2.5 stars in all honesty.

What started out as an immensely strong book about women in STEM and sex positivity quickly became a drag. I adored the premise, the description was brilliant, but the execution was just not it. None of the characters seemed that strong, nothing was too memorable for me. The last 4 chapters of the book improved but it definitely took a whole lot of willpower to power through and it just fell flat.

Is a romance following Lark in her journey after being dismissed from her tech job due to a dick pic intent? Enter Lark becoming a sexting worker. It's a fun read with some obvious character tropes going to happen never less; it's a fun band quirk read, the perfect feel-good book. Very cute ending. A feel good and laugh out loud book.
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Thanks to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy!

Lark is a developer working in a male dominated office. After a mishap during her first project presentation, she is unfairly fired. Her best friend, Teagan, convinces her to try sexty for money as a way to earn an income while she looks for a job. She hides this job from everyone, including her best friend, Toby, who she has wanted to date for years. They are both finally single at the same time but both too scared to make the first move. Will the tangled web of her life finally catch up to her?

This book had a lot of potential but missed the mark a bit for me. Lark and Toby's relationship, both as friends and as partners could have used more fleshing out. I also felt like there was a missed opportunity at the end to get better closure with her former boss. I didn't care much for most of the interpersonal relationships in this one. Not a bad book, but not great either.

i don't like giving low rates to debut authors but this one has lots of awkward moments and weird texts and that's all. the main characters have zero chemistry and friends to lovers once again was a total disappoinment

3.5 Stars ⭐️

I think the premise of this book was super unique and I thought it had a ton of potential. The characters unfortunately landed a bit flat for me and I couldn't ever truly ever connect with them.

Lark a young coder loses her job after a terribly timed "eggplant" picture shows up on her work computer during a presentation. She then decides to take on a sexting job after her friend Tiegan suggests it. During this experience she randomly strikes a friendship with one of her clients. But she has feelings for her bff Toby who is newly single and is afraid of what he will think.

The things I liked about this book was the mixed media. I really liked how text and instant messaging is mixed in. That was really well done. I also really liked the sex work positivity in this book.

I believe there needed to be more buildup and time spent on Lark and Toby's friendship. It all felt very rushed and the majority of the book is focused on Larks sexting interactions. Overall the pacing of this book was just all over the place,

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

This one was a slog to get through. The premise was really cute, but the execution was flawed. The female protagonist was not a sympathetic character and the main romantic relationship felt forced and not something readers could root for. Not a title I would recommend or an author I would seek out.

I have tried to read this book so many times and I just could not get into it. I just couldn't connect with the characters. I also thought this writing was bad. I am sad I didn't like it because this sounds like something I would love.

This story started with so much promise. Unfortunately the execution left a bit to be desired. The premise of a harassed STEM woman needing to turn to sexting as a career was intriguing. I didn’t even know that was a thing! Why didn’t I know that was a thing? And I’m a suck for a friends to lovers trope. Here are my pros and cons. Unfortunately the cons outweigh the pros for me.
Pros: STEM, LGBTQ+, and positive sex work representation. Yay! There were several funny lines where I actually laughed out loud.
Cons: The pacing was very off. Lots of time spent on inconsequential moments and then the ending felt very rushed. The characters were all cardboard or terrible. I didn’t love Lark’s constant inability to make ANY decision for herself. She had a highly toxic codependent relationship with Teagan. Although her tech company in the beginning was mysogenistic, and I absolutely believe that happens, I can’t suspend my belief enough to believe that EVERY company she applied to after that was equally so.
I didn’t feel any real chemistry between the main couple. That was all tell, tell, tell. I didn’t even get the vibe that they had supposedly been best friends since college. She’s never heard him sing? Didn’t know basic facts about his likes and family. The sex scenes were… okay. I ended up skimming a lot. Even the initial reasons why she rejected his advances made no sense. The end was super rushed with everyone being ridiculously forgiving. And I am honestly over the “grab the mic” public announcement of love when there is absolutely no reason for it.
Because of the few funny parts and the fact that it is a debut novel, I’m willing to give the author another try as she settles into her style. And, based on some of the other reviews, others seem to really like the book.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publishers for providing this ARC copy to read and review. All the statements above are my true opinions after fully reading the book.

As a woman working in STEM, Lark feels underappreciated; she is neither heard nor seen. An incident happens, and she gets fired from work. Worried about her bills and her net income, Lark takes the advice of her best friend Teagan and starts sexting to pay her bills.

This is a slow-burning, friend-to-lover’s romance. I loved the premise of the book; it was very sex positive, fun, and amusing at times, but I didn’t like the protagonist or the writing style. It starts off very promising, then everything just falls flat.

All in all, it was an okay read. Thank you, NetGalley, for the arc.

I wanted to like this book, but it just didn’t click for me. You can see the setup coming miles away, and yes part of the reason I do love romance is because it’s predictable and always gives us a happy ending, but that doesn’t mean I can just accept anything given to me on a page.

I didn’t connect with the characters or the main romance.

Thank you Alcove Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you so much Amber Roberts and Alcove Press for providing an early e-galley of Text Appeal - all opinion is my own.

Text Appeal was a really fun, easy-to-read romcom, with a new concept on dating/online romantic relationship searching and/with added physical presence.

I really liked the premise of the book (love reading about women in workplaces where they need to stand up against the male dominance), however I found myself slowly disconnecting from the storyline because of some characters. Please don't get me wrong, the book is great with banter, lot of sex and body positivity, struggles of dating, miscommunication between friends...

But for me, it did not hit that "wow i am obsessed" level because I was annoyed by Teagan (Lark's best friend) and her behaviour and it just made me sad to see such acts from a supposed best friend. It's just a me thing! My other point of why it felt a bit flat - the friends to lovers trope was explored okay, however I did not feel so sure about the deep friendship between Lark and Toby.

hooked and hooked some more. Loved all of this and couldn't put it down. I was like oh my. I need to know more. Read it.

Women in Stem! Text appeal follows Lark as she navigates being a woman in a male dominated profession. Once she gets fired from her job, she finds herself sexting for money. During this time she is also trying to figure out her feelings for her best friend Toby, only to start developing a platonic relationship with someone she’s been sexting.

I found this book to be hilariously awkward in the best possible way.

As a woman in STEM I have never read a opening pager of a book which I related to more.

I really enjoyed this book. Friends to lovers is growing on me as a trope and this one is done really well.

The plot was good, the characters all added something and I liked most of the side characters.

I will look out for more Amber Roberts books in the future!

Text Appeal is a fun romcom with lots of sex positivity, great banter, nerdy (in the best way) pop culture references, and a real look at what many women in STEM have to put up with! I loved following Lark's journey and the mishaps she experienced along the way when joining the world of sex work and also exploring a romantic relationship with her best friend. As someone who defaults to sarcasm, I also loved Lark's dry humor and inner monologue. Can't wait to get my physical copy when it comes out!

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

This was a fun premise and I really enjoyed the strong female friendships and a woman in a STEM environment.

Steam: 3

I'll admit upfront that I absolutely loved the cover of this book and it was one of the reasons why I wanted to read it, plus when it comes to communications-I love texting. However, don't let the cute cover fool you because this story is not all cute and has its struggles in dating, friendship among women, misogny at the workplace and more so women in tech space- so there is quite a lot going on and I personally at some point got thrown off by the awful offensive language in some of the texts the heroine, Lark, received but I rarely DNF a book and kept reading till the end-where I'd say it kinda fell into place.
It's not your sweet, cuddly, oh so cute romance because Lark struggles at work trying to prove herself and her ideas as a Programmer and is also trying her best to make sense of her relationship with her friend, crush, possible boyfriend, Toby- and has meddling friends who are also struggling with their dynamics. I would recommend this to readers of contemporary romance who know that relationships are not a straight line and it takes work with lots of assumptions and mistakes along the way.
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

Thank you for allowing me to review this.
That being said I’m kinda disappointed in what I read. I couldn’t finish this which is upsetting because I hate quitting a book. It’s written as friends to lovers but I had the hardest time seeing any type of love connection between the two main characters. I DNF around 40%

Thank you you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me the opportunity to read an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very interesting premise and I have to say the cute cover really drew me in.

This was really fun, it’s a sex-positive debut with a romance that treats sex work with respect, you see the MC, Lark really come into her own- she learns to love her new side hustle and really begin to own her own sexuality, which is such a refreshing thing to see.

Obviously texting is a huge part of this story and for the most part and Amber Roberts absolutely nailed it- sometimes I find text threads to be a little cringe inducing but these were pretty good! This story is probably most relatable to women in their 20s or 30s, experiencing toxic workplace culture, dating apps, unsolicited pictures and most importantly: finding yourself. There’s lots of representation here too which is wonderful: women in stem, LGBTQ+, female friendships. Just to name a few.

I didn’t vibe as well with Lark as I’d hoped, I found her to be mildly infuriating at times and she did cause a lot of secondhand embarrassment for me. I also didn’t buy into her romance with Toby as much as I’d wished for either, it was cute but honestly, it felt a little strange that a friend had orchestrated an online sexual exchange between Lark and Toby without Lark knowing. But aside from that, this is a fun, amusing, quick read and it does pretty much what it sets out to do.

Marked at DNF at 60%.

Honestly, I wanted to DNF this at 20%. I was really hoping it would get better, and it just didn’t. The main character was very bland in my opinion and did whatever her rude best friend said to do, even if it was the last thing she wanted to do. It’s supposed to be friends to lovers, but Lark and Toby seemed to have no connection at all. I wasn’t a big fan of the writing style or the fact that the texting parts were actual pictures. The reason I gave 2 stars instead of 1 was because of the diverse characters and it including a women in STEM.

Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC copy.