DNF @ 52%

I picked this book up twice, hopeful I would fall in love with these characters and their story. Sadly, that was not the case. Since the cover is gorgeous with the pretty colors and the fall vibes, I was so bummed to find that this title just did not work for me. There were far too many time jumps for me to ever feel connected or settled with Ari and Josh. I could still myself checking out Kate Goldbeck's future work since the writing was good.

I love when I start a book and it’s immediately the chaos in the absolute best way. And that’s what this was. And it was perfect! I loved every second, every silly goofy second, every heartbreaking second, every single second of Ari the CHAOS demon, every second of Josh being the grumpiest guy in the land! I loved it so much. I’ve had this for a while and I hate that I waited so long to read it! But now I’m going to be thinking about it forever.

Josh and Ari’s journey was messy and chaotic, but it was also real and honest and SO good. They had the absolute worst first meeting, and every time they happened upon each other after that it somehow got worse?? Until all of a sudden they were sort of friends? Then they were sort of the most important person in each others life? It seemingly made no sense, but simultaneously made perfect sense.

They finally stuck together when they were at their lowest points, because they really had nothing to lose right? And somehow that was exactly what they needed. They didn’t have any room to judge, they got each other in way they hadn’t gotten from anyone else. Their friendship was so unexpected and odd, but it forced them (eventually) to really work on themselves, healing and growing and grieving. They were so imperfectly perfect in the best way.

I loved the POV switching throughout the chapters?? At first I was confused and unsure, but it worked SO WELL for this story. It made perfect sense and I actually really enjoyed it. I loved all of the second characters. The found family makes my heart swell every single time. The black and white cookie soulmate reference that kept coming up. Briar referencing Taylor Swift so many times in .4 seconds! Ari and Radhya’s friendship!!

Thank you so much to Kate Goldbeck for writing this book! I cannot wait to have it physically in my hands in a couple weeks!!

And of course thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Random House - Dial Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this romance!
It was complex and a little awkward in a way that felt perfectly realistic. It also managed to be a wonderful nod to the classic When Harry Met Sally. Goldbeck really epitomised that intertwined nature of their friendship and budding relationship.
The bi rep was handled beautifully and I’m so happy to have this as a recommendation to pass on to others.
The perfect New York autumn read!

Thank you NetGalley and Dial Press/Random House for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own.

Ari and Josh have so many layers of success followed by failure which leads them into these ruts of not knowing what they should do next. Through lots of trial and error and many years, they eventually figure out that maybe they're meant to be, messes and all.

"Can we try that again? I feel like I wasn't ready for that...That could be the pull quote for our entire relationship."

"Maybe being in love is knowing that you’d live it all over again—every part, suffering included—to get right back to the place where you’re standing."

I recommend this if you love:
- The Amazon Prime show Modern Love
- "Yes, Chef"/The Hulu show Bear
- When Harry Met Sally
- bi/Jewish rep
- slow burns
- enemies to friends to enemies to lovers

You, Again is an enemies-to-lovers romance told over multiple years in the third person. You, Again follows Ari and Josh after their disastrous first meeting. They’re constantly thrown back together and when you think it can’t get worse between the two, it does.

I loved the idea of You, Again, but the third person narrative and female lead, Ari, made it difficult for me to love the novel wholly.

The third person narrative did not jive with me. You, Again is an emotionally charged novel, but the third person narrative did not allow me to fully connect with the characters. The best way to describe the feeling is that it felt like there was a glass wall between me and the characters.

Ari is a difficult character to like. She’s annoying at times (though it can be endearing) and her emotional illiteracy is frustrating. There were times I wanted to reach into the pages and shake her.

Goldbeck’s banter is top notch and helped keep the story light, especially in the highly emotional charged moments.

Though I didn’t like You, Again as much as I would have because of the third person narrative, at its core it’s still an emotionally charged enemies-to-lovers romance with depth.

It had a lot going for it. Interesting but also pretty unlikeable characters that wallow in their misery together. Chance meetings going on for years before they ever even think about being friends. The guy falls first, which I'm always here for. He's slightly unhinged with it and borderline obsessive/stalkerish, so truly only a bookish boyfriend could get away with acting the way he does. There was just one scene that felt too weird for me to give this much of a higher rating. Despite enjoying it and reading it in basically one sitting, their first actual sex scene was so uncomfortable. She going on and on in her head that she doesn't think it's a good idea. Granted, she doesn't really say it outlaid, but he so pushy with it and it's just uncomfortable and gives off rape-y vibes. And then she cries, supposedly from how good it was and whatever, but pairing that with her thoughts about how it might not be a great idea and how she doesn't really think they should be doing it was a hard read and not fun for me at all. The sex does get better though.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Such a slow burn in the best way possible. I loved every minute of this book. It was a slow start for me at first. Ari is an emotionally unavailable unapologetically herself kinda gal. Josh starts as a snarky head up his bum chef. Yet somehow no matter what happens, they find each other again and again. It's like an enemies to friends to lovers/soulmates. No matter how much they fight it, the chemistry and draw to one another is undeniable. I loved the banter in the book. Ari was such a spit fire. You couldn't help but giggle at her authenticity. Josh, while initially stuck up, quickly became a character I couldn't help but love. He so badly wants to love and be loved. No matter how hard he tried before, it was like he was never enough. The most unlikely pair that becomes nothing short of extraordinary.

You will laugh, your heart will feel all types of ways, you will grin ear to ear and you will want to shake some sense into each and every character at one point or another.

If there is one thing that I love most about this book, it's the freaking character development. So many complex and diverse characters. It's fabulous!

Thank you so much NetGalley, Kate Goldbeck and Random House Publishing for the incredible opportunity to review the ARC of You, Again.

Review is live on Goodreads.
Review will be posted to Amazon on Pub Day.
Review run date on instagram will be no later than Wednesday September 06, 2023 due to holiday weekend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group.

This is probably the hardest review I had to right and most likely not for the reason you think. I usually know exactly how I feel about the book by the time I’m done with it. This one was not the case.

I am just gonna say this once. I LOVE When Harry Met Sally. And I see how this was the inspiration but I refuse to compare the two because I most definitely did not love this book.

First, I absolutely HATED Ari. Nothing about her character spoke to me or made me relate to her. She was so emotionally immature and ridiculous for most of this by the time things went badly between her and Josh, I wanted them to stay apart. They were just not healthy for each other.

Josh was very annoying and clingy. But at least I liked him a bit more than Ari. For someone who’s an adult he sure has lots of unresolved issues.

One thing I’ll give this book, the smut scenes were very good.

I can see how some people might like it but I just wasn’t one of those people.
Not all the characters who are opposites attract

you, again is a "when harry met sally" inspired romcom featuring our two main characters, ari and josh, who first meet and realize they've been sleeping with the same woman. over the course of a few years, they continue to run into each other before deciding to forge a friendship as they are both going through it: ari is in the middle of a divorce and josh doesn't know what he's doing career wise.

oh man, this book was a bit all over the place for me. the time jumps were major, im talking 5-8 years major. you would think that during these time jumps that these characters would change, mature, figure out what they want - no. that isn't the case at all. at least for ari anyways. she was pretty unlikable by the end of the book and doesn't redeem herself in my eyes. very emotionally stunted and doesn't realize the affect that has on other people, especially people who are trying to be there for her. both characters are flawed in their own ways, which i did really appreciate earlier on, but it got boring really fast watching the two of them run circles around each other.

while the writing is good and pretty entertaining at points with the banter between ari/josh, its hard to enjoy a book fully when you don't really like the characters and aren't rooting for them to get together. i was hoping for the opposite by the time i finished. this sadly missed the mark for me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Kate Goldbeck for allowing me to review this cute romance for my honest feedback. This is such a cute romance. I love that the two main characters first meet when dating the same girl. Somehow they manage to become friends over time which is a really unique and cute twist to the enemies to friends to lovers trope. This book certainly pays homage to When Harry Met Sally, so fans of that movie will love this book as well. I also think this book is great for readers who love banter and writers such as Christina Lauren, Emily Henry, and Ali Hazelwood. I loved this book so much and can’t wait to read more from this author. Thank you again.

There were some things that worked for me in this book and a bunch of things that did not. So, lets break it down.

First of all, this book is clearly a novelization of the well-known romcom, When Harry Met Sally which poses the question, can a man and a woman truly just be strictly platonic friends? We all know how that movie plays out but let me add in here for the sake of full disclosure that I'm very meh on that movie and it does not hold a special place in my heart the way it does for so many other people. Perhaps then, I'm inherently unsuited to read and enjoy a book that is very much a novelization of that particular movie but let's set that part aside for now.

New Yorkers Ari and Josh's first meeting results in the realization that they happen to both be sleeping with the same woman. Awkward. Sparks fly even as they bicker their way through a tense first meeting. (Chef Josh arrives at Ari and her roommate's apartment, intending to cook dinner for his girlfriend, leading Ari to question the accuracy of that particular label given that she's also sleeping with her).

Cut to 3 years later and Ari, an aspiring comedian, arrives at the restaurant her current roomie and best friend works at, and turns out Josh is the head chef there. Her opinion of Josh only gets worse when he publicly humiliates the roommate and ends up firing her over undercooked duck.

Another couple of years later, Josh, now in a long distance relationship, meets Ari once more at a New Years Eve party his sister drags him to. He runs into Ari...and her wife, this despite Ari's earlier protestations about relationships and marriage.

And finally, a three years after that, they run into each other at a high end sex shop, both single and depressed (Ari from her wife leaving her for another woman, Josh from his restaurant failure) and a tentative friendship begins. The entire basis of the friendship, as Ari defends it to Radhya, her onetime roommate turned bestie who Josh fired many years ago, is that they're both metaphorically treading water.

Here's where things gets a little wonky. He goes to IKEA and helps her shop for and build furniture for her now empty apartment. She saves him for disastrous first dates. They both spend inordinate amounts of time texting each other or watching movies together or sharing meals or going to museums...in a word, they're friends who inadvertently have started dating without either of them realizing it. Yet, Ari is mired in depression from the failure of her marriage and unable to truly move on (she still sends nude selfies to her ex wife!) and Josh is mired in self-pity from destroying his father's legacy. There's brief mentions of therapy but both of these sad sack souls are determined to stay true to their chosen paths of sadness and despair and frequently getting in their own way of doing the right and obvious.

Ultimately though, there's a shared kiss and Ari backing away and then a big dramatic fight and then Ari and Josh having hot sex and then Ari running away....all the way to Washington D.C. with a new job that Josh's mom of all people helped her land.

I will say I found the latter half of the book, when Ari and Josh had gone their separate ways after their friendship/relationship imploded to be much more riveting. Not that I minded the development of their friendship but it did drag on for a bit and after a while, it was ridiculous that these two fairly intelligent people couldn't see what was happening right in front of them. Also, people don't act the way these two do (Ari "saving" Josh from a bad first date by crashing his date and pretending to be his wife is a particular standout). But I'm glad there were months of them being separated and sort of learning how to be alone because for much of their friendship, the two seemed to use each other as an emotional crutch which seemed like an unhealthy, codependent relationship.

I liked the ending much better than the first half though I will say that I didn't love the last chapter, it seemed unnecessarily schmaltzy and cheesy. All in all, there was potential here and I liked her style of writing, there were moments when I laughed out loud but the pacing was not great, at least for me, and the novelization of a romcom that I'm already meh about was never going to make this a favorite. Also, while Josh has a family, Ari seems to exist in a vacuum. No explanation is given for her lack of family, no backstory, it's like her life starts when she meets Josh. We never get a true sense of who she is aside from her heartbreak and grief over the end of her marriage. That's a weird basis for character development. Or rather, if that's all there is to her character, it feels incomplete and not fleshed out well enough. Josh seemed to have a better character arc and I wish Ari had gotten that same treatment. And then she spends much of the book mired in her depression, alienating her friends and using Josh as a crutch only to cast him aside when the feelings get too real. And beyond her divorce, there was no other context for that.

This is a sharper, modern take on When Harry Met Sally, and I absolutely loved it! Smart, witty, heartwarming, and unique- one of my favorite reads of the year so far. Out September 12- be sure to add this one to your fall reading list!

I have mixed feelings about this one. I think I hyped it up in my head after reading the first couple chapters, prepared for a five star read. My biggest qualm is the writing style. The time jumps really messed with me. Each time I started to get into it, time jump! Three years later. Two years later. Three years later again. Those are significant gaps, and much of the "present" moment was spent dissecting the past two or three years that we skipped over. I felt like the main characters, Ari and Josh, were surface-level because I couldn't spend enough time getting to know them in that moment. I constantly felt held at a distance, sort of detached. There was a revolving door of side characters that appeared then disappeared. This might be why I never felt the sparks (even the wrong kind) between Ari and Josh. I liked their initial meet cute (meet ugly?). I think I would have liked it more if time progressed naturally after this moment, or maybe just fewer time jumps. I know the point of the time jumps is to show that the universe keeps bringing them back together, because they keep meeting again by chance in random places (NYC is huge, so what are the odds?).

It is written in third person dual-POV, but it switches POVs far too often. I wanted to get to know the main characters' inner workings, but each time I started to get into it, (guess what?) perspective shift! Also, the perspectives weren't labeled, so when Josh and Ari were together/in the same place, I sometimes got confused whose perspective it was.

I liked that Ari was the commitment-phobe and Josh was the hopeless romantic; however, Josh never felt like a romantic to me, more just somebody who liked steady, safe, reliable relationships and fulfilling his "obligations." I liked that Ari was a free-spirited, chaotic bisexual.

IT HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I'm in denial. Which is probably why I'm not able to rate this lower! I've never seen When Harry Met Sally, but apparently if you liked that, you might like this.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

this was so good! i enjoyed so much the fact that it wasn’t like every other romance novel! definitely would recommend to everyone

A smashing debut enemies to lovers romance.

It’s clear from the second they meet Ari and Josh are polar opposites. She’s a wild child aspiring comedian happy to sleep with pretty much anyone who gives her a second look; he’s a straight-laced chef who dreams of stability and commitment (which he plans to earn by making his girlfriend the best meal she’s ever had). Too bad for both of them that Josh’s girlfriend is Ari’s roommate… who she’s also sleeping with. The two can’t seem to stop running into each other around New York, until one day, both nursing broken hearts and broken dreams, they strike up an unexpected friendship. Soon enough, the inevitable happens, but can they overcome Josh’s blindly romantic heart and Ari’s refusal to truly open herself up to a partner?

I’ve said before I am wary of enemies to lovers romances if it’s not clear from the start that one or both MCs is already nursing serious (if maybe reluctant) feelings. That wasn’t the case here, but the spark between the two was palpable from the moment they met, through years of run-ins, through their friendship that’s really dating, until they finally give in to mutual attraction and more. I loved how realistically flawed they both are (and not the “flaws” we so often get that are the dating equivalent of answering “I’m just <i>too</i> committed to my work” in a job interview).

Ari is abrasive, overly fond of drinks and drugs, and inconsistently committed to her professional dreams. Josh wants to check the boxes of adulting so badly that he’s willing to let his girlfriends treat him like garbage, and folds like a cheap shirt in the face of his first real professional setback. And [b:You, Again|75665887] surrounds Ari and Josh with similarly three dimensional characters, creating for our lovers a world that feels substantial (even if it’s a bit unbelievable that two people would accidentally run into each other so often in such different contexts in New York-freaking-city).

[b:You, Again|75665887] by [a:Kate Goldbeck|21373992]
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️💫 4.5 stars rounded down
🌶️🌶️ Especially when Ari gets out of her head long enough to enjoy it
👩🏽‍🍳👨🏼‍🍳 I would really like to eat at Indian twist on a classic Jewish deli
👔 Corporate improv. Ugh ugh ugh.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Dial Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

* I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this book. All thoughts are my own.

2.5 stars

I’ve never seen When Harry Met Sally, but I’m sure it was better than this book. I truly struggled with You, Again. I loved the idea and liked the writing, but the first half is sooo slow and the characters were completely unlikeable. I honestly don’t have anything good to say about Ari. I wish this book was about her best friend, Radhya. I didn’t care about Ari and Josh’s friendship or their “relationship” at all. They had zero chemistry and it just felt out of place, which is super sad for a romance book. The story really didn’t pick up until somewhere between 65-70% of the way through and they barely have a relationship.

Would not recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley I received an advanced electronic copy of the book to read and provide a review.

This book…it was perfection! Ari and Josh are EVERYTHING and I love them. Everything about them, their relationship and their world of friends, work and quirks was an absolute delight to read.

If you want an enemies-to-lovers, grumpy / neurotic with lots of baggage, NYC love story - this is the book for you. The banter was witty, the writing was smart, the tension was thick, the spice was spicy and the entire story had me wanting more. I already want to read it again.

Katie Goldbeck, I can wait to read anything by you, again!

“You, Again” by Kate Goldbeck

3.5⭐️/5⭐️
3🌶/5🌶

“She’s so fucking frustrating in the way she forces him to be exactly what she needs while disregarding what he wants, or how he feels about any of it.”

Through a series of comedic (and somewhat tragic) interactions, Ari and Josh continually find themselves at differing parts of their lives. What starts as antagonistic acquaintances slowly turns to neutral acquaintances, casual friends, best friends, and finally lovers. But how can two opposite people, who are in such different paths in their lives, come together and establish a healthy relationship?

-This is a difficult book to rate. I’ve never watched “When Harry Met Sally”, which is the inspiration behind the plot, so maybe I’m missing something (?) from the relationship between the MMC and FMC. The author is obviously a talented writer, and for the most part I enjoyed the story. There are a few qualms I have with the characters and story, but I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading the book. This review might come across as more critical than positive, so if you loved the book and connected with the characters, that’s great! I’m so glad you loved this book, there are many incredible pieces of writing and dialogue. My review and rating for this book isn’t going to negatively influence whether I read the author’s next book or not, I know I’ll continue to read their materials.

-For a contemporary romance that seems like a romantic comedy based on the blurb, it’s more like a tragic comedy. And the romance felt minimal compared to the struggles each character faces. I think the book veered too much into the ‘this is real life, and this is real pain’ territory. Which, I suppose is also a compliment, this is one of the most realistic romance novels I’ve ever read. There are many types of pain and suffering explored, familial grief, divorce, heartbreak, self destruction, etc.

-What did I like? Many parts! I especially loved the writing style, the story flowed beautifully, and the time jumps were all very coherent (and there are a LOT of time jumps). There are some amazing one liners that made me laugh out loud, or stare off into space because I couldn’t believe I read *THAT*. The smut was so intense, it was a wonderful build up to that point and executed perfectly. The story structure felt very cinematic, almost like I was reading a script rather than a book, which is always such a fun reading experience.

-What didn’t I like?...

-I found it very difficult to connect with Ari. Her personality is very different from who I am as a person, which is fine! Part of why I love reading romance novels is due to varying character arcs. I want to read about all types of people. But with Ari, by the end of the book I still didn’t feel like I truly understood her. She is extremely extroverted, chatty, uses humor as a coping method, and loves having casual sex. A lot. Like, it’s hard to separate who she is from her sexual adventures. I saw many reviews saying Ari lacked depth, and unfortunately I agree with them. The way she treats her friends is really confusing, and I don’t think it would be unfair to call her self-centered. There are so many moments in the book where it seems like she doesn’t think about the way her words and actions affect the other person, and that was frustrating.

-I’ve read many books where one character is heartbroken over a failed relationship, and part of their healing journey is processing the loss of love and eventually moving on. But Ari’s reaction to Cass almost felt tortuous. It just kept going on and on, she’s sobbing about Cass breaking her heart, she’s sending nude photos to Cass in the hopes that she garners a reaction, she can’t bring herself to throw away Cass’ old t-shirts, etc. At a certain point the romance between Josh and Ari felt lost within Ari’s personal journey. When I read a romance book, I don’t necessarily want to read a copious amount of chapters dealing with a DIFFERENT relationship.

-This is such a small complaint, but the chapters themselves felt very long, and I think that’s due to the amount of content stuffed into each one. When I started reading the book, I couldn’t believe I only read one chapter given how much had happened. Perhaps there’s too much dialogue.

-I was going to rate this four stars, but what ultimately brought it down to three and a half is that I didn’t feel convinced of Ari and Josh’s relationship at the end of the book. I didn’t feel like I could count on their HEA, it still felt like they each needed to work on themselves before throwing themselves in a serious relationship.

I was sold on this book the second I saw that it was inspired by When Harry Met Sally. This book reads and feels like a classic rom-com. Ari has a major fear of commitment while Josh is looking for "The One" and when the two meet, they instantly dislike each other. I'll be honest, I found both characters chaotic and making wild decisions but I rooted for them throughout the whole story. I loved how it played out over the years of the two coming together and then going their separate ways to see how both Ari and Josh have grown over time. The writing was so bittersweet and witty and it just kept me reading. The cast of side characters was fun and I wish we got to see more of them throughout the story as all of the character's lives were constantly intertwining. I finished it in one sitting due to how hooked I became. There is a good amount of the miscommunication trope and towards the end, I began feeling like the two just needed to honestly talk to each other which ended up lowering my rating a bit. Overall, I really enjoyed this debut and would be interested to see what Kate Goldbeck writes next!

Read this if you like:
- A Meg Ryan rom-com & Nora Ephron fans
- Flawed main characters
- New York City essentially being a character
-Food descriptions
- Bi representation

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I was disappointed this one wasn't for me. I just really enjoy characters that are kind and the first chunk of the book has both characters being totally awful to each other... and it's written in 3rd person so you really have no inner monologue about why they are just so terrible. It wasn't my cup of tea!