WHAT WORKED FOR ME
Will as a character. He was broody, dark and was so into our girl Annie that swooned for him. He’s a grumpy bodyguard that is drawn to Annie for reasons he can’t quite explain. A dual POV (point of view) novel, seeing him absolutely fall for Annie before he even recognizes what is happening is everything I love in a romance novel. The angst of “we shouldn’t be doing this” to the “I can’t stay away from you” pipeline in this book gave me feelings. I could continue to gush about Will, honestly. Breaking his own “rules” for dating and seeing him realize he would do anything to keep Annie safe is, truthfully, swoon-worthy.

Annie as a character, specifically her growth. One of my absolute favorite parts of this book was the fact that Will brought out who Annie really is, and not the person she molded herself in to for the sake of others. It bothered me immensely that the whole town called her “Angel Annie”, putting her into a box that she wanted to break from. There’s something so wonderful about seeing someone become who they truly are to be happy. In romance, I love when that happens because the love interest makes our main character feel so safe to explore that side of themself. Annie’s growth as an individual is everything you want to see in a novel and it was a joy to read about.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME
While I loved so much of this novel, there were a couple of things that didn’t work for me. Virgin main characters, especially when it’s used as a plot device, is not my favorite thing to read (though not worse than surprise pregnancy or secret baby for me). In this case, it felt like it made sense to who Annie is, but it’s still not my favorite.

While there is nothing wrong with a more closed door romance novel, I prefer to know that going into the book so I have appropriate expectations. Since this was my first Sarah Adams book, I was not expecting the spice level involved. Purely due to my own expectations, this caught me off guard and left me wanting more.

hahahahahahehehehehhhshshji$:7;)3):!!/?:$:?:!:?:!:?:!/?.?,!. i very much enjoyed this thank you hehehehe. that’s exactly how this book made me feel.

I really enjoyed this! ❤

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for my advanced copy of Practice Makes Perfect!

This was such a sweet small town romance!
Practice Makes Perfect is second in a series and I cannot wait to read more.
Rome, Kentucky feels like home.
The characters are all enjoyable and fun to read.
The MC Annie was so loveable and unique.
The romance and chemistry were perfect.
I just loved this.

Why This Book Lost a Star- I enjoyed When in Rome slightly more.

Overall- Highly Recommend. I will definitely be reading Sarah Adams' Backlist and anticipating her next release.

This book!!! 😍😍😍 All the heart eyes! From the very first chapter, Sarah Adams drew me in. I don’t read closed door romance very often but I will read Sarah Adams forever. The tension is incredible and the chemistry between Annie and Will was top tier.

🌸 Small Town Romance
🌸 Opposites Attract
🌸 Closed Door
🌸 Reformed Playboy
🌸 Virgin FMC
🌸 Stars Hollow Vibes (Gilmore Girls)

I couldn’t stop smiling. I tagged Sarah in like 3 daily updates saying the exact same thing before I realized I should stop 😆🫣 but it made me SO HAPPY! It was the perfect, happy read. I love the tone Sarah uses to write and it was such a great buddy read!

The almosts were so good! It almost makes me wonder if Sarah would write incredible smut 🫣😅 open or closed door, I’ll read her books. The tension was PERFECT. Who knew a knuckle brush could be so hot? Because it was. I smiled so hard! If you need a pick me up or just want a happy read, this book is for you.

✨Book Review!✨
“Practice Makes Perfect”
Written By: Sarah Adams
Published by: Dell Publishing
•••
In the follow up book to “When In Rome”, Practice Makes Perfect takes you through the lives of Annie and Will. Annie is Noah’s sister from When in Rome and Will is Amelia’s bodyguard. Will Annie find her happy ending as a married woman, living in Rome, Kentucky with a white picket fence or will her life change in ways she never expected?
•••
I really enjoyed the characters and plot in this book. I didn’t love it as much as I loved When In Rome, but it’s still a super sweet love story!

1- Characters: 9
2- Atmosphere/Setting: 10
3- Writing Style: 10
4- Plot: 8
5- Intrigue: 8
6- Logic/Relationships: 8
7- Enjoyment: 9

Total Score: 62
66/7= 8.857
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

This is my third Sarah Adams book, and I can honestly say it’s my favorite of the three! I loved the banter between Annie and Will, the fact that they actually had decent communication, and that he helped her step out of her comfort zone multiple times.

I also loved that Annie was an introvert and loved books, flowers, and comfy clothes. I related to her so much! PMP was such a cute romance, and I didn’t want it to end! 💐

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell
Romance, and Sarah Adams for the arc of Practice Makes Perfect in exchange for my honest review!

Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams

A beautiful story that’s as much about finding yourself as it is about the blossoming romance. It was like a mini therapy session about being true to yourself even if it might upset those around you.

Will and Annie had chemistry from the start. I loved their “official” meet cute, the sparks were flying. There’s a little cheese to their story but I was here for it.

The small town romance feel is always a favorite. I love when the town is all up in everyone’s business and this book delivers.

And it might just be the pregnancy but the character growth in the last 20% had me bawling.

The cameos from Noah and Amelia were so cute and well done. We got some really great moments without it feeling like it was taking away from this story.


The beginning has a few repetitive moments. And the line about fertilizing her nerve endings was a little cringy but otherwise I loved this story.

Content: mild swearing, heavy innuendo, passionate fade to black

Will be posting my review on goodread and am on today. Instagram review to come.

I usually prefer reading really spicy books but sometimes you just have a need to read the cute, tender, wholesome book filled with communication and stuff that makes your soul smile. Sarah Adams is just so good at what she does and you won't pick poorly when you read her. And look at that cover! Who wouldn't love it?

I loved the flower shop scene! Combining tension and laughter is fantastic! I wanted to reread that scene the moment I finished it!

Will is Amelia’s bodyguard and has come to town on assignment. Annie is Amelia’s soon to be sister in law that might just have a thing for Will. When Will becomes Annie’s dating coach all goes downhill from there!

As an mainly extrovert I enjoyed getting a glimpse into an introvert mind.

I enjoyed how there was lots of interaction from characters from the previous book. I don’t think you HAVE to go in order but it would be extremely helpful! Rome, Kentucky is a more fun place to be than most would expect.

You definitely want to read this to find out if Annie finds her pirate!

I do need to add a little bit of not fun things to talk about. If this wasn’t one of my favorite authors I probably wouldn’t have finished. A lot of innuendo throughout the book. Because I’ve loved the authors previous work and the plot was great I continued on. I’m guessing she’s maybe going towards a different audience than past books.

Romance- this book is closed door but barely. I’d say tip toes the line.
Language-some profanity but not overly done.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are my own.

This was so cute! I've been looking forward to it since reading When in Rome, and I'm glad to say that, while I prefer the first book, I had a lot of fun reading the sequel. I just love a good fluffy small-town romance.

Annie was instantly my favorite Walker sibling upon meeting her in the last book, and I loved her even more after getting into her head. I relate to her on a lot of counts (minus a few key features like the tattoo, the smutty romances, and the fact that I'm majorly allergic to most flowers, lol), but being the "quiet one" in my family, I found a kindred spirit in her. Will was great, communicative and doing his best to heal from his past hurt, which makes him prime book boyfriend material, haha! I'd seen this called a "dislike-to-love" romance, which could not be further from the truth. They're both into each other right away, and honestly, they don't work that hard to not be together, lol!

I will say that this series has a lot more crude language than I prefer, and while it's not explicit about the characters doing it, it's definitely there. It's mentioned that Will is more "experienced" than Annie (whose virginity is brought up... a lot). There are some steamy kisses that I was just kinda like "do I need to be here for this? this feels private, I should go..." ((but I know this is totally a personal comfort level thing, it's just toward the upper end of my comfort zone))

All that aside, though, I really had a delightful time reading this, and I do intend to pick up the rest of the series (because we got some hints at what I have to assume will be the romances of the future books and ummmm I need to see those happen) and read more from Sarah Adams in the future! Four stars from me!

((also Amelia and Noah are the cutest. we already knew this. but I love them so much.))

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. A positive review was not required. All opinions are my own.**

Adorable sweet closed door romance! Made me smile and was filled with emotion that o wasn’t expecting! Will definitely recommend t this for a fun summer romance!!

I absolutely loved this! My favorite Sarah Adams book to date! The two main characters have to be new favorites.
I really loved the banter! And it was funny and pretty refreshing because the feelings were all out on the table. No angst! Wow! What a concept! I loved it.

Sarah Adams has a wonderful way of taking a character that in the hands of another author could turn out to be annoying and kinda cringy and making her adorable and completely lovable.

I couldn’t get enough of this book and I can’t wait to read more about this cute little town.

This book was PERFECT! I was expecting a cute little story but was not expecting to read one of my new favorite romance books.

I am a sucker for a dating coach story and that plot point paired with Will being the perfect combination of attractive and respectful. The banter was hilarious and the scene where Will and Amelia went to spy on Annie on her date had me dying and laughing out loud.

Annie was such a strong character while still being emotional and I wish we got more of that in media. She was real without being a caricature.

Will and Annie are the perfect couple and I wish we got to see some type extended epilogue with them because I just need more of them in my life

thank you NetGalley for my copy of Practice Makes Perfect !

when in rome was such a great read for me & i fell in love with Rome, Kentucky. as soon as i saw the cover for practice makes perfect & who it was about, i was so excited. & i was not at all disappointed. this book gave what it needed to give & i loved it <3

annie is the sunshine girl that everyone in town loves & she runs a flower shop, has a swear notebook to keep tally on everyone’s cursing, & she’s the youngest of her siblings. she is a successful businesswoman yet she feels as if something is missing. that something is a ~relationship~

then enter will, he is amelia’s bodyguard & he’s brooding, tattooed, gorgeous, everything you’d expect from an ex-air forced, turned bodyguard. amelia sets them up so will gives annie some dating lessons since her last date ended so poorly & she wants to settle at this point.

overall, this book was amazing! i loved the profession from beginning to them falling for each other to the end. the writing was spectacular & the characters were so well developed, i cannot want for the next book in the series !

Will, Will, Will. You were just adding to my growing list of book boyfriends. Wow I loved him in this book. He was so kind and attentive and I really enjoyed the opposites attract aspect of this romance.

I feel for Annie as I have been referred to as “sweet Jen” or “Pollyanna” through college and my early 20’s and I really do feel like it puts you in a box for people not thinking that you can handle adventure. She was so well written!

Did I also like a little more spice from Sarah Adams?!?! Definitely!

I would for sure recommend this book!

Spice: 🌶️.5/5

Read this if you like:
🌺 Opposites Attract
🌺 Small town romance
🌺 Fake Dating

I love this series so, so much. Never thought I'd say this, but I am fully embracing my soft-girl era. Give me all the cozy small-town romances. And please, dear universe, give me a man like Will!

There are so many wonderful things in this book. I love opposites attract, bodyguard (ahem, sorry executive protection agent), dating lessons, physical touch as a love language, tattoos for days, flowers, caretaking, nosy neighbors, fake dating, pirate romances, self-discovery, and all the communication you could dream of! I can't quite put my finger on why this wasn't a perfect 5-star read for me, but it had me gushing within the first few pages. It absolutely fit my reading vibe for the start of this summer, and I would totally go back and reread! I can't recommend this series enough!

Thank you to Penguin Random House/Ballentine and NetGalley for providing me with an E-ARC of this book.
I have pretty conflicting feelings on Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams. I think that this book tells the story from an interesting perspective that I don’t feel like I see in the romance space too often, that of really needing an emotional connection with someone before you are ready to get together but simultaneously feeling like you are missing out on something while you wait for the right person.
There is a large cast of characters in this small town and I really enjoyed most of them and some scenes even had me laughing out loud to myself (the little league game with Joe and Sam.) However, the character in this book that I truly disliked the most was the FMC. The B plot of Annie wanting her sisters and the town to stop treating her as a child when she is “a few years away from being 30” is totally valid, however Annie is infantilizing herself as well. I really didn’t think going into an adult romance novel that I would be reading lines like “h-e-double hockey sticks,” the worst insult she can think of for someone is “butt munch” and being, again, almost 30 and feeling like she needs to hide the books she reads and the tattoo she got from her sisters. A majority of the treatment she hates so much from her siblings is a direct result of her own actions. I just can’t imagine a nearly 30 year old woman not even willing to THINK certain “bad” words in her own internal monologue.
Though this was not my favorite book, I do think it led me to want to read more from Sarah Adams. I have not yet read When in Rome but Amelia and Noah in this book were so fun that I think I am definitely more likely to go back and read it.

Practice Makes Perfect was adorable. I loved everything about it. Small town, bad boy, grumpy/sunshine, coming of age. So many good things all in one book.

Annie Walker is the towns sunshine, their good girl, the girl next door.
Will Griffin is a tattooed, grumpy, ladies man.

When Annie sets out on a quest to find her happily ever after, her future husband and father of her kids, she realized how terrible at dating she is. She needs help. Bad.
Enter Will Griffin— a pro at dating and helplessly gorgeous.

Will reluctantly helps Annie practice her dating skills to help her find her man. And find her man, she does.

This was seriously adorable and I loved it. I probably should have read When In Rome first. But I didn’t and I wasn’t confused so it can totally be read as a sequel or stand alone.

5/5!!

Perfectly nice and sweet grumpy/sunshine romance. Lots of family trauma and drama to unpack from both sides, but small town magic kind of takes over to cover any plot holes. Quick and fun read, steam level mild.

Practice Makes Perfect IS PERFECT. I said what I said.

From chapter 1, I am feeling all the swoony feelings and falling in love with Annie and Will. These two were magnets that couldn't stay away from each other and yet they went into this "arrangement" with their eyes wide open. They knew they wanted different things out of life, but they could not stay away. GAH! I loved it so much!!!

I loved Annie's journey of finding who she really wanted to be, and how Will helped encourage her. I loved Will's journey of coming to terms with his past and his inner scars. And most of all I loved how these two communicated!!! AND I LOVED THE ENDING!!!!

This is probably going to be my favorite romance all year. I could see myself reading it over and over. Seriously, if I know you I am going to push you to read this book until you do. Love you!!!

If you are interested in this book, I highly recommend reading When In Rome first. It takes place in the same little town with the same people.