𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘔𝘦𝘵 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 for the Millennial generation. As a long-time Nora Ephron enthusiast and rom-com aficionado, I feel qualified to say that 𝘠𝘰𝘶, 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 by Kate Goldbeck is the stuff of “opposites attract” and “enemies-to-friends-to-lovers” dreams. Set in New York City and told from alternating points of view over the course of ten years, the story follows Ari and Josh, two people with different personalities and outlooks on life who the universe keeps pushing together.

Ari is a comedian and writer. She’s quick-witted, bold, adventurous, and skeptical of monogamy. Josh is a chef with a preference for high-concept recipes and complex flavors. He’s intelligent, reserved, and exacting and believes in marriage and the idea of soulmates. When they first meet in 2014, Ari finds Josh pretentious and arrogant, and Josh finds Ari rude and aggravating. It doesn’t help that Josh is dating Ari’s roommate… whom bisexual Ari has hooked up with herself a few times. The two run into each other again and again over the years, continuing to butt heads yet sharing a strong chemistry and lively dynamic. It’s not until 2022, when Ari and Josh are both recovering from brutal break-ups and career setbacks, that they find common ground and develop a close friendship. A friendship that of course gets complicated by mutual attraction and intense emotions.

I loved this book and thought the story was well-written, nicely paced, and engrossing. I enjoyed the characterizations of Ari and Josh and how author Goldbeck gender-flipped and modernized the Harry and Sally roles. I also liked how the supporting characters were interesting on their own and weren’t just cookie-cutter stereotypes. The dialogue was sharp and often laugh-out-loud funny. The use of New York locales for scenes were well-selected and described and I could tell the the writer really knew and loved the city. All in all, 𝘠𝘰𝘶, 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 is a fantastic romantic-comedy for the modern age that honors much-loved romance tropes but freshens them up in fun and captivating ways.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Dial Press for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. My review was posted on April 24, 2023 to Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5464055947.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. This post may contain minor spoilers.

This book feels like a ‘90s romcom. If you want a ‘When Harry Met Sally’ book, this is it. Our main characters Ari and Josh keep meeting and absolutely hate each other. They can never seem to see eye to eye. Most of their interactions at this stage were absolutely hilarious to read.

But then they meet again after years of silence, and suddenly hit it off. They become quick friends and oh my god it’s amazing. At this point, they remind me of Joey and Rachel from ‘Friends.’ (Or if you’re a Ross person I guess you can use him in the example, but I will be judging you for doing so) I just want them to get together!

The best part about this book is the character growth. Ari is a “wind in her hair” type of person, very free spirited. This causes problems in her life because she can’t commit to people or even places. But she comes to the realization that commitment is okay and she can find love. Even after this, she’s still free spirited, but she’s more at peace with herself. It’s beautiful to see.

This book is emotional and has an amazing reunion after the third act breakup. Highly recommend. I love the epilogue and would be first in line to see this turned into a movie. Go read it!

I LOVED this book! A modern love story set in NYC that manages to not be cheesy or overly predictable. The author mentioned "When Harry Met Sally" as an inspiration for the book and that was one of the main draws for me. I also loved that the main characters were a comedian and a chef, both of whom were layered and well developed as characters. The book spans 10 years which allowed for authentic evolution of both characters. Ari a quick witted, commitment-phobe has a couple brief encounters over the course of a few years with Josh, an arrogant, aspiring chef. Their paths cross a third time when they are both nursing recent messy breakups. They become close friends, helping each other to heal, and then things get complicated when both catch feelings but get in their own way. This is a gem of a debut for Kate Goldbeck. I laughed out loud at so many of the little jokes and references and felt so invested in seeing these two characters through. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a much better-than-average, funny, smart, romance. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

You, Again by Kate Goldbeck is the perfect romantic comedy debut.

Goldbeck has just written a fun enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance story.

I enjoyed these characters and their journey.
Ari and Josh with their snarky banter was such fun seeing it play out before my eyes.
Kate Goldbeck did a great job bringing her characters to life.
I could visualize everything perfectly.
The humor and chemistry were great and so on point.
With the great story-telling and and wonderful characters I really enjoyed this book.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Random House & Dial Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

“Can we try that again?” she asks when he slowly eases her down to the ground. “I feel like I wasn’t ready for that.”
“That could be the pull quote for our entire relationship.”

In You, Again, we get the most delicious and chaotic meeting of 2 main characters filled with witty banter, philosophical discussions about relationships and a failed attempt at dinner. The second meeting is somehow more disastrous.

The thing that makes when Harry met Sally such a satisfying rom-com is the fact they truly are friends for most of the movie (once we get past the can’t standing each other part). Ari and Josh have the same thing going for them. When they meet, again, they’ve both matured enough to realize the flaws in the previous versions of themselves and don’t hold a grudge against one another. Yet they’re both in such a place of misery that they’re not emotionally available for anything but friendship (and Too Sad to Fuck Someone). And oops, turns out when they cross the friendship to lovers line they still aren’t in a good emotionally available place to make it work. I love it when characters have to work on themselves first before they are in a place to properly jump into a relationship – for me, it makes the ending so much more satisfying knowing that everyone has put in the work and figured out their shit before getting their HEA.

Ari is a chaotic mess of a person. She clearly loves hard, but has some deep rooted insecurities that make her very hesitant to form love-connections. I find Ari to be a deeply relatable 20-something character. She represents the struggle many of us go through to try find our place in the world and make our dreams a reality. I enjoyed having a truly bi-sexual character who had a modern perspective on relationships/monogamy (though her approach wasn’t entirely healthy).

Josh is our classic grump hero. He has a pretentious edge that I also found relatable – don’t we all have things we get a little snobby about?! Josh comes across as a bit egotistical, which makes for an interesting plot point as he takes a huge blow to his ego and has to humble himself to grow as a person.

You, Again is first and foremost a book about breakups, and the friends that get you through it. It doesn’t feel like a traditional romance. Its edgier than when Harry met Sally and doesn’t shy away from the fact these characters are flawed and messy (but I love that – they feel authentic and real).

There’s a sense of opposites-attract but in a fated lover kind of way. These two kept getting pushed together despite their initial differences. You can’t help but root for them to get through the difficult personal growth until they’re finally in a position to be together.

Some may find the constant POV switching to be a bit confusing, but I found it gave us great insight into what each character was feeling/thinking during various scenes.

I think fans of Emily Henry will really enjoy Kate Goldbeck’s voice, in particular her fantastic witty dialogue.

This one was a bit of a roller coaster and gets 3 stars from me! the characters felt insufferable at the beginning, and at parts one of them was so pompous that I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to make you really not like him. We was disappointed because the cover reminded me of a cute rom-com but within the first few pages I just felt like I could not relate to how chaotic the FMC was.

In middle I didn’t know why the book had to be as long as it was BUT by the end the (very) imperfect characters had definitely endeared themselves to me! It was hard for me to decide what to rate this because if it wasn’t an ARC (and I wasn’t trying to keep my NetGalley ratio up), I would have DNFed it after the first chapter, but by the end I was invested?! I’m not sure if that was just because I was on a plane with nothing else to do. So overall, I’d say a 3.

(Also, the book is written in present tense and switches POV mid-chapter, so if you don’t like that, this is your warning!)

If you like books with messy characters or set in New York City, this could be a good fit for you? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes I stayed up too late reading this. Yes I’m still drying my happy tears while I write this.

Enemies to friends to lovers to strangers excellence!

I love this book so. much. The dialogue is so witty and quick. The banter between Ari and Josh is absolutely hilarious and had me laughing out loud a million times. THE ANGST had me on the edge of my reading chair! It’s gender swap When Harry Meets Sally is perfection!!!

I must be honest, I have been a fan of Kate’s writing for a while and I might have read the fic of this a few hundred times. But somehow I love You, Again even more.

I adore Ari and all her walls and struggles, I loved seeing her grow and change and become the best version of herself. And sweet Josh, with his own set of struggles and the burden of his family’s legacy, finally embrace it all. Both learning to love and be loved. It was so beautiful and inspiring for me to see!

This has become one of my top all time favorite reads and I cannot wait to read more from Kate!

Thanks so much to Random House and Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

The millennial equivalent to When Harry Met Sally. The banter in this was top notch and Goldbeck did a fantastic job showing not only how the characters grew closer, but how they each evolved throughout the story. The main characters are messy, witty, and their initial antagonism had me hooked. An ode to hate-to-love stories, this is a must for anyone wanting to capture a modern take on a familiar classic!

Admittedly, contemporary romance books aren’t usually my genre, but there are some that hold a special place in my heart. You, Again is one of them. I was initially interested in this book because of the promise of enemies-to friends-to lovers, and because I absolutely adore Nora Ephron movies. This book lived up to the hype and then some. Neither Josh nor Ari were perfect. Sometimes they were downright obnoxious and made horrible decisions. And that’s what I loved about them. Their flaws were so well developed that they truly felt like real people. I liked that the characters actually had to face the consequences of their actions before finally getting their happy ending, and I thought that flipping the typical rom-com gender roles made this book stand out. I will be buying a copy once it’s released. And as a side note, I loved all the Taylor Swift references.

YOU, AGAIN is a steamy and entertaining rom-com with an enemies-friends-lovers trope. Emotionally unavailable and afraid of commitment and intimacy, (although I would say that’s because she knows she capable of falling in love quickly), Ari and her feelings are put to the test as she grows closer to the charming and romantic Josh. I enjoyed the banter and texting between Josh and Ari. Overall, a sweet and fun read for the author’s debut!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

What a fun, unique book! The vibes of this book were exactly as follows: an indie rom com directed by Greta Gerwig starring Saoirse Ronan in all her chaotic glory, taking place across years in the forever cinematic-feeling city of NYC. But *not* starring Timothée Chalamet (he's just not giving me Josh vibes).

Seriously, this book was such an interesting read. I would say less pure rom com and more literary romance, for fans of Emily Henry and Olivie Blake's Alone With You in the Ether. The pacing felt a bit rushed at times (we would jump literal years between chapters), but evened out near the ending. At times it was hard to get a read on Josh, and especially Ari. At times reading from her POV felt like a fever dream, but I think that really just speaks to her voice and the author's intentions.

Overall, I look forward to reading more of Kate Goldbeck's books. This will be a perfect fall read on release day!

This was a fun read - a slow burn that was engaging to read and follow these two characters through years of their life.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!

LOVE this book. Such a fantastic debut novel from Kate Goldbeck.

The rollercoaster of emotions I went through with Ari and Josh- the angst, the spice, the tension, the tears (happy and sad). UGH. That big romantic moment towards the end. GAAAHH! There's really something else with big gestures when it comes to New York and New Year's/Eve.

Highly highly recommended. One of the best reads I've had this year thus far.

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

I enjoyed this book for the fantastic character development and original twist on classic tropes. I found Ari's life a bit depressing. Even though she may be perceived a sex-positive, her sexuality didn't seem rooted in self confidence but the opposite. I found her hard to relate to, but I liked how well thought out the characters were, flaws and all. It may not have given me the escapism I look for in a romance, but it made for an interesting read that had me engaged throughout.

If you love spicy rom-coms with more friends-to-lovers aspects, this book is for you! Unfortunately, I am quite picky when it comes to romance novels, and this story wasn’t quite what I was looking for. The time lines keep the story flowing, but I found myself disconnecting from the town's main characters. The characters each have their own issues, and we don’t quite get to see the pasts that shaped the way they act now. I would have loved to see the author dig deeper into what made Ari so emotionally unavailable and her past before the story began. That being said, the representation in this book is amazing. Ari is a sex positive queer woman, while Josh subverts male tropes and is more of a quiet, reserved, hopeless romantic. They each share a fun banter that makes the novel easy to get into. With all of that, I would give this book an overall rating of 3/5, but I encourage any romance fanatics to get their hands on it when it’s released in September.


Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. Loved. Capital L loved. I knew I would, honestly, because I preordered it a month or so before it showed up here on NetGalley. I was prepared for it to be good, but it was even better than I expected.
I was so happy with the progression of Ari and Josh’s relationship from dislike to love. It never felt trope-y, always fresh. The main characters came off as flawed and realistic, which I adored. There’s nothing worse than a story with two perfect people complaining about how imperfect they are. The characters grew as the story progressed, instead of being stagnant boy/girl stereotypes.
The slow burn was so rewarding, and the spicy scenes were top notch.
I’ll happily read this again when I receive my copy on release day, and recommend it to other readers.
Were I as talented a writer as the author, I’d have more eloquent ways to describe how happy this book made me. So I’ll just say this - fabulous! Kate Goldbeck is an amazing writer and I’ll follow her career with great interest.
And thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press for the ARC, it made my month!

I enjoyed this book and liked that our FMC was the commitment-phobe and our MMC was the hopeless romantic. I appreciated the author allowing the story of these two to expand over quite an amount of time and organically bringing them back together.

I got a little frustrated with Ari's lack of maturity and wished we had a little more insight into her background to understand her being so guarded (we only got surface-level insight), but I appreciated her growth at the end. The last 30% of the book is where I truly became invested in these two.

I do wish we would have had a little more time with Ari and Josh together and had the opportunity to dive more into their relationship as it evolved (it felt a little rushed and sometimes disconnected). Overall a cute read with some fun banter.

Ari, who is afraid of commitment and Josh the hopefully romantic first meet when Josh is dating her roommate and didnt exactly hit it off . After many random run in over the years and both reeling from major break ups they decide to become friends without any benefits. But how long with the sexual tension last between them before they give in.

What a great debut novel featuring some of my favorite tropes, enemies to loves and grumpy and sunshine. And bonus this romance novel is told in dual pov.

Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review

✨Emotionally unavailable✨ but make it HER problem. I’ve never had a book make me drool. I was literally wiping spit from the corners of my lips because of the slow burn that is this masterpiece. Holy cannoli.

If you’re someone that likes to boil things down to tropes, this is enemies-to-friends-to-lovers and it. does. it. all. And it does it well. Bonus points for the most epic sex-positivity. Every time I thought it couldn’t be written better, it got better.

Near perfection on so many levels. I’m just sad it doesn’t come out until September 2023. My brain cannot comprehend that this is a debut novel but I can tell you I’ll be the first to order anything Kate Goldbeck writes.

I LOVED this book. It has things I really value in a romance: zippy dialogue and witty banter, complicated and complex characters, and steamy scenes that have excellent tension and emotional resonance. I'd call it more of an homage to When Harry Met Sally than a retelling, but it's definitely there. Excellent setting, writing, and characters with the perfect balance of angst and steam. I can see some people not jiving with how modern and edgy it is, but it really worked for me. Avoid if you prefer fluffy and PG romances but give it a go if you appreciate the messy and nuanced side of modern love stories.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dial Press for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review. I WILL be preordering this to have on my shelf so I can revisit it and also admire the gorgeous Autumn cover.

PS I read this when it was originally a fanfic and really liked it then, but have to get credit to the author, agent, and editor for shining this up to make work as a published novel. It has really been elevated.