Loved all the insight this one gave as to the inner workings of the music world! The characters were lovable and unique.

I can never resist a romance with a music theme, and this second chance story with a reclusive former front man and a music critic who has one last chance to save her career was nice. I loved the family story between Sammy and her found and biological family, and the ways she very clearly let readers know how it affected her current relationships. Max and Sammy's connection and the way they understand each other- complete with being able to forgive things that I don't know I'd be able to- was clear.

Unfortunately this book didn’t work for me and was a DNF but I am sure other readers will feel differently! Thank you for the ARC!

This was an OK second chance romance where trust is fragile and there is a lot of baggage. I didnt really connect with it and I feel like I struggled with how it was written.

Thank you for the eARC

I really enjoyed this book! This book is perfect for you if you enjoy books about music, queer representation, second chances, and found families. This was my first book by this author and i'm excited to check out more of their backlist!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I think that I wanted this to be Nora Goes Off Script and it just wasn't. I appreciated how complex Sammy was and how she had a lot to deal with but I think that it might have been too much to work with. Tragedy after tragedy after mishap after mishap to the point that it became kind of unbelievable. I did not really know how to keep empathizing with her because it got to be so much.

3 stars.

There are stories that, quite simply, change the fabric of a genre in my eyes, and Tehlor Kay Mejia astonishes with the strength of their storytelling and the powerful emotional resonance with their searing new novel.

This book introduces Sammy, our main character whose life is pretty messy right now. She's on the verge of losing her job after trying to win back her ex, But Sammy's not giving up just yet. She's heard a rumor that Max Ryan, a famous musician she once had a memorable night with, is making a secret comeback. If she can get exclusive access to his music, it could save her career and let her get back at him for ghosting her. To do this, she has to go back to Ridley Falls, a place with a complicated history for her. It's where she faced a family that didn't want her and a bunch of unanswered questions about her past.

Sammy is a lovably imperfect character, and her journey is both funny and touching. The story keeps you interested right from the beginning, and the small-town backdrop adds to the charm.

"Sammy Espinoza's Last Review" is a fun and heartfelt read. It's about getting a second chance and dealing with the past. If you like stories that are part comedy, part emotional adventure, you should definitely give this one a go.

The premise of this book was very exciting for me. There is something about the drama regarding people who are famous or at least close to fame that really adds something to a story in my opinion. I settled in ready to absolutly adore this only to come away liking it okay.

The found family aspect of it was really great and probably one of the best parts of the book, but as a romance book the romance really needs to be a shining star in my opinion. There was chemistry but the main love interests, Sammy and Max, really did not feel like they should be together. In a romance, you must root for the couple as it is the main reason for the book.

Other than the romance, the book was quite good, but again if I am reading a romance I want that to be the best part of the book.

Thank you, Netgalley, the author, and Random House Publishing/Ballantine for the gifted e-book! ❤️ #gifted. My review is comprised of my honest thoughts.

Read this book if you like: Pansexual mc, second chances, rockstar

I liked this one, but I feel like the romance was way in the background. I needed so much more. This felt mostly like women's fiction. I had a hard time buying Sammy and Max together. It didn't develop enough for me. I liked that Sammy had a lot of growth through the book. I do recommend it.

I think the best thing out this book was the way it explored relationships. I always believe that platonic and familial bonds need to be talked about more, and Mejia hit the nail on the head with this book. Complex messy relationships were a big part of this story (be it occasional fights with a well-wishing friend or painful gaps with close family), and I love how they were dealt with.

The romance in itself felt messy and relatable, but Sammy's earlier encounter with Max? Not so much. I think the second chance trope in itself was unnecessary, also seeing how there wasn't a 'revenge' aspect to it as the blurb claims. Miscommunication, secrets, banter, and vulnerability are important factors in a relationship, so I enjoyed reading that part of the romance though I feel that it was too slow paced for my liking.

For tropes and rep, this story covers LGBTQ, with the MC being bisexual, neglectful parenting, death (not in depth), found family and so much more. I did enjoy all of it, so gonna rate 4 stars and highly recommend for a heartfelt read.

New author and NetGalley find! I wasn’t expecting to love this has much as I did. A bittersweet, family drama emotional with a side of romance and music.
Thank you NetGalley and Dell (an imprint of Random House)

I struggled with the FMC. I didn't always understand her motivations or decision making. Maybe I'm not the audience for this book.

The beginning of the book started out strong but I started to lose interest; there was too much lying and miscommunication for me to root for the couple. I really loved the music element to this as someone who loves and connects with music. Overall it was fine but not a favorite.

😊liked

💁‍♀️read if your favorite One Tree Hill character is Peyton

I haven’t been this frustrated by a fmc in quite a while so this will be a rant-y review. Sammy was immature, manipulative, jumped to conclusions and was incapable of making the right decision. I also did not buy this couple at all. Their independent issues made them incompatible in my opinion and I wish they had not ended up together in the end. I think Max deserved better, even though we never actually got to know him well because Sammy is not a reliable narrator, especially when it came to him. I also found Sammy’s descriptions of Max and their time together to be incredibly cringey, sort of like what a 13-year-old teenage girl would say about their first crush. I love spice in books but I had to speed up the audiobook during the sex scenes. I think the audiobook narrator saved it from being even worse. She did a great job narrating.

This book dealt with some serious issues and I don’t think it handled them well. Honestly, many of my issues with this book would have been solved if this had been YA/NA so the fmc would’ve been younger and I could’ve understood some of her actions.

*Spoilers* - Non-extensive list of issues:
- she called herself a journalist but then was acting unethically by manipulating Max and hiding her job from him until the end
- I wish she had not been in therapy because why wasn’t her therapist helping her resolve some of this very obvious issues with her mother and feelings of abandonment. She should get a refund from her therapist.
- it was soooo predictable that her mother purposely kept her from her grandparents, I was hoping this wouldn’t be the case
- her reasons for “hating” Max at the beginning were all in her head. I wish he had actually done something to her but while it was rude of him not to call, he knew her for a couple of hours and his life was about to change. Holding on a grudge for 10 years over this was unreasonable
- I hated the lack of resolution with her mother
- she was a bad friend. She was so self-involved she didn’t notice anything was going with her friend
- she could’ve withdrew the article without self-sabotaging herself
- she should’ve grovel more for betraying Max
- none of their issues were resolved, she still has abandonment issues and he still has trust issues, so 🤷🏻‍♀️


CN: parental neglect, parent death (off page), grandparent death (on and off page), addiction

Sammy Espinoza’s life is headed straight for utter chaos. When she tries to get back with her ex-girlfriend and it ends poorly enough to threaten her work, Sammy hatches a plan to reconnect with another ex - well, ex, one night stand. If she can get an in with Max Ryan, a rockstar about to debut his solo album, her career will be saved, but she has to navigate the messy history of her hometown and their brief fling to do it.

I picked up Sammy Espinoza because of the promise of a celebrity romance and really liked the spin on that aspect of the story! I also thought the representation in this was phenomenal. I love seeing more books published with Latina main characters and pansexuality representation. Lots of queer joy in this one that made me very happy.

I really wanted to like this book, but I found I didn't connect with the prose at all. It took me a little time to get into it, and when I finally did, I still felt a little lost in the narration. Whether by design (because Sammy is really a disaster), it made the reading experience difficult as I couldn't find enough about Sammy to relate to her and root for her. I honestly wish this had been written in third person, I feel like I would have connected with the writing a little more had I not been in Sammy's head the entire time.

Ultimately, I look forward to seeing more from this debut author! While this wasn't the book for me, I'm excited to see what else Tehlor Kay Mejia does.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for providing me a copy of this book for an honest review.

With found family, queer characters, a second chance romance and an absolute mess of a female main character, Sammy Espinoza's Last Review was my top read of July. Five stars and I'm still thinking about the book almost two months after finishing it. A huge thank you to Random House Ballantine for the e-ARC.

There is so much to love about Sammy's story that I can't possibly list them all without massive spoilers. I won't lie, Sammy can be hard to like at times but I think everyone can. Max I had a harder time warming up to but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book. This book has all the witty banter my little heart desires plus drama, romance, music and more.

Tehlor Kay Mejia writes so beautifully and I can really feel myself in their books. I need someone else to pick this book up and read so we can talk about it.

Sammy Espinoza's Last Review is out now and may very well be in my top 3 books of the year.

This was a heartfelt and romantic read, and I enjoyed the diverse cast of characters! Sammy, a music critic, destroys her credibility for her musician girlfriend, who still breaks up with her. To try to save her column, Sammy promises her boss that she'll get an exclusive listen to Max Ryan's new album. Max was a star who stepped back from the limelight years before, but rumors are swirling that he's been secretly recording a solo album in his hometown, which is also Sammy's hometown of sorts. The problem is that right before he made it big, Sammy and Max met one night and she fell in love with him instantly, only for him to break her heart. Now she has to return to the one of the few places that ever felt like home during her chaotic childhood with her flighty mother, and not only reckon with her unresolved past with Max, but also with her own upbringing and what it truly means to be family.

I think that returning to Ridley Falls causes Sammy to have to confront so many aspects of her life and her past all at once. Sammy wasn't necessarily a super likeable character - she makes poor career decisions, she lies to her friends and Max, she stands up for a mother who clearly won't stand up for her. But despite that, I felt like Sammy wanted to be a good person and goes through a lot of growth during the course of the book. She has people that are rooting for her and that want to help her grow. This was not only a romance but a story about finding your family and letting go of toxicity that is no longer serving you. This story definitely had a big heart and I was rooting for Sammy to figure things out. Max also had his own burdens and needed to grow so it was nice to see their journeys as individuals and together.

Sammy Espinoza is a music critic who's job is in the balance because of an entanglement with a music artist clouded her objective vision, and then she got left in the dark by said music artist. This forces Sammy to get out of her comfort zone and go to the only place she would consider home base, a small town in upstate Washington to spend time with her best friend Willa. The problem is, Sammy's had a memorable night with the towns most well known music artist Max Ryan when she was 18, and apparently he doesn't remember the life changing connection they had. In an effort to save her job, she convinces her boss that she can get an exclusive on Max's new album, but is that something that she can really do?

I found this book to be a charming look at chosen family and the importance of friends in peoples lives. Sammy's own mother seems to constantly run from her problems, which we learn from her lack of relationship with Sammy's fathers family. Sammy's mother might be one of the worse in book writing history, which definitely caused the reader to feel for Sammy. I appreciated the characterization of all the main characters, loved how I felt like I was a part of Ridley Falls myself. I found Sammy to be reasonable most of the time, but sometimes she seemed slightly immature. I did, however, appreciate her growth as a character at the end. Overall I found this book to be a fun, but charming look into how our parents choices can affect their children and how their children overcome such challenges.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

I really wanted to love this book, because I'm a sucker for romance and the premise was super adorable. However, I just didn't get the feeling that these characters belonged together. It was challenging for me to root for them with everything else going on in their lives taking center stage. I wonder if the focus of the book should have pointed elsewhere than the romance, to make it a more compelling narrative. However, the voice the book was written in was really engaging and charming at times.