4.25 ☆

Can a story about a 29 year-old trying to figure out her life after a career crisis feel like a coming of age story? This definitely did and was done so well! I enjoyed this immensely and while it started off a bit slow, Sammy’s journey as she navigates returning to her hometown was heartwarming and emotional.

I found Sammy to be super relatable. Dealing with estranged family issues and trying to make sense of her career, I couldn’t blame her indecisiveness. I was rooting for her throughout and was satisfied with her character arc in the end. Her found family - Willa, Brooke, Larry, Maeve, Paloma - really makes this book special.

Sammy Espinoza's Last Review has me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. I loved meeting Sammy and Max and Brooke and Willa. These characters went through so many wild scenes and I loved every moment of it. I loved getting to follow Sammy along during her journey. Definitely a favorite read of the year for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Tehlor Kay Mejia for this ARC!

This was such a cute story about love, found family, and music.

Sammy returns to the only place that feels like home when her girlfriend dumps her and she's about to lose her job. She's on a mission to get the most coveted interview in the music world by trying to find the musician who ghosted her when she was a teen. However, he doesn't remember her.

Sammy goes through a lot in this book with her family and all of the issues from her relationship with her mother. She also has to figure out what this whole thing is with Max and how she's going to redeem herself at work. It's full of so many sweet moments and lots of growth from this cute set of characters. I really liked it! Oh, and did I mention that Max is a rockstar God on a motorcycle???

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

First off, thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Dell and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy to read and review.

This novel completely surprised me! In a fantastic way. The character development and the ability to grasp their faults/mistakes etc, was what a lot of books I’ve read lately have been missing.

It’s a familiar tale, but one with new angles and and settings that made it seem fresh.

This was a sweet story about second chances and finding your own family. Sammy is a music critic whose life is in a downward spiral both personally and professionally. As a last ditch attempt at saving her career she has to return to her “hometown” to try to get an interview with a reclusive rock star who she had an amazing night with, and then he ghosted her. The problem is, when she finally finds him he has no idea who she is. So she is forced to try to find a new angle and way to get her story, except she finds herself falling for him all over again. As Sammy grapples with this new professional and personal crisis, she also must come face to face with her past. Back in Ridley Falls, a place she never wanted to go back to, she is also forced to confront the family that never wanted her, and a mother who never made her a priority. I loved the town of Ridley Falls, and Sammy’s found family of Willa, Brook, Maeve, and Johnny. This was a beautiful story of redemption, and learning how to love yourself. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

It took me a really long time to finish reading this book because I kept putting it down and then taking multiple days to return to it. The story is good, but the topics are hard, and I wasn’t in the right emotional space to read this all in one go.

Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review is about a music-loving main character (Sammy) returning to her hometown in search of answers to her past and solutions to save her job. There were so many parts of this story that had that warm, genuine, “feels so good to come home and belong” feeling. Then in the next chapter there would be heartbreak and loneliness and feelings of anxiety. My emotions were all over the place because Sammy’s emotions were all over the place.

I enjoyed seeing Sammy find herself and reevaluate a lot of her old relationships. I also really liked most of the characters - Larry and Maeve are amazing and I need them to adopt me too, Willa and Brook are relationship goals. Max Ryan was a little questionable, and Paloma was so much more complex than I expected.

The writing was good, the steamy bits were definitely steamy, and the descriptions of anxiety and fear were spot on.

Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review
By Tehlor Kay Mejia
4 stars

If you’ve ever had an emo phase (it’s not really a phase) or you really love music, this book will be for you. It was kind of like reading a fanfic of your favorite musician in a good way. I loved all the music business talk and really enjoyed Sammy and Max’s relationship but I did have a hard time with the miscommunication. I just kept cringing every time Sammy wasn’t telling the truth because I was waiting for it all to blow up. Max had some stuff he was keeping from Sammy as well and though I understood and guessed why, I do wish he would’ve just communicated with her at least a little bit so we didn’t have the whole third act breakup. There were just a lot of dishonesty and some of it was hard to get past.

I was not expecting it to be as emotional as it was when Sammy was digging up her family history. To avoid spoilers, I will not be elaborating but it was beautiful and sad at the same time. I definitely teared up a little bit.

Read if you like
Second chance romance
Rockstars
Messy characters
Found family
LGBTQ+ rep

This was a slow starter for me, for sure. From the beginning I thought it would just be your average romance. I connected with these characters, however, and it ended up being an emotional read for me. The connection with Sammy and Max was great but I never really like a story that hinges on the MC lying (by omission) to the love interest.

The found-family aspect was touching, I found myself with tears more than once. The romance was good, so good I wish there’d been more. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Tehlor Kay Mejia.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, Ballentine for this complimentary ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

We have been busy with end of year shenanigans and it seemed like every time I sat down with this book something came up. As soon as I really sat down with it, the story and characters drew me in. The relationships built and broken within Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review left me laughing and crying along the way. I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I highly recommend you grab this when it is released this summer!
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
I was provided a free copy of this title from the publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Sammy’s life is in disarray, so she goes back to the one home she connects with to regroup with the support of her childhood friend,Willa.
What she finds is a complicated relationship from and a series of truths that make her reevaluate her life. While there is a decent romance in this book, it is more a coming of age tale. The secondary characters making up Sammy’s found family were my favorite, and the ending made me quite emotional.
3.5 stars.

I really liked the story's premise and fast pace reading, but I never fully connected with any of the characters. Maybe this one wasn't for me. It is well written (though highly formulaic) and I recommend it to those who enjoy coming-of-age / finding-oneself / second chances romance stories. It would be a good beachy read - one that engages, but you don't have to have too much focus and can read a chapter or two at a time and easily remember the storyline.

Advanced copy courtesy of NetGalley.

This was *really* good. I wasn’t initially sold in the first few chapters, but this slow burner builds into such a heartfelt story. While it at its core is a romance, so much of it is a family story and a coming of age story. It’s emotional and incredibly well written and a must read.

The Emily Henry blip pulled me in + the fact that I really enjoyed Miss Meteor but this one was totally different and totally sexy. I loved every second and I can’t wait to gush to everyone about it.

Thank you so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed every single page and I would happily read this again and again just to feel the happiness I felt while reading. It was engaging and kept me on my toes. It's one of those books that it's easy to get lost in! Highly recommend!

I originally found this book from a recommendation from Emily Henry. I'm so glad she used her voice to talk about this book because its a little outside of my typical genre so I may have not picked it up. But this was such a beautiful story about found family and self love. It was beautifully written and I am so glad I read!

I enjoyed Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review but I can’t say that I loved it. The biggest problem with this romance book is that it doesn’t seem to really want to be a romance. When the book is tackling other plots (Sammy’s family struggles, figuring out what she really wants and who she really is), it’s great. But the relationship with Max? Not so much.

Once of my absolute least favorite things about romance books is the lack-of-communication leads to a break-up trope. And this one I could see coming right from the beginning. I even had hope that when it was addressed during the middle of the book that we would avoid the third act break up, but no such luck.
Another issue with the romance part is the two main characters. There’s no way that Sammy and Max would ever be in a committed relationship. Their individual issues confirm the other partner’s deepest fears and insecurities at every turn. There is a complete lack of trust and the immaturity of both of them makes it difficult to buy into the HEA.

But, if we put aside the romance part, this was a good book. Sammy connecting with Paloma and sorting through her issues and realizing that she could choose her own path in life kept me engrossed. I also enjoyed many of the side characters (Larry and Maeve especially) and would have loved spending more time with them.

All in all, I’m excited to read more from Tehlor Kay Mejia.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

I’m sorry I had to DNF, it could be me being in a reading slump because this one seemed alright! My rating is 3 stars because I see the premise is there, it just wasn’t for me

Different and unique . It hold my attention from the start.
Small town romance , second chances , found family and amazing character growth

This was such a fun read! Definitely a great addition to collections with strong contemporary romance readerships and fans of It's funny that you should ask!

This book started off a little slow but very soon had me hooked. This was so funny and romantic and I truly had a good time reading this. Sammy and Max went through it but had me rooting for them the whole way!