Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 2 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Touches on subjects like workplace sexism and having anxiety about job security. Contains explicit sexual content.

As soon as I saw this book marketed as one for Olivia Dade fans, I knew I had to get my hands on it—and I must say, Amber Roberts did not disappoint. “Text Appeal” follows Lark, the only woman programmer at a firm, in the aftermath after she accidentally projects an unsolicited, scandalous picture in front of her coworkers during a presentation. Now unemployed and needing that cashflow, she starts sexting for pay, at the suggestion of a friend. But how is she supposed to come clean to her best friend (and unrequited crush) Toby? That’s a problem for future Lark, perhaps.

I know some say this book was a bit of a slowburn, but I absolutely loved the pacing of this romance. And so, while the story’s pacing was engaging and quite funny at times, a few plot points felt predictable. The inevitable third-act conflict (you’ll see it coming a mile away) leans a little too hard into the classic miscommunication trope, which isn’t it for me. Still, the chemistry between these characters is just so intoxicating. I was giggling, kicking my feet, that’s all I’ll say.

“Text appeal” is for anyone who’s ever overanalyzed a text (or twenty-two), secretly fallen for someone online, or just needs a feel-good escape filled with laughs and swoony moments.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Alcove Press in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: August 08, 2023

I enjoyed this book. It had all the greats of a love story. I enjoyed the sex positivity, feminism, and standing up for yourself. It was a nice easy listen that I'd recommend to others.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review.

Does the adage about not judging a book by its cover extend to the title? Because I picked this book to read based purely on the pun-y title. I went into it expecting a laugh out loud type rom-com. And it mostly delivered on those expectations. At least at first.

I easily saw where certain parts of the story were heading, but what I didn't foresee was the way Lark would react. While I can sort of understand her perspective, her reaction seemed excessive, especially considering her behavior up to that point. It's really disappointing when a story loses you near the end. Unfortunately that's exactly what happened with this book for me. There was one other minor detail from the blow-up that really bugged me, so I have to ask, am I weird because I have multiple phone chargers? I can admit that the six I have specifically for myself is overkill, but only having one seems really unrealistic to me. And I got caught up on that line of thought for a while.

Overall I give Text Appeal 3.4721 out of 5 stars.

Text Appeal by Amber Roberts is a fun and steamy debut that centers around Lark Taylor, a coder who stumbles into text-based sex work after losing her job in a humiliating incident. With a delightful friends-to-lovers dynamic, Lark's relationship with her longtime crush, Toby, builds alongside an intriguing connection with an anonymous client, CosmicKismet. The book brings humor, sex positivity, and a dash of awkwardness, while exploring Lark's journey of self-discovery and love in the digital age. Fans of lighthearted romance, STEM heroines, and playful banter will find this a charming and witty read.

This book was a little underwhelming and not really what I was expecting from it. The synopsis really intrigued me, but the story itself fell a bit flat in the second half.

Quick Summary: A sext-y NA

My Review: Text Appeal by Amber Roberts is a standalone contemporary romance.

About the Book: A newly unemployed programmer finds herself in a desperate situation. As a solution to her dilemma, she chooses to enter into a new working situation...as a s-x worker. Even as she gets her footing and gains some traction on her new track, she struggles with the feelings she has for her best friend.

Favorite Scene: The First Kiss

My Final Say: This was an up and down read. It was filled with humor, playful interactions, sarcasm, and funky friend banter. It was also filled with misogynistic behavior, awkward fantasy play, and tepid relations. It was somewhat predictable. It seemed that the whole bi-presentation was written into the story just for the sake of having a LGBTQIA check off.

Other: This book presented itself better in the audiobook format versus the e-book format.

Rating: 2.5/5
Recommend: -/-
Audience: NA
Status/Level: 🫤

Thank you to the author, to the publisher (Alcove Press), and to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this title.

After trying so hard to get into the book and story, unfortunately it’s a dnf for me. I think it’s a me problem and not the book so don’t take my star rating seriously.

After losing her dream job, Lark’s friend sets her up with a job as a text-based sex worker. While she becomes acclimated to her new line of work, she finds it becoming more and more difficult to hide what she’s doing from her long-time crush/best friend Toby.

I liked the format with the displayed texts. They may be difficult for those reading the ebook format, especially on a phone or smaller screen. The chemistry was fairly tepid even for friends and lovers. There was at least enough angst between them to make the romance believable.

While this book wasn’t a great fit for me, I do think there are many readers who enjoy the “secretly crush on my best friend” trope enough to give it a try.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was not for me. I appreciate the publishers and netgalley giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

It wasn't the worst, but I didn't find the FMC believable and a little annoying at times. The premise had so much potential and did intrigue me but the execution fell flat in my opinion. And I have to say that I did hate the FMC’s BFF with a burning passion.

I'm not sure if it was a formatting issue or the intended presentation bit I found this book difficult to read. The text messages were hard to follow and really detracted from the story. I could not get involved with the story. There was a lack of chemistry between the main characters and the plot dragged at times. overall this book was a struggle.

I received an arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love the idea of this book but it took me a while to get into it. I will definitely give it another try when I can get my hands on the audiobook!

I loved the writing style right from the start. It was engaging and entertaining. Plus, this book made me laugh, cry, squee, cheer, gasp, sigh, swoon, melt, fan myself, take deep calming breaths in order to move on, gave me goosebumps, made my breath hitch, made me read with misty eyes for like the whole final 15%, it just TOTALLY affected me. My emotions were all over the place and all of them were INTENSE! I utterly LOVED IT!!

Super cute book that will keep the reader entertained the whole way through the book. I really liked the main characters.

I was really excited for this one because I love seeing more representation of sex work and the different forms that can take, but this did not feel like a positive sex work representation, especially as Lark basically got into the sexting at the insistence of a friend. Definitely not for me.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read this book! I will be recommending this book to others for readers advisory.

Where to start?

First issue with the book is the formatting choice to include pictures/screenshots of texting dialogues instead of stylized text blocks. The photos were a real pain to read on kindle (especially on a night setting) and I don't think I'd even want to have them on a physical copy.

I never believed that there was any chemistry or feelings between the two main characters, it was a huge disappointment.

3*

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. While the synopsis was really fun and the storyline intriguing, I just couldn't connect to the characters that well. I missed some sort of character development and found the conversations to fall flat sometimes. The spicy-ness level seems to be pretty high, since the texts are VERY explicit, but the actual scenes felt like those movies when they show them waking up together the next day. That was odd, given how explicit the written texts were. So 3 stars it is.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review.

This book had such a great premise that I was so so excited to read, but unfortunately, the main character was so horrible that it ruined the entire book for me. I found the book to be very entertaining for about the first 25%, I thought that it was hitting all of the right marks and was really really funny. But, unfortunately, this really felt like the main character just treated everyone in her life terribly. I also felt as if her and Toby just did not have any chemistry in the slightest. Perhaps this is just me, as I really hate the name Toby, but I just did not find him as an attractive lead at all. I think that the best part of this book was Teagan. She was absolutely amazing and hilarious, plus I have never seen ARO representation in a book before! Thank you to Alcove and Netgalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this book so badly but I just couldn’t connect with the characters but the plot was still good!