Will They or Won’t They is my absolute favorite kind of second chance romance. Told in dual POVs and timelines with plenty of flashbacks to the couple’s initial relationship and full of angsty pining, hurt feelings and assumptions that are slowly untangled, explosive chemistry, and a vulnerable intimacy right from the first page.

Lilah Hunter and Shane McCarthy play characters who are madly in love. As the leads of the wildly popular paranormal TV show Intangible, they spent season after season pining for each other on-screen. Seemingly out of the blue, Lilah decides to leave the show at the end of season five to pursue film opportunities. Three years later, after the very epic, very public failure of her movie, Lilah’s back to film the ninth and final season, during which their character’s long teased relationship will finally happen.

For Lilah, coming back is complicated and embarrassing and means facing one of the biggest reasons she left: Shane. Ever since their secret fling ended catastrophically during the first season, the two of them have despised each other. Back on set together with their post-show career plans at risk, they’ll have to figure out a way to work together. When rocky reunion makes it immediately apparent that they won’t be able to figure this out alone, Shane & Lilah are asked to attend couple’s therapy together. Confronting their pasts in a safe environment allows them to be just vulnerable enough to start working through the tangled mess they created together, but will it be enough to convince fans and deliver the right amount of chemistry for the show?

I LOVE this book. I cannot get enough of the way Ava Wilder writes celebrity romances. These stories feel so gritty and real and have a weight and depth to them that I cannot help but want to sink my teeth into. In this book especially, I loved the physical intimacy between the characters. It starts off hot and heavy, becomes this explosive thing that cannot be denied despite how much they want it to before finally slowing down to build back up again as they confront their issues and work their way back to each other. This is a favorite for me for the year so far and I cannot wait until I can hold a physical copy in my hands. This one comes out 6/27. Thanks so much to Dell & Penguin for this arc!

Ava Wilder's "Will They or Won't They" delivers a deliciously addictive enemies-to-lovers romance that sizzles with tension, witty banter, and undeniable chemistry. With a backdrop of a popular TV show and the behind-the-scenes drama, this captivating novel explores the thin line between love and hate, both on and off the screen.

The pacing of the story keeps readers engaged, blending moments of steamy tension with heartfelt emotions and comedic repartee. Wilder's witty dialogue adds a layer of humor that complements the intense romantic moments, creating a well-rounded and enjoyable reading experience.

What a fun read! Will They Or Won’t They by Ava Wilder is the perfect summer romance.

A little bit Hollywood romance, a little bit enemies to lovers, a little bit second chance romance, this book will have you hooked! I was smiling from ear-to-ear reading this fast paced dual timeline story!

Lilah and Shane had sparks since they first meet auditioning for a pilot for a paranormal tv show. However, after their off screen romance ends abruptly after the show’s first season they still have to play characters that are madly in love. After a several season hiatus, Lilah comes back to the show and has to pretend to get along with Shane even though off screen they can’t stand each other!

I’ve been a fan of Ava since her first book last summer and Will They Or Won’t They cemented her as must read author! Her books make the perfect edition to any beach bag!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Group, Ballantine for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Do you ever wonder about the lives of actors who seem to have the most amazing on screen chemistry, slow burn desire for each other, and say... hmmm? If you do, read Will They or Won't They, your perfect steamy when will it happen read. And what stands out is that this is a story focused on the actors, not their characters, so it's not really about getting TV show characters together (though that's part of the backstory and it works!). Thank you Random House Ballantine for the review copy on NetGalley, this was one of my more anticipated romance reads for this year and it was worth the wait!

I admit I do love behind the scenes Hollywood stories, celebrity themed stories that bring out the human side of actors, and also tie in mental health, the intensity of being in the spotlight, and the desire for a relationship that is filled with love and connection. Ava Wilder has gotten these themes right in both of her books (this one and How to Fake it in Hollywood) and I appreciate a steamy romance with just enough character depth to have me caring about each character as a person. Lilah had a lot to offer as a strong female lead, flaws but nicely developed characterization that I really liked and Hunter was nuanced too, I liked how we learned more about his story and where his story went as well. I was cheering for each of them as individuals and also as a possible couple and that really made me appreciate the writing even more.

Consider me a fan of Ava Wilder. This is a great read for anyone steamy romance fan!

Ava Wilder is a queen of Hollywood romances! I loved Lilah and Shane and how real they felt. The tension, the banter, the flashbacks, the steam… *chef’s kiss*! And I loved that the ending took me by surprise! Not often does that happen in a romance!

Will They or Won't They by Ava Wilder is a captivating romance that I refused to put down. Before picking this up, I felt I was in a slump, but this sure got me out of it.
Lilah and Shane gave us a wonderful roller coaster throughout this book. I feel I believed the initial spark between the two and regardless of the events, I definitely was rooting for them. The story is told in third person point of view that I did not find confusing, even though there were flashbacks. I love the celebrity aspect of this book. To me, it made it more appealing. After reading her previous book, I knew I enjoyed Ava Wilder's reading and this book is no exception. I feel this will be a reread in my future.

Thank you #NetGalley and the Random House for this ARC. All the above opinions are honest and my own.

Book : Will They or Won’t They
Author : Ava Wilder
Release Date : 27 June 2023

Thank you Net Galley, Random House Publishing Group — Ballantine and the author of this book for an opportunity to review this ARC.

This book cover is perfection, it screamed spring romance to me. I not only love this cover but I also love this story! This is a celebrity second chance love story. This book held the attention the entire way though and was such a fun read. I also appreciate a good book with dual POV. This book gives you that. I fell in love with the characters in this story—gobbled up the entire story.

There is nothing bad I can say about this book at all. Great characters, strong story line that keeps you reading along to figure out how it is going to end. I gobbled it up like I did with funny you should ask by this author as well. I have already been telling my book girlfriends to watch for this fun read.

If you love :

•second chance
•celebrity romance
•dual POV
•enemies to overs
•slow burn
•a bit of spice

One of my favorite books of 2023.I can’t wait to read more from this extremely talented author!!!

Race and put this on your TBR NOW!

I wanted to love this book and couldn't wait to pick it up! But this year has been a chaotic reading year. By the time I picked up this book, I had already read The Reunion by Kayla Olson, and I couldn't help it. I couldn't stop comparing the two books because they both center around the celebrity world where these popular casts broke up, and they are reuniting either for a reunion episode or a final season. Even though I liked the Reunion, I didn't love it and ended up giving it 3.5 stars. I wanted to love this book more. However, there were moments I enjoyed and couldn't get enough of, like I was obsessed with Shane! Shane is this sweetheart who really wears his heart on his sleeve and can't understand why Lilah won't allow herself to feel the same toward him. Speaking of Lilah, I wish we got to delve more into her feelings/thoughts because she was harder to understand, but that was the whole point of her character. This one also had a lot of drama and steam, and I appreciated it and couldn't get enough of it. It was a good book, but it could've had a few things tweaked or added and could've been better.

Will They or Won’t They follows the story of two actors, Lilah and Shane, who must reunite for a last of their show. The only problem is that they absolutely can’t stand each other. When I say they can’t stand each other THEY REALLY CANT. Their dislike for each other has been a development over the years of them working together on their show. One of my favorite aspects is that the story gives you glimpses of the past of how Lilah and Shane ended up where they were at now. The banter between these characters was on another level. Although there were times where my heart squeezed of pain because of some of the things they said to one another. It definitely is an enemies to lovers. Another thing I loved about this story was that it not only followed the romance but both of Lilah and Shane’s individual personal struggles. It tackled topics like insecurity and feeling like you’re stuck in a career that is not made for you. If you want a second chance/ enemies to lovers romance then i definitely recommend picking this book up on June 27th!

thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an eArc of this book!

The following review was posted to Goodreads on May 11, 2023.
A corresponding TikTok was posted to my BookTok account here: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTREJ93xD/
I also made a Spotfy Playlist inspired by the book: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6PFPSgB2iELVmSmphWGdmn?si=f2b900dc96b84daa

First of all, I want to give a HUGE thanks to Ballantine Books / Random House for sending me this ARC! This has been one of my most anticipated releases of the year ever since I read (and, to be honest, re-read) How To Fake It in Hollywood last summer, I was thrilled to find out I didn’t have to wait another two months to read this one!

This book… did NOT disappoint. I am obsessed. It’s been a while since I’ve read a romance book that feels so well-rounded and dynamic. If you liked How to Fake it In Hollywood - or Elissa Sussman’s Funny You Should Ask - this is your next five star read. There’s definitely notes of Taylor Jenkins Reid in there too - in the crafty way that Wilder utilizes flashback (never too aggressive or subtracting from the central narrative, but enough to add depth) and in the way Wilder allows her female protagonists to take the lead, even when they falter and go in unexpected directions.

Wilder has a way of writing characters that feel so relatable and charismatic, while never making them perfect. I found Lilah, our heroine, utterly relatable. She’s the career-oriented, avoidant attachment style, liberated female protagonist I’ve been looking for forever. Shane, the emotionally available, cinnamon roll, aww shucks guy, is now on the top tier of my book boyfriends… somewhere close to Charlie Lastra. I believed their chemistry from the first page (which I almost never do). Wilder is able to dive into all of the shades of their complicate years together, from their first meeting to to their cataclysmic breakup as twenty-somethings to starting to find each other again eight years later. She effectively navigates their back and forth over the years - using dual-POV - so that you are right there with Lilah and Shane at every step of the way, even when they will literally have you screaming at the pages to make a different decision. These character are flawed just the perfect amount, and I’m obsessed with them.

I guess you could call this a “he falls first” or enemies / exes to lovers storyline but it feels like so much more than that. This book - thankfully - forgoes a lot of the tropes that we’ve all become bored of after a few years in BookTok land (not that tropes are inherently wrong but… it’s nice to be surprised.) This book genuinely kept me guessing - and never in a way that felt like a cheap trick. These characters literally sparkle on the page and I became so enraptured in their unpredictability.

I really hope you will read this book. As someone who works in the entertainment industry - both in the media and in front of the camera - I’m picky when it comes to the way my world is portrayed. I feel like Wilder gets it. It’s realistic, but still romanticized enough that you can have fun. I love this world (there’s even a little crossover with one character from HTFIIH). Wilder is a new auto-buy author, for sure! Easy 5 stars. I might even start re-reading it right now…

Ava Wilder is a new auto buy author for me! Lilah and Shane McCarthy, the two leads of the show Intangible, hate each other. But when Lilah returns to the show, the two of them are forced to reconnect which causes a lot of memories from the past to bubble up. One thing that Wilder has done really well in both books is center the characters mental healths as part of the story but not the main focal point. It feels natural and all of her characters make me feel like they’re a person who you know in real life.

I loved Shane and Lilah. They had good banter. The mix of flashbacks to earlier in their relationship were well placed to help you get more context to their relationship. There’s a good amount of miscommunication though so if that’s not for you, be prepared for that! I also wish we got to see more of Lilah’s friend group the HAGS as they popped in briefly though out the story.

Read this if you like:
- enemies to lovers
- second chance romance
- shipping your favorite characters on a show

First, i just wanted to say that I'm not sure if the random vOQ2 is a mistake that will be taken care of before the final copy is published but I really hope so. I've never seen it in an ARC before and it popped up several times in this book. I have no idea what it means but every time I saw it, it completely took me out of this fabulous story.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book! I love the lovers to enemies to lovers trope. I loved all the angst and build up and steaminess. I loved the details about making a television series and all the random stuff that goes into it. I loved that Lilah was very famous but also dealing with anxiety. I loved Shane and how, even when he was hurt and heart broken, he still stood up for Lilah when someone picked on her. I loved the growing up that both main characters did throughout the story. I devoured this book and it left me wanting more. Absolutely recommend!

Ava Wilder's writing just makes me SWOON! I absolutely adored this book! The tension...the banter...the flashbacks. It was all perfect for me. I was not a big fan of Lilah's character...I was definitely Team Shane, but I adored Lilah's grand gesture towards the end. I will read anything Wilder writes!

A perfect Hollywood romance! I became a huge Ava Wilder fan with HOW TO FAKE IT IN HOLLYWOOD, and her follow up did not disappoint. Great fun with the enemies to lovers trope!

Lilah and Shane are co-stars on a tv show. Years ago, when their pilot for the show got picked up, the hooked up but it ended badly and then they had to remain co-stars. Lilah later left the show but is back for their final season. The only problem is that Lilah and Shane still hate each other. Can they find a way to work together and get past their problems?

This is a lovers to enemies to lovers book. It turns out that romance novel troupe is not for me. Not only do the two main characters hate each other, they despise each other, and this book is filled with such animosity that it made me in turn hate both of them. The author waited until the 65% of the book to show their first night together and by then it was too late- you could never see them able to get along. I also thought there were so many missed opportunities in this- it's set in the world of a tv show set but mentions and then doesn't go into many interesting topics- fame, crazy fans, anxiety, imposter syndrome, network expectations, co-stars. Some books try to take on too much but it felt like this one tried to take on too little.

After really liking Wilder's previous book How to Fake It in Hollywood, I just wanted more than this book delivered. The love and graphic sex scenes seemed unearned.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

Celebrity romance. Second chance. Hate sex. This book has it all plus the characters feel like real people with issues and insecurities and relatable fears. I really CARED about these two. I wanted them to be OK as well as be with each other. The book is steamy and emotional and has that hint of paparazzi scandal that I crave lately in fictional romance. But it's also just got some kind of extra MSG or something because I read Ava Wilder's "How to Fake It in Hollywood" (which has a lot of the same elements) and didn't have even close to the obsessive page-turning compulsion I did with this book. Read it in two days. The plot is a steamroller - so many fun things keep happening that it's hard to put down.

I was not sure Hollywood romance would be my thing. I’m still not and although it felt drawn out at times (enemies-to-lovers with an extra. slow. burn.), I really enjoyed this story.

Lilah and Shane were flawed, but well-developed. The exploration of mental health and overall character development was satisfying and the story cute!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC.

Swoon!

Will They or Won't They just might be one of my favorite romance novels of 2023!

The characters are multi-dimensional, flawed but likeable, and the chemistry between the leads is sizzling and intense.

In this story we have second chance romance with a lovers-to-enemies-to friends-to-lovers trope. The angst, longing, and tension between the main characters throughout is palpable. This is also compounded by the fact that our leads are actors on a very popular TV show so we also have the added difficulties associated with navigating relationships when your life is very much under the public eye.

The story moved along nicely with occasional flashback sections and dual points of view. Through it all I was rooting for Shane and Lilah's HEA!

I rate this as a five star romance novel and definitely recommend to other romance novel fans to put this on your summer reading list.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing an ARC for review.

Pam and Jim. Lorelei and Luke. Nick and Jess. The will-they-or-won’t they television trope involves two characters with #UnresolvedSexualTension that take a loooooong time to hook up (or maybe never do), and it’s related to the Zeigarnik Effect that postulates that people remember unfinished/interrupted tasks better than completed tasks: the interest in unresolved things is higher and keeps us watching (or reading).

Enter Lilah and Shane, who got their big break together (her after years of diligent showing up for auditions, cast in increasingly bigger productions), and him (unfairly!) from a discovery at his day job. Cast as attracted colleagues who never consummate the relationship on the paranormal television show Intangibles, their relationship deteriorates over the course of the show until she ditches in season five for a movie contract. It flops. Invited back for the finale (and unbeknownst to their complicated past), the producers intend for their characters to (finally!) hook up, but can Lilah and Shane make nice between scenes when they can’t seem to stand one another?

This well-told tale moves back and forth in time (spoiler: they didn’t always hate each other) and in the best of enemies-to-lovers fashion, lots of the angst is unresolved miscommunication, not meanness or pettiness or different values systems. The reader needs to suspend disbelief that the issues couldn’t have been solved with one open, honest chat, but it’s par for the course for the trope, and not entirely unrealistic that people don’t enjoy difficult conversations and fear rejection. The story feels light, but is grounded by mental health and body issues. Lilah is the one not into relationships, which is a bit of plot twist. The banter is fun, their connection emotional AND banter-y, and it was hard to put down. Recommended for fans of Once in a Blue Moon by Christina Laurens and Reunion by Kayla Olson (I have not yet read Wilder’s How to Fake it In Hollywood yet, but it’s queued up next in Audible!)

I received a free, advance reader’s review copy of #WillTheyOrWon’tThey from #NetGalley

I really enjoyed this Hollywood romance by Ava Wilder, one of my favorite troupes! Lilah and Shane were great main characters but they definitely had their flaws. I will say that the miscommunication between the two of them went a little too far for me, I felt that a lot of their conflict could've been solved with one conversation which kinda disappointed me. I loved all the side characters, Lilah's friend group and the other actors from the show, I thought they added to the story and made it more interesting. Overall enjoyed this but it fell a little bit below my expectations unfortunately.