaining read. As someone who isn’t much older than the characters I felt like everyone acted way you feel than they really were, which I guess is a part of the pint with it being set around a hs reunion but idk, something felt off to me. However, I did love the Reunion shenanigans and it was easily bingeable in a day!

This book had a fun premise, and I would definitely recommend to those who think it sounds interesting!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

This was so well written. I was engrossed from the first page and it ticked all the boxes of my expectations. The character development was excellent. I would definitely recommend to others, a must read!

I LOVED LOVED this book and Ellie as well. I could relate to her on so many levels. I too, was not cool in high school and to go to a reunion would be mortifying. Ellie is a producer for a popular tv show and IF she goes to her class reunion, she will be promoted. Ellie was given a list to accomplish while at the reunion. The Ellie from the past is still in her head, yet everyone sees her as a cool Hollywood type. This was a fun sweet book and anyone who hated high school is sure to enjoy!

I DNF’ed this book. The summary of it sounded interesting, but it just was not for me. I didn’t like the writing style and the way the FMC talked. I am sure tons of people are loving this story. It just wasn’t the right one for me!

I love the premise of Ellie is Cool Now. I mean, who hasn’t imagined revisiting your high school days and enjoying it with the perspective you’ve gained in the intervening years? And the way the author uses a “reunion checklist” as the plot device to frame the weekend and drive Ellie’s adventures - it’s clever and entertaining. To be clear, I would have preferred her list (that includes make out with the prom king) came from her friends and not her BOSS (ugh), but okay.

There are parts of the book where the execution is so authentic and spot on that I feel like I’m reliving my HS years alongside Ellie. But there are so many other parts that are pure cringe. Like when the male main character stops kissing Ellie to say “you’re a really good kisser” - WHAT?! It’s so high school and these people are supposed to be GROWN UPS!

Other things that rubbed me the wrong way:
Ellie asks herself, seriously considers, if she loves this guy after kissing him ONE time (cringe)
Ellie is so self righteous - and was in high school too - but it’s not presented by the author as a flaw (another cringe)
The MMC broke off his engagement the week that the story takes place and is still living with his ex-finance, but Ellie still goes for it.
Ellie’s boss’s behavior is SO NOT OKAY. On top of the totally inappropriate list he creates that she has to fulfill to get promoted, he goes behind her back and hires her HS crush. He tells everyone else on staff about him (and they all know what happened between him and Ellie) and purposefully keeps it from Ellie. For some reason, everyone thinks it’s a good idea for him to show up in the middle of a team meeting so Ellie can confront her feelings for him at work with everyone watching. This is presented by the author as a cute way to give them a happily ever after. Again, WHAT?!

TL;DR - I love the concept, but Ellie, her love interest, and her boss all have some major cringe, red flag moments that are present as clever, cool, and funny. Would not recommend.

2 stars

Thanks to Netgalley for the gifted copy. My opinions are (obviously) my own.

This is a first time read for me by this author, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this up. The cover is cute, and drew my attention and when I read the blurb, I definitely became interested in reading it. I was not disappointed! The story was cute and fun and I had a great time reading it. Ellie is headed back home for her high school reunion, but only to secure her promotion. You see, she was one of the not so cool kids back then, but things have definitely changed. She is a TV writer and quite successful in her job, which ironically is writing for a TV show about popular high school kids. She has an opportunity for a promotion, but in order to get her promotion, she has to attend the reunion. She's not looking forward to re-living any of those memories. But this may be a chance for her to deal with some of the regrets she has from back then.
The story was cute and entertaining and I enjoyed meeting and getting to know the characters. It was a light read and although predictable at times, a fun story nonetheless. Thank you to Netgalley for providing a complimentary copy. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. I saw in the acknowledgments at the end that this novel was first written in WattPad in 2018 which gives hope for all of the aspiring writers out there, of which I am not. This was a coming of age story wrapped up with a romance that did end with a very cute happily ever after. It is fun to see how going back to your roots, even when forced, can have you find new information and reevaluate people and even your memories. A quick cute read and a reminder that maybe high school did not suck as much as you think it did.

Ellie is a TV writer who hated high school. When her high school reunion comes up, some of the writers on her team challenge her to do a list of challenges that the cooler version of herself would have done for high school. While she has no desire to check these items off the list, or even go to the reunion in general, a huge promotion is on the line if she does it.

As someone who has no desire to ever go to a high school reunion, I really related to Ellie’s apprehension. I thought the challenges she was given made a fun twist to the reunion and I appreciated how it also pushed her out of her comfort zone and led to growth in this case. I loved that this wasn’t just a second chance romance, but also a second chance at friendship with Ellie reconnecting with both a former crush and her former best friend. This was overall a cute read!

Thank you to Forever Publishing and NetGalley for the advance copy.

I really enjoyed reading this! It entertained me and I felt like I could relate to the main character. Basically, Ellie felt like a loser in high school, she was not one but she felt like one. When she is up for a promotion at her cool California TV writer job, she took up the challenge because it would help her dream. So, she went back to her high school reunion and the little Ohio town she thought she left behind. Turns out people think she is cool now and she might be getting the man of her dreams, the one she always wanted in high school. Even though this book had a bunch of cliches, it was a fun read and kept me entertained. High school Ellie somewhat reminds me of myself, so that is probably a huge factor in why I enjoyed this read.

*spoiler* Now instead of making the ex-best friend an alcoholic that is helping the popular boy from high school cheat, they should have made her a lesbian *spoiler*

Thank you to Forever Pub for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Sadly this one did not work for me. The premise sounded interesting. A Hollywood writer goes back to her high school reunion after seeing success after not having the best time in high school. As someone who wouldn't want to go back to high school, I thought I'd give it a shot. The book; however, felt very elementary in its writing and execution. It felt like the characters were still living their high school days, which was extremely annoying although they were meant to be a decade older. I know that Ellie writes for a high school drama, but the drama of her own high school reunion seemed more drama filled than the glimpse into her own job we saw.

The writing itself along with the story felt more older YA than actual adult. I don't know if that was the audience the authors and publisher were shooting for, but it didn't work for me. I ended up finishing the book, in the end I wonder why, but I did. I think I wanted to know what Ellie ended up doing. Even as I write this review I'm shaking my head in wonderment that I actually did finish it. For me it wasn't worth it. That's time I can't get back or put into a book that is worth more of my time.

Ellie is Cool Now is a light and fun read that is part high school reunion and part romance. If you have a reunion coming up, you will want to read this book!

TV writer Ellie Jenkins worked her butt off to put her nerdy, outcast teen years behind her. So there’s a certain delicious irony in that she works for a hit show about popular high school kids when she was So. Not. Cool. And now she’s been offered the promotion of a lifetime—if she attends her reunion. But Ellie’s memory of High School Hell isn’t nearly as traumatic as the reality . . .

No one at the reunion is what Ellie expected. Not her ex-best friend, who still has the ability to see right through Ellie. And not her secret crush, who has only gotten hotter, sexier, and way more complicated. The only way she’s going to survive this whole weird ordeal is by fixing her bad high school karma, kissing the boy who got away, and getting the hell out of Ohio for good. But Ellie’s discovering that in real life, she can’t just rewrite the script.

Ellie Jenkins has a great life. She works on as a writer on a hit television show about high school. She’s a talented writer but she struggles with her scripts sometimes. The truth is, Ellie hated high school, so she has trouble reaching for the emotions that the showrunner wants these characters to experience. So when the writers’ assistant finds the invitation to her high school ten-year reunion in her trash can, the showrunner sees an opportunity for her.

He makes her an offer. If she goes back to Ohio for her reunion weekend, then he will promote her to co-Executive Producer, which is a big step toward running a show for herself. It’s what she’s been working so hard for, and all she has to do is go back to high school and complete a list of ten things. She is a smart, hard-working adult, and she deserves this promotion. Ellie agrees and packs her back to go home.

The list that her two best L.A. friends came up with feature the superlatives of high school. so she’ll have better hair than Best Hair and out-spirit the Most Spirited. She’ll have to grab a beer with Best All-Around, hook up with the Prom King, create a piece of art with Most Artistic, and she’ll have to enlist the help of her high school crush to help her. If she can cross all ten things off her list, then she gets the dream job.

Ellie gets back home and heads to the local grocery store to pick up fresh pastries to snack on, and that’s where she runs into him. Her high school crush, Mark Wright, is working in the bakery, and she is immediately transported back to her insecure high school self. He’s happy to see her, but she’s shocked to see him working at the local grocery store. He had been heading to medical school last she knew, even though she knew he really wanted to go to film school.

Later, she heads to the local bar to see who is still in town and who came back for the reunion. She needs to hunt down all those who are on her list, so she can complete her list and get back to California. But at the bar, she runs into her ex-best friend Roxy as well as Mark, bringing back all the feelings she’d been avoiding for ten years.

But as she reconnects with her former classmates, trying to complete the tasks on her list and dealing with her new crush on Mark, Ellie starts to realize that maybe she hated high school so much because of her actions and not anyone else’s. And as she finds herself experiencing all the things she had missed out on all those years ago, Ellie finds herself drinking and pranking and cheering the basketball team and making out with the guy she had been crushing on.

But when the reunion is over and the list is complete, Ellie has to decide to live out her fantasy life in Ohio with the crush (who is quickly becoming more serious) or go back to L.A. and the life she’s been building all those years. Will she chose the chance of love, or will she go back to her avoidant ways?

Ellie Is Cool Now is a rom com with a fun premise, having to go back and finally have those high school experiences you missed out on the first time in order to get the dream job. But there are also some deeper themes that come up, like fidelity and sobriety and sisterhood. It’s great to see Ellie grow through her experiences and to find a maturity that she had missed out on before. And as a Midwesterner myself, I loved seeing Ellie getting so excited about fall, because it is such an amazing time in this part of the country.

I really enjoyed Ellie Is Cool Now. I thought authors Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren did a good job putting this story together and coming with up interesting hoops for Ellie to jump through. I will admit that it’s not the most sophisticated romance I’ve read, but if you’re looking to read some fluffy high school reunion shenanigans, then it’s a fun story to hang out with for a while.

Egalleys for Ellie Is Cool Now were provided by Forever through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I had high hopes for this book, but it didn’t work for me. It read like a YA novel with drinking. All her time in LA seemed like she learned it from Instagram. I was honestly shocked to find out the authors lived in LA. The idea of the list of things was fun, but I don’t think it worked in execution.

Thank you to @readforeverpub for the ARC.