thank you to netgalley and entangled publishing for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

i struggled to connect with simone, which was disappointing for me because i think she had the potential to be a really relatable and interesting character as a woman of colour who decides to go back to school and change her entire career path on impulse.

furthermore, the romance element of the book lacked what i, personally, enjoy about romance, which is chemistry and good communication. simone and simone and silas don’t have either and that made it difficult to root for them as a couple.

Simone walked out of a career she fought so hard to have. With no money and an owed debt to her family she relied on a magic 8 ball for her next journey. After getting accepted into Law school she realized it her journey was going to get a whole lot better. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest feed back. However, when the words The End showed up, I yelled out of frustration because I wanted more..

This book showed so much promise but sadly, for me, it failed to deliver. I quickly got bored with Simone and her one-minute-I-know-what-I-want and in the next minute, she doesn't. I didn't find any chemistry between her and Silas and as a result, I wasn't really invested in seeing where things went for them.

A quick, quirky romcom recommended for fans of Legally Blonde. It has a great start and is sprinkled with humour, romance and the balance of pursuit of personal and professional success. Overall, it's a short, fun read.

Simone's had it with her shitty boss at the restaurant. She loves cooking, but after a particularly stupid incident, she quits on the spot. At a loss of what to do next, she asks a Magic 8 Ball if she should enroll in law school or not, and all signs point to yes. When she arrives in the middle of nowhere for her degree, she doesn't expect her attractive fellow law student to take on any role in her life, let alone the one he actually seems to want to fill ...
Oof. I had a hard time with this. While the plot sounded very cute and enjoyable, I had a lot of trouble with the characters, primarily Simone and Silas but also pretty much every other character. None of them felt well rounded to me and I questioned a lot of actions and decisions. The writing was mostly fun and smooth to read, but there also where multiple spots I would have marked as repetitive in the last edits of the text ...
All in all You've Been Served was a quick, low stakes read, but I had expected and hoped for more.

This was my easiest, sweetest read of the year. Simone asks a magic eight ball if she should go to law school after being a chef in California for years, and she ends up in a law school in Michigan with a cute, annoying, really smart neighbor that she endears herself to and can't seem to stop thinking about.

For a slow burn, this book is surprisingly quick in pace and because it is fun to read, I feel like I blinked and it was already the epilogue! Kristen Alicia writes lovable characters, and I found myself invested in a lot of different journeys of a lot of different supporting characters as well. She has potential to do several spin-off books that I would absolutely read!

This book was written for you if:
1) You love a book where the character is making a huge life pivot
2) You're a Legally Blonde lover
3) You want a quick, clean romance that is so so so sweet

A fun and quirky rom-com. I ended up listening to this on audio and it was a quick read. Not my favorite of the year, but a fun law school premise. The author avoided some of the miscommunication tropes others rely on and I totally appreciate that! Solid read.

This book was soooooo hard for me. After falling a sleep on this book consistently for a week, I decided to DNF it at 13% This book was very much a collection of thoughts to distract from the very thinly considered plot. There were also a lot of stereotypes and jokes that just fell flat for me. I’m sure there was a lot of potential; it just wasn’t for me.

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

I tried but could not get into this one. It was too boring for me - just a stream of consciousness following every little detail of Simone’s life. If something more exciting happened right away, maybe I could have stuck with it. The prologue was great and then it just got slow.

Eu já não comecei botando muita moral porque ela decide ser advogada apenas porque uma BOLA disse que deveria. Depois disso, achei que o romance andou muito em círculos.
Os pontos positivos são os personagens em sua maioria negros e o foco na questão de mulheres negras, esforço e estresse para alcançar o sucesso.

I loved the premise of this, but ultimately could not get into it. Not sure if it was the writing or the characters, but something didn't click for me.

This was a cute, whimsical and lighthearted story. Simone is a 26 year old woman. And she's at a crossroad in her life when she quits her restaurant job when she loses her passion for it. When deciding what to do next, she does what has worked for her in the past and consults her Magic 8 ball, and ends up deciding to go to law school. She gets accepted and moves from California to Michigan and ends up meeting one of her future classmates, Silas. They start off as friends, but eventually start to become something more. Eventually, they have to decide what the next step foe both of them is.

At one point in my life, when I was younger, I thought i wanted to be a lawyer. After reading what Simone went through in her classes, I think I made the right decision not to. One of my favorite things about this story was Simone's development and her growth. I especially love it when characters evolve and become a better version of their selves. And I felt bad for Silas at times, but so happy he learned and grew as well. It was a quick and enjoyable read and I really enjoyed it so much.

I received a copy of the book via Entangled Publishing via Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review of my own thoughts and opinions

The characters have so little chemistry it's a wonder this clases as a romance book.
The premise was cute but no dice. 2 stars

2.5 stars.

"You've Been Served" by Kristen Alicia is a drawn-out character sketch about Simone, a chef who is sick of the long hours and terrible pay in the restaurant industry. To shake up her life, she literally shakes a Magic 8 Ball and asks it whether or not she should go to law school. When it answers in the affirmative, Simone moves from California to Michigan and enrolls in law school, not realizing how underprepared she is for this massive life switch. Between learning new Midwest vernacular, meeting new friends, studying way more than she anticipated, and trying to stave off her rude, crotchety law professor (who is gunning for her to fail), Simone has her work cut out for her. Simone soon meets Silas, her attractive, friendly, adorable neighbor to whom she is wildly attracted, when he's not being a huge brown-noser in Professor Patton's class.

If you can get over the absolutely bonkers and wholly unrealistic premise, you may enjoy something about "You've Been Served." Just in case you needed to hear this: please DO NOT take life advice from a Magic 8 Ball. I personally enjoyed the premise despite how silly it may seem. It felt fresh and interesting. Unfortunately, the author does very little to capitalize on this fact. I found this book as a whole to be rather boring and uneventful. It simultaneously feels like so much random stuff happens in this book, yet absolutely nothing of consequence happens. At times, I liked Simone and Silas as individual characters, and they do have some good banter with one another, but they lacked the necessary chemistry to keep me invested in the story and in their romantic journey. They are almost like enemies to lovers because of the way Silas tries to always jump in and save her in their class, but the connection between them didn't sustain me. Maybe it's because they are both exceedingly juvenile and underwritten. I could have used a lot more character development and a lot less discussion about what Simone should bring on a date, or what kind of food they should make, stuff that doesn't matter. There are no stakes between them, so my mind wandered frequently. I cannot attest to how accurate the law jargon and plot points are, but I felt like it dragged the book down some.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kristen Alicia, and Entangled Publishing, LLC, Entangled: Amara for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for my review.

You've been served is an absolute rollercoaster of emotions! The book beautifully captures her determination to chase her dreams of becoming a lawyer, despite the obstacles. The witty banter with Silas adds a delightful romantic twist. I couldn't put it down, rooting for Simone every step of the way. With humor, heart, and plenty of law school drama, this novel is a must-read for anyone seeking a compelling and inspiring story of ambition and love.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I never really picked up on the chemistry between the two leads and found the plot to be hard to get into.

I was excited to get an ARC of this book (thanks to the publisher and Netgalley!)— a reluctant law student and a law school romance is literally my life. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I found this novel a little underwhelming. There were lots of characters that felt under developed and the progression of the story felt stunted. Silas and Simone were cute and had obvious chemistry, but it wasn’t enough to carry this novel.

"You've Been Served" by Kristen Alicia is an absolute gem that swept me off my feet and transported me into a world that was so relatable and full of characters that felt like friends.

The novel revolves around a protagonist so intricately crafted that I found myself deeply connected to her struggles, triumphs, and personal growth. Kristen Alicia masterfully portrays the protagonist's journey of self-discovery and resilience, which resonated with my own experience as a current law student! As a reader, I found the characters witty and entertaining and I enjoyed every page!

The plot was based on the protagonist using a magic 8 ball to pave and determine her future. The characters were hilarious and just done right quirky and funny. I enjoyed how these two met and the journey and friendship existed before things got serious. There were a few unrealistic aspects of the book: 1. the main character quits her job on the spot and then with little money or research somehow gets accepted to Law School within weeks. I'm a lawyer so I know it takes more than that unless she was a savant! 2. Doesn’t prepare and thinks that law school will be a walk in the park. Being a lawyer, this part just didn’t make much sense to me. But once I ignored that part, I enjoyed the book. #you'vebeenserved #netgalley

I'm going to keep this short and sweet as this probably should have been a DNF for me. Both main charaacters were in their late twenties/early thirties, however they behaved like 18/19 year olds. I struggled with some other aspects and quite frankly this wasn't the book for me. I had no issues with the writing.

Don't let that dissuade you though, just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean it's not for you!