Thanks to the publisher for the gifted e-copy.

The Last Word is a fun romcom with major The Hating Game vibes. Harper works as the celebrity editor at a weekend magazine, and it just so happens that her nemesis from her intern days, Ryan, is the new features editor. We get the story of what happened when they were interns in bits and pieces, mixed in with present time.

I enjoyed the behind the scenes look at Harper's job in the celebrity journalism world. I liked her character a lot, and thought her work ethic and personality were on point. I loved how she had such great rapport with the PR people and agents, and she worked hard at keeping that up. It seemed that she really loved the world she worked in - minus her giant d**khead of a boss, who I wanted to smack. He was the WORST.

Ryan seemed a little emotionally immature, with all the things he kept from Harper, and that irritated me. I did like his character overall though, and his banter with Harper was adorable. I loved their clean freak/organized mess pairing/opposites attract match up.

As always, I'm looking forward to seeing what this author writes next!

3.5 stars

I could not finish enough of this book to be able to leave a comprehensive review, but I hope it finds its audience and I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Harper is very happy in her job as a Celebrity Editor at a magazine until Ryan is hired as the Features Editor. They clash over virtually everything until their work forces them to collaborate more and get to know each other. Although they seem to be getting along better, Harper refuses to trust Ryan again because of what happened last time they worked together many years ago. Is she right to assume Ryan will betray her trust again or is there a future for them?

What I loved:
-Harper’s character. She had so much integrity and I loved all the descriptions of her interviews
-Well written side characters
-Evolution of Harper’s relationship with her family
-Enemies to lovers and second chance romance

Overall, this was a beautifully written book. However, I found that there was SO much miscommunication between the two main characters which is a pet peeve of mine. Despite feeling somewhat immature at times, I did end up rooting for Harper and Ryan and enjoyed this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the advanced reading copy!

Harper is a celebrity editor for a magazine who is known for getting even the most private stars to open up in interviews. She is shocked to meet the magazine’s new features editor, someone she has to work with very closely, is actually someone she knows. Ryan is the man she interned with years ago, the man who not only broke her heart, but also betrayed her. Now they are working together again and those feelings start to come back.

I really enjoyed this fun rom com set in the chaotic world of journalism. I loved that Harper was killing it at her job and approached celebrity interviews with so much compassion. She was incredible at her job and I loved seeing her shine from the beginning. I appreciated the little glimpses into their past that really showed the miscommunication that caused their relationship to fall apart. It made me appreciate Ryan and want them to work things out. This book was another win from Katy Birchall.

I thought Karen Cass was a great narrator and really captured Harper’s spunk through her narration.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the advance copies.

If you liked The Hating Game, you'll love this! This workplace romance had me hooked from the very start, and I read it all in one day - seriously could not put it down. The conflict between Ryan and Harper was completely believable, and the two characters kept me sucked in from start to finish. I loved the 'second-chance' aspect of the book, it made the chemistry that much more real! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

This book checked all the boxes for me! Office romance, enemies to lovers, and a London setting had me loving this one from start to finish. Loved hearing both of their perspectives and the writing was very well done. Harper is my new girl crush.

Harper Jenkins is a personable, celebrity writer. She’s making connections but can’t get in the approval from her boss Cosmo. He doesn’t get the appeal of celebrities. Harper is also dealing with the contentious relationship with her parents and older sister who don’t approve of her career path. When Harper sees the new office hire, Ryan, their history comes back to her. She plays it off as if meeting Ryan for the first time, but can she put their past truly behind her? Seeing Ryan also makes Harper re-evaluate her relationship with boyfriend Liam, that is going ok, but isn’t perfect. When Cosmo gives Ryan and Harper a joint assignment with a trip, will their past resurface? As we learn the detail of their past relationship, will history repeat itself? I’m a fan of all things Katy Birchall – love her writing style. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for an advanced reader copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

“For fans of The Hating Game and Beach Read”???? SIGN ME UP!

This is the second book I have read by Katy Birchall and I am in love with the mix of women’s fiction and romance.
The book has some amazing tropes that I believe were executed well. But seeing Harper grow? That put the biggest smile on my face. She always stood her ground and was a very likeable character. Ryan is just the sweetest and such a wonderful man. HE’S A GOOD MAN SAVANNAH!! A GOOD MAN!!

Overall, I really enjoyed the story. Would definitely recommend.

Thank you NetGalley, and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

The Last Word by Katy Birchall is a wonderful enemies-to-lovers, workplace romance. I love when the author brings the characters to life and you laugh along with different situations. This book has a lot of fun banter between Harper and Ryan with a clever way of telling their story. The story explores themes of love, forgiveness, and second chances, as the two characters navigate their complicated past while trying to balance their professional lives.

3.75 stars. Thanks to Netgalley for the E-ARC. I really enjoyed the story of Harper and Ryan and I aint gonna lie there were a couple of times that I took out my popcorn and threw it at the my tablet/phone because the bickering was on Fire!!!!!!!!!!!. I loved the friendships that Harper had with her girlfriends and I loved how she grew as the the story progressed. I loved how Haper was portrayed in what she did and it shows how what our families thinks of us affects us always.

Harper is a celebrity features editor for a lifestyle magazine in London, suffering under a misogynistic boss while also landing the best, hardest to get interviews. When Ryan, her one time flame from a decade prior, becomes the new features editor, it throws her professional and personal life into even more chaos. I loved Harper; she was so delightfully messy, smart, and fun. I also loved how truly passionate she was about her job. 10/10. I did not love Ryan - he never stuck up for her and was a bystander to all the office misogyny while giving off a ~I can’t do anything~ attitude even though it was clear he did have power and could do something. And I felt he mansplained a lot. Still a fun read with a great main character, I just couldn’t get on board with the love interest. Would definitely recommend if you like books set in London or second-chance romances.

Katy Birchall is an author whose writing I throughly enjoy and this book did not disappoint! It did start off a bit slow and the workplace enemies vibes were high in the beginning, I would say comparable to another favorite, The Hating Game. As readers get glimpses into the past and are along for the ride during the present, we get to see the characters begin to soften towards one another and it’s worth waiting for! The chemistry, banter, and professional respect they have for one another is really special and I loved their journey in this story. There are definitely bumps in the road and some miscommunication that really comes into play, but the outcome and the ways they work through it really helps to create a great romance. I love that Birchall’s romance reads are a bit more like contemporary fiction, because the storylines feel more authentic and real, which is refreshing as a reader. I will continue to be a fan of her work and am so grateful to have been given an opportunity to enjoy this one prior to pub day.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for the arc copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This was a total unexpected hit!! A rare second chance romance I adored! A celebrity journalist fighting for her job is flabbergasted when her new co-worker turns out to be the guy she interned with a decade ago…who broke her heart.

These two polar opposites immediately fall back into bickering, butting heads on almost every decision. Clearly, the passion is still there and Harper starts to understand that her anger over what happened years ago may be misguided.

The writing in this is snappy and engaging! Throw in the celebrity aspect, seeing Harper connect meaningfully with her subjects, and you’ve got a five star romance

I didn't really get what they were working towards—a promotion? A specific interview? This book was lacking a lot. It just felt very blah and aimless throughout the entire story. The plot had the potential to be so much better.

Cute story! Will make for a good beach read this Summer, This is my first Katy Birchall title and I definitely plan on reading more of her!

The Last Word is an enemies to lovers office romance set in the journalism world. I really wanted to love this one, especially with the premise, but the book just missed the mark for me. I felt like there was a lot going on, but then also not much happened throughout the book. The plot was fairly predictable and I was hoping for more character growth. I didn't love the miscommunication between the two leads, which was amplified by the single POV. The Last Word was more women's fiction than romance, which I wish I would have known going in. I did enjoy the audiobook narrator, especially her accent, which kept me engaged, despite my mind wandering at times.

When I saw that The Last Word was described as being for fans of The Hating Game and Beach Read, I knew I wanted to read it! This was such a cute read and I can confirm it definitely did give off those vibes and had a ton of similar romance tropes - enemies to lovers, workplace romance, forced proximity, and second chance romance.

This book follows Harper, who is a career focused journalist, who ends up having to work side by side with Ryan, who she has a history with - ten years ago they worked together as interns and it ended in what Harper felt was betrayal. I enjoyed the flashbacks to the past that gave some of their history.

I liked Harper's character overall who was determined, a little chaotic in how she organized herself and funny, but sometimes felt that she was childish at times. One of my favourite aspects of the book was Harper's job - I loved the interviews she did as part of her job as Celebrity Editor and the trips and meetings she went on. It was hard to see how her family and her boss treated her at times, but I really enjoyed her growth throughout the book as she figured out how to balance her career with her relationships and more. I liked Ryan too and how he really knew Harper. While I found that they argued a lot, I did enjoy their banter and I loved the side characters that rounded out the story as well.

Overall, I enjoyed this one and rated it 4 stars. If you are looking for a workplace romance with the enemies to lovers, second chance and forced proximity tropes that give off The Hating Game vibes check out The Last Word!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press of the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded down. This one is a hard one for me to review, because it put me into a highly out of character reading slump, taking me 10 days to complete. The book itself just didn't hold my attention enough for me to power through, plus it was another excessively long rom-com which can be off-putting.

Harper is a celebrity features reporter at a London glossy magazine, and has a combative past with Ryan, the new hire with whom she previously interned with at another news organization straight out of college. She has held a grudge against him since he was awarded the job at the end of the internship, information he intentionally withheld from her to preserve their fledgling relationship. In the future, history repeats itself when redundancies come to their current workplace, and Harper once again finds Ryan withholding information in acts of self preservation. Set alongside a backdrop of a wanker boyfriend and family conflict, the miscommunication and lying by omission added to my frustrations while reading. I did enjoy reading about the celebrity interviews and glitzy world of London PR and liked how Harper turned a negative situation into a positive and landed on her feet using her contacts and years of hard work and effort. As a couple though, I didn't love Harper and Ryan together, and didn't like how he repeated his same mistakes over and over without showing much growth in the 11 years since first meeting.

I really enjoyed this book! Harper, a celebrity editor for a newspaper's weekend magazine, flips out when she sees Ryan in a meeting room at her job. When she finds out that he was hired as the magazine's features editor, she is appalled at the thought of having to work with him. They disagree about everything and gripe at each other constantly, but her coworkers sense the chemistry. What she doesn't tell them, though, is that she and Ryan have a past.

Fun banter and familiar tropes combine with some more serious layers of the story, such as Harper's awful parents, to create a great rom-com read. Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and the author for a chance to read this e-arc.

I loved everything about this tempestuous charming romance. Ryan is a hot new book boyfriend and Harper is a chaotic successful mess that I would love to have as a friend. These two create beautiful sparks that finally turn into the fire I was hoping for. A new favorite for my home library!