Strong start but I did end up losing interest at about the 30% mark. I just didn’t ship them all that much so it was hard reading their banter when it was lacking for me.

This one’s for you if you like:
💖 dual POV cartoon cover romance (both narrators are amazing!)
💖 Hollywood / actors
💖 enemies to lovers
💖 dual timelines (past and present)
💖 slow burn

When Lilah and Shane first meet, it is at the final audition for the pilot of a paranormal drama. Sparks fly immediately, they get cast as the leads, and they get launched into tv star fame when the show becomes a hit! Flash forward and it’s Season 9: Lilah is returning to the show for the final season after quitting several years before to do more prestige work. The book jumps back and forth between the two timelines in a very clear way that translates well in the audiobook.

I adored this book. Many of you might know that I’m an actress, although I’ve been out of the game for several years. (First, I got a puppy, then a pandemic, now long covid.) And this read very accurate, especially the anxieties that Lilah and Shane had about finding their next gig once the show ended.

But the star of this show is their enemies to lovers situation. We go back and forth in time between their past relationship and present situation, which is sometimes hard to follow in an audiobook format, but this was *so* clear! I like that Wilder didn’t keep us in the dark about what went wrong the first time, she gave us all the juicy details throughout the book!

4.5⭐️
After reading ‘How to fake it in Hollywood’ and loving it I was looking forward to this book & I loved it! It’s been a while since I’ve read a slow burn & this one was just so good! Lilah & Shane are two actors who have to play the part of loving each other but in reality it’s the complete opposite! This gave LOTS of tension, angst and pining which is the best part about slow burn!! I loved the shift in their relationship & seeing how their “hate” turned into loved especially because they’ve always felt it one way or another! I really enjoyed this book so much!! So good🩷

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballentine for the ARC!

Lilah is a studied actress and Shane is a guy plucked off the street to audition for a new TV show. They meet when the are both auditioning for the F/M leads. They get the parts and this story covers their relationship over the 9+ years while working on the show and Lilah's leaving the show and her present day return. This was an enjoyable story. I loved the Shane was a goner for her from the start. Lilah took years to catch up - or at least to be able to acknowledge how she felt.

4.5 stars

Having not read this authors’a previous book, I didn’t know what to expect. All I can say is WOW. I am floored by the emotions in this book. The angst. The drama. The pining. I LOVED this story.

Lilah Hunter and Shane McCarthy met at the auditions for the paranormal television show “Intangible.” They both felt the chemistry and attraction and soon became a couple, but broke up after the first season. They spent the next four seasons of the show hating each other-until Lilah left the show.

Now, she is back for the ninth and final season of the show. Will they be able to work together and not bring the drama to the set? They have so much history together and we get to see the BEFORE chapters that led to the “hate” between them.

The author wrote both Lilah and Shane so wonderfully detailed. I felt like I knew both of them very well—thanks to dual POV. The characters felt very real to me. The emotions in their first onscreen kiss (since her return to the show) was a definite re-read for me. So intense.

Read this if you like:

Dual POV
Enemies to lovers
Hollywood romance
Second chance romance
Slow burn
Mental health representation
Spice

Thank you to Random House/Dell and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed how this played out and the mix between past and preset was interesting! I wish that Lilah had had more growth and I think that I was biased against Shane because of his name but I struggled with liking him at times

At first I wasn't sure about this second chance at love, lovers to enemies to lovers book. I mean, it's a bit hard to feel sorry for two rich and successful Hollywood stars whose relationship imploded. ( I appreciated the greater vulnerability in the characters in How to Fake it in Hollywood and their slow burn romance.)

But this one won me over in the end. Flashbacks show the reader where these two went off track, and I began to root for them.

I think most romance readers will absolutely love this one!

Will They or Won't They was such a fun celebrity romance! I loved this second-chance romance with two amazing characters!

This was such a beautiful second-chance slow burn romance between Lilah and Shane. The tension was incredible and I couldn't put this book down.

Lilah and Shane were cast as stars of a TV show and had a secret romance in their first season. Things weren't great between them but after she left the show in the 5th season they were hostile towards each other. Now she's back for the 9th and final season and they have to figure out how to work together.

I loved the growth and communication between Lilah and Shane. They were naive when they first started and struggled to manage the pressure of stardom and their relationship. This has everything you want in a celebrity romance and I definitely recommend reading this! Perfect poolside read!

Thanks to Ballantine Books for my copy via @Netgalley. Will They or Won't They came out on Tuesday - June 27th.

This was such a fun read. All the enemies to lovers goodness that I love, with a side of second chance romance which always squeezes the heck out of my heart with the angst and the chemistry was off the charts. ⁣
⁣
Did I mention the secret pining, the jealousy, the tension, I ate it right up. ⁣
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Lilah and Shane had been co-stars on a paranormal teen show and in love on screen but at each others throats off screen. Their banter had me laughing out loud at times. When they get back together to shoot another season after being away from filming together for a few years, old feelings come up and old hurts. ⁣
⁣
Had these two learned communication years ago that might’ve survived each other and their own insecurities. ⁣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book has some of my favorite tropes: hate to love, exes to lovers, second chance, and of course Hollywood setting. I’m really happy about it. I really enjoy this book, it’s so damn cute! The characters are so relatable and amazing, I love Lilah so damn much and Shane is a perfect book boyfriend!
But the thing I enjoy the most is the Hollywood setting. The author is really good at it, at creating a world so realistic and the show is so interesting I really want to watch it! I can’t wait to read more books about this author and her version of Hollywood!

This great romance with lots of heart is told from the alternating viewpoints of Lilah and Shane, co-stars on a tv show. During the first season of the show, they had a relationship, but it ended badly and they barely tolerated each other for the next four seasons, until Lilah left the show. Now it’s three years later and Lilah is coming back for the final season. They still hate each other, but do those strong feelings indicate something else?

Will they or won’t they, as the title says? It’s a rom com, what do you think? 😉 But to paraphrase Katherine Center, instead of calling that predictable, let’s reframe it instead as the anticipation that such books give us of romance - and this book gave great anticipation! I’m not usually a huge fan of second chance romance, but it totally worked in this book, especially because it’s also an enemies to lovers and celebrity romance book, both tropes I enjoy more. But I also loved how this book had so much heart and real emotions, and some great mental health representation too.

I loved Ada Wilder’s debut last year How to Fake It in Hollywood, and I loved this one even more and tore through it in less than 24 hours! So Ava Wilder is definitely joining my list of must read rom com writers!

4.25 stars

Ava Wilder brought us an angsty, slow burn with this enemies-to-lovers romance.

Lilah and Shane our co-stars on a paranormal tv show where they play America’s sweetheart couple, but off screen, they hate each other. After Lilah leaves the show for several years, she’s now back to wrap up the series finale being forced to make nice with Shane.

Despite things having to be forced on screen, their chemistry is out of this world even 9 years later. It was interesting to see how two young actors struggled to make it together, but many years of maturing later finally got them to communicate.

The burn was definitely slow. I kept waiting and waiting for them to fall in each other’s arms, but Ava makes you wait for it. The ending really had me worried, but it came together just perfectly.

I read this one so fast - I just HAD to know how this one ended. It kept me on the edge of my seat, turning the pages quickly. Will They or Won’t They is a second chance romance and it was executed close to perfection! Shane was SO sweet. Such a cinnamon roll 💙 Lilah had an edge to her but she was so protective and supportive of Shane. Ava Wilder wrote this book in the third person, which I don’t always love, but she did it so well! I still got to see inside each character’s head and watch them develop/evolve. She almost got me with a possible twist at the end!!

Thanks Ava Wilder and Random House Publishing for this ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review! I would continue to read within this universe (maybe Dean?!) but I will also continue to read Ava’s work!

If you’re looking for a second chance romance with enemies to lovers this is definitely a great choice! Also this gives me Supernatural vibes!!! If either Jared or Jensen were female!
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These two co-stars definitely have some steamy tension right from the start. The way their relationship mends and grows is actually heartbreaking and beautiful. Their witty banter was perfect! I also loved the dual timeline it really helped make the conflict more emotional.
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I’m also just a little over the miscommunication trope at this point and I’m not the biggest fan of second chance romances since that always seems to be the reason for the original split. But I still really liked this one!

I have to be honest and admit that enemies to lovers is not my favorite genre so it can be hit or miss for me. I’m sure people who like the genre will have a more enthusiastic review! I was worried when the book started because I don’t like the main characters fighting all the time so I kept an open mind as the story unfolded. The book was both dual timeline and dual point of view so we got the backstory from both characters’ perspectives about what happened in the past and how things were different in the present timeline. On the whole, this book was heavy on the inner thoughts from both characters, which kept the drama and miscommunications lower than usual for the genre. I liked how their relationship developed in the present timeline!
*Thanks to Dell and NetGalley for the advance reader copy for review.

It's official, I am definitely a fan of Ava Wilder and she's been bumped to the auto-buy category! Here's what you'll get with this awesome read:

*enemies-to-lovers
*co-stars in a hit tv series
*witty banter
*second chance romance
*angst & chemistry

Don't miss this one!

4.5/5 stars (rounded up to 5)

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely LOVE Ava Wilder’s writing style. She sucks you in from the very beginning and makes you care so much about the characters. She does such a great job at writing vibrant characters that have the cutest banter and make you laugh while reading! She also does such a great job at describing their “Hollywood personalities” and incorporating the celebrity/ actor aspects into the storyline. I love a good second chance romance, especially when it incorporates some enemies to lovers as well. Overall, I will never stop recommending her books. I love them and always find them difficult to put down!

This review will be posted to my Instagram blog (read_betweenthecovers) in the near future!

“We really made a mess of it, huh?”

🥰🥹🤩😍😂😮‍💨😟☺️🫠🤪😅 ((in no particular order))


In this second chance celebrity romance, Lilah and Shane are everything. They were colleagues, turned lovers, turned enemies. And they give it their all to fight the feelings they have towards each other. And overall, this is such a wonderful adventure.

Phew, okay. This romance was delicious (will I ever find another term to describe the yummy delicacy that is the spice level in books? No.)

The narrators were exceptional. They really made the story come to life and I felt the emotions throughout.

Thank you to @netgalley, @penguinrandomhouse and @avawilderwrites for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2023 is definitely shaping up to be my celebrity romance era and I'm not mad about that! I loved this author's debut novel last year (How to Fake it in Hollywood), so I was really looking forward to this one. It did not disappoint!

Lilah Hunter and Shane McCarthy are the stars of a paranormal television show. On screen their chemistry smolders and it's been nine long years of will they/wont's they. Off screen, well, it's a different story - they hate eachother. This wasn't always the case and throughout the pages of Will They or Won't They we see the volatile relationship develop from crushing costars to secret lovers to banes of eachothers existence. Lilah eventually leaves the show, but when her movie career doesn't pan out as planned, she returns for the final season.

There was so much angst and so much tension in this book. I loved it! At first I didn't really understand why these characters hated eachother so much, but as we see more flashbacks unfold you really start to understand. There was a lot of miscommunication, which I hate in romances, but the author did a great job of having her characters work through it. They took their time and really dealt with their own insecurities and drama. I also loved how funny the main characters could be! The banter and humor between Lilah and Shane was top notch.

Read if you like:
-Slow burn
-Second chance romances
-Forced proximity
-Lovers to enemies to Lovers
-Hollywood romances

Thank you to Random House & NetGalley for a review copy.

Will They or Won’t They was a fun and angsty enemies-to-lovers story! As a fan of second chance romances, I think Wilder did a fantastic job setting the mood and tension of the story. I liked how Wilder used flashbacks to highlight the ups and downs of Lilah and Shane’s relationship. Readers who enjoy flawed characters and heavy banter will enjoy this book! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House-Ballantine for the arc.