I ADORED THIS BOOK. 🫶🏼

I feel like this book was a just everything you could want with a bow on top. You had banter, rom com type love, deep emotional character depth, outstanding side characters, and a Dear Adam letters/texts to an unexpected person.

Aly and Alex are connected by his best friend and her brother. Alex and her Adam get into a bad car accident leaving Alex in a coma. Alex, whom has always had a crush on Aly, decides to come back to his hometown to see Aly after receiving an unexpected text.

I adored this book! The banter was so well done. I was laughing out loud throughout the entire time. While you have the laughs from a rom com type romance there was also hard family situations be dealt with and medical issues to handle with Adam.

I really loved the concept of this book as well. It was modern while also giving me 2000s vibes which i loved.

PRETZEL THE PUP WAS THE MAIN CHARACTER.

I immediately needed more from the side characters and i’m ready for another book! lol

It’s giving: brother’s best friend, friends to lovers, long time crush, and third act break up (but it actually didn’t bother me)

I would recommend thins fora quick weekend read. It’s light, low conflict, with a happy ending. (And some great sidekick pups)

Such a sweet read! I flew through it in a day and am really hoping there's a sequel coming for Adam's story! Aly and Levi were both such fun characters, and the dogs added so much humor to the story!

An incredibly sweet romance book. Easy to read and gives me a total early 2000's rom-com vibe.
Super fun dual point of view romance.
I loved the sweet touches of the twin bond between Adam and Aly. I love the relationship they have, especially due to their family dynamic.
Aly & Levi of course had my heart. I really loved their character development from childhood friends to lovers.
BUT My favorite is the bond that happened between the DOGS - yes, the dogs haha. They are a great addition to the story, and as dog lover I am here for it.
My only complaint is that I wanted a LITTLE more at the end to tie up some loose strings.
Overall this book was well written and super adorable. I read it in one sitting - whoops!

Thanks so much to Kelsey Whitney for the copy of this book!

Dear Adam is is an adorable, closed-door, southern romance featuring the brother's best friend trope. Levi and Aly are brought back together when Levi and Aly's twin brother, Adam, get into a car accident and Adam ends up in a coma. Aly writes letters starting with "Dear Adam" texted to Adam's phone - which Levi just happens to have. It causes him to check on Aly and end up coming back to their hometown to help her out.

Aly and Levi were really great together, and I loved watching their romance bloom while the dogs, Pretzel and Hank, also shared some love. Aly's parents were HORRENDOUS and Hudson, the guy they want Aly to be with, was so pretentious it made me laugh. Glenda, Adam's assistant, is hysterical and added some wonderful humor to the story. While this does have a brother/friend in a coma, this is not a sad book and is a really delightful rom com that will leave you with a feel-good vibe after reading. I'm hoping there's a next book featuring two certain characters from this one!

Read if you:
- like the brother's best friend trope
- enjoy reading indie romance
- have a dogs that gets into a lot of trouble

This was such a sweet, unique story! And it was a quick read for me. I love Ali and Levi as an adorable couple, kinda dancing around each other at first and then just accepting that they want more together. I felt bad for Levi as he struggles with where he wants to be-- with work, relationships, family, etc. And Aly I felt for the whole book, not only does she have parents that are emotionally and verbally neglectful and abusive, but her best friend and twin brother, Adam, is in a coma from a car accident. Not being able to talk to Adam inspires Aly to text him updates from life and her feelings on them, allowing her to work through her many feelings and be able to know and accept what will make her happy. Aly and Adam's parents are not good people and I really don't like them and I hope they have a lifetime of bad traffic, can't find one sock, food never tastes good kinda lives. Aly and Levi deserve all the happiness with their healthy and happy bff Adam.
I enjoyed this so much; thank you for the ARC!!!
Review will be posted to Instagram & Twitter 04/24/2023

This was a very sweet dual POV romance, that can be read in a single sitting.

If you enjoy brothers bestfriend, family drama, dogs as side characters and closed door scenes this is a good fit.

I personally wanted a bit more depth all around, I felt the foundation was solid but wanted the characters fleshed out more maybe another hundred pages would do that? Because where it stands I just didn’t
Come to care about any of the them.

All opinion are my own but a big thank you to NetGalley and the author for an advanced readers copy.

I first want to say thank you to Victory Editing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

This review may contain minor spoilers in the last paragraph.

When I say that I devoured this book, I'm not kidding. I read it in 2 hours, in one sitting.
This story follows Alyson "Aly" Bloomington, a flower shop owner, and her twin brother Adam Bloomington. When Adam gets into a car accident that leaves him in a coma while visiting his childhood best friend (and Aly's childhood crush) Levi Middleton, Aly is heartbroken. Coping by texting Adam's phone updates so he won't miss out, she doesn't know that Levi is the one who has his phone.

This book takes place in Charleston, SC, a place that while I have never been, I did get right on Zillow after reading because of the author's lovely descriptions of this city. I think the concept of this book was very cute and sweet, and while the premise indicates something like a miscommunication or cheesy trope, I don't think this book falls into those, and Whitney does a good job of keeping the mood light. Additionally, this book was able to hold its own as a sweet romance novel without falling into the current tendency to include smut, which was something I enjoyed. This was a fun, perfect for summer read, clocking in at just over 200 pages (at least on the ebook I read), making it a quick read for me and I'm sure many others. The main cast of characters was kept small, limited to Aly, her family, her best friend Emma, Levi, Levi's assistant and parents, and a family associate named Hudson, and I think that was a good technical choice, especially for such a short book. I like that while Aly's parents fall into a rather stereotypical, rich parents subtype, we see that they aren't just flat characters. I also like that while her parents are wealthy, Aly doesn't live off their money, and instead makes a name for herself. It made her more likable to me as a character.

Now, let's be honest, the real star of this book was not Aly's cottage, or Rainbow Row, and even Levi's biceps, it was the dogs. The dogs, Hank and Pretzel, were probably one of my favorite parts of the book. They livened up the scenes, and didn't fall into the category of "dogs that are only present when it's convenient for them to be in the scene". We got the see the unsavory sides of being a dog owner as well as all the rambunctious chaos they can get into in a way that was enlightening and heartfelt.

I think Whitney's style shines through in her character voices. This book is dual pov, from both Aly and Levi's perspectives, and they each have rather clear and interesting tones and voices that help distinguish themselves. The romance was sweet, believable, and I liked that it felt natural and domestic and not extremely high stakes.

{Any potential spoilers are contained below}

As for critiques/criticisms, I rated this book 4 stars because while I enjoyed it thoroughly, there were a few things that threw me off or I disliked that I wasn't quite able to look past. There were a few typos, such as the accidental use of the wrong "your/you're" as well as inconsistencies (Levi says he hates hot dogs at the BBQ but has a scene where he gets them earlier in the book. Additionally, I wasn't sure how to feel about some large plot development scenes (ex: the almost kiss) happening "off-camera' and us being told about it later through internal monologue—I felt that, especially given how short the book already was—we could've done to see those scenes. In that vein, I would've liked more scenes of Aly and Levi transitioning into the "lovers" of "friends to lovers". Not having that on-screen development ended up making the third act a bit underwhelming for me. The final thing I'll complain slightly about is that I did feel that Levi's internal monologue got a bit repetitive at times, as he consistently just talked about Aly, how sexy she was, and how she'd influenced his personality. I felt we could've benefitted from more flashbacks to their adolescence and then we could've gotten to know them better.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It's a quick summer read, perfect for a day by the pool. I only wish there was a little bit more of it!

Thank you again to NetGalley and Victory Editing!

𝔸ℝℂ ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨
✰4.5

Release date: May 19, 2023

Tropes: brothers bestfriend, friends to lovers, slowburn, closed door

If you love a 2000's rom-com and puppies pick up this book! It follows the story of Aly and Levi. Aly is a delightful and sweet flowershop owner and Levi is her twin brother's bestfriend.

Throughout the book we get to experience the fun and sweet times Aly and Levi have reconnecting as friends.....turned lovers 🤍. Also - I can't forget Pretzel (the wiener dog).

Overall this was a quick read for me that I thoroughly enjoyed! It was a cute and heart felt closed door romance. It would make for a great beach read to give you all the feels 🌊

I am excited to pick up Kelsey's other novel In the End.

This was such a cute and fun read. I really enjoyed Aly and Levi and all their adventures. Plus, Pretzel the dog, reminded me of my dog. If you’re looking for a clean read with cute romance, this is it. There’s no spice but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Very quick read too. Definitely recommend if you want a feel good story.

When I saw the dachshund on the cover, I knew I needed this. But then I read the synopsis and was hooked.

Short Synopsis:
Aly and Adam are twins and best friends. Adam travels to California for work but spends a few days with Levi - his childhood friend, and the source of Aly’s childhood crush. But tragedy happens in California. Adam is in a car wreck and suddenly in a coma. Aly missing her brother and best friend, begins to text him all the updates about her life as she would normally - including Levi.

My Thoughts:
I can’t say enough good things about this one. It was so cute. It made my heart squeeze. Aly, Adam, Levi and Emma are just the best! (Aly and Adam’s parents not so much.) If you want a sweet romance that you’ll fly through and make your heart squeeze, pick up this one.

Read if You Like:
🐶 Brother’s Best Friend trope
🐶 Childhood crush
🐶 Dogs
🐶 Amazing side characters
🐶 Closed-door romances

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts and comments are my own.

Aly and Adam are twins, as close as close can be. So, when Adam goes and visits his old high school best friend Levi and ends up in a wreck which leads to a coma, Aly is distraught. Aly decides to write little messages to Adam to keep him in the loop so when he wakes up, he can read them. Levi ends up with Adam’s phone after the wreck and sees Ally’s message and decides to message her and ends up fly back to SC.

Will Levi and Aly finally tell each other how they have felt for the past 10 years or will a secret be revealed and have them pushing each other away?

This was such a fun and fast romance read. I loved Aly and Levi. I think the friends to lovers trope is such a cute theme. I think the characters were fun expect for Hudson and Aly’s parents. I didn’t like them at all. They were ridiculous. I loved Hank and Pretzel. Who doesn’t love dogs in a book?!

I will say the only complaints I have are a few loose ends. Like, what happened with Hudson after he lied and made everyone think him and Aly were together just so he could take over the family business? Did Adam ever confront his dad? I don’t know I just wanted more information.

All in all though, I did enjoy this book. I couldn’t put it down and I’m sad that it’s over now lol.

4 stars.

I really enjoyed reading Dear Adam. I found it to be a quick read and finished it in one day. Dear Adam is about twins Aly and Adam who are best friends and Adam gets into a very serious car accident resulting in him slipping into a coma. A deviated Aly copes by texting her brothers phone filling him in on everything he is missing and leaning on an old friend’s shoulder. As Aly and Levi spend more time together they realize they want to be more than friends. Thank you to Netgalley & Kelsey Whitney for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.