To start, I want to be clear that I would not call this a romance novel. Instead, it's the story of one woman coming to terms with the grief she feels from the death of her mother eight years prior.

I wish I had known that when I started. But expecting a romance novel that followed a magical meeting in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, I was disappointed. This featured my most disliked tropes with a love triangle and infidelity.

I was impressed with the writing quality, especially as it was a debut. And I came to like it more during the second half of the book. But overall, this wasn't the right book for me. I recommend it for those who don't mind the tropes I mentioned and who are looking for a book about a woman's journey to find her identity.

Thank you to Harper Perennial for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

2.5 stars rounded up

Happy Pub Day Love Buzz!
Love Buzz was a fast read because the story grabbed me from the very beginning. I loved the setting in New Orleans and all the nostalgia I was feeling with each chapter. I recently took a trip there so it was fun to read about the main character meeting her "soulmate" on Bourbon Street and snacking on beignets.
Serena reluctantly attends a four day bachelorette party In New Orleans and is not looking forward to all the drinking and playing nice. She's not on good terms with her cousin and really isn't interested in faking it. The night takes a turn when Serena meets a handsome stranger she ends up having a lot in common with. Technically Serena is dating someone, although if she's really honest with herself she's just going through the motions. Most of what Serena does is to make someone else proud. The perfect job, the perfect boyfriend, but what if these things don't make Serena happy?
Ever since New Orleans Serena has made many changes in her life while also searching for Julian. Serena knows nothing she’s doing makes sense to her friends and family but for once in her life she’s making herself happy. The journey won’t be easy but it will be worth it in the end.

I will be interviewing Neely for my podcast. Love Buzz is a fun second chance romance which is usually a hit or miss for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one because it got me out of my reading slump.

A chance romantic encounter during a wild night at a Mardi Gras bachelorette party sends Serena Khan’s life into chaos.

I found this one to be a quick read and the romance was cute. I enjoyed the exploration of Serena's path to take the road not taken and making changes in her life to go for what she wants. Overall, a cute romance that was a breeze to turn pages of.

* I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this book. All thoughts are my own.

I want to start off by saying that I enjoyed Love Buzz and I liked both the beginning and the ending. I do not really think this is much of a romance book though. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely romantic elements, but we spend most of the book looking for Julian or reading about her life choices and grief of losing her mom. All of the romantic elements are completely one-sided until the very end of the book and is frustrating when you’re expecting a romance. We really know nothing about Julian and Serena is trying to track him down in Seattle after spending less than an hour with him? It seemed a bit nuts to me. I also found that because we get no romance throughout the book it feels pretty slow. I also seemed to like some of the side characters (Clarence & Odette specifically) more than I actually liked the main characters.

If you’re in the mood for a fiction novel with romantic elements then this is the book for you! If you’re looking for a romance book, maybe come back to this another time.

𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4.25⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Contemporary fiction/romance📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
Lighthearted and fun read that’s really good for a debut novel.

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Women’s fiction with a side of romance
Great chemistry and banter
Meet cutes
Insta love
Relatable characters
Heavy topics

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Great character growth
Music references
Books that make you LOL
Beautiful themes

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
A little slow/cheesy at times

There was a lot of parts of this story that I enjoyed especially the themes of finding what makes you happy, changing what you want to do in life, finding a new path and being brave enough to follow your heart.. I have issues with the insta-love storyline and don't find it to be relatable or realistic which is fine in this concept of the plot. I wished there was more romance/chemistry between Serena and Julian and while it was a beautiful story- I don't know if it really captured the love in the way it could have.

I think that going into this book, I had a different idea of what it was going to be about. Then when I started reading the book, it was giving off cute rom com vibes with the meet cute in New Orleans. I was pretty horrified when Serena got back to Seattle and revealed her secret. And then it just went on her having fantasies about this man and being so extra and it felt icky. I just didn't enjoy the vibes. I understand that Serena was going through some things and trying to figure out the life that she wanted and not what her mom wanted for her, but this was a bit much. I'm all for quitting jobs you don't enjoy but doing it without any kind of plan... yeah I don't know about that. Serena was giving childish and immature, and I just couldn't get behind it. Unfortunately, I ended up DNFing at about 49%. It just wasn't what I thought it was going to be or something that I was actually enjoying.

Love at first meeting has not always been my cup of tea BUT I think this book did the trope well and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. I really enjoyed the tension of her being in a relationship already and battling with herself over what the right choice was. Very fresh take on this book.

This book was less of a romance and more about self-love but and I'm excited to see what's next for the author! Ultimately think Love Buzz wasn't for me but I see a ton of potential.

I was excited about this one, especially the part about New Orleans romance- unfortunately, most of it wasn't set there, and the romance was pretty much non-existent. I didn't buy the spark described in the first meeting, and the love interest is barely in it, other than during a dream sequence, and the main character kind of obsessing over finding him. Sadly was not for me.

I was thinking a lot about high school when I was reading this book. For the life of me I cannot remember what my answer was when I was asked what I wanted to be when I got older for my high school yearbook. I have got to go searching to see if I can find my old yearbook. Do you remember what you said? I can guarantee it is not at all what I ended up doing. So much about me has changed from those days and Serena’s character really reminded me of that. I also loved the movie Serendipity and this book reminded me of that as well.

This story started out really strong and I loved the bachelorette party in NOLA vibe. There was an amazing meet cute and I was invested. BUT, after some time it started to fall a little flat and by the last third of the book I was skimming just to see what was going to happen. I loved the character development but the execution of the storyline was lacking for me. This wasn’t one I loved but might be one you love if you are looking for something with a mix of women's fiction and romance. I’ve seen a bunch of great reviews you might want to check out on goodreads!

3.25 stars.

Thank you @netgalley and @harperperennial for the early copy

This one is out now!

“LoveBuzz #harperperennial #bookishlove #romance #ReadingIsMagic #HighlyRecommend #ReadMyShelves #netgalley #NetgalleyArc #ArcReader #ArcReviewer #NetgalleyReviewer #instablog #booknerds #currentlyreading #bookreview #lovetoread #booksarelife #whatimreading #bookpost

I hate to say it, but I didn’t enjoy this one. The writing was polished and it had such promise. The premise was right up my alley.

It started off in the wrong foot for me when Serena is at a bachelorette party for her cousin (who was more like a sister to her at one point). She’s complaining about spending the money to be there, which is fine and I get it can be a big expense, but she just talks down about New Orleans the whole time. For someone who loves NOLA like a second home, this rubbed me the wrong way. Yet, I can accept that. Most people who go to NOLA never make it past Bourbon street to see all that the city has to offer: history, architecture, paranormal information, jazz and bluegrass, some of the best food and cocktails around, gorgeous bayous, and more. I could get past it, even if she started out sounding like a snob.

I loved the encounter between her and Julian. I didn’t expect it to take 90% of the book for them to reunite and for the only spicy scene to take place in a dream. Thus, I know this is about the journey for Serena getting over her grief and changing her life.

I just really could not stand Serena. She’s rude to her cousin’s maid of honor, mostly out of jealousy from her driving her cousin out of her life, when her maid of honor is doing everything she can to make the wedding and events leading up to it go flawlessly. She straight up ignores her multiple times asking if she was bringing a plus one, which is just so selfish, in my opinion. You cannot blame everything on grief, especially YEARS down the road. You never get over grief but grief doesn’t excuse rudeness and snobbery. In the end, Serena sees the error of her ways, but it was too little too late for me to like her. She wasted thousands of dollars of money for small business owner because she was too focused on herself. She was a bad bridesmaid and cousin. Julian is so one dimensional in this after that initial encounter that I didn’t even care by time he came back onto the scene.

Ugh, I hoped for more! I would try another book by this author in the future because the writing could have been so great, the characters just didn’t do it for me.

I'm all for reinventing yourself at 30, or at any age, but something about this didn't really resonate with me. The character was so quick to make major decisions, and while they didn't seem like bad decisions, the way she sort of recklessly through herself into them felt kind of uncomfortable. Increasingly, it felt like finding this mystery stranger was more of an obsession than a cute romance thing (e.g. the dream she has described in such detail, which felt out of proportion to their short encounter)

I also thing the marketing on this perhaps was a bit misleading -- it's less romance, and more of women's fiction / 30's coming of age. I didn't finish the book (approx 45%), but did confirm with others who read so that I could more confidently say this.

What did work for me:
- I loved the scenes in New Orleans because that feeling of being separated from the crazy party atmosphere of a place felt relatable
- I loved the relationship she built with seat neighbor on the plane - I was giggling.
-The audio narration was good - no complaints there.

Thanks to Harper Perennial, HarperAudio, and @bibliolifestyle for early copies of this book!

I always try to give a book 3 good chapters before I stop. I made it to 3 and had to stop. I could not relate to anything in the book. It’s a “No” for me. Tried and I could not.

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @harperperennial for an early copy of Love Buzz by Neely Tubati Alexander . I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Love Buzz tells the story of Serena as she meets Julian in New Orleans for her cousin’s bachelorette party. Surprisingly during her brief meet-cute with Julian, she finds out he also lives in Seattle in Chamber Hill, works at a tech company, and he loves Lil Wayne and Nirvana. Though their conversation was cut short, Serena finds herself overwhelmed by the desire to find him back home. The need to find him is, for Serena, both irresistible and totally irrational. In a few short weeks, her college alumni magazine is featuring her in a “Life at Thirty” feature, cementing her as a success story. She will have officially achieved the safe, stable life her late mother insisted upon. Julian is not part of the plan.

🛑Read on with caution; review may contain spoilers🛑

The first 20% of the book was both charming and quite ridiculous for me. Her initial meeting with Julian was cute and sweet and she felt great sparks and chemistry between them, and for around 15 minutes of conversation with him, she can’t stop obsessively thinking about him already (yes, I get it, it happens especially when you have a crush). But she. Already. Has. A . BOYFRIEND. I am definitely not a fan of cheating, and though she justifies it wasn’t cheating since she and Julian didn’t do anything physical, she’s still obsessed and pines over him to the point that she asks her friend to help her search for Julian.

While I wasn’t a fan of the romance aspect of this novel, I did enjoy Serena’s journey for herself. She was able to leave her current job and find a new one she actually loves. She has been breathing all her life but never quite living, and nearing her thirties and her meeting Julian triggered her to make some changes in her life.

Rating this ⭐⭐⭐/5. I would recommend this novel if you enjoy a somewhat coming-of-age story. Releases May 2nd, 2023!

First of all, congratulations to Neely on a really good debut. I'm always so amazed reading debut novels, because it's something I could never do!

Stars: 2.5 rounded up to 3.

Overall, this was an ok read for me. Part of that may have been my expectations though. I went in thinking this was a romcom (it's definitely marketed as such), so I found myself disappointed and bored when it definitely wasn't. This is a journey of self-discovery with a hint of romance. And when we do get romance I really felt little to no magic between the two.

I also found several moments so cringey. The scene in the coffee shop (iykyk) gave me so much second-hand embarrassment I had to put the book down.

Even though this book wasn't for me, I see the potential and how much some people will love it if they go in with the right expectations. I look forward to seeing more from this author in the future!

Thank you so much to BookSparks, Harper Perennial, and NetGalley for the physical and eARCs in exchange for an honest review!

this book was something i was genuinely excited to read. the premise of it intrigued me but unfortunately the follow through wasn’t it for me. i also went into the book expecting/wanting more romance. this book starts with romance and ends with romance but in between it is really just about a woman trying to get through a life that she isn’t sure is hers. insta love already isn’t my favorite trope and then i got so upset because she wouldn’t even look at the information that her friends had found on julian. the characters in this book were so hard for me to connect with which made the book even harder for me to get through. i believe this book could be a great book for someone who likes insta love and is okay with the romance taking a backseat to the character “coming of age” in a sort of fashion for 90% of the book. I did want to find out what was going to happen so i was able to finish the book. in the end i gave it 2 1/2 stars.

Serena is on a bachelorette trip to New Orleans when she meets an intriguing stranger called Julian at the bar, who also lives in Seattle like her. But with her cousin bride Coral throwing up, their time together is cut short.
Back in Seattle, Serena desperately runs through the things she knows about Julian, such as that he works at a start-up and loves Nirvana, in the hope she can track him down.
Meanwhile, her alumni interview Life at Thirty is looming, and she is worried she’s not as accomplished or established in life as all the previous subjects. Serena – still reeling from the loss of her mother - proceeds to blow up her life anyway.
With a great female lead, this was an awesome debut that takes us on a journey of self-discovery as Serena questions what will help her feel fulfilled in life.

Love Buzz has a lot of positive reviews already, but it was an ok read for me. My reading experience left me feeling underwhelming. I wasn't captivated by Serena's story and her quest. The book is marketed as a romance, but I would call it women's fiction because romance is secondary to Serena's journey of reexamining her life and career choices and changing her life. It's not a bad book by any means, but it's not a story that will stay with me.